13 Friday Dec 2019
Posted in Food for One, Main Courses, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes
In this salad there is –
60 ml/1/4 cup quinoa per person boiled for about ten minutes in salted water until done. Drain and run cold water through it to cool.
red oak leaved lettuce
rocket
radishes cut into wedges
cooked beetroot cut into wedges
alfalfa sprouts
green pumpkin seeds
I made a very light dressing of Pedro Jiménez syrup, a slightly sweeter variation on balsamic syrup, and lemon juice.
12 Thursday Dec 2019
Posted in Food for One, Main Courses, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes
Tags
The tender new season artichokes are now on sale at the market which made me think to cook this dish.
Per person
2 rounded tablespoons buckwheat flour
6 tablespoons vegetable stock
2 artichokes
olive oil
salt
Firstly prepare the artichokes. The tough outer leaves and the stem will need to be trimmed off, but as the artichokes are tender right now you don’t need to take too much off. When I think I have taken enough of the leaves off to get to the tender ones, I take off an extra one and bite into it to see if it is fibrous or not.
Heat some olive oil in a frying pan. Cut the top of the leaves off the artichokes and discard, then slice the artichokes thinly and immediately toss into the frying pan.
Fry the artichokes for about ten minutes, tossing from time to time, until just cooked then turn off the heat. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Put the oven on at 175 C to warm up.
Make the batter. Add the stock to the buckwheat flour gradually to make a smooth batter.
Season with salt and pepper.
You will need a shallow tray the right size to take the batter in a thin layer.
Put a tablespoon or two of olive oil in the tray and put in the oven to heat up to almost smoking point as you would if you were making Yorkshire pudding.
Once the tray is heated up, remove from the oven and quickly pour in the batter, scatter over the artichokes, and put back in the oven.
Bake for 8 – 12 minutes until light brown and crispy round the edges.
Serve with a mixed salad.
11 Wednesday Dec 2019
Posted in Food for One, Main Courses, Vegan, Vegetable Dishes
Here in arid southern Spain we don’t get the lovely range of autumn wild mushrooms that appear in other parts, but occasionally Rovellones, members of the Cep family will be available in the market. I used these for this dish, any well flavoured mushroom will work.
As mushrooms don’t keep, I washed all of them, cut them into cubes and fried them in a little olive oil the day I bought them, so for this dish they were already precooked.
Per person
40 grams mushrooms
60 grams chestnuts
150-200 grams small new potatoes
12 small sage leaves
olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Put the oven to heat up at 175 C
Scrub the potatoes and cut them in half lengthways. Sprinkle some olive oil on an oven tray, add the potatoes, season and put in the oven for 10 minutes.
Cut the chestnuts along the curved top and put on a tray in the oven to roast and open.
After 10 minutes turn the potatoes over and add the prepared mushrooms. Put back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
As soon as the chestnuts are open and soft, check them after they have been in the oven for 15 minutes, remove them from the oven and let them cool. As soon as they are cool enough remove the chestnuts from their shells and take off the brown skin.
Heat oil in a small frying pan and when hot add the sage leaves. Cook for about 3 minutes until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a piece of kitchen roll.
Add the chestnuts to the potatoes, scatter over the sage leaves and put back in the oven for a couple of minutes to warm through.
Serve with a green salad.
09 Monday Mar 2015
Posted in Main Courses, Starters, Sweet Things
Tags
Beef, Custard, Figs, Gremolata, Oxtail Stew, Pine Nuts, prawns, Rabo de Toro, Spinach
PRAWNS WITH LEMON & GARLIC, SPINACH WITH PINE NUTS & RAISINS
RABO DE TORO SERVED WITH PLAIN BOILED POTATOES
CARAMELISED FIG CUSTARDS SERVED WITH CARDAMON SHORTBREAD BISCUITS
This didn’t seem like a complicated meal for mid-week when I cooked it the other week, but now that I am writing about it, there is quite a lot of work. I must have been in one of those Zen cooking moods.
Much of it is done in advance, which makes it feel less work. The oxtail stew is cooked the evening before and left to very slowly cool in the oven overnight, which lets it cook long and slow and so develop a rich flavour. I cooked enough stew so that there was enough not only for this meal, but also for making Fresh Pasta with Beef Ragout for my sisters the following weekend.
