Cooking and not going out

 Still in the depths of lockdown, presumably for most of 2021, maybe able to go out to eat in late summer or autumn, but not really expecting it.

The weather had improved, so starting on a few salads, but freezing again, so back to stews and curries.

Below, after a lovely slow roast lamb shoulder, we made kebabs.  Some OK wild garlic fettuccine with prawns, but I rolled the pasta too thin, so it went a bit claggy.

Great pork chops from Pat Whelans, a little lunch of sourdough croutons, anchovies, artichokes and basil

A couple of victoria sponges, for a change.  Terrible for my enormous belly, but what can one do in a lockdown but (cook and) eat shite?

Had another lovely take away from Mint Cottage in Malahide, still making bread, hopefully will not live to see another New Year, it's all too tiring

Plans

 Hmm 2 posts in a week, or even a month!

Weather has been slightly better the last couple of days, although forecast is a bit wet.  So with the deep slough of winter beginning to recede and the tiny chance there may be relaxation of lockdown in the second half of the year and even the very tiny possibility of travelling this year, I'm going to give myself some targets and see how I get on in this year.  Obviously the next couple of months are dead outside of the village, so I need to be realistic

Short term: cooking and eating in

Medium term: eating out

Long Term: travel

Cooking and eating in

From a cooking point of view I feel I need to do more different, the things I make I'm OK at, but I've a fairly short repertoire of maybe a few dozen dishes and their variants.  Gaps are only one Thai dish, little Chinese, almost no other SE Asian, Greek, BBQ, South American - obviously lots of this is dictated by what others will eat, but I still have lunches and I can try.

I've enjoyed the two "finish-at-home" meals we've bought, both high end and I'll probably get another one or two before, if ever, restaurants reopen - and I still don't really like takeaways, we've had about 6-10 in this lockdown year, as opposed to 1 or 2 a tear normally, a couple were good, one was really good, the rest forgettable.

Eating out

This, I think will be the biggest change, locally in the village, nowhere really worth going to, a couple of OKs.  Malahide has some and obviously Dublin in excellent.  However Dublin's high end is funded by business lunches, like many business cities and I doubt they will ever fully return.  Along with very high rents and business rates, the city centre eating landscape is bound to change a lot, possible unrecognisably.  But it's done so before and may do again.  There are always good cooks and always people looking for restaurants, so, while I think it will be very different, there will still be places.

There is an enormous build-up of Weddings, Christenings, Confirmations, Anniversaries, retirements, birthdays most with funds saved up, hopefully this will pour into the industry and sustain parts of it.

I think Michelin / Fine Dining will suffer without as much money from business and while I've had some great Fine Dining meals over the years, I'm probably missing this less than others.  After all I've chosen not to visit USA for the last 4 years and really like their pub food and plenty of other good stuff and it's not top of my list, so FD is not top of my list. 

Travel

This is the really hard bit, Dusseldorf, Madrid, Malaga, Nerja, Maputo, Palm Springs (after avoiding USA for 4 years), Rome, anywhere and everywhere else.  As the song says "Anywhere but here"

Very depressed about lack of travel, have money to spend and will be travelling up the front and eating and drinking good stuff if it ever happens.  One of the biggest lessons I will take from lockdown, if it ever ends, is you can't take it with you and we could get it taken away and curtailed over something real like a virus or imaginary, like brexit

Just made some cheese straws to try and fight in my losing battle against chocolate, they are lovely, so it's a thing :)

Another little gap :)

 So just haven't got around to updating anything in ages, done tons of cooking although nothing new.  The permanent lockdown will probably never really lift, so I'm resigned to never going abroad again, nor even going to a restaurant, if any still exist.

Apart from borderline alcoholism and a huge weight gain, lockdown has helped me hone my cooking skills, although there's no-one to eat it but us....

Sourdough bread and pizzas good, not even taking photos anymore, made batch today (Irish bread I don't like, but was asked to make it)

Had a couple of "finish at home" takeaway meals from Bon Appetit and Unos Mas, both great and would try some more

Uno Mas

Bon Appetit

Will keep cooking, will try and drink less and try to update this when I make something  new or in the unlikely event I go anywhere further than Lidl or Dunnes

Very up and down weekend

 So the plan for the weekend just gone was to go into town, stay in a reasonable hotel, cheaper than taxi in and out, eat again in the fantastic Richmond  in Portobello and breakfast on Sunday in Alma.  However back in strict lockdown, restaurants only open if outdoors, so that's gone and next month's trip up to Belfast looks gone as well, as the whole UK is back in chaos.

