In my wanderings around the internet and through reading other peoples blogs, I find myself on all sorts of blogs and often can't remember how I got there. If they're interesting - cookery ones, or local, then I bookmark them for checking every now and then.
One such site is this, My Kitchen in Spain, Janet is an American who has lived here for many years and writes about Spanish food. Sometimes I think 'oh yes, I could make that,' or 'that sounds tasty and a bit different' so it's a blog that I go back to a couple of times a week. Monday of last week she was writing about Ibérico pork and although we didn't have the same cut of meat the 'stuffing' that she used sounded so tasty that Sunday we used it in our joint of lomo (boneless loin). If you read the article it's not stuffing as we know it, not sage and onion, although I did make a bowl of that as well, it's actually called larding. And you make slits in the pork and put the mixture into the little pockets.
1 clove
10 peppercorns
1 teaspoon coarse salt
3 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Sprigs of fresh thyme
2 teaspoons olive oil
First grind the clove and peppercorns, then chop the garlic and mix everything together. I only used 1 garlic as they were very large and I didn't want the garlic flavour to overpower the meat. And I took the leaves off the thyme stalks first before mixing. Also used more oil than that......Then I put the mix into the slits in the meat and roasted as normal. Not quite how she cooked hers, but we had a different joint. And it was wonderfully tasty, the oil and flavours seeped out and basted the meat as it cooked.
Today, as we didn't eat all the pork on Sunday, I've sliced the rest very thinly and layered it in the slow cooker with thinly sliced and partly cooked potatoes, sauteed onions, and cheese. We had ends of cheeses that needed finishing off, Gouda with chilli, Roquefort, Alpujarran goats cheese and cream cheese. Each layer has a bit of each cheese, sounds a bit mixed up but after an afternoon on low heat it all melts and melds together. Topped off with a layer of cheese sauce and put under the grill to brown and bubble just before serving, it's a good and tasty way of using up ends and leftovers.
The next thing to try is the recipe she wrote the week before that, stuffed apples baked in sweet Málaga wine, we just happen to have a bottle in the wine rack, all that is lacking are the apples :(
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipe. Show all posts
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
Saturday, 20 October 2012
Changes....
From 25° to 15° in two days ....
From skirts and bare legs to warm fleecy jogging pants with thick sox ....
From cool tiled floors to cosy Alpujarran rugs ....
From iced drinks in the sunshine to mugs of tea and afternoon snacks .....
What a quick change it seems to have been this last few days. I've just made a batch of scotch pancakes or drop scones, not sure of the difference really but they are very quick and easy to make. Done almost as quickly as making the tea!
Whisk 1 egg with 1/4 pint of milk till really fluffy. Add it to 120g self raising flour, 30g sugar and a pinch of salt. Beat together then put tablespoonfuls onto a hot griddle or use a heavy based frying pan. After about 30 seconds the surface of the pancake bubbles, turn it over for a similar time and then put on a wire rack to cool. This made 19 pancakes this afternoon, we ate some - not all - of them with butter and home-made fig jam.
Monty and Pip got to share the one that didn't turn out right, it sort of got stuck to itself as I turned it over. They looked quite hopeful that they'd get more but the rest are for breakfast or elevenses tomorrow.
From skirts and bare legs to warm fleecy jogging pants with thick sox ....
From cool tiled floors to cosy Alpujarran rugs ....
From iced drinks in the sunshine to mugs of tea and afternoon snacks .....
What a quick change it seems to have been this last few days. I've just made a batch of scotch pancakes or drop scones, not sure of the difference really but they are very quick and easy to make. Done almost as quickly as making the tea!
Whisk 1 egg with 1/4 pint of milk till really fluffy. Add it to 120g self raising flour, 30g sugar and a pinch of salt. Beat together then put tablespoonfuls onto a hot griddle or use a heavy based frying pan. After about 30 seconds the surface of the pancake bubbles, turn it over for a similar time and then put on a wire rack to cool. This made 19 pancakes this afternoon, we ate some - not all - of them with butter and home-made fig jam.
Monty and Pip got to share the one that didn't turn out right, it sort of got stuck to itself as I turned it over. They looked quite hopeful that they'd get more but the rest are for breakfast or elevenses tomorrow.
Saturday, 14 January 2012
Winter food favourites.
This time of year we keep a close eye on the weather forecast as we normally get some rain or snow or wind or maybe it'll stay sunny for a bit longer! But what we don't to do is start an outside job and find it suddenly gets too cold to be painting a wall and that we've wasted time and money.
With that in mind, and the forecast saying cloud and not much above 10° yesterday, I thought I'd have a cooking morning. There was steak and kidney with lots of gravy left from the night before, mince in the fridge, lots of potatoes and onions, so I had a pie making morning. Meat and potato pies may not sound exciting but with slow cooked onions for flavour, browned mince, add the cooked diced potato and finally a spoonful of gravy - steak and kidney yesterday but any left over gravy is good - and you have a really tasty pie.
I made one batch of pastry and used that up, made another lot too, the end result was 11 individual meat and potato pies, another 4 that I added curry paste to the gravy for a bit a difference, 4 steak and kidney pies, and then we had some for lunch as well. There was flour everywhere, except in the storage box, need to go and stock up soon! But we have lots of instant-ish lunches and evening meals. Pre-cooking the filling, glazing the pastry with egg and then freezing the pie, means it can come straight out of the freezer and into the oven - it just needs 40 minutes at 200°. Plus, depending on your appetite, a big buttery jacket potato, or maybe some crunchy chips.
Definitely winter warming food. Otherwise known as comfort food. Along with rice pudding, steak and dumplings, shepherds pie and pickled red cabbage or beetroot, big hearty soups and crusty bread, hot spicy wine, porridge for breakfast, ...... there are some lovely things about winter time involving food and drink!
Any more favourites anyone?
With that in mind, and the forecast saying cloud and not much above 10° yesterday, I thought I'd have a cooking morning. There was steak and kidney with lots of gravy left from the night before, mince in the fridge, lots of potatoes and onions, so I had a pie making morning. Meat and potato pies may not sound exciting but with slow cooked onions for flavour, browned mince, add the cooked diced potato and finally a spoonful of gravy - steak and kidney yesterday but any left over gravy is good - and you have a really tasty pie.
I made one batch of pastry and used that up, made another lot too, the end result was 11 individual meat and potato pies, another 4 that I added curry paste to the gravy for a bit a difference, 4 steak and kidney pies, and then we had some for lunch as well. There was flour everywhere, except in the storage box, need to go and stock up soon! But we have lots of instant-ish lunches and evening meals. Pre-cooking the filling, glazing the pastry with egg and then freezing the pie, means it can come straight out of the freezer and into the oven - it just needs 40 minutes at 200°. Plus, depending on your appetite, a big buttery jacket potato, or maybe some crunchy chips.
Definitely winter warming food. Otherwise known as comfort food. Along with rice pudding, steak and dumplings, shepherds pie and pickled red cabbage or beetroot, big hearty soups and crusty bread, hot spicy wine, porridge for breakfast, ...... there are some lovely things about winter time involving food and drink!
Any more favourites anyone?
Saturday, 29 October 2011
La granada
or as it's more commonly known, the pomegranate. The fruit is included in Granada city's coat of arms and one of the gates to the Alhambra is called the Gate of the Pomegranates. It appears all over the city in one form or another, laid into paving using tiny stones, on the tops of the posts at the side of the road.....
