Burgers

Had a winner today.
Made burgers, handful of prok mince, 2 handfuls of beef mince, blitzed inch of chorizo.  Made burgers
Oven roasted tomatoes with thyme, garlic olive oil and balsamic, then blended to make a tomato jam
Tomato, red onion and cucumber saled, last one I made was a bit wet, this one maybe a bit dry.....
Coleslaw, grated carrot and white cabbage in mayonaise.

Starter was chicken wings, dusted in cumin,corriader, salt, pepper and chilli. Had with sour creme, blue cheese and peeled celery.

Pan roast buurger, flipped once then into oven.  While burgers rested, made parmesan crisps.

Assembed toasted buns, tomato jam, burger, parmesan crisp, sliced picked chilli on mine, colseslaw, served with tomato salad.  We loved it

ANU, pride, seagrass and pints

So went into town to see Glorious Madness by ANU, third production we've seen, first was in Henrietta Street about the 1913 Dublin lock out and tenement living, next was PALS about training for and going to Gallipoli in 1915, this one was a teaser for their 1916 programme about the Rising.  As always harrowing, funny in parts, very immersive and well acted, running about Abbey and O'Connell Streets.

Gay Pride was going on all around, which added to the Madness, very noisy and inclusive, including a lot of bandwagon jumping companies and politicos.

Pint of Full Sail in Against the Grain, then as we were walking it started raining do dived into the Village on Camden Street for a quick old school Guinness.

Seagrass, being the sister restaurant of Vintage Kitchen, promised much and too be honest didn't really hit the mark.  We took a Campo Viejo Reserva 2006, as it is also BYO and no corkage, which is always a winner.  I had a vegetable risotto with a big cheese crisp, that was fine, but not really risotto, the veg (beans, broccoli etc) was perfect, San had a fish soup that was really a tomato soup with a few mussels added, with strangely tomato sauce on the side with the bread.
They were out of ham hock, which I'd been told was good, so I went for the cod special, San the chicken supreme in garlic, menu did not seem to suggest it was asian in flavour and she is not a huge fan.  Cod was lovely, skin perfect, not all veg was cooked through.  All in all passable, but we won't be back in a hurry.

Dawson Lounge for a pint on way back to bus, great day.

Planning on burgers today with salads and rolls

Salad week

Monday:  Left over roast beef with green salad
Tuesday: Grilled salmon - rock salt, drizzle of olive oil skin side up, when starting to crisp, flip over, touch more salt and oil, when just cooked, squirt of lemon juice serve with green salad
Wednesday: Thai fishcakes, recipe as on recipe page, fix mixed smoked / unsmoked from Lidl with green salad

Have a surfeit of basil so made Pesto Genovese, basil, pine nuts, garlic, parmesan, EV olive oil into blender, made three little bags from a plant and froze them

Tomorrow: Chilli from freezer

Curry and Roast

Yesterday, had a visitor, so few pints, got a curry out of freezer - lamb and spinach, made chapattis and rice to go with it.  Started with mint and cucumber raita, red onion, tomato and chilli salad and mango chutney from a jar with half a dozen little popadoms that needed frying, tricky little beggars, kept trying to curl up, so had to turn often.

Roast beef, carrots, potatoes, peas and a  lamb gravy - from freezer today.  Meat in, just about to start the roast patatoes.

Bye

L'Ecrivain

Great business lunch today from Zinopy / Citrix in L'Ecrivain, as always impeccably organised by Lolly.

Glass of prosecco in bar, private room for presentation and lunch, red was a good chianti, great bread.

I had mushroom tea - poured over a couple of excellent tortellini, main of lamb with magnificent gnocchi and roast parsnips, sides of champ, carrots and chips
 Pre-dessert assiette of raspberries I think and a dessert of dark chocolate millefeuille.

Coffee and petit fours - smoked fudge being the outstanding one, staff as always excellent, have a meal booked next month,can't wait

Campo Viejo Tapas Trail

Once again with feeling,
5th time in Dublin (plus twice in Cork) Tapas Trail
Salamanca: started with a cava then 2009 Rioja Reserva, goats cheese croquets, toast with pate, padron (fairly hot), chistora and fried quails egg and salmon slider all on a sweet sauce
Zaragoza:  Rioja, goat's cheese in filo with apple sauce, prawn pil-pil and pork cheek albondigas
Baggot Hutton:  Meat and cheese board (brie, smoked, olives, good bread, salami, parma,parmesan, rocket and more) with rioja
Finally
Drury Buildings: Dark chocolate slice with hazelnut (?) and a very bitter citrus (maybe something like a kumquat) with rioja

As always a great night, well chaperoned by John with a couple of dozen other people, all seemed to enjoy.  Obv back next year and try a sneaky Galway if we can slide it in this year....

Merguez Sauage casserole

Bought some merguez sausages last time we were in the English Market in Cork, found a couple in the bottom of freezer.
Roasted them for about 20 minutes, added a couple of chopped onions and peppers and a few cloves of garlic, after about 15 more minutes. Into pressure cooker, added two tins of tomatoes, one of chickpeas, good pinch of salt and some ras el hanout I bought in Dusseldorf market cook for half hour, removed lid to reduce slightly, added half a handful of fresh chopped parsley and stir, chek seasoning.  Serve and add another slack handful of fresh parsley on top.

