Recipes from Claudia & Julia's first Showcooking in Madrid, with WMF

A week ago we were in Madrid. We went —no less— to the Miele facilities in Alcobendas, with the WMF team and with two collaborators I appreciate very much, Miriam and Carmen, to enjoy a fabulous afternoon. I enjoyed it so much!

What did we do there? The idea was to have a meeting with people who have been following Claudia&Julia for a long time, customers from Madrid who have trusted us for a long time, and who always give us their time and kind words.

It was wonderful. I think few words more are needed or can describe it better. Most attendees were able to arrive early, which allowed us to start conversations and share the excitement of the event. Many of them already knew each other from the cooking group we have on Facebook, Cocinar con Claudia&Julia (if you’re interested in cooking, you can join!), and at last we could put faces to names.

We had iced tea and coffee (in fact, on the spur of the moment Julio showed us how to make a great coffee with the new WMF press coffee maker!) and enjoyed some pastries and cakes —they were truly delicious, a brownie (chocolate was a must) and a very tasty carrot cake. We also took the chance to browse and handle WMF products that we often show in the shop or through social networks but that you need to hold or see in front of you to appreciate the real quality they have.

After many standing chats and getting to know each other, at 4:00 PM we started the event as announced: the round table began between the guests and the two bloggers I mentioned earlier, Miriam García (El Invitado de Invierno) and Carmen López del Hierro (Recetas de Tía Alia), with Claudia&Julia.

We talked about our project and theirs, how they started with their blogs and how the success of those and a change in direction has led them to be now entirely devoted to the culinary world, photography and also videos for all kinds of companies and projects.

After an hour of conversation, questions and laughter we moved on to the second part of the event: WMF brought us Julio López, the house chef, with very long experience both in the kitchen and with WMF utensils. He made no less than 4 recipes (an appetizer, a first and second course and a dessert), a complete menu with very appealing recipes using ingredients from our cuisine and from the season. Everything was really delicious! He enlivened it all with very interesting explanations about the foods, utensils and some handy little tricks that are always good to know.

So you can enjoy at home what we learned there, we leave the recipes in case you want to prepare them and see how tasty they are. Places were limited, since the space is too, but we will repeat it. I hope to meet you all little by little at the upcoming events we will hold!

MUSHROOM AND PRAWN PINCHO WITH PARSLEY PESTO

• 12 large mushrooms
• 12 large peeled prawns, deveined
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled
• 2 bunches of parsley leaves
• 1/2 glass of extra virgin olive oil
• Maldon salt

1. Place the garlic, parsley leaves and oil in the WMF blender container and blend well, making a green pesto.
2. Prepare the mushrooms by removing the stem, drizzle them with a splash of oil. Dry the prawns on kitchen paper and oil them as well.
3. Place the mushrooms on the Lono Master grill pan WMF griddle, let them brown on the bottom and then on top. Remove and set aside.
4. Arrange the prawn tails on the hot Lono Master grill pan WMF griddle and brown on both sides, add the mushrooms back and sauté while pouring in a couple of tablespoons of the parsley pesto.
5. Serve immediately by skewering each prawn with its mushroom on a toothpick.

FENNEL CREAM WITH CUMIN AND BLUE CHEESE

For 6 people

• 1 leek
• 1/2 onion
• 200 ml water
• 500 ml milk (or more if you want it lighter)
• Sunflower oil
• 750 g fresh fennel
• blue cheese
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• salt

1. Pour a little oil into the FUSIONTEC WMF pot and sweat the leek and onion finely chopped until translucent, then add the sliced fennel, a little salt and the cumin, sauté everything a few minutes.
2. Add the water and cover the pot, cook 15-20 min., then add the milk, letting it cook a couple more minutes.
3. Blend all the vegetables and pass through a sieve, adjust salt and keep warm.
4. Serve the cream in a soup plate and garnish with a few drops of cream and the crumbled blue cheese on top.

PROVENÇAL COD WITH TARTAR SAUCE

For 4 servings

• 4 desalted cod fillets
• 1 egg
• 100 g breadcrumbs
• 1 tablespoon Herbes de Provence
• 3 cloves of garlic
• flour
• salt
• freshly ground white pepper
• Olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter

1. Leave the cod at room temperature one hour before starting.
2. Crush 1 clove of garlic in a mortar, add the egg and a little salt, beating and mixing well.
3. Separately mix the breadcrumbs and the Provençal herbs.
4. Dry the cod fillets with flour, then dip the pieces in the egg beaten with garlic and then in the breadcrumb and herb mixture, set aside.
5. Fry the breaded cod pieces in a WMF frying pan in plenty of hot oil until well browned.

For the tartar sauce:

• 1 glass mayonnaise
• 1 hard-boiled egg
• 2 sweet pickles
• 1 spring onion
• 1 tablespoon capers

Chop all the solid ingredients very finely and mix them with the mayonnaise.

STEAMED CHOCOLATE COULANT

For 8 units:

• 250 g dark chocolate for desserts
• 200 g butter
• 5 eggs
• 100 g sugar
• 25 g flour
• 1/2 packet baking powder
• 8 aluminum flan molds
• butter and flour to grease the molds

1. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bain-marie.
2. Line the molds by greasing them with butter and flour.
3. Beat eggs and sugar until doubled in volume and foamy. Add the sifted flour and baking powder, without stopping beating to avoid lumps.
4. Mix the melted chocolate and butter with the previous batter, stirring until you get a homogeneous batter. Put the batter into a piping bag.
5. Pour the batter into the molds up to 2/3 (do not overfill) and place them on the perforated tray of the VITALIS® WMF pot.
6. Place the VITALIS® pot with one liter of water on high heat, when it reaches a boil place the tray loaded with the coulants and the lid, cook at 95º for 10-15 min.