Let's play to Spherification!

It seems like I was waiting for the stars were aligned so I could play Spherification, and always missing something,  the leaky spoon, or the alginate, is not easy to find this elements in the States, finally .... today was the day, everything is here, thanks to "The Modernist Pantry".

I had a goal, that was important, is the upcoming dinner of The Mediterranean Corner, it will have a spark of molecular cuisine, only a small sample,  I'm not a big fan of molecular cuisine menus crammed.

And "voila", today was born the first Spherification olive in my kitchen, but best of all, is  when you see clearly the chemicals that you have to mix, the game is endless, imagine and imagine more and more, tea spheres, mango caviar spheres, and there is no end, Ferran Adria opened the door to a world that does not end, and once you get in, you want more and more ........thanks boss.

Well, here are the Ferran's olives, and we will gradually playing and  adding in the menu, more spherifications ideas.

Here in Tickets, the olives in jars.

Teaching our gastronomic culture in Southside Christian School

This morning was special, The Mediterranean Corner had a different mission ....
Students in Spanish class of Southside Christian School, wanted to share their class time with me,
to learn a little more about gastronomic culture of our country.

It was very interesting because they were trying some  Mediterranean dishes, but also they learned cultural differences between American and Spanish gastronomic habits.

Some of them were surprised of the fact that people is cooking a lot  for daily meals, also they're amaze that many people go home and take their time eating during lunch in weekly days, and they learned the concept of "tapa", they like it.



They were eating"truites", "xorico", "pa amb tomaquet", and "flams".

They learned about red wines, holidays dishes, like Christmas desserts, and Easter cake, they learned about  sharing talks in the table after meals, the famous "siesta", and they got the opportunity to ask everything they want to know about Spain.

They have been practicing Spanish, and the truth is that I was impressed by their level.

Just thinking about Christmas Menus......

Maybe it was a good season to start this adventure, Christmas is coming and festive dinners are a good opportunity to start with Tapas.

This morning I thought of three tapas to start a menu , they are just small bites to welcome a festive menu.

The first is a nuts tempura , served in paper cones , peanuts , pistachios , sunflower seeds , pumpkin seeds , hazelnuts and cashews , finished with curry,  pimenton de la Vera, four spices, and the last with garriguette.

The second is differents shots like: pina colada, gazpacho, yogurt and cucumber , and finally one of salty "turron" (Spanish Chiristmas dessert) .

At the end to finalize the menu entry, some inflated rice finished with different flavors, some of them similars to the nuts flavors.

This would be the menu entry, which will continue with seafood tapas and meat tapas, at the end, two dessert tapas, everything is still a doubt. What do you think?

Red cross dinner with Cindy Hoffman Sobeck

The Red Cross dinner is coming and we stop working on the paper to start doing it in the kitchen. The dinner menu becomes 12 tapas,  typical, the usual, for us more of the same, for the people here, a discovery not to forget , I hope .....

It starts with a fried Marcona almonds with salt and even thinking if accompanied by a Parmesan lollipops in clear cups.

And also one Idiazabal starter will be marinated with rosemary, thyme, and garlic.

We were wondering if raspberry gazpacho will be served with a frozen dust of Idiazabal cheese, or Manchego cheese foam, recipe courtesy of Albert Franch, ( great pastry, and Grotesk's chef ), and after the test, no color, foam wins. And we end up with a fresh raspberry and call it " Cappuccino " as Albert has proposed .

Also they will taste a Mussels with whiskey sauce , pancetta and sweet onion , is an anecdote but every time we serve them, the people is asking for licking the plate, or by dragging the shells of mussels to finish the last drop of the sauce.

 Jose Andres gave name to his restaurant Jaleo and identify with a tapa that was one of the first and most typical, is also part of our menu, Onions baked with sherry vinaigrette, pine nuts and Roquefort, served at room temperature.

 Well, there are more surprises but I do not tell you more because otherwise you will not wait the pictures, next sunday, promise.

 Only we have to wait for the palates of the dinner party are ready for a new experience.

The Mediterranean Corner......"Better at home".

This is just the beginning of a small adventure that no one knows how it is going to end, maybe it doesn't have a destination, what I am sure of is that it is the beginnig of a new stage in my life. Having adapted to a new country, having to communicate with more or less ease, assuming the door that was closing when I had my accident and my arm was like Nemo, with no regrets. I found out that we can not lose time lamenting a past that will not return, and we have limited time... well, if I don't try, I will be disappointed.

Opening a door to the Mediterranean cuisine in Greenville is not going to be easy, no one said, it was, but I am for sure excited about it. As self-help cheap books say, at least die trying than give up without trying. We will try to make us a place in the American society that is not usually cooking, but has good taste. Many people don't know much about Spanish food and ingredients, but when they try it they love it. The Mediterranean Corner wants to bring to every one's home, the concept of Mediterranean cuisine that is now on the top, the Tapas. We can build a meal of tapas, or we can choose between differents dishes of the Catalan and Spanish cuisine's menu, and just wait for the surprise.

Basically a Tapa's dinner consist of 10-12 tapas with dessert included, obviusly red wines from Spain, which have nothing to envy to other wines from other countries. There is an option of dinner-class, while we are preparing dinner you can "help" or ask, hands on is allowed. Also we will talk about the food, the culture, and together we can travel to Barcelona for a while. If you don't want to do that, then wait with a glass of wine for dinner, hit the table and just smell what is cooking in your kitchen, as if the elves had come.