Tortilhas rapidíssimas... mais rápidas que um TGV ;)

(clicar na imagem p/ampliar)

Pode usar base de pizza, mas eu prefiro as tortilhas, geralmente em pacotes de seis, dão para fazer tipo pizza ou dobrar à saída do forno (canto inferior direito da imagem), cozem rápido, apenas o tempo de derreter o queijo. As que sobram, depois de abrir o pacote, pode congelar, mas cuidado porque depois de congeladas têm que ser manuseadas com cuidado pois partem facilmente.
Num tabuleiro uso papel vegetal (poupo na lavagem do tabuleiro e nunca colam ao fundo) ponho a base de pizza ou a tortilha, um pouco de ketchup em vez do molho de tomate (experimentem porque até o meu genro americano quando viu a minha filha fazer isso torceu o nariz e agora não quer outra coisa).
Cortar uma cebola em rodelas finas e fritar num pouco de azeite com sal e uma pitada de açúcar para caramelizar.
Os cogumelos gosto de os fritar na frigideira com um pouco de bacon ou utilizar o molho da linguiça frita, e um pouco de noz de moscada.
Geralmente ponho os tipos de queijo que tiver em casa, cortados em paus ou ralados, conforme a consistência. Use os que houver ou preferir.
Não dispenso tiras de pimento, mas aqui há a liberdade de escolher ou até de gastar umas sobrinhas de outras refeições como, neste caso, um peito de frango assado que podia acabar por morrer no frigorífico ;)... depois, é só pôr em camadas, polvilhar com uns oregãos, um fiozinho de azeite e levar ao forno, mais ou menos 180 graus.

SIX RECIPES IN ONE

This next recipe you can do it with any type of clams, shrimps, fish fillets, pork (sliced or in small pieces), chicken or turkey (sliced or small pieces).

After choosing above the main ingredient, you need (for 2 or 3 people) :

4/6 garlic cloves peeled and cut ( any manner or crushed)
4/6 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of margarine or butter
Chopped fresh or frozen cilantro (I like a hand full,you can put less)
Coarse sea salt
Ground pepper
Half or one Lemon juice

First, spread some salt and pepper over the fillets of pork(or whatever you choose).
Fry for 1 or 2 minutes the garlic+olive oil+butter+cilantro, then add the fish or the meat into the skillet and fry it till it's done , stirring occasionally; pork, chicken and turkey(medium-high heat) need more time than fish(do not stir fish- cook first one side and then turn it and cook the other side) (medium-low heat).

Turn off the heat and spread lemon juice over the meat.
You can also add some fresh cilantro leaves.

Turkey roast with red pepper paste

- 1 big turkey leg (+/- 4 pounds or 2Kg)
- 2 tablespoons full of red pepper paste
- 1/3 cup (75ml/80ml) olive oil
- 1/4 cup (50ml/60ml) white wine vinegar
- a bunch chopped cilantro (stems too) fresh or frozen, not dry

Preheat oven to 500ºF (250ºC or Gas -10).
Put the turkey into a tall oven tray to avoid the sauce from spreading out. Put the red pepper paste, the cilantro and half of the olive oil over the turkey and rub it all over the meat (yes... with your hands , I'm sure you have washed them before coming to the kitchen), sprinkle the remaining olive oil all over it and place it uncovered in the lowest position of the preheated oven for ONLY 10/15 minutes with this temperature.

All roast meat must enter with a high temperature to seal the meat and make it more juicy and tasty. Not doing this will make the meat dry and hard to chew.

After the 10 minutes, reduce the temperature to 350ºF (175ºC or Gas 4). Open the oven door and carefully, without burning yourself, sprinkle the vinegar all over the turkey and let it roast for +/- 80 minutes. The vinegar is added at this point because adding it earlier would make the meat hard.


Each pound(455 grams) of turkey meat needs 20 minutes to roast at 350ºF (175ºC, Gas 4 ) and so 4 pounds of our recipe will be +/- 80 minutes. I think my temperatures and weight conversions are OK.

NOTE: You can do the same recipe with pork, but one pound(455 grams) of pork meat needs +/- 30 minutes to roast at 350ºF (175ºC, Gas 4).
Never forget to preheat the oven before placing the meat inside or else you'll have a very dry meat to chew.

Seasoning mixture recipe - Red Pepper Paste

In Portugal we can find Red Pepper Paste in food stores ready to use.
But you can do your own recipe, also ready to use several times, for a wide variety of meats preferably pork, turkey and chicken.



RED PEPPER PASTE

10 to 12 red bell peppers, cored and seeded
7 to 10 large garlic cloves peeled
3 tablespoons bulk sea salt

Put all the ingredients in a food processor, in portions if you have a small one, scraping down the sides, from time to time, and process it till the paste is very smooth (you can add 1 or 2 tablespoon of water if necessary).
Transfer the paste preferably into a glass container with a tightly fitting lid, but before close, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of olive oil to cover the paste, to increase its preservation.
After using it 2 or 3 times you can cover it again with another tablespoon of olive oil.
Put the container in the fridge, ready to use , it will stay good for a long time.

