10 on 10 January 2012

I'm late posting my 10 photos from the 10th January, but I hope I can be forgiven since I was on holiday somewhere with slow and intermittant internet access.

For other participants in the 10 on 10 photo project look here:


Here they are; my 10 photos taken on 10th January in Vinales Valley, Pinar del Rio Province, Western Cuba.

 

California dreaming

A few months back Dan applied for a job in sunny San Francisco. Even though it was a long shot I got a little dreamy about the idea of moving to SF.



Sunshine, sushi and outdoor pursuits all figured in my day dreams. Sadly, the job didn't happen, but in my general musing on the lifestyle possibilities I did come across Fish Tacos; a speciality of Baja in California. A flour tortilla is liberally filled with grilled or fried white fish, guacamole and tomato salsa, and topped with a dollop of sour cream. Friday night called for a light supper, so I made an attempt.

First the tomato salsa: Skin 3 tomatoes, deseed, chop finely, mix with half a tablespoon of white wine vinegar, a finely diced (small) red onion and seasoning. Put to one side for the flavours to mingle.

Make the tortillas (or you could use bought ones, which would be a bit thicker and floppier): Mix 150g flour with a pinch of salt. Add just enough water to bring it together to a soft, but not sticky, dough (probably about 100ml). Kneed for a few minutes until soft, then divide into 4 golf-ball sized portions. Roll each of these into as smooth a ball as you can manage then roll them out to thin circles about the size of a dinner plate. Heat a heavy-based frying pan until hot, but not smoking. Dry fry the tortillas one at a time, for a couple of minutes on each side until bubbled and lightly coloured.
Mine weren't exactly round, but never mind!



Cover the cooked tortillas with foil and keep them warm in a low oven (120C).

Season the fish: Using about 350g white fish, cut it into bite sized chunks. If you plan to fry the fish lightly dust it with well-seasoned flour, then shallow-fry in vegetable oil. If you are grilling the fish just season the fish, but don't use flour.

While the fish cooks make guacamole by mashing an avocado, add lime juice to taste and half a finely chopped green or red chilli.

Place everything on the table, including some sour cream (or thick yoghurt), and help yourselves.



Expect to get your hands mucky!



These quantities were good for 2 people for dinner, or would make a light lunch for 4. We slightly ruined the healthiness of it all by having chocolate icecream for pudding.

Coming over all Cornish

Dartmouth Harbour

Last week we extended our weekend by a couple of days on either side and took a little road trip.



We meandered down through Dorset and Devon to St Ives in Cornwall, then back via the north Devon coast and a flying visit onto Exmoor. It was lovely to have some time to explore our own country, and made us remember that the UK is a lovely place and that its great to spend time just chilling out together.



To get into the spirit of the trip, the recipe I attempted this week was Hugh's curried trout pasty, from the River Cottage Fish Cook book. The pasties would make great picnic food, although they perhaps were not the perfect dinner - I couldn't come up with a very satisfactory accompaniment. Given that Dan sampled a real, home-cooked, Cornish Steak pasty while we were away I was glad to have attempted a lighter interpretation. I think I'd still be living off one of those 3 days later!


St Ives

One or two mini pieces of cookery inspiration from the trip:
Seville Orange Tart - an amazing dessert served up with creme fraiche at Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant in Padstow. A little bit bitter and fresh. We had a really lovely, rather over-indulgent Sunday lunch there - this is Dan with his Lobster and Prawn Tourte, which was delicious too:


Leek and Walnut quiche - a surprisingly brilliant combination.
Also, fantastic cake from a bakery in Dorchester in Dorset - we sampled half a slice each of Rhubarb and Ginger loaf cake and Chocolate, Pear and Almond loaf cake in our beachside picnic that day. Yummy scrummy. Glad I don't live close to that bakery - I'd definitely end up over-eating every day!


Padstow

Argentina

My Dad tells an interesting story about being on a ship that docked in Buenos Aires. They were carrying coal, but the next cargo was to be grain. After unloading the coal in Buenos Aires they had about 48 hours to the next port in which to completely clean the hold of any trace of coal dust.
However, red wine was super cheap in Argentina, and the sailors got so drunk on it that they gave themselves alcohol poisoning and were completely incapacitated. Dad and the other officer cadets worked round the clock to clean the ship, staying up working for the full 48 hours straight. He was 17 at the time and had only been in the navy for a year. He swears that it was the hard physical work like that experience, as well as the poor food once you'd been at sea for more than a week, which meant that he stopped growing almost as soon as he joined the merchant navy.

But anyway, I digress. This week I made an Argentinian dish - Empanadas. Hence the musing on my Dad's tales of his travels. They're the South American version of Cornish Pasties! The filling was a combination of chicken, onion, leek, paprika, cumin, stock, pear, and peach. My fear was that the pear and peach chunks would make these wierdly sweet for a dinner dish, but the stock and spices balanced out the sweetness of the fruit remarkably well. I cheated and bought ready-rolled puff pastry for the outside; the ultimate in convenience! I baked the empanadas in the oven and served them with green vegetables and a few new potatoes, but if you made smaller portions they would work well with a salad for lunch.

