Made in Spain

One of my favorite chefs is Jose Andres, whose PBS show, "Made in Spain" is part travelogue and part cooking lesson. His high level of excitement about the different regions of Spain and the foods from each region inspired me to pick up one of his cookbooks. So, last night, Frank and I prepared two "astonishing" (to quote Jose, but I can't type his pronunciation, it is more like "astoooonisshin") dishes from his show/cookbook. The salad was a Drunken Goat Cheese and Tomato Salad <-- click for recipe. The tomatoes are deconstructed with the beefsteak tomatoes being grated into a thin sauce; the plum tomatoes carefully separated into seed filets (seeds pockets) and diced flesh. These components are combined on the plate with olives, drunken goat cheese, and a light oil and vinegar dressing. Jammy (yummy) as Jose would say. For the entree we prepared pan-seared New York strip steaks, finished with a garlic, shallot, thyme, cream and Spanish blue cheese sauce. The recipe called for Picon cheese, which was not available at Whole Foods, so we opted for a Valdeon blue, which was wonderful.

That's all I'm saying !