Spanish Christmas recipes. Part I

Yes, Christmas is coming and in my house, we are already planning the menu. It is a hard task, to be honest as everyone has a favourite dish or wants to try something different. Anyway, it is really exciting to search for new recipes, imagine the flavours and smells and combine tradition with modern dishes.

This is the first post of a series where you can find new recipes for Christmas. I hope you enjoy it!

Christmas is coming. We may see, smell and feel it on the streets, on the windows shops, on the magazines, on the TV programmes… We think of the presents for our family, we send Christmas cards to our beloved friends… Yes, Christmas is coming!

I am really aware that Christmas time is around the corner when my mum grabs a food magazine, takes her cookbooks, searches on the Internet… and starts to talk about recipes. It seems like a powerful force draws her and everything revolves around food: what we cooked last year, what we would like to eat, a recipe from a friend, the favourite dish of my young cousins…

The best way to stop her creativity and enthusiasm is to sketch out a menu. There are three requirements: one of the dishes has to be cooked with a winter ingredient, another one has to be a traditional recipe and the third one has to be a new one.

So, although the menu will be modified several times until we have the perfect one, I have been glancing at my recipes and have rescued some of my favourites. Here it is one proposal that you can use if you are looking for new recipes for Christmas lunch: chestnut soup, clams in green sauce and duck in rosé sauce and pomegranate.

Here is the first recipe: chestnut soup.

It is made with a winter ingredient and reminds me my childhood. Its velvety texture and its earthy flavour, slightly sweet, makes this soup the perfect starter. You may enrich it with ceps or shiitake mushrooms.

Ingredients for 4 people:

~ 600 grams chestnuts

~ 100 grams cep mushrooms (or any flavourful mushroom)

~ 1 potato

~ 1 leek

~ 1 l. chicken stock

~ 100 ml. Moscatel or sweet wine

~100 ml. evaporated milk

~ salt

~ extra virgin olive oil

~ black pepper

1.- Preheat oven to 200ºC.

2.- Cut a split to the chestnuts to peel them easily later on.

3.- Put the chestnuts into the oven for 15 minutes.

4.- Take a large saucepan and heat a good glug of Extra Virgin Olive Oil on a low heat. Chop the leek and fry it gently.

5.- Take the chestnuts out and peel them when they are still warm.

6.- Peel and cut the potato. Add the potato and the chestnuts to the saucepan, season with salt and black pepper and simmer for a few minutes. Pour the Moscatel or sweet wine and stir until alcohol evaporates.

7.- Pour the chicken stock and bring to boil for 20 minutes.

8.- Blend the soup and mix with the evaporated milk

9.- Slice the mushrooms and stir-fry in a small amount of extra virgin olive oil.

10.- Serve the soup with mushrooms on top and a few flakes of sea salt.

Enjoy it!