Gastrobar Bitoque, birthday pintxos

Second outing of Bitoque in Bilbao, loving it so far. Have a lot of the menu to get through.

Price: Individual pintxos made to order: 3-3.5 each (as in the photos below)
Shared pintxos/plates: 6- 11 euros .
There's also pintxos on the counter, cheaper I guess.

Menu del día: 12.50 Very good value, excellent quality food , good wine and home-made desserts included.

Must have: Duck risotto

Recommended: Fish and chips, Tempura sushi

Shredded duck risotto with mushrooms, hoisin and fried wonton: amazing

Maize ravioli, prawns, vanilla and onion (I think). Very fine dish indeed

Restaurante Solana, return visit

Traditional cooking turned into a Michelin star by present generation

Open: Tuesday to Sunday lunch time

Price: 7-course half portions tasting menu: 60 euros + VAT and drinks

A la carte: available. 

Must have: Many things, including Artichokes!

Recommended: Their tasting menu is exceptional value for money. Anything seasonal as well.

Bread was brilliant. Olive oil torte, country-style, and seeded

First aperitivo: crunchy foie with hazelnut mousse, the flavours went so well together

Second aperitivo: best Croqueta ever

Artichokes from another dimension

Home-style beans: yummy, we asked for one portion to share, but there was enough in the pot for 2 helpings each. 

Green peppers, traditional accompaniment to red beans, were exceptional

J chose the wine, our good wine at home is tasting ordinary now

Pichón, cooked two ways.

Pichón: close up. Legs were braised and breast was roasted. Liked both.

Apple cake, re interpreted beautifully

This menta poleo was something else. Loved the sugar adding stick

petit fours were substatial: gin tonic jelly babies, pistacho cakes, strawberry mousse

This meal came to 50 euros per head incl VAT, including coffees and the dessert wine- a Tokapji 5*- but not including the main wine. That one was exceptional for us, and so the price would not reflect the restaurant truly. 

Masala Dosa, Parte dos

Segundo intento de recetas, blog todavía en pañales

Plato: Sur de India.

Dificultad: Parte 1: Bastante maña.

Parte 2: Facilito

Completamente copiado del blog Edible Garden, uno de mis favoritos. Aunque he añadido un par de cosas, especialmente las hojas de curry, simplemente porque lo tengo por primera vez en mi vida en mi frigo de aquí. Y me encantan.

Esta es la parte 2 del plato, lo más facil. Lo pongo porque tambien sirve para acompañar cualquier otro plato en nuestra casa, desde filetes a pescado.

*La fotografía esta todavía en fase muy experimental

Ingredientes:

Patatas cocidas

2 cucharitas mostaza en semillas
1 cuchara lentejas chana (sin piel)
1 cucharita lentejas urad (sin piel)
Una piza de asfoetida (hing)
Unas hojas de curry
Unos chiles frescos enteros, a gusto
1 cucharita de turmerico
1 cucharita de gengibre rallado
Sal, pimienta, chile rojo en polvo si se quiere





1) Hervir unas patatas. Cuando esten cocidas, pelar y trocear.

2) Preparar los condimentos: gengibre rallado, chilles verdes y rojos, lentejas chanaa, lentejas urad, semilla de mostaza negra, asfoetida, turmerico, hojas de curry.

3) Cebolla roja en juliana

4) Calentar aceite oliva y un poco de ghee o mantequilla en un wok o karai Indio.

5) Cuando este humeando, añadir semillas de mostaza. En cuanto empiezen a hacer "pop" y saltar como locos - y suelten un olor delicioso-  añadir los dos tipos de lentejas.

6) Segudo añadir: la asfoetida, los chiles, las hojas de curry, y el gengibre rallado. Que se haga 1 minuto.

7) 20-30 segundos y añadir el turmerico y la cebolla

8) Dejar que la cebolla se haga un poco, y entonces añadir las patatas

9) Revolver, que no se quemen.

10) Añadir sal a gusto. Unos 5 minutos, que mezcle bien todo, y listo!

Esta receta vendra otro día. Por ahora decire que tenía la masa de dosa hecha y fermentada, así que allá vamos. 

Calentar un tawa, o una sarten tipo para crepes.
Un poco de aceite, y fuego mediano. Con un cazo de sopa, coger la masa y hacer espirales para extenderla.

Una ración de patatas. Y doblar y servir!

Supone que se comen con varios "chutneys" a base coco, o coco con lentejas.
Como no tenía ganas de trabajar mas, hice el chutney salvavidas del Norte de India ( o sea, completamente no autentico).

Cilantro, menta, cebolla, limon, sal, pimienta y chile verde a gusto, y "vroom".
Luego se puede rebajar si quiere uno con yogur natural.

Garbanzos con morcilla,

Probando 1, 2, 3 ...

Primer intento de poner una receta mía en un blog. A ver que sale.

Fui a tomar café con una amiga, y de paso hacer unos recados en el pueblo, donde ella me convencio de la utilidad de comprar verduras congeladas ya picadas. 

Y eso fue su destino.

Ingredientes:

En orden de aparencia, mas o menos

200- 250 gms de 

Cebolla

Pimiento rojo

Pimiento verde

Bote de garbanzos cocidos

Berza

Pastilla de caldo

1 chile rojo (a gusto)

I morcilla de verduras

Acción:

Poner una cazulea a fuego con aceite de oliva, y las verduras dentro: cebolla, pimiento verde y rojo. O lo que tenga uno por allí. 

