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Today I propose to learn how to cook a special recipe for New Year's Eve, with history included, to delight your families and guests: baked sirloin with almond sauce and vegetable garnish.
We clean the sirloins and reserve them whole, put a few drops of EVOO in a frying pan with the julienne onion and the sliced garlic. When they are golden, we add the almonds, wait for the alcohol to evaporate and grind, blend with a little water and set aside, wrap the fillet steaks seasoned with bacon and put in the oven on a plate with a little oil and chamomile or fine for approximately 30 minutes.
While the sirloin is cooking, cut the peppers and sauté with oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Take the sirloins out of the oven, cut them into medallions, and cover with the almond sauce. Serve with the sautéed peppers, decorating to taste.
The legend of the almond trees of Medina Azahara tells that the powerful caliph Abd al-Rahman III ordered the construction of this beautiful city, known in his time as the pearl of Al Andalus, on the slope of Sierra Morena, near Córdoba.
Abd al-Rahman fell in love in Granada with a beautiful girl named Azahara, and she soon became his favorite. To show her the love he felt for her, he ordered the construction of a palatine city Medina Azahara (in honor of her name) and for this he hired the best architects and craftsmen, bought the most precious materials, wood, marble, tiles; He ordered beautiful gardens to be built with flowers and plants brought from all corners of the world, he populated them with beautiful birds and ordered trees with exotic fruits to grow in them. Fabrics and furniture, bought from the most prestigious merchants, adorned the rooms of the favorite Azahara, the caliph did everything for her love.
None of this, however, seemed to please the beautiful lady Azahara who, day after day, Abd al-Rahman saw her crying in the Medina. She asked him the reason for her sadness and what he should do to make her happy, Azahara replied that her Caliph could not remedy her sadness because she was crying because she could not contemplate the snow of the Sierra Nevada, he he answered him;
- "I will make it snow for you in Córdoba."
He immediately ordered a forest located in front of the Medina to be cut down and replanted with almond trees very close to each other and every spring, when the almond trees opened their white blossoms, snow appeared in Córdoba only for his beloved Azahara, who never cried again.
