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Cruising with Cyn
Collection of useless information circuitous to the OPERATION: Poisson Rouge Adventure.

This 6 week installment of Cruising with Cyn, we will be exploring local cuisine from the regions we will be visiting. Ken and I will be preparing a traditional meal from Barcelona, Naples, Rome, Florence, Nice and Toulon. We will be posting the receipe and our review.


Barcelona is at least partially responsible for putting tapas on the culinary map. Tapas - finger food - is a staple on the bar scene as well as the 'eat on the run scene' and has become in vogue. The more I researched it, the more it seemed that everything was called tapas. So while what is on today's menu may not seem to fit the bill - I saw it on the net so it must be true.

Chosen for this week's recipes is: Spanish Flamenco Eggs and Pa amb Oli (Bread with Olive Oil). The eggs really were listed under Tapas and I could not do a search without seeing a link for the Bread with Olive Oil.

Spanish Flamenco Eggs
Ingredients
1 Large onion, chopped 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1 Red pepper, chopped 1 Green pepper, chopped 1 400g can chopped tomatoes 2 Boiled potatoes 4 Large fresh eggs Olive oil
Instructions
• Cut the potatoes into cubes and par boil until almost soft.
• Fry the onion, garlic and peppers in olive oil until soft.
• In a large cazuela heat up the tomatoes, season then add the cooked potatoes, onions, garlic and peppers. Mix well.
• Using a wooden spoon create four indentations in the mixture - crack one egg into each one.
• Cook in the oven at 180°C for around 15 minutes or until eggs are done.
• Serve with fresh crusty bread and a glass of good red wine.

Tip: This dish is highly versatile and traditionally would use left over or excess vegetables. Other ingredients would include green beans, wild asparagus, broccoli, sweet potato, butternut squash, etc.

Serves 4

Pa amb tomàquet
Ingredients
Bread (the bigger the slices, the better) Fresh Red tomato, it has to be ripe Salt Extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
•Pa amb tomàquet at its best must use bread that is two or three days old. That is the origin of this preparation, to make stale bread comestible.
• If you don't have stale bread, or you just want to do pa torrat amb all i tomàquet you can put it on the toaster, or better, grill the bread lightly on a wood-burning fire. With this, we'll get the surface of the sliced bread hardened enough to rub the tomato against it, but also, we can introduce another ingredient: rubbed garlic. You must rub the garlic before the tomato. Please use fresh garlic and peel the cloves prior to use.
• Cut the bread in slices, the idea is that whatever the shape of the bread, you'll end with a flat surface, a good sliced bread.
• Cut the tomato in half crosswise, and rub the tomato against the bread. As the bread is stale, a bit of the tomato will crumble in it.
• Put the salt, two or three picks would suffice. Then distribute oil in the surface of the sliced bread, trying not to soak it.

Next week - traveling back to Naples where Pizza was invented! If only my dyed blonde head could think of a meal to make we would be set.