October is the time when ours start to split, usually after the rains have come. I read that the rains cause them to swell just that bit more and then they burst open, a lovely dark ruby red inside. Messy to de-pip (if that's the right word) no matter how careful you are some of the juices spray everywhere so I now do them into a bowl of water. The papery layer that the juice sacks are covered with then float to the surface and are easily scooped off. You don't want that layer to go in with the juice as it's very bitter tasting.
There were 16 ripe pomegranates on the tree this morning so I thought I'd better pick them before the birds got to them. What seemed like ages afterwards I finally had a large bowlful of juicy red arils (thanks wikipedia - not seeds at all)
They went into the liquidiser, then I strained the resulting juices off into a pan, 1.6 litres of deep red juice.
For a change this time we thought we'd make grenadine which is a syrup of pomegranate juice. You need to add an equal amount of sugar to the juice, bring it to the boil, simmer for about 10 minutes till it's syrupy, cool and bottle. End result today, 3 bottles of grenadine.
Next stop, online recipes to see what else to use it for. Primarily it's for drinks, be they alcoholic or not. This site has it listed as an ingredient for 583 drink recipes! Also lovely mixed with lemonade, tonic or sparkling water as a refreshing summer drink and then I found it recommended as a glaze for pork, duck and chicken, poured over icecream, and as a pancake syrup amongst other things.
Something for everyone!
October is the time when ours start to split, usually after the rains have come. I read that the rains cause them to swell just that bit more and then they burst open, a lovely dark ruby red inside. Messy to de-pip (if that's the right word) no matter how careful you are some of the juices spray everywhere so I now do them into a bowl of water. The papery layer that the juice sacks are covered with then float to the surface and are easily scooped off. You don't want that layer to go in with the juice as it's very bitter tasting.
There were 16 ripe pomegranates on the tree this morning so I thought I'd better pick them before the birds got to them. What seemed like ages afterwards I finally had a large bowlful of juicy red arils (thanks wikipedia - not seeds at all)
They went into the liquidiser, then I strained the resulting juices off into a pan, 1.6 litres of deep red juice.
For a change this time we thought we'd make grenadine which is a syrup of pomegranate juice. You need to add an equal amount of sugar to the juice, bring it to the boil, simmer for about 10 minutes till it's syrupy, cool and bottle. End result today, 3 bottles of grenadine.
 |
| on the left, yesterdays marrow waiting to be cooked |
Something for everyone!
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Todays offering...
I've finally got round to doing something with the quince that I picked last Tuesday, luckily they last for a few weeks after picking. I make some sort of chutney every year with some of them and a few years ago - 2009 to be precise - I found a recipe that included lots of Indian spices such as cardamom seeds, coriander seeds, turmeric... Unfortunately my filing system/recipe file has totally let me down and I can't find any trace of the original recipe. So off to google I went, put in the fruit, spices etc that I think went in the chutney and up popped a recipe from Turkey. It didn't look familiar, don't think it's the same one, but that's what I've made today although with a bit of tweaking of the ingredients.
It's a 2 stage recipe, day 1 you peel, core and chop 2.5 kilos of quince and put in a bowl then cover with 700g of brown sugar. I used soft brown but not dark. Cover with cling film - or a shower cap - and leave overnight.
Day 2, put the sugary quince into a large pan - I used the pressure cooker - and add these spices..... Dry roast 1 teaspoon cumin seeds and 2 teaspoons coriander seeds and grind. Add to fruit along with 1 teaspoon cardamom seeds, 1 teaspoon turmeric powder, 2 or 3 teaspoons grated ginger, 1 teaspoon ground cloves, 8 cloves garlic finely chopped, 2 spanish onions finely chopped, 2 teaspoons salt, and chilli.
(chilli is to taste, the recipe said 1 teaspoon of cayenne but I added 1 fresh chilli absolutely no chilli taste at all, added 1 more, and 1 more, 4 in total but I wanted a fruity chutney with some kick.)
To all the fruity spicy mix add 500ml of white wine vinegar and pressure cook for 10 minutes on high, reduce pressure with cold water, mash fruit down using potato masher, add remaining 300ml of vinegar and simmer till thick. Don't know how long it would take to reach that consistency if cooked without a pressure cooker, this took 40 minutes in total.
Put into sterilized jars until - well, most chutneys you have to keep till they improve. We ate the left overs tonight as there was just a bit too much for 11 jars and it was wonderful.
PS: the caterpillars are back...on the biggest, best red cabbage that we have - or had!
 |
| The end result but only using half the quince. |
Day 2, put the sugary quince into a large pan - I used the pressure cooker - and add these spices..... Dry roast 1 teaspoon cumin seeds and 2 teaspoons coriander seeds and grind. Add to fruit along with 1 teaspoon cardamom seeds, 1 teaspoon turmeric powder, 2 or 3 teaspoons grated ginger, 1 teaspoon ground cloves, 8 cloves garlic finely chopped, 2 spanish onions finely chopped, 2 teaspoons salt, and chilli.
(chilli is to taste, the recipe said 1 teaspoon of cayenne but I added 1 fresh chilli absolutely no chilli taste at all, added 1 more, and 1 more, 4 in total but I wanted a fruity chutney with some kick.)
To all the fruity spicy mix add 500ml of white wine vinegar and pressure cook for 10 minutes on high, reduce pressure with cold water, mash fruit down using potato masher, add remaining 300ml of vinegar and simmer till thick. Don't know how long it would take to reach that consistency if cooked without a pressure cooker, this took 40 minutes in total.
Put into sterilized jars until - well, most chutneys you have to keep till they improve. We ate the left overs tonight as there was just a bit too much for 11 jars and it was wonderful.
PS: the caterpillars are back...on the biggest, best red cabbage that we have - or had!
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Pickles and chutneys
Most of the pickles and chutneys we make are using our own fruits and vegetables but there are a couple of exceptions, hot lime pickle and mango chutney.
Hot lime pickle and mango chutney are both favourites, lovely served with a plate of poppadoms together with yoghurt and mint dip before eating the curry main course. I also make a spicy aubergine pickle to have with it, but those we grow and I make the pickle when we have too many to eat and don't need any more in the freezer.
We saw hot lime pickle for sale over here, think it was about €4.50 a jar, the recipe I have uses 12 limes and makes 2 jars. The first time I made it, they cost €2.50, the next time was a few months later and in a different shop and they were nearer 3.50. Maybe slightly out of season or something. Anyway with a few teaspoons of spices and quite a lot of chilli it's no different from the real - and more expensive - thing.
Mango chutney is another one we make but buy the fruit, the last batch I made when John saw two mangos for a euro - that made 2 jars as well.
And the spicy aubergine pickle is another tasty one. Quick, simple to do and tasty although like a lot of pickles you do have to leave it to mature for a few weeks. Although you can eat it straight away, the flavour is so much better after a few weeks in the fridge.
So the recipes....
First up,
Hot lime pickle
Take 12 limes, juice 4 of them and cut the remaining 8 into small, teaspoon sized pieces. Put in a bowl with 6 teaspoons of salt. Stir well, cover, put in fridge and stir daily for 4 days.
