PISTO!!!

So my Senora grabbed me today before lunch and in twenty minutes taught me how to make Pisto. What is Pisto you ask? Well, let me explain.... No, there is to much, Lemme sum up:

Pisto is a VERY common spanish dish that is eaten at least once a week in the Senora Manuela and Paul Gradie Apartment-hold. Its a pressure cooked sweet and VERY tasty mesclo of a small range of vegetables with no sugar. Thats important. I thought it had a lot of sugur, but it in fact has none. >.<>

Anyways there is a decent picture of it on wikipedia if you are interested, but I usually eat it without the egg. Its more of a side usually here. Here is a link if you want to see it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pisto.jpg

I eat a specifially designed type of pisto (that tastes way better than the restaurants) and I'm gonna tell you about it here :)

First of all, Pisto Manuela (thats my senora haha) is made from FIVE vegetables:

(In order of appearance)

1. Onions

2. Peppers

3. Aubergine (Eggplant)

4. Courgette (Zucchini) 

5. Tomato (paste form)

They are cooked in oil as they are added one by one with salt and after the zucchini is added, a chorreon of white whine, and then the tomato paste is added. After 20 minutes it pressure cooks for about 12 or so minutes, and then vua-lah.

Here are the directions I was able to scribble down as she was explaining everything to me in Spanish >.<

Start with the stove put on a very low heat. So you start with a pressure cooker pot. Not a huge one, but not a tiny one either. You dump some oil in. Olive or sunflower (she uses sunflower) and you put about enough to cover the bottom and have like a centimeter of depth.

Then cut the Onions up directly into the pot. They should be in small chunks. Not tiny pieces mind you, but maybe like the size of a third of your pinky. If you are making enough for a few people, put in 2 onions. Enough for one person, just 1 onion is fine.

Once the onions are in, sprinkle some salt and stir. 

Then, cut up one Red Pepper, and one Green Pepper. Right into the pot, but smaller pieces. Stir.

Next the eggplant. Small pieces like the onion though. Then the zuchinii. After the zucchini, put in a little more salt. Sprinkle people! While mixing it, add a little bit more oil if its getting dry.

Following, take some white table wine (if you have it, and for the flavor) and pour about ONE THIRD of a cup in. Not much really. How she did it was she poured it in a quick circle and that was it. 

Cover the pot, and let it absorb the wine. Once that is absorbed, you add 2 cartons (or cans in the states) of tomato paste. It should be enough to get all the veggies wet. So judge it.

You let that sit for like 20 minutes on a very low heat and covered, and you stir every once in a while. Then You stick on the cover and turn up the heat to high. When the cap of the pressure cooker (the smallest weight) startes wobbling around, let it sit for 5 minutes! Then turn the heat off. Stir it around and let it cool. 

Once its cool, its ready to eat! YUM!!

Haha, you can try it if you want, but I'll make you the good stuff when I get back :)

Anyways, thats my pisto story. I;m really excited because I really love it haha. I mean, mom, dad, if you had made that stuff when I was kid, i think i would have eaten more veggies than you could've afforded hahaha. 

But anyways, I;ll try and put a pic or two up later. 

Until then!  Post ya soon :)