Getting Festive: Flayed Skull

Looking for a creepy way to serve jamón at your Halloween party this year?

Why not dazzle your guests with our gruesome Flayed Skull centerpiece!

All you need

A plastic skull (either a full one or a flat door hang like mine)
A few packets of jamón or prosciutto

Layer your ham onto the skull, fully covering all traces of plastic except for the eye sockets, nose and teeth.

For a full on fleshy look, keep piling on the ham until it’s a few slices thick. Leave some bits slightly loose to give the “just flayed” look.

Serve with a few mini breadsticks and allow your guests to slowly peel away at the flesh until nothing but bones remain!

Mwa ha ha!

Transatlantic Food Translations

When we moved in together 2 years ago, Monica and I were the only native English speakers in the house.

She had just moved to Madrid from Iowa City, USA and I had moved here from London, England two years earlier. We not only had our language that brought us together, but a whole host of shared interests and a vast wealth of Anglosphere cultural references to giggle over as we would sit and talk for hours on end.

She had lived in Britain for a while and I had spent a significant amount of time travelling in the USA. We understood each others’ backgrounds and lives and could make jokes referencing our own countries, knowing full well the other would understand the humour in what we were saying.

But of course, In a world of similarities, there are always differences.

Monica and I are both massively into food and spend a lot of time in the kitchen together.

And that, my friends, is where Monica and I have problems.

Our Spanish room mate will often walk in and ask just to clarify kitchen or cooking vocabulary:

“Cómo se dice cubiertos en Inglés?”
“Silverware!”
“Cutlery!”
*cue blank stares between all three of us*

“Wait. That’s what you call it?”

So I’ve decided to try put some of these miscommunications straight.

 

Here are Debs and Monica’s Top 20 Transatlantic Food Translations

British English	American English
Starter	Appetizer
Main Course	Entreé
Cutlery	Silverware
Bill	Check
Supermarket	Grocery Store
Take away	Take out
Spring onions	Scallions/Green onions
Aubergine	Eggplant
Courgette	Zucchini
Gherkin	Pickle
Porridge	Oatmeal
Coriander	Cilantro
Crisps	(Potato) chips
Biscuits	Cookies
Minced beef	Ground beef
Beetroot	Beets
Plain flour	All purpose flour
Greaseproof paper	Wax paper
Jug	Pitcher
White coffee	Coffee with cream

Despite all the thousands of miles between our homelands and the occasional misunderstood word, when you get two best friends in front of a camera, it doesn’t take long before everything descends into mayhem.

God bless the English language!

Getting Festive: Halloween Make-up

If you’re struggling for ideas for your Halloween costume this year, check out Leticia’s horrifically realistic looking Stitched Mouth make up tutorial!

Easy to follow and absolutely terrifying!

Keep your eyes peeled for more of her fantastic videos that she’ll be uploading this week

Vegan One-Pot Pasta

Every now and then it’s always nice to be a bit lazy in the evening.

I love coming home after a long day at work and knowing that dinner is just a few minutes away. Not to mention the added joy that comes with minimal washing up afterwards.

This week I got my thinking cap on to come up with a simple, healthy and quick recipe for you all. It’s packed with delicious, seasonal veggies along with a naughty dash of white wine for flavour.

If you’re anything like me, this recipe will soon become one of your go-tos as the nights draw in and the list of unwatched episodes of your favourite series stack up!

Ingredients

250g wholewheat pasta
1 chopped leek
1 chopped courgette
6 chopped chives
1 finely chopped dry chilli pepper
1 tsp oregano
zest of 1 lemon
1 pinch of salt
100ml white wine
100ml almond milk (unsweetened)
500ml vegetable stock

makes enough for 4 servings

Drizzle a glug of olive oil into a large saucepan and lightly fry your leeks over a medium heat until softened.

Pour in your stock, wine and almond milk and leave until it begins to simmer.

Once simmering, add the remainder of the vegetables and leave for 2mins to bubble away.

Add the pasta and cover with a vented lid.

Stirring a few times to separate the spaghetti strands, leave until pasta is fully cooked.

After 10mins or so, the pasta will have soaked up all those delicious flavours and the majority of the liquid.

And that’s literally it! All that’s left to do is plate up, turn on the TV and kick back with your healthy vegan meal!

An extra glass of the white wine for yourself is optional, but recommended!

Coca-Cola Chicken Wings

When you’ve got a lovely flatmate such as Rita, the kitchen is constantly filled with the most incredible, authentic Asian cuisine.

