Tuna Empanada Galician style - Empanada gallega de atún

Empanadas are quite common on dinner tables all over the Hispanic world. in Spain they are usually baked as large pies and cut into squares and can be served as tapas. In Latin America, empanadas are small pies with different fillings. Originally empanadas came from the Spanish regions of Galicia & Leon but basically became popular all around the whole world. I had this Galician empanada when I went to Spain a couple of years ago and I had to recreate it over here as it was so good. It can be served either hot or cold. I used two sheets of pre-made pastry which makes things way easier. So give it a go and we're quite sure you will try it again! You will need.... 

• 2 ready to roll shortcrust pastry sheets
• 2 large or 3 medium red sweet peppers, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon pimentón dulce (sweet paprika)
• 1 teaspoon pimentón ahumado (smoked paprika)
• 2 cans tuna chunks (in oil), drained
• Small bunch of parsley, finely chopped
• Handful green olives, stoned and chopped
• 2 hard-boiled eggs, roughly chopped
• Olive oil
• 1 tablespoon olive oil mixed with a pinch paprika, for brushing on final empanada

How to...

1. Pour oil into a fry pan over medium heat and add in garlic. Cook it for 2 minutes, until golden. Then add in onion,pepper, paprikas, tomato paste, salt & pepper to taste and cook until onions and peppers are soft, about 10-15 minutes.
2. Take off the heat and let cool. Once cool, add in tuna, olives and parsley and mix well.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C
4. Roll out the first pastry sheet and spread the tuna/veg mixture in the middle, leaving about one inch from the sides. Crumble the eggs on top and cover with the other pastry sheet. Seal the edges well with a fork and baste the top with the oil/paprika mixture and snip the empanada with scissors with in three or four places (so as steam can escape).
5. Bake for 25 minutes until reddish golden. Remove from the oven and let rest for at least 10 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

Enjoy!!

R&A

Nicoise Salad - Salade Niçoise

Salade niçoise comes from southern France and it is one of our favourite salads. The main ingredients that make up this wonderful salad are tuna and anchovies. We always try to find fresh tuna but sometimes here in England is hard to find and when you find it, it can be very expensive. So we use good quality canned tuna fillets. Also it is usually made with niçoise olives, which are small black olives but any small black olives will do if these are not available. As per every salad there is a myriad versions of the actual recipe so it very hard to find out exactly what goes in a proper salade niçoise. Cucumber, preserved artichoke hearts, radishes, new potatoes, raw green peppers, sweet shallots are all different vegetables that are used...depends where you get the recipe from! Hard boiled eggs are a must as well. Our version for a substantial meal for two people is as follows...

For the salad

• About 100g mixed salad leaves
• 2 ripe but firm tomatoes, sliced
• 8 new potatoes, boiled
• 2 hard boiled eggs, quartered
• A handful of black olives
• 100g French fine green beans, cooked
• 2 tuna steaks (about 150g each, grilled to your liking and left to cool down slightly) or 2 cans of tuna chunks
• 8 anchovy fillets

For the dressing

• Red wine vinegar
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt & pepper

1. This has to be the easiest method ever. Just arrange all the salad ingredients onto the serving plates, leaving the tuna and anchovies for last.
2. Mix the dressing ingredients in a small bowl. The amounts are entirely up to you.
3. Dress the tuna and salad leaves.
4. Serve.

Enjoy!!

R&A

Sugo ai Frutti di Mare e Tonno - Mixed Seafood & Tuna Pasta Sauce

There is nothing better for a food lover than to go to the market and see what is freshly available. The other day I was having a word with one of the fishmongers at the market and we agreed on how, unfortunately, the British people in general do not appreciate all the abundance of fish and seafood available all year round. The United Kingdom is an island surrounded by a sea and an ocean, namely the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean and the amount of fish and seafood that is caught daily from them is quite abundant so there are myriad of ways in how one can cook them. But, again the British people mostly sides with the USA when it comes to food and prefers microwave meals and junk food...obviously not everyone!! :) 

We also came across whelks [scungilli] for the first time, these are large sea snails which when we had one to see what they where they did taste like the sea...wonderful...quite rubbery but taste good!! The missus was not that convinced but we bought some anyway to add them to our own seafood sauce. 

Usually seafood sauces are not prepared using tomatoes but they are cooked in bianco, that is, garlic, olive oil, white wine and obviously the seafood. But Amanda loves her sauce when it comes to pasta so we do use tomatoes, fresh or tinned!! So here is our Sugo Ai Frutti Di Mare [Pasta Sauce with Mixed Seafood]...feel free to use it with any pasta shape you like!! You will need...

• 300g Mixed Seafood [We used a mixture of cockles, prawns and mussels]
• 4-6 Whelks (Sea snails)
• 1 can good quality Tuna chunks
• 1 or 2 cans chopped tomatoes [depends on how much tomato sauce you want]
• 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 large cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
• 2 or 3 small dried chillies, chopped [optional but it does add a kick]
• 150ml White Lambrusco (or other white wine)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil

How to...

1. Put the oil, chillies and garlic in a shallow pan and fry until garlic is golden.
2. Add the seafood and whelks, and cook for a few minutes.
3. Add the Lambrusco and simmer until the liquid evaporates.
4. Add the tuna, tomatoes, marjoram and pepper and simmer for about 15 minutes on a medium heat.
5. Serve with pasta of your choice-Linguine will be the best so you can mop up the sauce from the plate :)

Enjoy!!

R&A