Restaurante Gabinadas, Ciudad Real

I haven´t been doing much cooking or baking recently, due to being pregnant and finding it increasingly more difficult to manoever (only about 15 days to go!! Gulp!). My mum is here helping us out with the cleaning, cooking etc and also so that she doesn´t miss the birth!

Anyway, I have been meaning to review this restaurant which we went to last time my Mum came to visit but just haven´t got around to it until now!! Restaurante Gabinadas is situated in C/Alcantara 8 in Ciudad Real. The restaurant is fairly small but decorated in a modern style. It is a fairly new restaurant but we have been three times now, always for lunch.


Usually we order from the Menu of the Day, which costs around 12.50 euros and includes a first course, main course and dessert or coffee and also bread. Drinks aren´t included in the price. One of the reasons I like this restaurant is that it has a wide choice of first and second courses. I had gnocchi with pesto for my starter, which was delicious but maybe a bad choice as I sometimes get a bit bored of this type of dish. Another good thing about this restuarant is that the portions aren´t too big as in some Spanish restaurants, just the first course fills me up! Last time I went to this restaurant I had Piquillo peppers stuffed with meat, which is delicious and I thoroughly recommend.

My husband and his father had Callos (tripe...yuk!), which although good,they said was a little salty or bland-I can´t remember which!

My mum and I chose pork fillet with pastry in a cranberry sauce for our main course, which was absolutely scrumptious (I´ve eaten it twice now!).As with most of the main courses, it was served with a tiny portion of mashed potatoes, a brussel sprout, a cherry tomato and a slice of beetroot (Spanish restaurants don´t really do much in the way of side dishes).



As dessert is one of the most important and my favourite course of a meal, the desserts are a little disappointing. Although the choice is quite wide, there is nothing on the menu that particularly grabs my attention. I had strawberries with cream, which was served in a glass and there is rather more cream than strawberries!

All in all a good restaurant to go for a fairly reasonable but good quality menu of the day,with plenty of choice. However it is important to reserve a table at the weekends as it is very busy and it can be difficult to get a table!

Easy Spinach & Cottage Cheese Pasties

This is fast turning into a baking blog! However, this time I´ve been baking something savoury and also vegetarian! I´m finally on maternity leave so have more time to make the evening dinner (which is usually a lighter meal, more like lunch for Brits like me!) I had some frozen spinach in the freezer and had bought some cottage cheese so I fancied making these pasties, based on a recipe in Delia Smith´s Complete Cookery Course.

Ingredients (to serve 2)

roughly 112g (4oz)fresh or frozen shortcrust or puff pastry (I used frozen shortcrust pastry to save time)
1 beaten egg

Filling
112g (4oz) frozen spinach
12g (1/2 oz butter
25g (1oz) cottage cheese
20g Parmesan cheese
a small clove of garlic, crushed
splash of lemon juice
1/8 tsp dill
pinch of ground nutmeg
salt & pepper to taste

Method

1. Cook frozen spinach in an uncovered pan until all the moisture has evaporated.
2.Add cheeses, butter and the remaining filling ingredients and cook until butter has melted, leave to cool.

3. Roll out pastry thinly and using a small saucer/saucepan lid (about 15cm in diameter) cut 2 rounds of pastry.
4. Fill one half of the pastry circle with filling, then brush egg around the edge and seal well.


5. Make a small cross in the centre of the pasty and using a fork, press down with the prongs along the sealed edge to decorate.
6. Brush with beaten egg, place on greased baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 220ºC (425ºF) for 15 mins.