Day 5: dry roast 1 teaspoon each of cumin seeds, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and grind. Add 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder and 5 of chilli powder. Mix well, add to lime mix and keep for 3 more days. After this time the lime skin should be soft, if not keep a few more days. Put into sterilized jars and keep for a few weeks - if you can! Fills 2 ex-mayo jars.
Spicy aubergine pickle
Dice aubergines, add 1/2 teaspoon salt and mix with enough turmeric to coat them, then fry in enough oil till they go golden brown (about 5 minutes) Add chopped garlic, 1inch piece finely chopped ginger root, 3 teaspoons garam masala and 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper. Simmer till aubergine is soft. No precise amounts of aubergine to garlic - it's all in the tasting! Should be quite oily though, the recipe says 2 cups oil to 1 and 1/2 lbs aubergines. I just make it as and when I have too many aubergines so it's a bit hit and miss but still tasty. Bottle, put in fridge and as before, keep it as long as you can as the flavours improve after a few weeks.
Mango chutney
3 mangoes, peeled and cubed, in a bowl with 200g soft brown sugar, (I think the darker the better for a really rich flavour) 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric, 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger. Mix and leave for about 2 hours. Then put into a heavy-based saucepan with 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 chopped garlic cloves, 1 large chopped onion, 400ml white wine vinegar and stir constantly till cooked and thickened. (recipe says up to 2 hours but it's never taken that long). Leave to cool, put into sterilized jars and into fridge. As before, keep if you can for a few weeks.
Makes 2 jars.
All you need now are some poppadoms, some cucumber raita, yoghurt and mint dip and a very large plate!
Enjoy.
Hot lime pickle and mango chutney are both favourites, lovely served with a plate of poppadoms together with yoghurt and mint dip before eating the curry main course. I also make a spicy aubergine pickle to have with it, but those we grow and I make the pickle when we have too many to eat and don't need any more in the freezer.
We saw hot lime pickle for sale over here, think it was about €4.50 a jar, the recipe I have uses 12 limes and makes 2 jars. The first time I made it, they cost €2.50, the next time was a few months later and in a different shop and they were nearer 3.50. Maybe slightly out of season or something. Anyway with a few teaspoons of spices and quite a lot of chilli it's no different from the real - and more expensive - thing.
Mango chutney is another one we make but buy the fruit, the last batch I made when John saw two mangos for a euro - that made 2 jars as well.
And the spicy aubergine pickle is another tasty one. Quick, simple to do and tasty although like a lot of pickles you do have to leave it to mature for a few weeks. Although you can eat it straight away, the flavour is so much better after a few weeks in the fridge.
So the recipes....
First up,
Hot lime pickle
Take 12 limes, juice 4 of them and cut the remaining 8 into small, teaspoon sized pieces. Put in a bowl with 6 teaspoons of salt. Stir well, cover, put in fridge and stir daily for 4 days.
Day 5: dry roast 1 teaspoon each of cumin seeds, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and grind. Add 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder and 5 of chilli powder. Mix well, add to lime mix and keep for 3 more days. After this time the lime skin should be soft, if not keep a few more days. Put into sterilized jars and keep for a few weeks - if you can! Fills 2 ex-mayo jars.
Spicy aubergine pickle
Dice aubergines, add 1/2 teaspoon salt and mix with enough turmeric to coat them, then fry in enough oil till they go golden brown (about 5 minutes) Add chopped garlic, 1inch piece finely chopped ginger root, 3 teaspoons garam masala and 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper. Simmer till aubergine is soft. No precise amounts of aubergine to garlic - it's all in the tasting! Should be quite oily though, the recipe says 2 cups oil to 1 and 1/2 lbs aubergines. I just make it as and when I have too many aubergines so it's a bit hit and miss but still tasty. Bottle, put in fridge and as before, keep it as long as you can as the flavours improve after a few weeks.
Mango chutney
3 mangoes, peeled and cubed, in a bowl with 200g soft brown sugar, (I think the darker the better for a really rich flavour) 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric, 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger. Mix and leave for about 2 hours. Then put into a heavy-based saucepan with 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2 chopped garlic cloves, 1 large chopped onion, 400ml white wine vinegar and stir constantly till cooked and thickened. (recipe says up to 2 hours but it's never taken that long). Leave to cool, put into sterilized jars and into fridge. As before, keep if you can for a few weeks.
Makes 2 jars.
All you need now are some poppadoms, some cucumber raita, yoghurt and mint dip and a very large plate!
Enjoy.
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Lots of chillis.
About 4 years ago one of the many Paco's gave us a long string of dried chillis, 2 different types, 1 long and dark red, the other small and round and very hot. We called the round ones Scotch Bonnets although they weren't because Scotch Bonnets are squashed looking and these looked like small fat peppers. And the long ones just became known as Paco's long reds.
We saved seeds from both types and grew them for the next couple of years, ate fresh and dried and again saved seeds. Last year they seemed to take forever to germinate so we bought 10 chilli plants as well which produced nearly 500 very hot, very small chillis. (I know because I counted them when I picked as I couldn't believe how many chillis such small plants could produce)
We also grow jalapeños - some years we have had almost a forest of them, this year less grew but still enough.
But the strange thing is the way the chillis from Paco grow. All our other chillis grow hanging down from the plant but both of Pacos varieties grow upwards. And we have no idea what type they - any one recognise them?
If you like jalapeños and cream cheese, then for a quick tapas, cut the chilli in half lengthwise and fill with cheese and eat. Removing the seeds is up to you, depends on how much spicyness you like.
Jalapeño Poppers.
For a hot tapas - takes a bit longer but it's worth it - slit open a jalapeño and carefully fill with cream cheese. Easier to do with an piping bag for icing than with a teaspoon. Leave on the stalk, dip the jalapeño in tempura batter and holding the stalk carefully lower into hot oil. When the batter has started to brown you can let go of it. If you just drop it into the fat it'll probably sink and stick to the basket. We first had these as a bar snack in Rochester, New York, we found them in England but breaded not battered - a bit on the stodgy side. Tried making and freezing them but the chilli seemed to lose it's crispness, much better made fresh.
We saved seeds from both types and grew them for the next couple of years, ate fresh and dried and again saved seeds. Last year they seemed to take forever to germinate so we bought 10 chilli plants as well which produced nearly 500 very hot, very small chillis. (I know because I counted them when I picked as I couldn't believe how many chillis such small plants could produce)
We also grow jalapeños - some years we have had almost a forest of them, this year less grew but still enough.
 |
| Jalapenos in the sunshine |
 | |
| The normal hanging down type |
But the strange thing is the way the chillis from Paco grow. All our other chillis grow hanging down from the plant but both of Pacos varieties grow upwards. And we have no idea what type they - any one recognise them?
 |
| The 'Scotch Bonnets' - or may be not. |
 |
| The long reds that grow up! |
 |
| I know, looks more like a pepper but it's a chilli. |
Jalapeño Poppers.
For a hot tapas - takes a bit longer but it's worth it - slit open a jalapeño and carefully fill with cream cheese. Easier to do with an piping bag for icing than with a teaspoon. Leave on the stalk, dip the jalapeño in tempura batter and holding the stalk carefully lower into hot oil. When the batter has started to brown you can let go of it. If you just drop it into the fat it'll probably sink and stick to the basket. We first had these as a bar snack in Rochester, New York, we found them in England but breaded not battered - a bit on the stodgy side. Tried making and freezing them but the chilli seemed to lose it's crispness, much better made fresh.
