curry and lemon

Saw a lovely looking simple recipe for charred preserved lemon in Irish times Magazine this week, but can't find it online. Made it but haven't tasted it yet.

3 (unwaxed) lemons, mine weren't so had to de-wax them
4 bay leaves
tsp pink peppercorns
tsp salt
tsp coriander seeds

Halve lemons and grill (recipe said do it on proper BBQ grill, but not available.  About 10 minutes on each side, until caramelised - I used blow torch on them to get a bit more colour.

into a clean sterilised kilner jar with all other ingredients for at least three days, so should be OK now, will try at weekend.

Made a thali (mixed Indian small bowls / plates) at weekend

Lamb curry, lentil curry, rice, chapati, red onion / tomato salad, tomato relish, raiti, brinjali pickle (from a jar), chilli pickle, bombay potatoes.

Had a couple of chapatis left, so I filled them with left over lentil curry and have shallow fried, like a savoury pancake -   tomorrow's lunch.

Nothing planned for this weekend, more decorating and think about packing for hols week after

cooking and chillies

Making pizza tonight, usual chilli, tuna and salami, made some curry cauliflower for lunches, below:

Mix garma (chickpea) flour with garma masala, chilli flakes, salt and pepper, cut cauliflower into large chunks, roll in flour mix, onto a lightly greased oven dish, hot oven for about 30-40 minutes, turn once.

Drying some home-grown chillies in the greenhouse, looks v pretty - what do you think?

The Chameleon

Meeting San in town after work yesterday at fairly short notice, so we hadn't booked anything, after a bit of to and fro we decided that having walked past The Chameleon plenty of times and talked about trying it.  Although it is in Temple Bar, not my favourite place, we would chance a walk in.  They had a table, for an hour and half, well long enough for us.  We had the set menu plus another tapas and a bao.  The set menu was 7 tapas size dishes, so right up out street.

A carafe of house red with it, the short rib, satay, bao, fried veg and salad were all great, nothing bad in the rest.  Little pots of sweet and hot chilli and great pickled veg were brilliant as well.

Making pizza tonight, also have a cauliflower to spice / roast and soaking butter beans, maybe with chorizo or jamon for a couple of lunches.  Roast chicken tomorrow

charcuterie

Didn't have pasta last night, had a big tea out with A before her flight, will have it tomorrow, leg of lamb marinaded overnight for today with roast potatoes, carrots, marrowfat peas (horror, but San loves them).  Thinking of fried rice for tomorrow, need some veg.

Instead last night had

Cheddar, d'Auvergne, Port Salud, sliced jamon and fuet with my tomato jam / relish on crackers

last of the harvest and chilli sauce

Got the last of the (mostly green) tomatoes and chillies from the patio / greenhouse.

Have some of the chillies drying in greenhouse, rest in the kitchen, will see which works better, half about 1/2 kg in the freezer.

With the tomatoes and chillies I made a sauce.

Sweated a red onion and 4 cloves of garlic in oil, for about 5 minutes added 3 anchovies, ginger, (loads of) chopped chillies, cooked for about another 10 minutes, then diced mixed tomatoes, brown sugar, cider vinegar, splash of fish sauce and reduced.

Into a couple of jars, very hot, so not for anyone else...

Been a long couple of weeks, but with the lovely A visiting, going home today.  Italian sausage in home-made tomato sauce with pasta tonight, leg of lamb with family tomorrow.

A bit of veg

So A is home for a week, so vegetarian only food and trying to be creative, veg soup (I HATE soup) but they like it, lots of eggs, veg curries, even a sneaky chips from the chippy... Truffles and flapjacks

Today I did bean burger, sort of based on Guardian recipe.

Boil potatoes, fry red onion and half a pepper, garlic, chilli.  Once the potatoes are soft, mash with half a tin of butter beans and a knob of butter, add other half of tin, roughly chopped, sweated down veg, salt, pepper, cumin and corriander, squeeze of lemon juice and handful of frozen peas.  Make into patties.

