Liadillos Sevillanos

  This week getting inspired by a meal was difficult because we didn't have any real food memories from Sevilla.  My mom gave me a few ideas, but nothing sounded exciting to me.  So I started searching the internet in hopes of finding something that not only sounded fun to cook, but also would taste good to all of us.  One dish I kept seeing over and over was Huevos a la Flamenca (Gypsy eggs/ Flamenco style baked eggs).  This dish sounds delicious with ingredients including ham, peas, tomatoes, and eggs.  But with Zachary not liking eggs I decided against it so that he would be able to enjoy the meal.  Then yesterday I stumbled upon a website called: A little bit of Spain in Iowa ( http://www.spain-in-iowa.com/ ).  To my delight there was the recipe for Liadillos.  I have never eaten them, but it sounded like a fun meal to try.

  Well it wasn't an easy or neat meal to prepare, but the end result was good (at least for the adults).  Now I was able to prepare this meal with a 19 month old sous chef, so anyone can do it.  As always I changed a few things here and there, but overall was happy with this recipe and can see many possibilities with it (maybe even an Asian twist).

Ingredients:

• 1lb lean ground beef
• 3 bacon strips, cut up in small strips ( I omitted this ingredient)
• 2 1/2 oz cured serrano ham (prosciutto or pancetta will work fine)
• 3 eggs
• 2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• Spanish green olives, diced
• 1 tbls parsley (preferably Italian parsley)
• Celtic Sea Salt (I omitted the salt since the ham and olives tend to have a lot of salt)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Flour and breadcrumbs for frying
• 1 Cabbage

Preparation

1. Trim the cabbage, eliminating any bruised or damaged leaves.  Blanch for 3-5 minutes in slightly salted boiling water.  Cut out the core and carefully remove 12 leaves.
2. In a skillet start to brown the beef.
3. Once the beef is almost cooked through, add the sliced bacon and cured ham.
4. Add a pinch of sea salt and 1tsp of ground nutmeg.
5. Transfer to a bowl and add 1 beaten egg, garlic, parsley, and green olives.
6. Fill a cabbage leaf with about a tablespoon and a half of filling.
7. Fold two sides of the cabbage in and fold over with the top and bottom of the leaf, holding in place with a toothpick.
8. To fry, first flour the cabbage roll, dip in beaten egg, then roll in breadcrumbs
9. Fry in a cast iron skillet filled with about 1 1/2″ of hot evoo until browned on both sides. 

So next week will be a little different, but if all things go as planned it just might be a meal that is out of this world....