Saturday, 16 July 2011
Sundried tomato puree.
The first of this years tomato crop are in the dryer, we've been picking enough to eat for about a week but now there are too many so they will be for 'out of season'. But another job that needed doing was to make space on the kitchen shelves for this years dried fruits and vegetables.
There were still 2 jars of dried tomatoes from last summer but no tomato puree so Thursday afternoon I put the tomatoes into boiling water to soak and then simmered them for about 10 minutes before liquidising. You need equal amounts of tomatoes to water and that's it. The hardest part is getting all the puree out of the liquidiser, I don't put all the cooking water in with the tomatoes but keep some back and use that to rinse it out afterwards. It can always be added to the puree if needed - it's easier to add it than to remove it! While it's still hot I put it into sterilised jars and when cold, into the fridge. Don't know how long it lasts as we always use it quickly.
The strawberries dried very quickly and have such a wonderful intense flavour. A dinner plateful - 2 layers actually - have dried so much that they only fill an ex-mint jelly jar.
We have one and a half kilos of apricots in the kitchen which we were looking forward to eating but they are very disappointing - no juice at all - at least they won't take long to dry as we reckon they're half way there! I thought about cooking them and then freezing for winter pies and crumbles but drying and storing in jars make much more sense especially as it's free and there is more use for dried fruits which can be rehydrated if needed. Just need to get the tomatoes dried so there's some space for the apricots - but more strawberries coming - need a bigger dryer!
Tomorrow - Sunday - is watering day and having done a last walk round everywhere just before sunset, I know that there are more tomatoes and strawberries waiting to be picked.
It's time now to put my feet up and have a large glass of wine .......or maybe two.
There were still 2 jars of dried tomatoes from last summer but no tomato puree so Thursday afternoon I put the tomatoes into boiling water to soak and then simmered them for about 10 minutes before liquidising. You need equal amounts of tomatoes to water and that's it. The hardest part is getting all the puree out of the liquidiser, I don't put all the cooking water in with the tomatoes but keep some back and use that to rinse it out afterwards. It can always be added to the puree if needed - it's easier to add it than to remove it! While it's still hot I put it into sterilised jars and when cold, into the fridge. Don't know how long it lasts as we always use it quickly.
The strawberries dried very quickly and have such a wonderful intense flavour. A dinner plateful - 2 layers actually - have dried so much that they only fill an ex-mint jelly jar.
We have one and a half kilos of apricots in the kitchen which we were looking forward to eating but they are very disappointing - no juice at all - at least they won't take long to dry as we reckon they're half way there! I thought about cooking them and then freezing for winter pies and crumbles but drying and storing in jars make much more sense especially as it's free and there is more use for dried fruits which can be rehydrated if needed. Just need to get the tomatoes dried so there's some space for the apricots - but more strawberries coming - need a bigger dryer!
Tomorrow - Sunday - is watering day and having done a last walk round everywhere just before sunset, I know that there are more tomatoes and strawberries waiting to be picked.
It's time now to put my feet up and have a large glass of wine .......or maybe two.
Wednesday, 29 June 2011
A perfect tortilla
Before coming to live here, I'd never made a tortilla in my life but we had neighbours then - Carmen and Manolo. Carmen made the most fantastic tortillas - she'd had plenty of practice as she and Manolo owned a restaurant in Granada and she'd made 15 different tapas every day for 30 years. That's a lot of tortillas - she should be good at them.
She showed me how to make one, I tried but could never get it to slice like hers, we always needed a knife and fork to eat it whereas hers could be eaten sliced or cubed. Solid but not dry, whereas mine always collapsed - sometimes closer to scrambled eggs and potato than tortilla. It's not just me that has a problem, neither of Carmen's daughters can do one like their mother.
We've both watched her make them over the years we've been here and although we don't see so much of her nowadays, when she comes she always makes at least one and then gives us a shout to say when it's ready.
However practice makes perfect and with a little help from a newly discovered blog, we had the first perfect tortilla for tapas tonight. I'd been looking for ideas about how to make fried broad beans (actually roasted not fried) preferably spicy ones and came across a blog/recipe site called 'the daily spud'. We tried the Posh Spicy Beans and they were good so I looked at other recipes on the site and just out of interest read her way to make a tortilla. Seems this lady has some Spanish relations - but the only difference in her way of making it and mine/Carmens was to put the potato onion mixture back into the beaten eggs before returning that to the pan. How that can make my scrambled egg and potato mix into a wonderful, sliceable tortilla I don't know, but it did.
Lots of other ideas to try from 'the spud' such as beer battered sage leaves as part of a tapas. We have more sage bushes in the garden than I can count and there's only so much sage and onion stuffing we can eat so this sounds an interesting tapas. Plus I make beer batter when we have fish and chips and there's always batter left over. If you're looking there, check out
oven dried potato crisps in the nibbles and small bites section, we've not tried them yet but they sound good and so easy.
Happy reading!
She showed me how to make one, I tried but could never get it to slice like hers, we always needed a knife and fork to eat it whereas hers could be eaten sliced or cubed. Solid but not dry, whereas mine always collapsed - sometimes closer to scrambled eggs and potato than tortilla. It's not just me that has a problem, neither of Carmen's daughters can do one like their mother.
We've both watched her make them over the years we've been here and although we don't see so much of her nowadays, when she comes she always makes at least one and then gives us a shout to say when it's ready.
However practice makes perfect and with a little help from a newly discovered blog, we had the first perfect tortilla for tapas tonight. I'd been looking for ideas about how to make fried broad beans (actually roasted not fried) preferably spicy ones and came across a blog/recipe site called 'the daily spud'. We tried the Posh Spicy Beans and they were good so I looked at other recipes on the site and just out of interest read her way to make a tortilla. Seems this lady has some Spanish relations - but the only difference in her way of making it and mine/Carmens was to put the potato onion mixture back into the beaten eggs before returning that to the pan. How that can make my scrambled egg and potato mix into a wonderful, sliceable tortilla I don't know, but it did.
Lots of other ideas to try from 'the spud' such as beer battered sage leaves as part of a tapas. We have more sage bushes in the garden than I can count and there's only so much sage and onion stuffing we can eat so this sounds an interesting tapas. Plus I make beer batter when we have fish and chips and there's always batter left over. If you're looking there, check out
oven dried potato crisps in the nibbles and small bites section, we've not tried them yet but they sound good and so easy.
Happy reading!
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
Cherry time.
Fresh cherries are wonderful but it's quite difficult getting to them before the birds have eaten them. One day the cherries are changing colour and we think hmm, couple more days and we'll be able to start picking, the next day they are much redder and riper so we start to pick the ripest, one more day and they are all ready. Off we go with a bucket and get several kilos - too many to cope with really all in one go but better that than lose them altogether.
Three days later and the tree has been stripped clean, just loads of cherry stones on the ground.
So we've eaten them straight from the stalk, de-stoned and had them with ice cream, (strawberry cheesecake flavour which tasted like vanilla but was nice and then with triple chocolate which was scrumptious) de-stoned half a kilo and put in a large wide necked jar with brandy and sugar which we have to keep for at least a month before trying and then I made a very large pudding called Cherry Clafoutis which made 6 portions. It's a French dish apparently... easily made, only needs basic ingredients which we always have.
