Spanish mussels with Manchego & Serrano

For ➍
2 kg mussels
2 onions
2 cloves garlic
1 tbs smoked paprika
½ ts peri peri
20 cl white wine
33 cl passata tomato frito
20 g flour
45 g Italian or Spanish ham s.a. Serrano
50 g Manchego
fresh flat-leaf parsley
juice 1 lemon
peanut oil

Rinse the mussels several times in cold water. Remove the beard.
Peel the garlic and onion. Squeeze the garlic. Cut 1 onion into rings and finely chop the other onion.
Heat some peanut oil in a mussel pot and fry the onion rings until translucent.
Add the mussels and deglaze with white wine. Bring to a boil under lid.
Shake up after a few m. Let it boil for another 2 m, or until the mussels open.
Remove from the heat and strain the mussels. Keep the mussel liquid.
Always remove the shell half to which the mussel is not attached.
Heat peanut oil in a frying pan. Fry the onion. Bake the smoked paprika powder and the periperi for 1 m while stirring. Add the flour and stir well. Add the passata.
Add 25 cl of mussel juice and let it boil for a few m.
Season with salt and lemon juice.
Reduce the heat after cooking time and add the mussels. Let them warm in the sauce for 1 m.
Finish with fine slices of ham, grated Manchego cheese and finely chopped parsley.
Serve with pasta, bread or rice.

Andalusian chicken

For ➍
4 chicken thighs
4 chicken breasts
1 lemon
3 oranges
4 cloves
75 g Serrano ham (including the fat), or pancetta
thyme sprigs*
4 tbs olive oil
450 g pickling onions or small shallots, peeled
1 glass dry fino sherry
salt & freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a casserole dish. Fry the breasts and thighs until brown all over. Remove it from the casserole dish. Scrub the lemon and oranges and chop into chunks. Poke some cloves into the peel of the oranges.**
Fry the onions, cloves and fruit for five minutes until the onions are brown. Roll the ham into bundles and secure with thyme stalks.**
Remove half the onions and fruit and reserve. Put the chicken back into the dish.
Add the wine and a glass of water to the casserole dish. Let it bubble up, adding salt and pepper then add the bundles of ham on top of the chicken pieces. Turn down the heat and cover for 20-30 m.
Remove the chicken pieces and keep them warm along with the reserved fruit and onions. Boil up the fruit and onions and mash until the sauce is thick.***
Serve each piece with its own sauce on (or with) a thick toasted slice of country bread rubbed with a little garlic.*** Enjoy a glass of amontillado sherry at room temperature.

*Alternatively, spread some crumbled thyme leaves, fresh or dried, over the meat and roll the slices firmly. Gently pose them in the dish, with last fold down.
**Alternatively, or when using treated citrus, discard the peel and white skin. Cut into slices. Add cloves separately.
***Add half a spoon of honey to soften the bitter taste.
****Alternatively, rub some garlic over a few slices of bread, with a little bit of olive oil. Bake in the 200°C oven for 5 m. Put in the bottom of a dish and spread the chicken and sauce over or beside it. Or crumble over the chicken.

Read the cooking chicken tip.