There’s a lot of food at home these days, much more than usually – thanks to the Spanish supply. It feels so good to cook some different dishes for a change, to stir in uncommon flavours and spice up our meals…. Honestly, I didn’t know what to start with.But Juanpi made it clear from the start: I had to make something using chorizo. I think chorizo is one of those things Spaniards can not get over, when they go abroad. I guess I will never fully comprehend this attachment, maybe because I’m not as fond of sausages and meat as they are.
I don’t even remember when did I eat the famous Slovene kranjska klobasa or krvavica (blood sausage) for the last time. When the cold season starts in Slovenia, people go crazy with these things. At least in my family, there has always been at least 4 months of koline (hmm…could be translated as “pork and sausages”??) season per year, along with kislo zelje (sauerkraut) and kisla repa (sauerturnip??) – I don’t mind the latter two at all. Typical winter food. Quite typical for Central Europe, actually.

Now, having a lot of lentejas around, the most normal thing was to make a Spanish lentil stew, a hearty winter pot that they cook in northern Spain very often. I made it many times already but it lacked the touch of this spicy reddish sausage. No way I could find it in Slovenia.

So this is how I did it a few days ago:

Slices of veal and chorizo, carrots, potatoes, onion, garlic, celery root, kohlrabi, brown lentils, a bit of dried pepper and plenty of spices (bay leaves, ground sweet paprika, parsley, nutmeg, ground black pepper, ground cumin and sea salt).
Although I generally use a pressure cooker for cooking legumes, I don’t use it for lentils because they are cooked in such a short time. Besides, I like my vegetables a bit crunchy, therefore I prefer to add them more towards the end of cooking. What they do in Spain is cook all ingredients together (lentils, meat, vegetables) in the pressure cooker, which results (at least for me) in a bit overcooked stew. I guess I’m a bit special about that… but what matters to me (besides a good taste) is the way of preparing/processing food. The shorter the cooking time is, the better.

And for today’s lunch we had another northern Spanish delicacy, tenderloin steaks with smoked peppers – lomo con pimientos del piquillo. I used beef tenderloin instead of pork which is usually used. Instead of frying them, I bathed the steaks in white wine, coated them with mustard, sprinkled with nutmeg, ground pepper and sea salt, rolled and wrapped them in aluminium foil and roasted them in the oven at 220 degrees. Ever since I’ve made rolled turkey with chestnut spread, I can’t imagine roasting steaks any other way. It makes the most tender meat and also, you don’t have to use any fat which means you get a healthier meal. Separately, I sautéed some finely chopped garlic cloves together with smoked peppers for 5 minutes or so, and poured in some white wine for a better taste. Then I added the peppers to beef slices in their sauce and serve.
This is the 2nd time this week that I’ve made this dish.