For the recipe below I did want Aleppo chilli (pul bibir) and was hoping to find some in town, as neither Indian shop in Swords has it.

So I had to cook, saw a decent looking recipe cooked by Sabrina Ghayour on the BBC for Tepsi Kebab, simple kind of lamb meatloaf.  I'm going to look at her books, maybe Feast

Did it with za'atar roasted cauliflower, tabbula, mint yoghurt, hummus, broad bean, feta carrot and red onion salad with flatbreads.  Very happy with it.

Had the rest in shop bought flat breads with some salad last night, bread was shite, way too thin, fell apart (Dunnes, as bad a Lidl)

Banetons

 



Finally bought a banneton from Kells, they had round rectangular ones out of stock for months and got square ones in this week, so got one of each size, first loaf, not bad.  Had some with lovely mermelade sent by Gabriel from Tapas de Cervantes.

Continuing on a Spanish theme, a bean and chorizo dish, with really disappoinlty rubbish hake, which I love, but won't buy from a supermarket again

Biryani, cauliflower curry and raita with roasted chicken

Off to Shouk tonight, looking forward to it, except driving, as it's an excellent BYOB, but Covid means no buses for us :(

Couple of good meals out and a bit more in the kitchen

Went to  Kin Khao in Athlone and Rasam in Dun Laoghaire, both great, while it's not great, not going for a pint before a meal out, both places did COVID really well, very welcoming and food was fantastic.

 

Spring rolls and beer from Kin Khao above 

As the kids were here I made chicken nuggets and chips:

Went down a treat and adults were happy as well.

Going to Osteria Lucio tomorrow, looking forward to it, I've not been, she's been once and liked it, I used to cycle past it every night, when I was last working in town , so it's been on my lst for a long time.

The (small) benefit of lockdown

While little good has come from COVID, apart from people being nicer and probably never going back to the office full time, I've found having the time at home and doing a lot of sourdough work, it has improved all of my cooking, in a few ways.

I'm naturally clumsy and heavy handed, having the time and taking it has really increased my attention to detail, I'm doing things slower, double checking things, making careful notes and re-reading things.

I made some yeast bread for someone a couple of weeks ago, I've not made any for a least a year and it was as good as I've ever done.  I made fresh pasta and then tortellini, usually I make raviolo and there's always one or two splits.

I'm also being more choosy with ingredients, it comes partly from being restricted in the first few weeks and having to shop at more expensive farm shops or online and really appreciating the quality.

A bit like shopping in the market in Malaga or Sevilla, I appreciate good tinned tomatoes, olive oil, eggs, meat and am willing and can afford to pay for them - I realise this isn't possible for everyone and you can make great food with the cheapest ingredients.  

After boiling some ham, I cut the boiled fat off, dried it and made lovely pork scratchings

I did a good mushroom risotto as well

 

More sourdough fun

Tried a sun-dried tomato and fennel seed sourdough, turned out very well.  I used the Lidl semi-dried tomatoes rather than from a jar in oil, as I wasn't sure how the oil would affect the dough.

Tastes great, I used a slightly different kneading method.  40 minutes autolysis, then once an hour, 20-25 folds, while rotating the bowel for 6 hours, then overnight in fridge, then baked it until a bowel for 25 mins on full gas 8, then 20 minutes uncovered at gas mark 6.

sourdough pizza and a bit of Spanish

We got a delivery from one of favourite restaurants in Malaga Tapeo de Cervantes with wine, olive oil, cheeses and meats:

While not cheap, absolutely fantastic quality and really tasted of great Spanish tapas.

As my sourdough bread is doing well I decided to try both a sourdough pizza and the frying pan / grill method of cooking, done it twice now and have to say they have been the best pizzas I've made.  I followed Patrick Ryan's recipe, I made the sauce from ingredients from the Italian Ripasso delivery and got the mozzarella from our local cafe in Swords, Cafe Tara. 

First Batch: margherita, neapolitan, ham

Second batch: margherita, chilli beef, tuna, peppers and red onion and ham / salami

Then I made some apple and pecan muffins this morning :)