Originally from a small town outside of Peking, Rui (or as she’s known by her Spanish name ‘Rita’) moved to Madrid to study a Master’s degree in museum curation at the local Complutense University.

In two years she not only completed her degree after a gaining a highly sought-after internship at the world famous Prado Museum, but also became fluent in Spanish and fully immersed herself in the Iberian culture.

Before she moved back to her native China, we found an afternoon for her to whip you up an out of this world, east-meets-west recipe that is all the rage back in her home country: Coca-Cola Chicken Wings.

Ingredients

1/2 kilo chicken wings
2cm cube of fresh ginger, finely chopped2 cinnamon sticks
330ml can of coca-cola
A glug of olive oil
50ml soy sauce

Put the chicken wings into a large pot

And fill with water until the wings are well submerged

Slowly bring to the boil and allow to bubble away for 2-3 mins

Remove from heat and drain

With your pan on a medium heat, cover the bottom on your frying pan with a glug of olive oil

Pop in your cinnamon sticks and finely chopped ginger and add in your wings

Sear until lightly brown all over and then crack open that can of coke and pour away! Make sure you’ve given all the wings a nice coat in the brown nectar before turning down your heat slightly.

Leave to simmer away on a medium heat for around 25mins, or until the coke has significantly reduced and has thickened. Remember to stir your pan every 5mins or so and regularly flip the wings to ensure they are cooked through.

Then add your soy sauce and continue to simmer until your coke has reduced to a thick glaze. Another 10mins or so should do it.

Allow them to tumble enticingly onto your plate and serve while piping hot!

Napkins are a must for when you finally get your hands on the finished product – if you think coke is normally sticky, wait until you reduce it down to a glaze!

These wings are a fun addition to a night in watching the football with friends, or as part of a buffet.

Thanks for taking your time to cook with us, Rita!

Kitchen Basics: Cinnamon Sugar

It wasn’t until very recently that I got a taste for cinnamon.

I would always associate it with over-spiced mulled wine or the bright red cinnamon jelly beans whose taste paled in comparison with the delicious pink ones (the flavour never really mattered, it was a simple formula of pink = yummy).

But on the drive somewhere between Boston and Iowa this summer, my eyes were opened to the magical world of sweetened cinnamon.

Cinnamon sugar has now become a staple on my kitchen counter and I wanted to share my easier-than-easy recipe with you all.

Ingredients

1/3 cinnamon powder
2/3 white sugar

Mix with spoon until fully combined.

Take a good whiff of the sweetened delciousness before storing in a clean, dry container.
I have millions of these small glass jars lying around that are perfect for storing such things. But a tupperware container would work just as well.

If you store it in a lid-less jar like mine, cut a square of brown paper to cover the top and secure with an elastic band.

You can pop a few grains of rice into the sugar to soak up any moisture that gets into the container. Moisture in sugar or salt makes it horribly clumpy.

Here are some ideas to put your cinnamon sugar to good use:

• Sprinkled on buttered toast
• Stirred into a steaming mug of hot chocolate
• As a topping for a homemade apple pie
• To sweeten natural yoghurt or porridge/oatmeal
• On warmed, sliced apples for a simple dessert or snack

Apple Cranberry Chutney

This month I finally got around to making something that has forever sat relegated to the forgotten corner of my culinary bucket list:  Chutney.

For some unknown reason I had always thought it would be a complex and difficult recipe to pull off, but how wrong I was!

Nothing could be simpler than this scrumptious Apple Cranberry Chutney. So dig those Granny Smith’s out the fruit bowl and raid the spice rack because boy, do I have a mouthwatering recipe for you today!

Ingredients

750g green apples
300ml apple cider vinegar
250g dried cranberries
200g sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp turmeric

Makes enough for two 16oz jars worth

Dump all your ingredients into a large pot. Using a medium heat, slowly bring to a simmer, stirring all the ingredients as they begin to bubble away.

Leave simmering for 45-50mins until the apples are soft, the cranberries have rehydrated a little and the mixture has thickened.

Carefully spoon into a fully sterilised jar. Wait for the chutney to cool and store in the refrigerator.

Serving suggestion: Pile it high on some cheddar cheese and fresh crackers on Sunday in front of Downton Abbey. No joke. It’s the best way to serve it.

This chutney is also a winner at dinner parties if you need something quick but impressive to make.

Guests will be wowed by your Suzie Homemaker skills – just make sure not to let slip that you whipped this chutney up in less time than it took you to get ready!