Instagram

I was listening to Radio 4's The Food Program about Instagram this morning and found it really arresting, as someone who photos food, mostly for myself and a couple of friends, obviously some for this (unread) blog and occasionally, though now rarely, Facebook.  As I don't use Instagram, it's a bit of a mystery to me, although the contributors seemed to suggest it was a nicer place than Twitter, so obviously nicer than FB as well, as they tend to both be miserable and / or shouty cesspits.

I thought the talk of influencers and people teaching how to take photos for Instagram - and being paid for it, were something of a revelation,  though I am too old and miserable for a bright and happy place - I did smile at the thought of a specifically Instagram friendly brand of pasta and trying to get seated at the the tables with the best light for photography

When I'm in the gym on a morning, there is a very fit attrative couple, there everyday who do a huge amount of work and document it as they go in a notebook, I've noticed now and again the they pause to take pictures / videos of eah other, I guess it is part of the same Insta-thing I'm just not with - but being old and fat as well as more interested in taste than looks in food, hardly surprising I'm out of touch

South Africa: winelands and Capetown

We flew up to Capetown from Joburg, picked up a car and drove to Franschhoek, wine train was fantastic value, ate lunch at Glen Carlou, very cheap and very fine dining:

TukTuk bewpub in Franschhoek was good, had a lunch in Boschendal:

Franschhoek is nice, if a little genteel and quiet, popped into Stellenbosch on way back to Capetown and thought it looked lovely, would stay there next time

Capetown was good, felt safer than Joburg, and Uber was v cheap, had great food, wine and beer, staayed in the best AirBnB we've had:

Would recommend Fork Tapas, Tiger's Milk and Beerhouse on Long St, Clerkes on Bree St and had a wonderful meal in Chef's warehouse (walk-in only)

Weather was great for the month, sites and scenery in Capetown were lovely, although a bit short of Art Galleries and Museums - went to Districk 6 Museum (and also Apartied Museum in JB), good, powerful, but really fucking depressing, like Schindler's Factory in Krakow.

Flew home via Istanbul, in two minds about visiting it, maybe a bit dodgy still and lots of others on the long list...

Mozambique, South Africa and babies

October was a trip to Mozambique and South Africa.  With family and baby in Maputo, so eating out was ex-pat, little bit cheaper than Dublin, nothing special, other than the company and some views

Local food is very dimple, maize and greens, apart from the bread pau (pauzinho is little rolls),  Prego Nao Pau is a minute steak sandwich, usually with a very hot piri-piri sauce on the side and I do like the beer, 2M and especially Lagunita Preta

She is bringing up the baby trying baby-led weaning, surprisingly (I though) going very well, different from her sister who is doing old school spoon feeding.  I cannot really talk as a young and terrible parent, anyone and any method is better than I did with Jack.

Made a fair bit of food for the baby and family, keeping salt and spice down and tring to make things Aoife could try herself when we left.

We all went into South Africa, a night in an AirBnB, with a couscous salad , cheese, fruit etc, the AirBnB hadd a great herb garden, so couscous was v good.

We then spent a few days in Johannesburg, bit dodgy, but around Fox St it's safe and very secured, food very cheap, beer and wine excellent.  We had a decent Mexican, an OK Italian, soom good food at Neighbourgoods Market  Che was fantastic,:

 They went back home to Maputo then and we few to Capetown - next post

Cloud egg

Saw a Cloud egg on a cooking program this week, had never heard of it, so looked it up ad made one will the oven was on today:

V simple, make a meringue, add a bit of salt when whisking, fold in some grated cheese (Gruyère in recipe, I used Cheshire). Onto greaseproof paper on a baking tray, make a well in middle, three minutes in hot oven, add the yolk into well, 3 or 4 more minutes in oven.  Lovely.

Was listening to Radio4 Food program, retrospective on Rowley Leigh, I though both the simple pasta recipe and the aquacotta sound lovely and will try both when I can.

Tomatoes, bread and pizza

Garden pots going very well, a few more gherkin and chillies, loads of tomatoes

A few different varieties, made some salads and a roasted tomato sauce for pizza and ragu.

I made my best every bread yesterday, a simple brown bread with fennel seeds and sliced up sun dried tomatoes (Lidl, not my own - not enough sun)

Does look anything special, but I really liked it

Made mini-pizzas last nigh, tuna & red onion, roast courgette, blue cheese & rocket, salami and rocket and jamon & a baked egg

Obvo, egg looked the winner, even San photo-ed it

Barcelona

We went to Barcelona for the long weekend, haven't been there for years, flights are better than Madrid at the moment, so will be back soon.

