As you know, a few weeks ago we launched the Pantry section. It is a section that I am particularly excited about, as we have put a lot of care into the selection of products and suppliers. I think we have a good variety of ingredients that can be very useful to give a different touch to everyday life or to save for a special occasion.
For this reason, today I would like to tell you about some products that can be very useful for Christmas celebrations. They can be an excellent appetizer or to accompany a dish or they can even be an original gift if we are the guests.
Ideas for appetizers
At home we really like cheese, it is a food that is almost never missing from the table. If we also present it with a chutney specially designed to accompany it, the result is excellent. We only have to prepare some plates with various types of cheese and a small bowl with the chutney sauce according to each one. Another option is to present some toasts with the cheese and a small teaspoon of chutney on top, the color contrast is beautiful, and the flavor is delicious!
Continuing with chutneys, another good option is to accompany a beef carpaccio with a little tomato or onion chutney and a few flakes of salt . If you prefer to serve the carpaccio without any accompaniment, you can try adding a splash of almond oil and a little grated parmesan cheese. You'll see how delicious it is!
Special chutneys to accompany cheese, and tomato and onion chutney
Another ingredient that also works very well in appetizers is peppers, absolutely delicious if they are natural and of good quality. You can try spreading cheese on toast and serving candied piquillo peppers on top. I also recommend trying choricero pepper meat, piquillo pepper delicacies or those seasoned with oil and garlic.
If you are making canapés, you can use cheese mousses or pepper cream as a base or even just spread on good bread. By the way, when making canapés, you can't forget foie gras, a classic of this time of year!
You can also serve as appetizers some needles in olive oil, a delicious Galician-style octopus or some mackerel. In the Fish and Seafood section you will find several of them from Ramón Peña, a company that takes great care of the origin, quality and processing of its products.
Straight to the table: sardines, needlefish, mackerel and Galician octopus
Another product I recommend you try is Chatka, Russian crab. A salad of lamb's lettuce with chatka and a fig pulp vinaigrette, for example, is easy to present and tastes excellent. You can also use it to prepare canapés (you can easily cut it into pieces and mix it with a little mayonnaise), or prepare kebabs by wrapping it with some green leaves. It's a product that we always get right!
Russian Chatka Crab, Crustal can (100% crab legs, ideal for presentations with the product visible) and canned (60% legs and 40% Russian king crab meat, ideal for dishes in which it is chopped)
Ideas for main dishes
You can also use chatka for more elaborate dishes. In this case, I encourage you to incorporate it into a salmon pie, for example, it will give it a delicious flavour. Also in fish and seafood cannelloni, it will help to enhance the flavour a lot.
We also have some ingredients that can help you season or accompany a dish, such as vinegar with fruit pulp for a salad, Parmigiano cream or truffle salt for a pasta dish, or truffle oil and grated truffle if you are preparing rice or risotto.
If you want to prepare a special meal for the family, I also encourage you to try a little treasure from the Pantry, tagliatelle with truffles. They have a spectacular flavour, so you can eat them just with a good olive oil and a little grated parmesan, or you can also add a splash of truffle oil to further intensify the flavour.
Combine the delicious tagliatelle with truffle with truffle oil
I would also like to highlight the preserved duck confit, both the Serrano and Castaing are excellent. In each container there are two duck legs, ready to eat. My recommendation for preparing a simple but delicious dish is to sear the legs in the pan to leave the skin crispy; at the same time, cut some potatoes into slices about 3 or 4 mm thick and roast them in the oven with a little salt and some fat from the confit (you can take it from the same pan where you are searing the legs); when the potatoes have about 5 minutes left to be ready, grate a fresh truffle or preserved truffle on top. It seems unbelievable that something so easy to prepare turns out so good!
Enjoy a delicious duck confit accompanied by roasted potatoes with truffle.
If you are thinking of cooking meat or fish in a casserole or cocotte, you know that many recipes start by browning the pieces before continuing with the cooking in the oven. You can try using flavoured oil to achieve a subtle and special touch. Almond oil , for example, is ideal with most meats and fish. I would also not like to highlight some vinegars that help us in many recipes and that are classics, such as sherry, tarragon or apple vinegar, Beatriz talked about them in this post .
Other ingredients that go very well with meat are honey mustard or pepper cream. You can also add some peppers to the dish or add a little chutney, both of which work very well with meat.
Ideas for dessert or gift
Whether you are going as a guest or if you are sure that there will be dessert, this will interest you: in the Pantry section you will find various products that are not only absolutely delicious, but also come in presentations that are perfect to present directly on the table, or to take as a gift when we are the guests.
Ideal are the pretty boxes of biscuits from the Belgian firm Jules Destrooper, the addictive Walkers biscuits - perfect to accompany tea or coffee with their 100% Scottish boxes - or the delicious panettone from the Italian company Caffarel.
Jules Destrooper biscuits in different presentations, Walkers biscuits in assortment and London Bus , Caffarel panettone and peach in Serrano syrup
Another dessert that is also very popular is peach in syrup. Serrano's is very natural, top quality fruit that is absolutely delicious. Also, the 4kg container, ideal for when there are a lot of us at home, is a beauty that we can then reuse for lots of things, don't you think?
Finally, if you like tea, I would like to encourage you to try any variety of Kusmi Tea. It is one of the favorite brands of a large part of my family, as it has a truly exceptional quality and flavor. It is a product that works very well throughout the year, but at parties it is also an excellent gift that will make us look great.
