What's everyone cooking this week?

[WWordsworth Profile]

It was tagliatelle puttanesca Member 461

[Alexandria Profile]

W. Wordsworth,

Lovely too !!

[jeral Profile]

Yes, thank goodness for Post-it notes to remember all these lovely things

Cooler here, as everywhere, so a bung it soup concoction. Starting off with eight curry spices in a bit of oil, then a bit of garlic and bit of a chilli, then sort of sadly the cooker hood on, tossed some white cabbage around, then sauteed with chopped surimi (faux crab) sticks, some tinned tuna, a few black olives (dunno why) and later a few defrosted mussels. Added some coconut milk and a bit of veg stock, simmered for a while, then blitzed the lot, adding more water to thin, then reheat. S&P to taste. It was very good (flavoursome) yet surprisingly didn't taste curried at all. Weird that.

Artichoke pate planned for tomorrow, using a tin of hearts. To go with a recipe for Turkish yeast-risen flatbread (I know, I know, but they call it a flatbread; it's soft like a naan bread) with zatar sprinkling on top It looks easy enough...

[Amyw Profile]

Good job really I couldn’t imagine a coconutty curried tuna and olive soup !!

Nothing excited today really. . Full fat yog and pineapple for breakfast then leftover sausages with roasted tomatoes , onions, carrots , fennel and smoked paprika in a kind of stew. Dinner was old school ham egg mayo salad

[Alexandria Profile]

We have had some very brisk windy cold weather, so
hot was the key.

As I am working from home this week, as there was
so much to organise, I have made a traditional
saffron and fish soup. (Sopa de pescado al azafrán).

Absolutely hit the spot ..

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Yesterday was a "I´m going to cook" day.
And I wanted, nay, DESIRED the ultimate comfort food.
So I made Heart Attack Potatoes:
1) knobs of butter in the bottom of a pyrex
2) a layer o sliced cooked potato
3) a layer of cream, and make it thick
4) more potatoes
5) a layer of diced, fried bacon
6) more potatoes
7) vast quantities of fried onion, with Cheddar Cheese sauce ( known here as CheezWhiz) on top
8) yet more potatoes, topped with streaky bacon.... and some tomato slices.
Baked for 40 minutes and eaten without a care in the world!!

But I also made some spinach & ricotta stuffed canneloni, a beetroot, lentil and blue cheese salad with tamarind dressing, a simple tomato sauce ( for pastas) and a pile of pancakes. (for breakfast)

[WWordsworth Profile]

Salmon Patia tonight, after a few beers.
I have already made the sauce and will add the cubed salmon while the rice cooks.

[Joanbunting Profile]

Last night's supper was a devilled crab with fried plantains followed by a rather naughty rum baba with extra rum and fresh rasberries

Lunch was a fresh tomato salad with basil, a celery remoulade and some freshly cooked roast ham from the butcher

Supper is double lamb chops with new potatoes and fresh broad beans with parsely sauce. I've got meringues which I made yesterday so a sort of eton mess to follow.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Thane Prince posted a pic of her supper of asparagus risotto topped with sautéed scallops

Though I’d follow suit, but I have some gorgeous red jumbo prawns to replace the scallops, so mine will be prettier

[WWordsworth Profile]

An old favourite today, Thomasina Miers' Catalan fish stew.
With HM crusty bread.

[Alexandria Profile]

W. Wordsworth,

Catalan Fish Stew ! Wow ..

There are as many versions as there
are Spaniards in Iberia, each
family and each restaurant and each
Chef have their own verisons based
on product availability.

Which fish and shellfish do you
use ?

[Alexandria Profile]

Monday, I am usually working from
Home, so lunch shall be:

A very simple lunch on terrace weather permitting ..

Saffron Fish, Baked in Papillote (Sort of a Parchment Baking Paper )..

Fish ( Le Mercat de La Boqueria tomorrow morning at opening)
Saffron ( a few threads soaked in hot wáter )
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
lemon
Greek or Italian Evoo
Fresh finely chopped Parsley
A bit of White Wine
Fresh Red Tomato
Fresh herbs
Garlic to taste
A bit of diced leek

Baked in oven 180 Centig degrees.

I place the lemon on each piece of parchment paper and top
with a filet of fish, a drizzle of saffron, White wine and the de-seeded
peeled tomato, leek & herbs, White wine splash and fold and seal the baking paper to form packages.

I place on baking sheet .. Voila .. 10 - 12 minutes possibly or 15 to 18 minutes
depending on fish .. and size ..

Have a nice evening.

[Joanbunting Profile]

We've had a bit of a naughty food festfor the last few days.

Our good friend of 60 years from uni days lives in Kent and just up the valley from us here. Whenever he returns he brings me stuff I can't get here such as proper good quality bacon , gammon joints and Britsh cheese which is a huge treat wonderful though so much French cheese is.