I have jars of Caramelised Fig Jam, made from fruit from the farm last summer. So for the dessert, I only needed to mix an egg custard, put that in pots on top of the Fig Jam and then put the pots in the oven to cook and set.
But then I got into biscuit making mood. The custards are perfectly fine without the biscuits. But I had that yearning in my minds stomach for buttery, crunchy, sweetness with the gorgeous fragrance of cardamoms…..
I am giving you the stew recipe today. You will get the starters and dessert tomorrow.
RABO DE TORO – OXTAIL STEW
Serves 6
6 pieces oxtail
2-3 tablespoons flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
4 cloves garlic – finely chopped
1 large onion – finely chopped
2 red peppers – cut into strips
2 large tomatoes – skinned and roughly chopped
half a bottle of full bodied red Spanish wine
1 clove
5allspice berries
Small piece of cinnamon bark
salt
freshly ground black pepper
Gremolata – finely chopped fresh garlic, flat leaved parsley and the finely grated zest of one lemon
Put the flour in a shallow dish and season very generously with salt and black pepper.
Heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in a thick based casserole.
Coat the oxtail pieces in the seasoned flour and fry on a medium heat, turning each side until browned all over.
This may have to be done in two batches. The meat pieces will brown more easily if they are not crowded in the pan.
Add more oil as you go along if needed.
Remove the meat from the pan and put to one side.
Add the onions and garlic to the pan and cook for a couple of minutes.
Add the peppers and continue cooking for about ten minutes until the onions are slightly browned.
Add the tomatoes and cook for a further five minutes scraping any flour stuck to the base of the pan into the sauce as it is moistened.
Put the meat back in the pan.
Add the wine. It should just come up to the top of the meat.
Heat to a simmer.
Put the clove and allspice berries into a thick based dry pan and heat slowly for five minutes or so to toast and bring out the flavour.
Grind to a powder with a pestle and mortar.
Add this to the stew with the piece of cinnamon.
Cover the casserole and put in a low oven, you want the sauce to be showing an occasional bubble but no more. For my oven this is 120C.
Leave to cook for 6 hours. Turn the oven off and leave to slowly cool.
Reheat at 180C the next day to serve.
Serve with plain boiled potatoes and gremolata sprinkled on top.
13 Tuesday Jan 2015
Posted in Fish, Food for One, Main Courses, Starters
Whenever I go to look at the fresh fish at my local market, everything is so fresh and glistening that I just want to buy it all. This week I limited myself to some small and tender squid and the last of the crabs. The crabs that we get here are small but very tasty, so will make a fantastic soup.
The squid was quickly fried with garlic and chilli for lunch.
SMALL SQUID WITH GARLIC, CHILLI AND PARSLEY
This is so simple it is almost not a recipe.
For 2 as a main course, for 4 as a starter
500 grams small squid
Olive oil
3 cloves garlic – finely chopped
Fresh red chilli – to taste
Small bunch flat leaved parsley – roughly chopped
Juice of half a lemon
The cleaning of the squid is the most time consuming job in preparing this dish.
Cut the tentacles off just above the squid’s eyes, and then remove the sharp beak type mouth in the centre of the tentacles. Pull the innards out of the squid and discard. A cat will love you if you send these their way.
Put the empty bodies and tentacles into a colander and wash thoroughly.
Leave to drain while you chop the garlic, chilli and parsley.
Heat the oil in a shallow pan and add the garlic and chilli. Fry for a couple of minutes.
Add the squid and keep frying on a medium heat, turning from time to time.
The squid are cooked once they are opaque and a bit pink, which should take about 7 minutes. Add the parsley and lemon juice. Stir to blend and to moisten the tasty bits at the bottom of the pan.
That’s it!
Serve with a simple tomato salad and some fresh bread.
07 Sunday Dec 2014
Posted in Main Courses, Vegetable Dishes
Tags
I love all vegetables, but have extra affection for the chosen few. I don’t know if it is the scarcity here of parsnips, and the few that we do get tend to be small and woody, but the sight of the plump white roots in the vegetable stalls at my local market in London have me yearning for roast parsnips all crisp brown and caramelised around the edges, or parsnip patties with a sharp sweet and sour sauce, or this casserole which perfectly brings out the flavour of these sweet roots.