Vaciar un bote garbanzos cocidos: yo les paso por agua, Manias mias.

Cuando la verduras esten pochadas, añadir los garbanzos, caldo de pollo (o sea, la pastilla de toda la vida), berza congelada torceada, y opcionalmente, un chile rojo (en ese caso el Bird's eye tailandes), que por algo tengo el nombre de blog

 Cocinar durante 5 minutos: a mi gusta que los garbanzos queden mas suaves.

Hechar morcilla. A nosotros nos gusta las de verdura/puerros, estilo vasco.

Unos 5-7 minutos para que la morcilla este cocinada, y voila! Primer, y en nuestro caso segundo plato tambien, listo.

Los Brezos, San Mames de Meruelo

High-end cuisine.

Price (June 2014): 26.50 for a 7-course tasting menu.

Must Have: The tasting menu (there is nothing else on weekends. Weekdays, there is also a normal menu del día at lunch time. (12 euros)

Open: Lunch & Dinner weekends. Lunch on weekdays.

Note: If you want their "Forest" dessert, you need to request in advance, and at busy times they may not be able to serve it.

Just DON'T MISS this place.

Paris

Amazing Pho, and very reasonable price, no frills dining.

If you like Pho', go out of your way to go to this restaurant in Paris. 
The menu is short and to the point. Pho with beef, pho with chicken, large or small. Rolls seemed to be the starter to eat if you felt like it. We concentrated on the Pho.

The Pho was so good, and it was such a cold day, that I ate it all before realising I hadn't take a single photo of it. So you will have to go and see for yourself. 

2 kinds of leaves, onions, and bean sprouts to accompany the Pho

Hoisin sauce, chillies & lemon. Only used a few chilies and a bit of lemon. Broth was too tasty on it's own. 

Restaurante La Karola,
Puerto Viejo,
Algorta.


Totally overpriced, quality of everything has gone down significantly, won't be back ever!

AVOID.

Restaurante Rompeolas, Somo


Menu del día: 10 euros (weekday menu). Includes bread & wine or water.

Good value for money by Somo beach. Large portions.
Forgot to take photos of the main course but very decent options in both fish & meat. I had anchovies in batter.

Prawns and Octopus first course. Nice, but more traditional items are tastier. 

Chickpeas & Spinach with cod: very tasty. 

Paella: decent menu del día paella

Home-made lemon mousse

Arroz con leche : rice, milk & cinnamon

Another day:

First course, Ventresca of Bonito salad

Traditional Bean Stew : First course

Second course: fish (txitxarro)

Second course: fish, fresh cod. 

Restaurante Las Piscinas (Villacarriedo)

This restaurant consistently comes up in the "Best Chuletón" list and by all accounts, location is quirky too, so we had to try it out.
It took a bit of finding, as it is tucked away next to the piscinas municipales (public swimming pool), which is beside the river with some playing fields around. It doesn't advertise itself much, and from the outside looks like a typical small "chiringuito" by a pool.
A small brass plaque by the door confirms that it is indeed Restaurante Las Piscinas.

They are famous for their steaks, from their own farms in the Valle de Pás, but there is a lot of other meat & some fish on the menu. Green things are not to be seen anywhere, not even the usual artichokes. You know what you are getting into when you see an enormous portion of callos (from wagyu beef) being eaten as a first course!

We had gone to eat steak, so that is what we had. There were dishes off the menu and we heard something about a salad. So I jumped on that as a light starter.

A big pintxo arrived on a piece of bread. That was the complementary appetizer.

Salad arrived.Thickly sliced smoked salmon, over pan-fried melon & covered with lightly ...fried? jamón. An enormous platter, & no green in sight.
It was delicious. But if that is the lightest thing they have....

The steak (shared one) came, very lightly cooked and cut, with a heatedcast iron plate to cook it to your liking. This cast-iron plate was changed halfway through when the first one cooled down.
Served with real chips and red-peppers.
It weighed 1,300kg.

They had some excellent sounding home-made ice.creams and we had 1 cinnamon and one dark chocolate. Very nice, very creamy, lots of flavour.

Their one page wine list had some Spanish wines from unknown regions, apart of the usual Rioja/Ribeira de Duero.
Upon query the friendly and very knowledgeable guy waiting on us told us he had over 300 Spanish wines in his cellar, but didn't/hasn't actually get round to putting them on a list (don't ask!)
So we were bold and for once left him to surprise us with a wine of his choice. So we had HUNO, an extraordinary wine from Extremadura. With a price tag of 13 euros at the end, totally recommendable.

What we had:
Salad (Melón a la plancha/Smoked Salmon/Jamón)
Old Steak (1.3 kg)
Ice-cream
HUNO
Coffees

Price a la carté, about 40/pp including wine and coffee.

There was also an excellent looking Menu de día  for 13 euros being eaten by many people on their lunch break.


Their callos (tripe) is actually sourced from a Wagyu herd reared in Burgos. Cows that get a daily "massage" & in the final few months are given a litre of organic wine a day (in lieu of the beer given in Japan).

The restaurant

The wine: excellent & unusual

And very reasonably priced at 13 euros

The "salad"

The steak  (the last of)