You can use two or three tablespoons of this paste and rubbed on a big piece of meat to roast in the oven, small pieces to fry or the ribs to barbecuing.

COOK RICE EASILY

Although some exceptions (such as risotto), some suggestions to cook rice:

1º. -1 measure of rice needs 2 1/2 to 3 measures of water (or a liquid mixture as water and wine/milk/chicken broth...)
- The water measure depends not only on the rice quality (long grain or short grain) but with the same amount of rice you'll need less water if you use a small saucepan instead of a large one.
-The saucepan must have a lid.

2º. - All spices, olive oil, butter or seasonings as salt and pepper, must go into the water before the rice.
3º. -Bring the water to a boil and only than add the rice and at this stage it must be the first and last time that you can stir the rice.
(If for any reason you need to add some more water, it must be very hot).

4º. -After adding the rice, wait until it boils again, cover pan, low the heat, let it cook for 15 to 20 minutes (major grains of rice need more time to cook) .

5º. -After turning off the heat, still with the lid on, let it steam at least for 5 minutes.

-There are others ways to cook it but this is the easiest one and many ingredients can be cooked at the same time with the rice.
-If you want a whiter rice, add into the water a few drops of lemon juice.

MARINADE FOR (chicken,turkey,fish ) FILLETS

If you want a different and delicious taste, submerge your fillets ( before cooking) into a marinade for 3 or 6 hours and put them into a covered container in a cool place.

Marinade for 5 or 6 thin and small fillets ( chicken, turkey, pork or fish ) Mix together :

1 cup of milk
1 tablespoon of sea salt
1/4 tablespoon of ground black pepper
4/5 garlic cloves pealed and sliced
1/2 tablespoon of ground nutmeg( if you can, buy the nutmeg seed and grate it yourself, the flavor is better)
1 lemon juice
2 bay leaves (cut each one into 2 or 3 pieces)

After taking the fillets out of the marinade, you can fry them with some olive oil and butter or even better :

First coat both sides of the fillets with flour, then with beaten eggs and then use bread crumbs and with your hand stick them well to your fillets.
At this stage they can be frozen, preferably wrapped individually to use some days later.

They must fry (floating) in vegetable oil (medium heat) till both sides are golden brown.You can see previous post "Frying in vegetable oil".
If they are frozen, fry them immediately after taking them out of the freezer.

Fish fillets can be coated this way or coated only with flour and beaten eggs .
(This way they can't be frozen)

Fast soup

4 carrots peeled and sliced
2 potatoes peeled and sliced
1 turnip peeled and sliced
1 onion peeled and sliced
coarse sea salt to your taste
1 teaspoon of rice
5 teaspoon of olive oil

1 slice of toasted bread cut in small pieces (optional)


Put the carrots, the potatoes, the turnip and the onion in a pan and cover them with water, when it begins to boil add the rice and let it boil gently for 10 to 12 minutes, it's faster to cook because the vegetables are sliced. Turn off the heat, and beat the soup with an electric hand blender or food processor. Now add the olive oil and stir. Serve in plates or bowls and put the small pieces of toasted bread in the middle.

Fried Pork with Red pepper paste

10 to 12 small pork meat cubes (+ or - for 2 persons)
1 or 2 tablespoon of red pepper paste
6 tablespoon of olive oil (4 + 2)
2 tablespoons vegetable margarine
2 tablespoon of white wine vinegar or 1/2 lemon juice or both
1 hand full of finely chopped fresh (or frozen not dry) cilantro


Cut the pork meat into small cubes and with 1 or 2 tablespoons of red pepper paste (that I've already posted the recipe here) do the same way as I did with the turkey (also posted here) and rub it all over the meat.
In a skillet put 4 tablespoons of olive oil, wait until it is hot enough and you can hear the fizz when you dip the meat into it. Cook it until golden brown, this must be a quick process in a medium-high heat to seal the meat and you can cook less cubes at once to achieve this faster. The golden brown meat cubes can be put aside on a plate until you have them all done.

Next, into the same skillet add 2 more tablespoons of olive oil , 2 tablespoons of vegetable margarine and the cilantro, stirring till you have all mixed together, add the meat and its juices, put the lid and let it cook in a low-heat for a little longer until the meat is not pink inside.

Before turning off the heat, sprinkle the meat with the vinegar and stir. If you want to add the lemon juice it's after turning off the heat.

For decoration and a little more flavor, spread fresh cilantro leaves over the meat.
Instead pork you can do the same with turkey breast fillets cut into strips.