Don Pedro cocktail

Perhaps the worlds tastiest drink. I used to drink this as a child even, and maybe that is why now, I am the way I am. Perfect on any day in any place.

Ingredients:

30ml whiskey or bourbon
30 ml coffee liqueur
1 cup vanilla ice cream
1 cup cream

Procedure:

1. Blend all the ingredients in a mixer and serve in a hurricane glass. The resulting drink is a frothy, thick, milk shake type drink. Mouth watering.

Hamburger

No need to mention that this is a popular meal not only in the USA. If prepared correctly, it can also be very healthy and nutritious, contrary to poular belief.

Ingredients:

Ground sirloin or equivalently fine beef
Hamburger rolls ( not the always soft and fresh chemical type. Freshly baked sesame buns or something similar is required.)
Lettuce leaves, washed and dried
Tomato slices
Onion slices
Cheese slices (optional)
Pepper ( always freshly ground,) salt
Optionally: Mayonnaise, relish, pickles and all your other favourite condiments.

Remember, the more you add, the more you kill the flavour of the fine beef.

Procedure:

The idea of frying a burger is not much different to frying any other fine beef steak. Do not allow your mind to be warped by the image of hamburgers depicted and provided by fast food retailers nowadys.

1. Form beef into a patty slightly larger than the roll in which you wish to place it.
2. Cover with freshly ground pepper on both sides. This should help develop the desired crust when frying or grilling. Do not under estimate the flavouring qualities of good, black pepper. It is almost endless in variety and a good cook should ensure he has good pepper in his grinder.
3. Grill or fry the patty in butter. Since you are frying sirloin, it is up to you how well fried you like the meat. I rccommend medium purely as to ease te eating process and stop too many juices from drenching the burger. I eat my steak rare just for the record.
4. Flip the patty only once if possible. Do not pierce or prod it. You want all the juices to remain in the patty.
5. Once the beef is done, salt to taste. Never do this earlier because it sweats out the beef and absorbs moisture like sand absorbs water. You will have a dry burger.
6. Asseble the burger as described below:

You are now left with a juice filled, beef patty in butter. This is the first thing that goes on the bottom half of the roll. It will absorb all the juices that drip and nothing goes to waste. On top of the hot beef goes the cheese, if it is being used. Next, the lettuce, onion, followed by the tomato. The tomato helps to neutralize the hot, sometimes overpowering taste of the onion. On this we pour some ketchup and add any other condiments you may wish.

Octopus and rice

One of my all time favourite sports is spear fishing. Onece in a while I would pull out an octopus and never really knew how to cook it. Here is a simple yet effective recipe I was taught by some Portuguese fishermen.

A word of warning:
An octopus is practically a living muscle. Its internal organs are in its hood and are usually removed underwater by the fisherman, with the hood being turned inside-out to make the octopus weaker. This does not make it any less impossible to kill. I have had one of these escape my kitchen after a whole day and night of storage in the refrigerator. Use the proven technique of pounding the creature really hard on a rock on the beach or on a similar object. This also helps tenderize the meat. Either way, make sure the beast is dead.

Ingredients:

An octopus
Rice
Vegetables, eg. peas and rice (optional.)
Salt, pepper.

Procedure:

1. Boil the entire octopus in plain water for about half an hour.
2. The boiled octopus should now be soft enough to remove the skin and suckers, do so. (Note, some people eat the skin and suckers, but I don't find them very appealing.)
3. Cut the legs into 1cm pieces, and the hood into similar strips.
4. Boil in salt water. This may take around 3 hours, so a pressure cooker is really recommended to spped the process up. Boil until soft.
5. Mix the boiled octopus pieces with the rice, season to taste, add vegetables if you wish and boil for a further 20 minutes or so until the rice is ready.

Serve with a fresh garden salad and some mixed, boiled vegetables. A glass of light white wine or Portuguese green wine is an excellent addition.

Grilled Salmon

Sometimes, the Japanese philosophy behind food needs to be kept in mind. I am a huge fan of spicy and aromatic foods, but some products need to be respected for their own flavour without too much enhancing. Salomon is a fish which needs no extra spices.
This method of cooking ensures that the fish is flaky and succulent, not deprived of its natural flavours. It is practically steamed in its own juices.

