If cooking is an Art... ( Archived) (51)

..then I'm an artist.
I've been a bachelor all my life and as such, also out of necessity, I have had to cook for myself and friends. My mom has always said that a man who can cook is of great value and I've come to believe her every word, bless her heart.

Here's a simple dinner recipe consisting of boiled potatoes, vegetables, and a plain omelet. It has been a typical everyday dinner recipe across towns and villages of Catalonia from which my mom has her origins.
In 30 minutes you can serve a healthy and nutritious dinner recipe, exactly as my mother did almost every week to seven children. I still hear the sound of the forks when the whole neighborhood started beating the eggs for dinner. As the proverb says: Eat boiled vegetables and you'll live a long life.

This is called Verdura and as the name points to, it's a dinner vegetables, a simple recipe with potatoes, vegetables and a plain omelet, a simple dinner recipe seasoned
with olive oil and salt

Chopped raw ingredients
1-quart water
4 medium-sized potatoes, about 1 1/4 pounds - peeled and quartered
1 pound Italian flat beans or green beans - caps snapped and broken in half
2 medium size onions - peeled and cut in half
3 medium carrots, about 1/2 pound - cut into 1.5 inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
Extra virgin olive oil and salt for seasoning

1. Peel the potatoes, put them in a colander and wash them under cold water. Quarter them. The pieces should be rather big, of about 1.5 to 2 inches.

2. Peel the onions, cut them by half and set aside in the colander.

3. Wash the green beans under water, snap or cut off the stem ends, and break or cut them in half. Set them aside in the colander with the onions.

4. Drop the potatoes in a deep pot with the quart cold water. Cover and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes depending on how hard they are.

5. In the meantime scrub the carrots under cold running water. Trim the ends and cut them into 1.5 inch pieces. Don't cut carrots until ready to use, because carrots tend to oxidize quickly. When the potatoes come to a boil, add the carrots and cover.

6. After 3 minutes, add the onion halves and the green beans and cover. Bring to a boil and uncover so that the beans keep its intense green color. After 5 minutes add salt, and continue cooking for 5 more minutes.

7. Test the potatoes with a pointed knife. Taste the green beans. If the potatoes are tender, and the green beans crispy, drain all ingredients in a colander.

8. In the meantime, begin making a plain omelette for each guest with 1 or 2 eggs each, depending on how hungry you are, and place them on a plate.

9. Serves 4. Serve straight away together with the omelettes. Traditionally every guest seasons to taste his/her potatoes and the vegetables with olive oil and a pinch of salt.


There are other variations of this dinner:
You can alternate the omelet with a grilled of fried hake fillet. Fresh fish is optimal for this dinner, but frozen hake is fine too.

As regards the vegetables, you can replace the carrots, or even the green or flat beans, with another fresh vegetable of your choice: Swiss chard, spinach, broccoli or cauliflower...

This dinner is only one example of the many nutritious dinner recipes consumed across the Catalan Countries through many generations and my mom has tons of them which she has kindly shown me to prepare and cook.

You know the saying?
A colorful meal is a healthy meal.

then I am a Chef!



Thanks Artist for the recipe.

My mother used to prepared omellette because it was not expensive (we were 5 kids, only me as girl, the boys would eat much more) so she had to do miracles to make the money to feed everyone.

She would prepare the potato omellette with veggies and once in the plates she would pour on tomato sauce with herbs, what a memories.

Men that can cook are uberhot...I hope I meet one someday

... so just about any guy basically with an ounce of common sense and the skills to read a cook book ....

Nice memories! I have mine and you have yours.

You're not picky! We could get along, lol!

What are you implying? that anyone else is picky? me included???



Well.

Yes, I am picky!

I'm picky too, welcome to the club

They do say that men who are creative in the kitchen are also creative in the bedroom.