Madrid: A Quickie Food Tour

Mr G and I have just come back from a week in Madrid!
What a foodie heaven!

Gravity - defying fruit!

The paella was so yummy!

And the "Tortilla" (a Spanish omelette made with sliced potatoes)

And the "croquetas", the cod ones were my favourites.

They had macarons, which were very disappointing. They were far too crunchy. No chewiness at all.

The coconut macaroons though - delish.

We visited the Mercado de San Miguel - a food hall which had stalls and stalls of yummy treats.

These cakes were amazing.

This stall had the tiniest ice cream cones I had ever seen!

Hot chocolate and churros.
Mmmmm

No trip to Spain would be complete without indulging in this Spanish tradition. We tried a couple of places but by far the best was Cafe Valor!

Words cannot describe how good the chocolate and the churros here were.

Yes, it really was as good as it looks in this picture.

Mr G opted for an orange flavoured chocolate.

It was so good, we went back for another on our last day in Madrid!

Buenos Noche Amigos!

Nx

Egg Whites: Friend or Foe?

I generally try to avoid recipes that heavily involve the use of egg whites. Soft peaks, firm peaks, stiff peaks.....if I see those words, I automatically flick over to the next page.

Determined to get over my egg whites phobia, I recently tried two egg white based recipes.

The first was Angel cake from the Hummingbird Bakery book "Cake Days".

The cake was not as light as I hoped bit it did give me the opprtunity to use my new Bundt tin!

I thought "Fallen Angel" cake was a better description. The cake was just too dense, not light and airy like I had hoped.

But, the recipe had no butter or caster sugar so is good for those watching their waistlines.

Next up was Passionfruit Pavlova.

I used the Nigella recipe from "Kitchen".

Good old Nigella.

It really was the perfect pav.

The egg whites were whipped until stiff. You add the sugar whilst it is whipping which turns the mixture lovely and glossy.

Spread the mixture into a round disc-like shape and then bake in a low oven.

Just out of the oven!

I then topped with lightly whipped double cream and the pulp of five passionfruits.

The tartness of the passsion fruit against the cream works so well.

MMmmmm!

The meringue has a marshmallow texture to it - quite the opposite to shop bought meringues.

I don't think that I have gotten over my fear of egg white recipes quite just yet, but I'm getting there!

Nxx