Ingredients:

Salomon fillet or steak.
Extra virgin olive oil.
Lemon wedges.
Optional: garlic butter.
Tin or aluminium foil.

Procedure:

1. Place salomon on tin foil.
2. Sprinkle with olive oil.
3. Wrap in the foil and grill for 5 minutes on each side.

Serve immediately and garnish with a drop of freshly squeezed lemon or garlic butter.
As an entire meal, this is good served with a salad and Portuguese tomato rice. I love to prepare lemon-garlic butter for this to soak the rice.

Spanish garlic soup

A very pretty dish to serve and very tasty. Rember that if you are afraid of having garlic smell on your breath, garlic requires unity. If everyone eats some, no one will smell it.

Ingredients:

2 whole heads of garlic, crushed or finely chopped.
2 cans of chopped tomatoes .
2 chopped onins
half a slightly stale/dry baguette.
Salt, pepper.
Eggs (1 per bowl.)
Bay leaf and oter herbs/spices.
Extra virgin olive oil.
400/500 ml chicken or beef stock.

Procedure:

1. Fry onions and all of the garlic in olive oil until golden in colour.
2. Add tomatoes and fry until the tomatoes are mostly dissolved.
3. Add bay leaf and herbs, chicken or beef stock.
3. Salt and pepper to taste.
4. Boil for another 5 minutes and add crubled up baguette. Boil for another 15 minutes. Add more stock if necessary, but the consistency should be fairly thick.
5. Pour some of the thick soup into a bowl and gently crack an egg onto the surface. Bake in a hot oven for a further 7 or 8 minutes, until egg is ready.

The egg creates a nice seal, once broken releasing this marvellous soup. Like most mediterranean foods, this goes well with a good wine. Also provide some good bread to go with the soup.

"Power" absinth shot

A fine way of drinking enough absinth in such a way as to hallucinate before you get too drunk to notice.

Ingredients:

Absinth
Tia Maria coffee liqueur.
Small shot glasses ( +- 25 ml )
Drinking straws, cut in half

Procedure:

1. Pour one third of a shot glass of Tia Maria.
2. Touch the edge of the glass with an inverted spoon and pour the absinth over it to create a seperate layer on top of the coffee liqueur. There should be 2 seperate layers of alcohol. Make sure the glass is full to the very brim.
3. Set the drink on fire using a cigarette lighter.

The idea is to drink it with the short straw after it has burned off some alcohol for about 1 minute, be patient. When it gets warm, insert the straw right to the bottom of the glass so that the sweet liqueur shoots down first, coating your throat.
The warm absinth follows, going straight to the head. With practise you will be able to drink these without blowing out the flame.

Beef in horseradish sauce

A recipe I devised myself. This one is for those who like it hot. The idea is to not lose the meal's flavour by making it too spicy for the tongue, so heat is empowered through the nostrils with the horseradish and the sour cream helps by dissolving the capsaicin to create an effec of internal warming instead of just burning the mouth.

Ingredients:

600/800 grams of lean beef.
180 grams of grated horseradish.
2 onions
Garlic.
mushrooms.
Beef or chicken stock cube. This may, of course, be real, concentrated stock.
Your favourite chili, piri piri or any other hot pepper.
Potatos.
Sour Cream.
Herbes de Provence.
Pepper, salt.
Beer (optional)


Procedure:
1. Cut meat into small cubes and chop onions, garlic and mushrooms.
2. Fry these together until golden brown. Add the hot pepper, black pepper andstock cube.
3. Lower heat and stew for long enough to soften the meat. You may add a little beer from time to time to create enough sauce for stewing the meat to ensure it will be soft. Water works instead of beer too.
4. Towards the end, add all the horseradish.
5. Once everything is well cooked, add enough sour cream to create a thick sauce.
6. Boil potatos and mash with some butter, sour cream and a pinch of Herbes de Provence. Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve this up with some vegetables and something to drink to soothe the hotness.