Tapas Trail in Dublin tomorrow night

Fish Lasagna

Oven on high, cut about 1/2 pound tomatoes in half, onto baking tray drizzle with olive oil, bake for about 20 minutes.
Defrost 1/2 bag spinach

sweat diced shallots, garlic in olive oil, add 1/2 bottle of white wine and reduce, blitz, add about 1/2 pint of water bring back to boil, add tub of cream cheese and a little corn flour / mustard flour paste to thicken.  When cooled slightly, add fish (I had a Lidl fish mix, a salmon darne I diced and a tub of cooked prawns - raw would have been better)

Oven gas mark 6.

In an ovenproof dish, sheet of lasagna, layer of spinach, layer of roast tomato, layer of mozzarella, layer of fish in sauce, repeat 2 more layers, ricotta on top.

Brown under hot grill once cooked through, really enjoyed it, some left for 2 lunches.  Left over roast chicken and green salad tonight.

Quiet weekend

Allotment this morning, weeding and watering, got some baby leeks.

Chilli last night from freezer, made a guacamole to go with it:
Guacamole:
Buy avocado last week!

mash avocado, add chilli flakes, chopped oven roast tomatoes (made these a month ago and have in olive oil in fridge), chopped scallion, salt, pepper and lime juice - San does not like coriander.

Tortilla chips on plate grate cheese over, in this case a bit of Cheshire I had left, microwave for about 30 seconds, spoon over reheated chilli serve with guacamole, sour cream (but we decided not to use) and chilli pickle for me to give it a kick.

Standard roast chicken today, will make stock tonight or in morning, tomorrow - not sure...

Good week to look forward to, plan on Thai fishcakes one night,  Campo Viejo Tapas Trail for 5th year in Dublin on Wednesday, business lunch in L'Ecrivan Friday, old friend from The Engerland coming over Saturday for pints, cooking for San's family for Father's day on Sunday

Allotment in morning more watering and weeding, might make some fresh pasta or maybe BBQ

Birthday

Malahide for San's Birthday, Proseco for her and own brand stout for me in Gibney's, very pleasant.


Off to Bon Apetit for tapas, we had a voucher from Christmas, service excellent, half a dozen tapas, bread and dips, Toulouse sausages, calamari, meatballs, fish croquets and deconstructed cheesecake.  I thought the sausage was best, San the calamari, but too much, both loved the dessert.  Pleasant walk around sunny Malahide then bus home.

egg muffins

For a change, followed(-ish) a recipe from someone FB post from an Oz TV website for egg muffins.

Chopped green bits of scallions, de-seeded diced tomatoes, chopped Cheshire (only because that was open) cheese, diced smoked salmon, 7 eggs beaten

Butter muffin tray (12 hole), sprinkle scallion, tomato, cheese on 6, salmon on 6.  Pour on beaten egg, bake at Gas 6 for about 20/25 minutes.  Served with green salad (baby gem, cherry tomatoes, scallions, cucumber and carrot), dressed with garlic olive oil and lemon juice.

Winner!

Have 4 left for lunch tomorrow, will be trying a few more variation of this in future.

Allotment, pub and roast pork

Bit of weeding in the allotment and re-potting in the greenhouse over the weekend, went out for a pint (I had ribs, she has chick goujons)  in The Well on Friday, Roast pork, potatoes done in the duck fat I still have, green beans and carrots.  Made gravy from juices with a veg and a duck stock I had in freezer, pretty good.  Sunday as it was a lovely day, did a BBQ type things, but indoors.

Burger:
mince beef, a couple of inches of chorizo, whizzed up in blender, mixed together, the chorizo means I don't have to season.  Split into 4, make 4 thin patties on top of two put some cheese, cheddar in this case and some relish, I had a bit of red onion relish I made a few months ago and a chutney someone gave me.  Put the other patties on top and press together to seal in cheese and relish.

Wedges:
Steam potatoes, let dry, cut into wedges, season with salt, pepper and chilli into an oven-proof dish gas 7 with oil, garlic in this case.

Get girdle pan v hot, put the burgers in, turn once and put in bottom of oven, til cooked through.  Rest for 5 minutes, server with wedges and a green salad.

Leftover wedges and roast port tonight, dunno tomorrow and Tapas in Bon Appetite for San's Birthday on Wednesday

Curry

Pronounced kerry where I am from, nothing much to report, marinated lamb gigot chops (cheap shite) in yoghurt and homemade garam masala overnight, into pressure cooker - fried off added onions cooked a bit longer then ginger, garlic and chilli, old tomatoes chopped, some duck stock from freezer, tomato purée, chopped peppers, lid on about an hour and half, lid off, bit more garam masala, salt -  reduce.  Made best rice in ages, last minute, half a bag of frozen spinich into curry, soon as defrosted served with rice - HIT

Bag that got lost on route IAD - DUB arrived, everything in it, especially a couple of bottles of craft beer, just finished one :)

Washington DC

Went to Washington for the long weekend, up the front on the plane on way out, food pretty good and Rioja excellent, coach on way home, reasonable cottage pie, bit of stodge and just about drinkable wine. 3 nights in DC so mostly standard US pub food wings, burgers, fries, pizza etc, nothing out of this world but all great, service unsurpassed, some pretty good craft beers.  PF Changs, also faultless for what it is. Washington great city, sightseeing, transport, museums, galleries, sites and people - Arlington a particular highlight.

Food at home not worth mentioning over last couple of weeks, all standard, will only post if worth talking about.  Tapas Trail to comes to Dublin in a couple of weeks, so will run over previous ones.  Couple of other meals lined up, so might have something to write about, next holiday Chicago with Boy next month.  Allotment weekend and a bit of work with stuff in freezer hopefully