First difference I noticed, it seemed a lot less grubby and it seemed safer than before, I know they've put a huge effort into fighting the perceived pick-pocket threat and I know people who were mugged.

From a going out point of view the first difference is in Spain there are usually three beer sizes, cana, copa / tubo and jarra.  Barcelona doesn't seem to have cana (~20cl), if you ask for one, you get a copa.  They also don't have alcohol free beer on draft and I only saw one person drinking a bottle of it in 4 days.

The markets were great, food perfect, Vinitus ( Carrer del Consell de Cent) no website,  Ciutat Comtal (Ramblas), same menu, so obviously owned by the same team were both stand-outs.

and
El National was both a stunning building and great food, its a very upmarket food court, we would love to try some of the other sections, we ate in the Taperia, great fun

Great long weekend, not cheap, hotel up and down, but really enjoyed  rooftop pool and would definitely stay in Eixample again

Pickled

So,
Lidl were giving seeds away earlier this year, grew a bit of coriander (cilantro), some mixed lettuce and gherkins.  Got some really good gherkins

Chillies are starting as well and tomatoes will be bumper this year.  Pickled the gherkins, following this recipe and got this:

Really like them, will get another couple of gherkins of the plant - but need more kilner jars, especially as the toms will make a lot of sauce, chutney, relish, pickle etc

C and the baby are staying, so focusing on healthy food, doing roast veg, cauliflower cous-cous,  aubergines, peppers etc, not veggie, but lots of veggie, so concentrating on tasty sauces and dips to bring as much flavour as possible

Bread and burgers

Made a seeded brown loaf this morning

Still warm with some vintage cheddar, great breakfast.  Making bread, especially with a good KitchenAid is really rather easy, while it goes stale pretty quick, it is so nice - and I don't really like much bread

Burgers tonight

Simple green salad, potato wedges, made some roast garlic mayo, a bit of tomato chutney my Mam gave me last year / maybe year before for Christmas... still prefect, slice of good beef tomato from JCs, melted supermarket cheese

Some baking and Italian

Between contracts at the moment, but not cooking as much as I thought I might.  Plenty of other stuff to keep me busy.

Have made croissant dough from scratch, split it into four, froze three and used them up over the last month

The jam squares were better when I folded the edges in and I didn't retry the cinnamon ones, too much cinnamon and a bit grainy, but I wasn't really following a recipe....

In the next batch I put chocolate (dark was better than milk) in the croissants - very popular

I also made lovely sausage rolls, picture is rubbish though - we had some sauage meat in the freezer, probably from christmas

I made some bread, great hot, not bad toasted as well.  White below and a brown seed loaf (A had left some mixed seed from Lidl / Aldi when she was last here, sort of thing, as a veggie, she eats)

 As the weather is great, had coffee and apricots out side one day:

I had some friends over last week, started with the last of the croissants, made suppli, porcini raviolo in a butter sauce (with sage flowers), involtini, that I learned from the Italian cookery school, butternut squash risotto with rolled chicken breast in jamon (as proscuitto) stuffed with homemade pesto, will definately make this again, San really liked the leftovers we had the next day.  Followed by the crostana from the cookery school - San though the orange was too much.

As I has some left over aubergine bits from the involtini, when I was on my own I sliced, salted and griddled them, fried off red onion, peeled yellow pepper and garlic, mostly cooked some large pasta, mixed them all together with some green olives, anchovies and a small tomato sauce from the freezer. Tore up some old Cambozola from the back of the fridge on top and baked it, as below:

Really enjoyed it, I think the fact I only had a bit of sauce was a big plus, I would normally of put two or three times as much, but it would have been more about the tomato than the other ingredients, will also try less sauce with the next involtini

This, the rolled chicken breast (beaten with meat hammer between two sheets of cling film, laid on jamon / proscuittio,  with a stuffing a one end, then rolled up and baked) and the involtini will all be done again

 

Terra Madre

Planned on going to Terra Madre for a while, went yesterday, absolutely sublime, just like being in Italy, great olive oil and bread, shared the special mozzarella starter, with anchovies, pesto, sun dried tomatoes, fab cheese.  I had gnocchi with rabbit and wild mushroom ragu, San has special of (small  and the halved) beef ravioli, with plenty of extra bread to mop.  All fantastic, simple, great ingredients, although the rabbit could have been anything.  Couple of glasses of house Red (Nero) and an espresso for me.  Great staff, defo worth a visit.  Steak, salad, jacket potato tonight, chorizo and white beans for tomorrow lunch  - roasting in Dublin :)

little bit more on chapatis

So had the rest of the curry tonight and made more chapatis to make sure they worked - they did!

Don't know why the picture rotated - maybe it's a roti :)