Half a kilo of de-stoned cherries, put them in a buttered oven proof dish. The recipe said 10" diameter but mine is an 8 by 10 rectangle and it was fine. Whisk together 3 eggs and 11 fluid ounces of milk until it's frothy, then add it to 2 1/2 ounces of flour, mixed with 2 ounces of sugar. Beat well and pour over the cherries. Bake for 1 hour at 200°C till it's golden brown, well risen and a skewer pushed into the middle comes out clean. That's it - simple but tasty. You're supposed to dredge it with icing sugar when it's cooked but we didn't have any.
Leave for 15 minutes - it's meant to be eaten warm for some reason that's beyond me, I'm sure it tastes just as good piping hot! Also I have 3 variations of this recipe, one from a French cook book uses more cream than milk, also you can soak the cherries in 3 ounces of kirsch first so then you need less milk.
I have a cherry de-stoner - actually it was given to us as an olive de-stoner and is used more often for olives than cherries. But it's still a messy business, juice was dripping off my hands and squirting everywhere - John said I looked like something out of a gory horror movie! Lots of different de-stoners available but this is the closest I can find to the one we have.
Three days later and the tree has been stripped clean, just loads of cherry stones on the ground.
So we've eaten them straight from the stalk, de-stoned and had them with ice cream, (strawberry cheesecake flavour which tasted like vanilla but was nice and then with triple chocolate which was scrumptious) de-stoned half a kilo and put in a large wide necked jar with brandy and sugar which we have to keep for at least a month before trying and then I made a very large pudding called Cherry Clafoutis which made 6 portions. It's a French dish apparently... easily made, only needs basic ingredients which we always have.
Half a kilo of de-stoned cherries, put them in a buttered oven proof dish. The recipe said 10" diameter but mine is an 8 by 10 rectangle and it was fine. Whisk together 3 eggs and 11 fluid ounces of milk until it's frothy, then add it to 2 1/2 ounces of flour, mixed with 2 ounces of sugar. Beat well and pour over the cherries. Bake for 1 hour at 200°C till it's golden brown, well risen and a skewer pushed into the middle comes out clean. That's it - simple but tasty. You're supposed to dredge it with icing sugar when it's cooked but we didn't have any.
Leave for 15 minutes - it's meant to be eaten warm for some reason that's beyond me, I'm sure it tastes just as good piping hot! Also I have 3 variations of this recipe, one from a French cook book uses more cream than milk, also you can soak the cherries in 3 ounces of kirsch first so then you need less milk.
I have a cherry de-stoner - actually it was given to us as an olive de-stoner and is used more often for olives than cherries. But it's still a messy business, juice was dripping off my hands and squirting everywhere - John said I looked like something out of a gory horror movie! Lots of different de-stoners available but this is the closest I can find to the one we have.
Friday, 20 May 2011
And still the beans keep coming...
One bed of habas has been taken out and replaced with cauliflowers, another has been replaced by swedes and we have a large bucket of picked beans here waiting for me to do something with them. Our friends who were here on Tuesday took enough home for dinner that evening but still lots more!
I remember reading somewhere that they make a good alternative for hummus so have just made some as a trial for tapas with tonight's glass of wine. One of the recipe sites I looked at also said it's a good alternative for guacamole if no avocado's are available.
So you need 250 grams of podded habas. (That was about 30+ beans) I then took each bean out of it's skin - slit down the side with your nail or a sharp knife and out pops a bright green bean rather than the (sometimes) pale tough looking thing that you get when the beans are large. Cook them till soft - probably only need a few minutes but it'll depend on the size of the beans. Drain and then put in a blender or food processor with 1 chopped clove of garlic, 1 teaspoon of ground cumin, 1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika, 1/2 teaspoon of ground chilli, the juice of 1 lemon and a tablespoon of olive oil. Whizz to a puree - I added two good long squirts of olive oil as it whizzed for a moister mix as it seemed a bit dry. Obviously the chilli content can be changed - we wanted something less bean flavoured and with a bit more kick to it. Add salt and pepper and that's it.
It made enough to fill 5 ramekins so with some mini tostadas to dollop it onto, it would easily be a tapas for 6 people.
I remember reading somewhere that they make a good alternative for hummus so have just made some as a trial for tapas with tonight's glass of wine. One of the recipe sites I looked at also said it's a good alternative for guacamole if no avocado's are available.
So you need 250 grams of podded habas. (That was about 30+ beans) I then took each bean out of it's skin - slit down the side with your nail or a sharp knife and out pops a bright green bean rather than the (sometimes) pale tough looking thing that you get when the beans are large. Cook them till soft - probably only need a few minutes but it'll depend on the size of the beans. Drain and then put in a blender or food processor with 1 chopped clove of garlic, 1 teaspoon of ground cumin, 1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika, 1/2 teaspoon of ground chilli, the juice of 1 lemon and a tablespoon of olive oil. Whizz to a puree - I added two good long squirts of olive oil as it whizzed for a moister mix as it seemed a bit dry. Obviously the chilli content can be changed - we wanted something less bean flavoured and with a bit more kick to it. Add salt and pepper and that's it.
It made enough to fill 5 ramekins so with some mini tostadas to dollop it onto, it would easily be a tapas for 6 people.
Saturday, 30 April 2011
How do you like your strawberries?
This is the first proper picking of the year, last week we only had half a dozen at a time, but today I've just picked these....400 grams.
So how do you like your strawberries? Sliced and sprinkled with sugar? Sliced in a brown bread sandwich? Dipped into sugar and cream and eaten whole? We're trying something new today, using up yesterdays doughnuts. I don't often buy cakes but saw the doughnuts in the panaderia when I went in, gave them a gentle squeeze to make sure they were soft doughnuts not hard ones (Spanish cakes can be very dry - nicknamed dustnuts in this house) and bought a bag of 6.
Yes, they were soft but not as doughy as hoped for. Very sugary and ok dunked into a mug of tea but not amazing. I was going to keep them till Sunday evening and add jam and custard to them for a pudding but then when I picked the strawberries this morning John said why don't we slice the strawberries over slices of doughnuts then when the strawberry juice starts to run, it'll soak nicely into the doughnuts and soften them. Then we can add cream to the top - just in case there aren't enough calories already!
I've only done half the strawberries and one doughnut each - if it's scrumptious we can have the rest tomorrow, if not it'll be back to plan A: add jam and custard to make a sort of hot trifley thing with just the doughnuts and enjoy the strawberries on their own.
So how do you like your strawberries? Sliced and sprinkled with sugar? Sliced in a brown bread sandwich? Dipped into sugar and cream and eaten whole? We're trying something new today, using up yesterdays doughnuts. I don't often buy cakes but saw the doughnuts in the panaderia when I went in, gave them a gentle squeeze to make sure they were soft doughnuts not hard ones (Spanish cakes can be very dry - nicknamed dustnuts in this house) and bought a bag of 6.
Yes, they were soft but not as doughy as hoped for. Very sugary and ok dunked into a mug of tea but not amazing. I was going to keep them till Sunday evening and add jam and custard to them for a pudding but then when I picked the strawberries this morning John said why don't we slice the strawberries over slices of doughnuts then when the strawberry juice starts to run, it'll soak nicely into the doughnuts and soften them. Then we can add cream to the top - just in case there aren't enough calories already!
I've only done half the strawberries and one doughnut each - if it's scrumptious we can have the rest tomorrow, if not it'll be back to plan A: add jam and custard to make a sort of hot trifley thing with just the doughnuts and enjoy the strawberries on their own.