PARSNIP CASSEROLE
Serves 4 as a side vegetable and 2 as a main course
About 500 grams parsnips
4 medium sized tomatoes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
200 ml single cream or crème fraiche
Parmesan/pecorino/mature hard cheese to grate
Peel the parsnips and slice thinly.
Thinly slice the tomatoes.
In an ovenproof casserole, layer the ingredients. Start with a trickle of cream, then some parsnips layed side by side, then tomato slices, another trickle of cream, salt and pepper and finally a little grated cheese.
Continue layering until all the ingredients are used ending with a layer of parsnips topped with cheese.
Cover and bake at 175 C for an hour and a half.
12 Wednesday Nov 2014
Posted in Main Courses, Starters, Sweet Things, Vegetable Dishes
Tags
Beef, ceps, Cheese, Chilli, Grilled Vegetables, Honey, Meatballs, Orechiette, Pasta, Peppers, Sweet & Spicy Pepper Sauce, Tarragon, Walnuts
At this time of the year my southern Spanish vegetable garden is lush with green vegetables that in the north are considered spring vegetables. There are several varieties of lettuce and endive, Cima Di Rapa, crispy dark green chard, french beans, Mange-Toute and the sweetest baby courgettes……… So I want to feature this abundance in my meal. I dither between choosing to prepare a composed salad, or grilling some of the vegetables. In my other veg patch I find some small purple and white striped aubergines and a few asparagus spears. That helps me to make up my mind, grilled vegetables with a sweet and spicy pepper sauce. 
My regular readers will know that I preserve whatever surplus I have of garden produce as I go along, so the sauce is based on a couple of these, the recipes for which you will find on previous blogs. SWEET AND SPICY PEPPER SAUCE Half a small jar of Red Pepper Salad 2 tablespoons Chilli Jam Juice of half a lemon Simply whizz together in the food processor The main course was Orechiette Pasta with Beef and Tarragon Meatballs in Mushroom Sauce. 
BEEF & TARRAGON MEATBALLS WITH MUSHROOM SAUCE FOR 6 400 grams lean minced beef 2 garlic cloves – peeled 1 medium egg 25 grams dried breadcrumbs – preferably from good bread that you have dried and crumbed yourself Half a dozen sprigs of fresh tarragon Salt and freshly ground black pepper Plain flour Olive oil 100 grams fresh mushrooms, preferably ceps, but chestnut or oyster will do 20 grams dried ceps 300ml chicken stock Put the dried ceps in a small bowl and pour over enough boiling water to just cover. Leave to reconstitute. Crush the garlic cloves with a small amount of salt. Take the leaves off the tarragon stalks and chop finely. Put the minced beef in a bowl with the garlic, tarragon, breadcrumbs and egg. Mix thoroughly. Season with black pepper. Leave for about half an hour for the breadcrumbs to absorb moisture and bind the mix. Take small amounts of the minced beef mix and roll into balls and then roll in the flour. It is tedious to make the balls small, about 1.5 cm across is ideal, but they mix so much better with the pasta and are a perfect little mouthful this size that it is worth the effort. Heat some olive oil in a large frying pan and fry half the meatballs in one batch over a medium heat, turning from time to time to lightly brown them on all sides. Remove to a dish and fry the other half of the meatballs. Remove these too. While the meatballs are browning cut up the mushrooms into quite small pieces. Once the meatballs are out of the pan, add the mushrooms to it together with a little more oil if needed and gently fry them for about five minutes. Add the stock, soaked dried mushrooms and their liquid and bring to a simmer. Simmer for five minutes then add the meatballs and any juices that have seeped out of them. Simmer for five to ten minutes. Serve with pasta and parmesan cheese. For dessert, the Spanish classic, Cheese with Honey and Walnuts, the recipe appeared in a previous post. 
09 Tuesday Sep 2014
Posted in Fish, Food for One, Main Courses, Starters, Vegetable Dishes
Tags
Egg, French Beans, Nicoise, Salad, Tuna
Composed salads with their mixture of textures, tastes and colours are very close to being perfect food, and a Nicoise Salad is one of the great classics in this category. Its mixture of green leaves and French beans, red tomatoes and peppers, black olives, white and yellow egg and the pinky brown of tuna make it a delight to look at.
