Friday favorites 12/9

The return of brunch, winter's answer to figs, and the brownie recipe that everyone has been asking for

Like approximately 90% of the people I’ve talked to recently, I’ve been sick this week. ‘Tis the season of joy, cheer, and new buzzword RSV. Luckily, I’ve just had a cold so I’ve gotten off easy, but I’ve also been zapped of energy which unfortunately means less cooking projects.

Since my idea of making homemade turrón¹ was thwarted (but with any luck will be made this weekend with an accompanying post to come next week!), I decided it’s the perfect opportunity to do a Friday favorites post, which I haven’t done since the end of October (!). We have a lot to catch up on! Below, some of my recent favorites:

• In stereotypical American fashion, I love brunch. Ask me where to go eat dinner, and I can give you a few recommendations, but I can give you no less than 20 places to get coffee and a good avocado toast. Recently my brunch game has been weak, so when a friend and I were planning a meetup I immediately suggested we resume the tradition. After calling/researching several places (why does no one take brunch reservations anymore in the city!?), we landed on La Bicicleta.

  

  Brunch at La Bicicleta (the Galileo location)

  I had a toast with sliced tomato, paletilla de jamón,² and a poached egg, and was muy contenta³ with my decision. The toast was enormous and loaded with jamón, and the poached egg had the perfect yolk texture (read: super runny). Extra props for the delicious americano and cozy space that saved me from the blustery weather.

• If you’ve been reading here for a while, you know I love figs, but I don’t think I’ve yet declared my undying love for my favorite winter fruit: persimmons, or caquis. You can find two types at the fruterías in Madrid: one is smaller and soft when ripe, and the other is slightly bigger and firmer—with these you want to select the ones with the deepest color to maximize flavor. I love to eat them on their own as part of breakfast or for dessert, but I also think they would make a great fruit tart. I’m open to other fun persimmon recipes if you have them!

• Speaking of fruit desserts, you guys have to try this recipe for Apple Galette from Golubka Kitchen. It’s so simple to assemble, and my family loved it. If you don’t have pine nuts, you can sub in almonds, which I did once with excellent results. My only suggestion is to make sure that you add the water a bit at a time; the first time I made it I added too much water and ended up with a sticky mess (they actually mention this in the recipe, but I was so excited I missed it the first time around). The galette could also be great with other fruits, like plum. If you try any variations, let me know!

  

  Freshly baked apple galette

• Moving away from desserts for a moment, Rachel’s talking about Brussels sprouts at her newsletter ingredient this month. I adore Brussels sprouts, but after talking to David I’ve come to the conclusion that I may be in the minority here in Madrid. I’ve decided I’m going to send these sprout skeptics Rachel’s post to convince them otherwise. If you, too, need convincing that you need Brussels sprouts in your life (or just need new ideas of how to prepare them), her post is below.

  Brussels sprouts.

• And we’re back to dessert! For Friendsgiving a couple of weekends ago, I pulled out my trusty brownie recipe and it was un éxito.⁴ Brownies are not a common dessert in Spain, and when you find them, they tend to lean more cake-like. I’m a strong fan of the fudgy variety, and these brownies are all about the fudge factor. Since I’ve had several friends ask for the recipe, I thought I would share it with you guys here. Please reserve judgment on the amount of sugar and butter it has—that’s what makes them delicious. Also yes, it’s from AllRecipes, the precursor to food and recipe blogs (which tells you I’ve had this gem in my back pocket for a while). I don’t know who Brooke is, but she knows her brownies.

Short but sweet this week! I’ll be back next week with more on turrón and my adventures in making it from scratch. Also be sure to pop over on Sunday for a new Sobremesa!

Sending mucho ánimo⁵ to anyone who is fighting any type of illness this week—take care of yourself and feel better soon!

See you Sunday!

Ki

1. Turrón: A type of traditional candy that is popular around the holidays in Spain. More about this next week!

2. Paletilla de jamón: Prepared the same way as traditional jamón, but paletilla is the front leg of the pig instead of the hind leg.

3. Muy contenta: Very happy

4. Un éxito: A hit

5. Mucho ánimo: A lot of support/encouragement