Thursday, 21 April 2011
Boozy hot cross buns
We've been living here for over 7 years now, this is our 8th Easter here and as yet we haven't had any hot cross buns. Most things we make nowadays because what you may take for granted in England either doesn't make it this far or is way too expensive, however until this year neither of us remember even seeing hot cross buns for sale. This year we saw some but at 3 euros for a pack of 4, there was a sharp intake of breath from both of us and when we got home, I looked in my bread book for a recipe.
We had everything it said, except for the raisins/sultanas.....but if you have dried figs, apples and pears I reckon you can adapt most recipes. I thought the fruit needed re-hydrating - normally I'd add water and leave them to soak overnight but being Easter I thought we'd have a treat and so I added a little brandy. Maybe more than a little, didn't want the fruit to dry out but to swell and be juicy.
At this point I'd love to put up a photo of the hot cross buns - we haven't eaten them all, I made 12 and we've still 6 left - but they cooked really quickly and the bottoms were done faster than the tops so they have brown bottoms but pale tops. They taste wonderful though. Spicy, fruity, maybe a hint of boozyness but definitely pale.
We had everything it said, except for the raisins/sultanas.....but if you have dried figs, apples and pears I reckon you can adapt most recipes. I thought the fruit needed re-hydrating - normally I'd add water and leave them to soak overnight but being Easter I thought we'd have a treat and so I added a little brandy. Maybe more than a little, didn't want the fruit to dry out but to swell and be juicy.
At this point I'd love to put up a photo of the hot cross buns - we haven't eaten them all, I made 12 and we've still 6 left - but they cooked really quickly and the bottoms were done faster than the tops so they have brown bottoms but pale tops. They taste wonderful though. Spicy, fruity, maybe a hint of boozyness but definitely pale.
Monday, 11 April 2011
Spiced pickled almonds
Regular readers will know that Pip - although she is now 2 years old - hasn't learnt that the vegetables we grow are for us not her. We have fenced off the kitchen garden and she hasn't made any attempt to get in there, instead she's turned her attention to an almond tree. Or rather an almond bush.
It used to be a very tall, straggly tree. Very sad looking, never had many almonds so about 4 years ago we cut it down to the base and since then it has grown into a very healthy bush, absolutely laden with almonds. But Pip has taken a fancy to the almonds, she can't bite through them when they have hard shells but presumably likes the taste so eats the small soft early ones. It wouldn't be too bad if she ate them but she just chews them up and spits them out.
We've watched this for a few days, then I thought that if we can pickle walnuts before the shell has formed about May or early June, why not almonds? So after a quick look out there in the big wide world of the internet, I found a recipe for spiced green almonds. I only had to change one thing - not enough honey only miel de caña, but hopefully they will be just as tasty.
You need enough small green almonds to fill your jar/s. I used some large wide-necked ones that I think will be easy to get them out of. Prick the almonds all over with a skewer, if the skewer won't go through, the almond has made a shell and it's too late to pickle. Pack them in the jars and for each jar add
1 tablespoon of coriander seeds
1 stick of cinnamon
1 bay leaf
1 dried chilli, cut in half
Make a brine solution of 3 cups of white wine vinegar together with 1 teaspoon of cloves, 1 cup of honey and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Taste and add more sugar if needed - I used 4 spoonfuls. Simmer for a couple of minutes and pour it hot over the almonds. Seal the jars, store for 4 weeks before eating, turning upside down occasionally to mix the ingredients. Apparently it keeps for more than a year.
Enjoy!
It used to be a very tall, straggly tree. Very sad looking, never had many almonds so about 4 years ago we cut it down to the base and since then it has grown into a very healthy bush, absolutely laden with almonds. But Pip has taken a fancy to the almonds, she can't bite through them when they have hard shells but presumably likes the taste so eats the small soft early ones. It wouldn't be too bad if she ate them but she just chews them up and spits them out.
We've watched this for a few days, then I thought that if we can pickle walnuts before the shell has formed about May or early June, why not almonds? So after a quick look out there in the big wide world of the internet, I found a recipe for spiced green almonds. I only had to change one thing - not enough honey only miel de caña, but hopefully they will be just as tasty.
You need enough small green almonds to fill your jar/s. I used some large wide-necked ones that I think will be easy to get them out of. Prick the almonds all over with a skewer, if the skewer won't go through, the almond has made a shell and it's too late to pickle. Pack them in the jars and for each jar add
1 tablespoon of coriander seeds
1 stick of cinnamon
1 bay leaf
1 dried chilli, cut in half
Make a brine solution of 3 cups of white wine vinegar together with 1 teaspoon of cloves, 1 cup of honey and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Taste and add more sugar if needed - I used 4 spoonfuls. Simmer for a couple of minutes and pour it hot over the almonds. Seal the jars, store for 4 weeks before eating, turning upside down occasionally to mix the ingredients. Apparently it keeps for more than a year.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
Spring greens.
The broad bean plantation seems to be getting taller and taller, with more and more flowers every day. Yesterday I spent most of the day watering - should have done it on Sunday as that was our acequia day but first thing in the morning it was grey and threatening rain, although we only got a few splodges - then when it did brighten up some friends came to visit for the afternoon.
So I had Sunday yesterday and spent 6 hours watering and weeding in the sunshine. The acequias had lots of weeds and grass growing in them but it's easier to get that out when the water is running and the soil becomes soft. As I waited for the water to make it's way round and to soak into the beds, I started to pick our first beans of the year. Nice and small, like a french bean to look at and that's what they taste like too. Just need topping and tailing, a couple of minutes in boiling water and served with a drizzle of oil, or - as we did - a knob of garlic butter and diced chorizo.
So I had Sunday yesterday and spent 6 hours watering and weeding in the sunshine. The acequias had lots of weeds and grass growing in them but it's easier to get that out when the water is running and the soil becomes soft. As I waited for the water to make it's way round and to soak into the beds, I started to pick our first beans of the year. Nice and small, like a french bean to look at and that's what they taste like too. Just need topping and tailing, a couple of minutes in boiling water and served with a drizzle of oil, or - as we did - a knob of garlic butter and diced chorizo.
 |
| The first 400 grams of baby beans. |
Friday, 18 March 2011
Back to normal...
....or not really. For many years I had back problems, finally found a consultant who realised what the problem was, not a pulled muscle but a torn ligament. The answer to my problem was to strengthen the muscles around the ligament to support it better. We bought an excellent book which I recommend to everyone and it's available on Amazon
No problems for about 6 years until Tuesday when it started to drizzle so I moved the airer of wet washing under cover. If you - or I - lift something heavy at arms length, then the weight pulls on your lower back and ping! It's not really a ping but there's definitely a pain and I know to be extra careful for a few days. Unfortunately later that night Pip decided to go to sleep on our bed and I - very carefully - moved her off. But not carefully enough and that extra strain has completely done for me.
First thing in the morning I have to stretch my back before I can even think about getting out of bed, no way can I put on socks until I've loosened up and our morning walk, which actually does me good, is more of a waddle than a walk. The further I go, the looser I get and by the time we've done our usual circuit I'm striding out with no sign of tension.
But then I sit down for breakfast and tighten up again. Bed-making is quite difficult, more of it done on my knees than standing and so the day progresses. There are lots of weeds to be dug out and peas to be planted and although I can do that kneeling, it also involves stretching forwards so not this week!
