Ultra tender braised pork cheeks in wine sauce with shallots on a bed of mashed potatoes, a tasty tapa or main dish recipe coming straight from Spain. Braised pork cheeks in wine sauce is a delicate yet powerful dish. Although the meat is tender and melts on your tongue, the flavour is outstanding. I encountered this dish on a tapas night in San Sebastian, Spain. Lost in a dark corner of a little plaza, in a place called “La Cuchara de San Telmo,” a heavenly place! It’s their star dish; they no longer have to write it down on the menu board since it’s so popular. It is served as tapas, which means a small portion. It was so good … we added to order it a second time. This recipe is my take on this famous dish called Carrilleras de cerdo al vino tapa! Pork Cheeks the Treasure! The trick here is…
Traditional Romesco Sauce is a Catalan, Spain, fantastic nutty sauce with roasted veggies that goes with any grilled meat, fish, egg or vegetable. It is made of roasted tomatoes, garlic, hazelnut, almond and red pepper with a touch of paprika. A perfect condiment for BBQ season! A Catalan Ritual This Traditional Romesco Sauce originates from Tarragona, about an hour south of Barcelona, Spain. The chances are… if you visit and try any restaurant on the city outskirts, you’ll end up with romesco sauce on your plate. It’s generally eaten with grilled meat, fish or veggies but also on their famous patatas bravas with some aioli. The Catalan rural houses often have a grilling spot in their backyard where in winter months, they do Calçotadas. The equivalent of a Sunday brunch… Catalans have this ritual of grilling these special long onions called calçots. They are usually served with barbecued meat and veggies…
German Cabbage Roll, called Krautstrudel in German, is a crunchy filo dough rolled up around braised cabbage with bacon bits. Usually served with a simple horseradish-dill sauce! When you think of strudel, you probably automatically picture a sweet apple strudel. Am I right? Well in Central Europe they make some great savoury ones too! You can find some pumpkin, spinach, sauerkraut and more strudel types here and there. This German Cabbage Roll is a braised cabbage with bacon bits served with a delicious homemade horseradish-dill sauce. The Dough The original dough to cover the strudel is usually a thin and elastic puffy dough. Although, for this recipe, I’ve used stacked phyllo sheets with a light spray of olive oil on each sheet. I like the flakiness of the phyllo, plus it contains way less butter than the flaky puff dough. The only thing with phyllo is to make sure you overlap the sheets so…