Chill in fridge then dredge in polenta, shallow fry.  Serve with  homemade  cole slaw, and a salsa of home grown tomatoes, cucumber and red onion in garlic olive oil.  Everyone happy - more truffles

weekend

No particular plans, went to Spice of India in Swords last night, very good value.  I've a bit of a cold so a little spice helps, but little sense of taste this morning, coffee could be instant.

Some more tomatoes and chillies this morning, a friend at work got me these really cute little Tabasco sauces, good for holidays.

Planning maybe burger / steak with salad and potato wedges today, no idea for tomorrow yet

Freezer, plants and cooking

So freezer died, we had been expecting it, but still lost a little bit of stuff, not too much and most of what is in there was on offer or short dated, but we don't like to waste anything.  At least it gave us a clean start, there were lollies in there for at least 3 years and some coriander that was probably old enough to vote.

So to christen it, made ragu, chilli, curry, bought a short dated chicken for breasts and legs, cooked the wings and made stock, all for the freezer.

I got a good harvest of toms and chillies from plant-pots and green-house respectively:


As I needed egg white to clarify the stock, I made mayo with the yolk, looks pretty, but I did slightly over vinegar it...
 

I also made some truffles:

250ml double cream, 50 grams of vanilla sugar (had it lurking, but recipe days soft brown), into a pan bring to boil, chop up 50g of butter and 250g of good dark chocolate (2 bars cheap in JCs) in a bowl, add in cream and stir until smooth - if it is still lumpy and cooled, out over a pan over water (a bain marie) to warm up and stir - this is a ganache.  Put in fridge for a couple of hours to set.

Use a melon baller to scoop out onto a tray lined with greaseproof paper.  I then left overnight in fridge.

I made 4 coatings, ground almonds, ground coconut, cocoa powder / vanilla sugar mixture and white chocolate (messiest, soften in microwave or bain marie, pick up truffle with a tooth pick and drizzle chocolate over it.  For the others just into a shallow bowl and rolled the truffle in them.  Back into fridge to re-harden.
a few examples below



Also made flapjacks from a very simple recipe with a slight change.  Half a bag of muesli ( had some I didn't like), tin of condensed milk and mix together, I added chopped figs, currants, crushed nuts, dessicated coconut and then a bit of honey, as it was a bit dry.  Into a medium oven for about half hour:




Risotto with pork later

Segovia and a bit more Madrid

Segovia, about an hour on bus North of Madrid was magical, probably prettier that Cuenca or Toledo, both previous trips out of Madrid very much like the Sicilian town of Taormina. Lots of good tapas, THE aquaduct and a fantastic meal of roast piglet (cochinillo - the town's dish) in Restaurante Jose Marie



Some great tapas, not a bad one in three days, best was this kind of stewed, maybe pickled lomo



Went back to Madrid, for last two days visited all old haunts, loved Malasna's regulars as well as around Sol.  We were staying near Principo Pio with a great view of the Royal Palace, went to a bar twice we have walked past before and is now definitely on our favourites - Restaurante El Urogallo.  Massive ladle full of great albondigas and potatoes for a tapas, good wine, went back for a couple of media racions, rabo del toro outstanding.

Home now, bit sad, tired and fridge freezer has died!!!

Back in Madrid

Very early flight to Madrid, three days, then three in Segovia, back to Madrid for a couple.  Staying in a tiny AirBnB apartment, will do a bit of cooking, but not too much.

Days of tapas yesterday, all the usual haunts, Alhambra, Cervantes, Fatigues, a couple of new ones near the apartment including the best crisps free tapas:


Bowls of crisps with slices of very good jamon, with our beers.

Had the old faithful jamon y potatos con huevos in Alhambra so v happy -San's fave meal in the world

Went for a walk this morning to Paeque del Oeste, saw sonething going on at the Simon de Bolivar monument - it being 6th August - Bolivian Independence Day, listened to speeches, bit of singing, National Anthem, some old one shouting Viva Bolivia and had a lovely empanada