I have picked oranges though and so we have more juice, but instead of sorbet I have made an orange jelly.
Yes, another recipe!
1 pint of fresh orange juice,
1 sachet (10g) gelatine
4 tablespoons hot water
Put the gelatine onto the hot water, leave for a minute or so to melt then stir till dissolved and clear. Warm through if necessary but don't boil. Add to the juice, mix and pour into dishes/wine glasses. Put in the fridge for a couple of hours and an almost instant dessert. My recipe says 6 wine glasses - mine must be huge because it's only filled 2 of them - they are 300ml glasses though!
Haven't tried it but you can add Cointreau....
Just top it with cream and enjoy.
No problems for about 6 years until Tuesday when it started to drizzle so I moved the airer of wet washing under cover. If you - or I - lift something heavy at arms length, then the weight pulls on your lower back and ping! It's not really a ping but there's definitely a pain and I know to be extra careful for a few days. Unfortunately later that night Pip decided to go to sleep on our bed and I - very carefully - moved her off. But not carefully enough and that extra strain has completely done for me.
First thing in the morning I have to stretch my back before I can even think about getting out of bed, no way can I put on socks until I've loosened up and our morning walk, which actually does me good, is more of a waddle than a walk. The further I go, the looser I get and by the time we've done our usual circuit I'm striding out with no sign of tension.
But then I sit down for breakfast and tighten up again. Bed-making is quite difficult, more of it done on my knees than standing and so the day progresses. There are lots of weeds to be dug out and peas to be planted and although I can do that kneeling, it also involves stretching forwards so not this week!
I have picked oranges though and so we have more juice, but instead of sorbet I have made an orange jelly.
Yes, another recipe!
1 pint of fresh orange juice,
1 sachet (10g) gelatine
4 tablespoons hot water
Put the gelatine onto the hot water, leave for a minute or so to melt then stir till dissolved and clear. Warm through if necessary but don't boil. Add to the juice, mix and pour into dishes/wine glasses. Put in the fridge for a couple of hours and an almost instant dessert. My recipe says 6 wine glasses - mine must be huge because it's only filled 2 of them - they are 300ml glasses though!
Haven't tried it but you can add Cointreau....
Just top it with cream and enjoy.
Monday, 14 March 2011
Another nice surprise.
Way back in November 2009 I wrote a post called 'a nice surprise and other things' and mentioned a couple from Rye that we'd met who were in this area on a walking holiday. They subsequently sent us some much appreciated oxo cubes and since then have sent shower caps which we use to cover the wine during fermentation and the bread dough while it's rising.
Over the past 18 months they have kept in touch with us via the blog and e-mail and are back again on another walking holiday. Yesterday they walked down from Berchules to join us for lunch and brought with them some more oxos, 2 shower caps and - even nicer - a box of M & S chocolates!
We wined and tapas'd them during the afternoon - garlic and cumin toasted almonds, salsa verde, (green tomatoes, green chillis, coriander leaf, garlic and onions put through the liquidiser and dolloped onto slices of bread,) fabada (a rich pork casserole with lots of onions and garlic,) curried jabalí, cheese and membrillo (quince paste) then finally orange sorbet to finish. Plus of course, bread. No meal is complete without a basket of bread. Six tapas should have been six glasses of wine but I think we drank a few more than that.....The sun shone for us and although it clouded over later, it didn't rain. They were collected by the hotel transport at the end of a very enjoyable afternoon and we went indoors to catch up with the the rugby.
Of course, we had to try the chocolates, after all they'd come a long way and they were delicious. I say were delicious, we haven't eaten them all, only had a sample. Still plenty left for tonight.
Over the past 18 months they have kept in touch with us via the blog and e-mail and are back again on another walking holiday. Yesterday they walked down from Berchules to join us for lunch and brought with them some more oxos, 2 shower caps and - even nicer - a box of M & S chocolates!
We wined and tapas'd them during the afternoon - garlic and cumin toasted almonds, salsa verde, (green tomatoes, green chillis, coriander leaf, garlic and onions put through the liquidiser and dolloped onto slices of bread,) fabada (a rich pork casserole with lots of onions and garlic,) curried jabalí, cheese and membrillo (quince paste) then finally orange sorbet to finish. Plus of course, bread. No meal is complete without a basket of bread. Six tapas should have been six glasses of wine but I think we drank a few more than that.....The sun shone for us and although it clouded over later, it didn't rain. They were collected by the hotel transport at the end of a very enjoyable afternoon and we went indoors to catch up with the the rugby.
Of course, we had to try the chocolates, after all they'd come a long way and they were delicious. I say were delicious, we haven't eaten them all, only had a sample. Still plenty left for tonight.
Friday, 11 March 2011
Yorkshire puddings and pancakes.
We had an extended Shrove Tuesday - it started on Sunday and finished this morning.
I know that Yorkshire puddings and pancakes are different but they both use flour, eggs and milk so......
We don't often eat pancakes, I don't know why as they are so economical and so tasty and quick to make. Usually we have Yorkshire puddings with our Sunday roast dinner - although it's a tradition to eat them with roast beef, we rarely buy that and eat them instead with pork, chicken or jabalí (yes, there's still some in the freezer)
Last Sunday was a roast pork day plus Yorkshire puddings. We only ate half of them, the other half did another meal with some of the left-over pork which I minced up and made into albondigas and served with a really thick onion gravy. More caramelised onions than gravy but gorgeous. There was also some batter left so I put it in the fridge and on Tuesday I added some more milk to thin it slightly and we had traditional pancakes. They were so delicious that on Wednesday I made scotch pancakes for a mid-afternoon snack (totally unnecessary but lovely) and the remaining scotch pancakes we had for breakfast today.
I know that Yorkshire pudding batter and traditional pancakes have a slightly different balance of eggs, milk and flour but the batter worked surprisingly well as a pancake. Maybe the addition of a big dollop of red grape jelly helped - although by the time I'd rolled the pancakes up it had melted and run out onto the plate.
And the traditional lemon and sugar pancake? Well it was raining and the lemons were still on the tree. It's drizzling again and the lemons are still waiting - we'll just have to have pancakes again another day!
To make scotch pancakes you need:
120 g self raising flour 1 egg and 1/4 pint milk whisked together
30 g sugar
pinch of salt
Add egg and milk mixture to dry ingredients and whisk well. Drop 1 tablespoon onto a hot greased pan / griddle. When the surface bubbles, turn over and cook the other side. Makes 14.
Just add butter and jam.....so quick and easy!
I know that Yorkshire puddings and pancakes are different but they both use flour, eggs and milk so......
We don't often eat pancakes, I don't know why as they are so economical and so tasty and quick to make. Usually we have Yorkshire puddings with our Sunday roast dinner - although it's a tradition to eat them with roast beef, we rarely buy that and eat them instead with pork, chicken or jabalí (yes, there's still some in the freezer)
Last Sunday was a roast pork day plus Yorkshire puddings. We only ate half of them, the other half did another meal with some of the left-over pork which I minced up and made into albondigas and served with a really thick onion gravy. More caramelised onions than gravy but gorgeous. There was also some batter left so I put it in the fridge and on Tuesday I added some more milk to thin it slightly and we had traditional pancakes. They were so delicious that on Wednesday I made scotch pancakes for a mid-afternoon snack (totally unnecessary but lovely) and the remaining scotch pancakes we had for breakfast today.