At the market today, my favourite fish stall had some superb fresh tuna, so I decided to sear it fairly rare and have it as part of a Nicoise Salad in place of the usual tinned tuna. Without losing the elements that make a salad a Nicoise, ie Tuna, Egg, French Beans, Tomatoes and Black Olives, there is room for you to make the salad your own. I prefer a poached egg to boiled as I like to mix the runny yolk into the salad. I also like to thin down the mayonnaise with a little water before pouring it over the salad. And I do love Chilli Jam with tuna, so although it is not traditional…..
11 Monday Aug 2014
Posted in Food for One, Main Courses, Snacks and Tapas, Vegetable Dishes
I don’t generally consider restaurant reviews to be part of what this blog is about, but the food in this vegetarian cafe is so good that it cannot not be mentioned. All the meals that I have ordered here have been so thoughtfully composed, executed and presented. Whoever designs the dishes has a real understanding of how to mix flavours and textures, and never forgets to consider how the components will look on the plate.
Today I treated myself to a Mexican breakfast – which I had for lunch.
In the little brown pot beneath the grilled half mushroom, fried egg, guacamole and fresh coriander leaves was a rich and spicy tomatoey sauce thick with black and pinto beans, corn kernels, red peppers, celery and onions. There was just enough chilli to give it oomph without overpowering the rest of the ingredients, and it was fragrant with the flavour of garlic and coriander seeds.
Below the deep fried Padron peppers in the other pot was a flavoursome but not hot jalapeño purée. The tortilla chips were freshly deep fried and crispy.
I look forward to trying their egg and chips, one of the most appetising looking egg and chips that I have ever seen. Served on one of those pasta plates that is like a shallow soup bowl, there is a base of freshly made tomato sauce topped with a stack of fat crispy polenta chips which likewise is topped with a fried egg.
I hope it is on the menu next time I visit this restaurant.
21 Saturday Jun 2014
Posted in Fish, Food for One, Main Courses
Continuing on the rice theme, here is my favourite seafood and rice dish. It is fairly simple to make and does not have many ingredients, but the flavour of the squid ink and seafood mixed with that of the chilli and onion makes for a rich tasting dish. I regularly cook it just for myself.
FOR 6
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion – finely chopped
1 red pepper – chopped into small squares
1 green pepper – chopped into small squares
Half a red chilli – finely chopped
500 grams squid
500 grams mussels
500 grams prawns
250 grams rice
500 ml fish stock
500-750 ml chicken stock
Salt and pepper
Let’s start by preparing the fish.
Remove the innards from the squid and carefully remove the ink sacks into a small bowl. Cut the tentacles from the innards and save discarding the rest.
With the ink sacs, you need to break them open to release the ink and press them with the back of a spoon to make sure that it is all out before discarding the sac. In some places it is possible to buy the ink frozen in little sachets which saves on the fiddle of extracting the ink.
Wash the squid bodies and tentacles and dry them on kitchen paper. Cut the bodies into thin circles. If the tentacles are small leave them whole, but if large cut them smaller.
Clean the mussels and steam them open.
A lot of cooks like to cook the mussels in the rice, but I find that there is often grit in the mussel shells and so prefer to open them separately and then sieve the liquid. Also some mussels are extremely salty, so if you have their liquor apart, you can taste it for saltiness before deciding how much to add to your dish.
If I am making this rice just for myself, I use ready cooked and shelled mussels that I buy frozen and keep in the freezer for these sort of mixed fish dishes that only require 5 or 6 mussels.
The prawns can be left in their shells to be opened at the table, but if you prefer for easier eating, they can be de-headed and peeled now.
Heat the oil in a large shallow pan and add the onions. Fry gently until translucent.
Add the peppers and chilli and keep cooking gently for five to ten minutes.
Add the squid and and continue frying gently for another five minutes.
Add the rice and stir well to coat with all the other ingredients in the pan. Fry for about five minutes.
Mix a little of the fish stock into the ink to dilute it and add it to the pan with the rest of the fish stock. Mix well.
Cover and leave to simmer for about five minutes. If it is starting to look dry add some of the chicken stock.
After another five minutes add the prawns if they are in their shells and the liquor from the mussels. Check the seasoning in the liquor in the pan and add salt and pepper as required. Add more chicken stock if needed.
Continue cooking until the rice is at the al dente stage – cooked but with firmness in the centre.
using unshelled prawns add at this stage and then a couple of minutes later add the mussels and let them warm through.
Let the rice rest for five to ten minutes.
Serve with Alioli and a tomato salad.
