With first and seasonal products and full of flavor.
These are
the dishes that María de la Vega has designed for METROPOL
I, a classic proposal with contemporary winks to replicate at home.
This
Law and Business Administration graduate who worked in fashion and luxury houses
left everything behind after founding VE-GA, a catering where
she reinvents traditional Spanish cuisine
, a concept also present in her homonymous dining room in Madrid (Juan Bravo, 29).
María de la Vega, in her Madrid restaurant.
Prawn aspic with its salad
Ingredients
(4 people).
600 grams of prawns, a liter of liquid (it can be vegetable broth and/or water), 40 grams of gelatin and a splash of Tío Pepe.
For the salad
: a potato, an egg, a carrot and mayonnaise.
Elaboration.
Cook the prawns and peel them, reserving their heads.
For the gelatin, we hydrate the sheets in cold water for a few minutes until they soften
.
We take them out and drain them well.
Next, we heat a liter of liquid (we have chosen to use water with a splash of Tío Pepe, although a part can also be vegetable broth that is not very opaque) and mix with the drained gelatin.
Set aside and let cool.
Place a thin gelatin base in a circular mold and, once cold, place the prawns on it, well glued and placed in the shape of a crown.
.
We cover with the gelatin that we had reserved and refrigerate so that it solidifies and we can unmold it.
Meanwhile, prepare the salad -which we will serve on top of the gelatin- with potato, mayonnaise, hard-boiled egg, carrot and, if desired, the inside of
the shellfish heads (which gives it even more flavor)
and very chopped pieces of prawns. Portobello carpaccio, burrata, pine nuts and truffle
Portobello carpaccio, burrata, pine nuts and truffle
Ingredients
(4 people).
10 portobello mushrooms, two burratas, coarse salt, EVOO, truffle, pine nuts, buds and petals.
Elaboration.
Due to their intense flavor, meatiness and firm texture, portobello mushrooms are a magnificent option to prepare them in carpaccio.
We start by cleaning them with a brush and a cloth
to remove any traces of dirt they may have;
We do not wet it because they absorb water very easily
.
We put them in a deep dish and cover them with coarse salt for an hour.
After this time, we clean them again with the brush.
Cut them thin with a mandolin and
submerge them in extra virgin olive oil for five hours at room temperature.
.
Drain well the excess oil and plate the superimposed mushrooms.
On top we place the burrata and season with a little EVOO;
add the grated fresh truffle (to integrate it better we can mix it with oil), pine nuts, fresh sprouts and petals to decorate.
And, if carpaccio is left over, it can be kept in oil in the fridge for approximately five or six days
.
Grilled cod with onion confit and soft pil pil
Ingredients
(4 people).
A cod loin, four onions, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, chilli pepper and chives.
Elaboration.
Chop the onion -it can also be spring onion- in julienne strips and poach it over low heat with a little salt.
When it acquires a dark golden color, we remove it and reserve it.
Let's go with the fish.
Cut the loin into portions of the same size, which we reserve
until the last moment, and
with the cuts and the tail we are going to prepare the sauce
.
We will do it in the traditional way: in a saucepan we confit the extra virgin olive oil with a clove of garlic and a small piece of chilli pepper over a low heat.
Add the cuts and stir gently so that the cod loosens the collagen and thus obtains the pil pil.
Remove the fish and evenly wrap the sauce to bind it well.
All that remains is to cook the portions.
In a frying pan, brown them, first on the skin and then on the other side
.
To serve, we place the piece with the skin facing up and accompany it with the poached onion, sauce to taste and a little chopped chives.
Bresse pigeon with its different parts
Ingredients
(4 people).
Two pigeons, two onions, a carrot, a leek, a dash of Porto and another of Virgin Malaga, sherry vinegar, salt, bay leaf and pepper.
For the parmentier or mashed potato: potato, milk and butter.
Elaboration.
We clean the pigeons well and remove their entrails;
remove the breasts, thighs and wings carefully to preserve the skin.
To make the sauce, put the chopped onion, carrot and leek in a saucepan over high heat so that they brown well;
add the bird carcasses and, when they are golden brown, deglaze with Port, Virgin Malaga and a little sherry vinegar.
We let the alcohol evaporate, cover with water, add some bay leaves and reduce 30 minutes over low heat
.
After straining the broth, we stew wings and thighs in it and remove them once cooked.
Again, over low heat and without losing sight of it so that it does not stick to us,
we let the broth concentrate until the desired texture is achieved .
and we rectify the point of salt.
Season the brisket with salt and pepper and mark it, leaving its interior undercooked.
We can accompany the dish with a
parmentier, which we will make with potatoes, milk and butter,
or with baby potatoes cooked with their skins on and browned in butter.
Pavlova with red fruits and touch of yolk
Ingredients
(4 people).
Six eggs, icing sugar, lemon, red fruits to taste and whipping cream.
Elaboration.
Reserve the egg yolks and beat the whites until stiff to prepare the meringue.
When they are half assembled, we gradually add 600 grams of icing sugar and a squeeze of lemon
.
Once our egg whites are very firm, we introduce them into a pastry bag and, on a baking paper, we give it the desired shape.
The next step will be to bake them.
We put the oven at 100 degrees and leave the meringue cake in it for 45 minutes until it gets a crunchy texture.
Once the pavlova is cold, we mount the cream, which we sweeten with icing sugar to taste
, and we decorate the cake with it.
To finish off our recipe, we made a simple cream: in a saucepan, we put the six egg yolks that we had set aside and 80 grams of icing sugar over medium heat -Watch
out, stirring constantly to prevent them from sticking- until a creamy texture is achieved. .
Finally, we decorate with a few dots of yolk cream and red fruits that combine wonderfully with cream and meringue.
Tocinillo de cielo with coffee ice cream and hazelnut soil
Ingredients
(4 people).
For the caramel:
150 g of white sugar and 1 glass of water.
For the bacon:
500 g of sugar, 1/2 liter of water and 12 eggs.
For the earth:
100 g of flour, 100 of butter, 100 of sugar, 100 of white or dark chocolate and 100 of hazelnuts.
For the ice cream:
300 ml of whipped cream, 1 cup of coffee and 2 tablespoons of condensed milk.
Elaboration.
In a saucepan, heat the sugar over low heat, add the water and let it boil without stopping stirring with a spoon.
Once the sugar is dissolved, we move the casserole until it takes on a dark color.
We put that caramel at the base of the individual
stainless steel molds and reserve.
For the bacon:
make a syrup with sugar and water and add the 12 egg yolks, gently beaten with a manual whisk
.
We put them in the molds, which we put in the oven in a bain-marie for 13 or 15 minutes because we are interested in a creamy texture.
For the soil: mix the ingredients,
spread them on a tray lined with parchment paper, and bake at 150 degrees for 10 minutes.
;
We move the tray and leave 10 more minutes at the same temperature so that it acquires the texture of a cookie.
For the ice cream: to the whipped cream
we add, in an enveloping way and taking care that it does not go down, the coffee and milk and freeze it
.
To serve, remove the bacon from the mold and serve it with the earth and the ice cream
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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