So on Saturday for lunch we had bacon and eggs, Really good bacon and our own eggs, with grilled mushrooms and tomatoes

Saturday evening we watched 3 episodes of Game of Thrones while eating Melton Mowbray pie (M's all time naughty treat) with farmhouse Double Gloucester cheese, pickled onions, and crusty bread and HM coleslaw, some of my own pickles and chutney with cherry tomatoes . We had fresh strawberries afterwards.

Yesterday the friends and a couple of others came over for lunch. The menu was:

Carrot veloute with escabech mussels.

Beef and asparagus stir fry with black bean sauce sered with egg frued rice

Section of English and French cheeses

Hazelnut meringue gateau with raspberries and Melba sauce

We ended with HM dark chocolate dipped candied orange peel, cognac or Cointreau.
we were still there at 5.30!

[karadekoolaid Profile]

We invited two close friends for lunch yesterday.
Saffron rice; Bazaar potatoes; bhutta ( sweetcorn with 5 spices, cream and yoghurt); aubergines in coconut milk; vadas (Falafel type balls of chinese lentils - moong dal - with onions and spices) and my home-made aubergine pickle.

[Alexandria Profile]

Tuesday.

The fish Papillote ( wild Red Banded Rock Bream = úrta from Cadiz ) turned out
lovely Monday.

Today is vegetarian .. Green Lentils and fresh veggies, and a simple
tri color salad, Aged Modena Balsamic Viengar and Italian Green Ecological Evoo.

Have a lovely day.

[Alexandria Profile]

Wednesday.

Back to 8 degrees Centig and weather broadcasters
stated it shall go up to 17 Centig this afternoon.
However, it is quite windy, therefore, disagreeable.

Cutting to the chase, Lunch today ..

Stuffed tomatoes with monkfish (or any firm White fish )

A dear friend of our´s is married to a
Greek Travel Agent, and this lovely
récipe hails all the way from Skiatos,
one of our fave islands.

The ingredients are: 6 firm yet ripe red tomatoes, Greek Evoo, wild Monkfish filets
or any firm White fish such as Grouper or Amberjack diced in chunks, Greek Rice, lemon Verbena leaves
finely chopped, grated zest of lemon or lime, leek or shallot or onion, salt, black pepper freshly ground,
parsley, vegetable stock home made and Tomato puréed in blender.

Makes a stunningly gorgeous presentation too ..

Very lovely. Have a nice day.

[Joanbunting Profile]

Yesterday I made a very traditional quiche Lorraine because I had egg yolks and a broken whole egg to use up. I sually do a hot beetroot salad and German type potao salad to have with it but I used up some more left overs and we had steamed spinach and sautee potatoes. I love quiche eaten straight fom the oevn while it still risen and souffle like.
Tonight we are having stir fried ginger pork with plum sauce. Stir fried vegetables and egg fried rice. I've got crepes in the freezer so I'll do a couple with a cherry compote filling

[jeral Profile]

I bought some Spanish (apparently) Piccerella peppers from Ocado, described as mild, smallish and crisp, all true. They're about 1.5"-2.5" and mostly red, some yellowy orange, and a cross between long and bulbous.

They're a little too crisp for my teeth to chomp, so I softened them (after deseeding) in a hot oven, then stuffed with a cajun concoction (incl cayenne, garlic, ginger plus veggie parmesan and some of my mascarpone and baked a few minutes more. Delicious, with some cooling, grated sea-salty cucumber. The only problem is that the peppers are thin-fleshed so had almost disappeared. I'll have to work on that.

[karadekoolaid Profile]

Doing some trials today; vegetarian "hamburgers". The Vegan/Vegetarian craze has taken hold over here, firstly because it seems to be a worldwide fad, and secondly, for practical reasons: 80% of the population is earning minimum wage, which works out at about $10 per month. A kilo of beef costs around $4, a kilo of cheese, $5. So vegetables are suddenly, and necessarily popular , but in a carnivorous country, no-one knows how to use them!

[jeral Profile]

karadekoolaid, hopefully, you'll make a good job of veg being well versed. Have you checked out the ingredients that have now become an overnight success for new fake meat, i.e. a seemingly blended mix of mycoprotein and soya with beetroot as flavour and "blood" colouring?

I cooked some of such "mince" last week and it really does look and act like meat mince, i.e. sticky-ish not just bobbly. Can't say personally what it tastes like (fake meat's not for me) but I gather it's good.

An investment advisor talking about a US co. was saying this week that it was a very good place to put a few bob because of its likelihood of becoming mainstream. I imagine one has to select the stock or share with care, but I also imagine very few Venezuelans will have many bobs to spare just now Still, if you perfect your version, there could well be a local market