I know that Yorkshire pudding batter and traditional pancakes have a slightly different balance of eggs, milk and flour but the batter worked surprisingly well as a pancake. Maybe the addition of a big dollop of red grape jelly helped - although by the time I'd rolled the pancakes up it had melted and run out onto the plate.
And the traditional lemon and sugar pancake? Well it was raining and the lemons were still on the tree. It's drizzling again and the lemons are still waiting - we'll just have to have pancakes again another day!
To make scotch pancakes you need:
120 g self raising flour 1 egg and 1/4 pint milk whisked together
30 g sugar
pinch of salt
Add egg and milk mixture to dry ingredients and whisk well. Drop 1 tablespoon onto a hot greased pan / griddle. When the surface bubbles, turn over and cook the other side. Makes 14.
Just add butter and jam.....so quick and easy!
Tuesday, 1 March 2011
Yet more jars of food.
Yet more jars of home grown produce on the kitchen shelves. I've just added three very large jars of red cabbage in a sweet vinegar. I'm not really keen on vinegary things but the addition of a tablespoon of sugar to each pint of vinegar just takes the edge off that strong taste that makes me shudder! I used white wine vinegar although if I'd had enough I think red wine vinegar would have been a better colour with red cabbage.
The shelves are beginning to groan under the weight of the jars of olives, tomatoes, almonds, dried fruits, chutneys, jalapeños, jams and marmalade, onions, capers, walnuts and now cabbage that we have preserved so far. Not mention the produce that is in the freezers - yes freezers, as in more than one. At the moment the orange trees are laden and most days I pick a couple of dozen while out on the morning dog walk and either squeeze for juice, or if we have enough then it gets frozen into cartons which we have kept from bought juice and as an alternative, today I am experimenting making sorbet.
None of the recipe suggestions that I have give any indication of how many scoops they make, I've used 250ml juice plus 50g sugar today to see how many servings we get.
Unfortunately the gorgeous sunshine has gone and it's not really sorbet weather but it just needs one more whizz before we sample it tonight. And then I may tinker with the ingredients - the addition of vodka sounds rather nice to me. Another suggestion was to add grated zest or finely shredded peel for extra taste and for a 70's retro touch to serve it in a scraped clean orange half.
The shelves are beginning to groan under the weight of the jars of olives, tomatoes, almonds, dried fruits, chutneys, jalapeños, jams and marmalade, onions, capers, walnuts and now cabbage that we have preserved so far. Not mention the produce that is in the freezers - yes freezers, as in more than one. At the moment the orange trees are laden and most days I pick a couple of dozen while out on the morning dog walk and either squeeze for juice, or if we have enough then it gets frozen into cartons which we have kept from bought juice and as an alternative, today I am experimenting making sorbet.
None of the recipe suggestions that I have give any indication of how many scoops they make, I've used 250ml juice plus 50g sugar today to see how many servings we get.
Unfortunately the gorgeous sunshine has gone and it's not really sorbet weather but it just needs one more whizz before we sample it tonight. And then I may tinker with the ingredients - the addition of vodka sounds rather nice to me. Another suggestion was to add grated zest or finely shredded peel for extra taste and for a 70's retro touch to serve it in a scraped clean orange half.
Thursday, 17 February 2011
Baking day.
One thing I've noticed when cooking tried and tested recipes here is that they don't always come out the same as they did when we lived in England. The reason for that is the altitude that we now live at - 900m above sea level. Boiling point of water decreases with altitude and cooking times have to be adjusted - my pressure cooker book says over 600m above sea level, recipes cooked at H pressure should be increased by one minute for every 300m. Big fat fluffy dumplings that used to be steamed for 10 minutes are now done for 15 minutes at H pressure and even then they only fluff up if made much smaller.
The other noticeable difference is setting point of jams, jellies and marmalade. Boiling point is lower and gel setting point too - I don't have a jam thermometer but have found a lot of "cooking at altitude" web sites, and at 900m gel point is 101° whereas at sea level it is 104°. I just keep stirring and testing the jam on a cold saucer from the freezer till it sets. That is also a good way to keep tasting the jam as it seems a shame to wash it off and waste it!
Today I've been making marmalade. No idea what type of oranges we have, some are small and some are big with an open end which usually has a baby orange tucked inside. I have a feeling those are Navels but not too certain. Anyway, we now have 5 jars cooling in the kitchen. The jams and jellies this year have varied - the peach and fig jams set well but the grape jelly is nicknamed grape runny. It's fine when you spoon it out of the jar but when it hits hot buttery toast it runs off, like runny honey.
While waiting for the marmalade to cook, I also made a fruit cake. A nice easy recipe: you melt everything in the saucepan, cool it, add the flour, baking powder and bicarb and bake in a loaf tin. But as there were no raisins or sultanas I used chopped black figs instead. It's just as delicious, maybe not as moist but certainly not dry. This is another tried and tested recipe that I've been making for more years than I care to remember....you can tell because it's all in ounces not grams!
4 oz soft dark brown sugar 1/2 lb plain flour
3 oz butter or margarine 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice 1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 lb raisins or sultanas
1 tea cup water
Put all the ingredients of the first column in a pan and bring to a boil. Allow to cool. Sift flour etc into melted ingredients and mix. Put into a loaf tin - I use a non-stick one but grease it just in case. Bake 170° for about 1 hour.
If like me you don't always have the right things, demerera sugar and sultanas give a paler cake than dark sugar and raisins, but the flavour is just as good. Experiment!
Buen Provecho!
The other noticeable difference is setting point of jams, jellies and marmalade. Boiling point is lower and gel setting point too - I don't have a jam thermometer but have found a lot of "cooking at altitude" web sites, and at 900m gel point is 101° whereas at sea level it is 104°. I just keep stirring and testing the jam on a cold saucer from the freezer till it sets. That is also a good way to keep tasting the jam as it seems a shame to wash it off and waste it!
Today I've been making marmalade. No idea what type of oranges we have, some are small and some are big with an open end which usually has a baby orange tucked inside. I have a feeling those are Navels but not too certain. Anyway, we now have 5 jars cooling in the kitchen. The jams and jellies this year have varied - the peach and fig jams set well but the grape jelly is nicknamed grape runny. It's fine when you spoon it out of the jar but when it hits hot buttery toast it runs off, like runny honey.
While waiting for the marmalade to cook, I also made a fruit cake. A nice easy recipe: you melt everything in the saucepan, cool it, add the flour, baking powder and bicarb and bake in a loaf tin. But as there were no raisins or sultanas I used chopped black figs instead. It's just as delicious, maybe not as moist but certainly not dry. This is another tried and tested recipe that I've been making for more years than I care to remember....you can tell because it's all in ounces not grams!
4 oz soft dark brown sugar 1/2 lb plain flour
3 oz butter or margarine 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice 1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 lb raisins or sultanas
1 tea cup water
Put all the ingredients of the first column in a pan and bring to a boil. Allow to cool. Sift flour etc into melted ingredients and mix. Put into a loaf tin - I use a non-stick one but grease it just in case. Bake 170° for about 1 hour.
If like me you don't always have the right things, demerera sugar and sultanas give a paler cake than dark sugar and raisins, but the flavour is just as good. Experiment!
Buen Provecho!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