My other recipe this week was to take advantage of the last of the wild blackberries which I had picked at the weekend; Blackberry and apple souffle.
I actually made blackberry, apple and pear souffle as I already had some stewed apple and pear in the freezer so it seemed sensible to use that rather than starting from scratch!

Here's the recipe (enough for 2 souffles):
Blackberry and Apple Souffle


(Sorry for the horrible picture - souffles sink fast once they're out of the oven so you have to 'snap' and serve!)

120g blackberries
1/2 apple
squeeze of lemon juice
10g sugar

1 egg white
30g caster sugar

butter for greasing the souffle dishes

Grease the souffle dishes with a small amount of butter.
Preheat the oven to 200C and place a baking tray in the oven to warm.
Peel, core and dice the apple. Place in a saucepan with a squeeze of lemon, 10g sugar, a splash of water and the blackberries. Heat gently until the apples break down to a pulp, then take off the heat and allow to cool a little. Press the fruit mixture through a sieve to make a fine puree.
Put a tablespoon of fruit puree in the bottom of each souffle dish and put the rest to one side.
Whisk the egg white until stiff, then add the sugar and whisk again until it is a glossy meringue-like mix. Gently fold in the remaining fruit puree with a metal spoon, then spoon it into the souffle dishes.
Put the souffle dishes onto the preheated baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown on top.
I suggest serving this with vanilla icecream.

For a man who claims not to have sweet tooth Dan does seem to have a definite enthusiasm for fruit puddings. This one was declared to be a keeper. He almost licked the plate!

A little trip to Devon

A couple of days in Devon last week was the perfect antidote to the 9-5 blues.



The scenery was quintissentially English, all summer prettiness and hazy lazy sunshine.

We ate fish and chips and too much icecream.



We walked along the seafront and picked which boat we would have if we were the boating types.



We went to concerts in the impressive Great Hall at Dartington.

I ate my first ever whole crab - cracked the claws myself and everything!



We napped in the afternoon. And had bacon for breakfast.

We discovered that we were only a few miles from the Riverford Farm shop - the recipe for rhubarb and strawberry crumble which I made in May came from their website - so we stopped by and bought some fruit and veg on the way home. Yummy. Their website is here.

Aahhhhh.....if only it had been more than just a couple of days.

My take-home treat? I have aquired a copy of the Riverford Farm cook book, which is chock-full of brilliant ideas for vegetables; something which I think is overlooked in the majority of recipe books. This week I will be putting them (and myself) to the test when I attempt Fried Green Tomatoes. My monster tomato plants are currently covered in not-quite-ripe tomatoes, so this seems the perfect recipe to get a sneak preview of whether they're going to be any good.

Brazil!

A while a go I went through a short phase of trying out a few Latin American recipes which jogged my memory and made me recall the delicious Pao de Queijo which I had eaten with my friend Yu Chen at a Brazilian place at the grotty end of Oxford Street in London.
They are light and puffy cheesy breads, even delicious to me - a non-cheese eater. Even better there was a recipe for them in my Cuban recipe book. However, they call for tapioca flour. And where on earth can you buy that?!

Well, it turns out you can buy it in the health food shop of our little market town. Who'd have thought it? So, watch this space, because as soon as I have a couple of hours spare I will be getting my Brazilian groove on and having a try at Pao de Queijo.



Now all I need is some Havaianas, a beach, and a massive party!

A fishy norwegian weekend

Why don't we eat more fish in this country? Its so tasty!

Considering we're really quite a small island I find it quite surprising how unavailable good fish is. I know I live about as far from the sea as its possible to get in the UK, but nonetheless you would expect some good outlets for fishy things. Even the supermarkets have aisles of meat and maybe a tiny section at the end of one for all of their fish. Its really quite odd.

The Norwegians don't have this problem. We just spent a fabulous weekend in Bergen. Its a cliche to say it, but it was amazingly expensive (Dan was horrified - a beer cost about £8!), but really when the food is of good quality you don't resent it too badly. I don't think we could have afforded to stay for more than a weekend though!

So here's a brief tour of our gluttony...

We started at the fish market on the harbourside:




Where we bought a massive smoked salmon, crab, prawn, and crayfish salad for lunch. It may have been pouring it down with rain but we were quite happy:


The next day we decided to head up into the mountains for a good long walk. Of course, we couldn't possibly go for our expedition without a picnic. The bakery across the street from our hotel provided wonderful seed and dried fruit rye bread, and the fish market also came up trumps. We were deeply indulgent, and lunch consisted of a langoustine each and a massive bag of prawns. Yum Yum Yum.....


That night we went out for dinner to a fish restaurant near the harbour. And yes, we spent more than I ever have before on a meal.
But what a meal...
Fish soup
Crayfish, salmon and angler fish with layered potato and sweet pepper
Blackberries marinated in schnapps with vanilla icecream
I know it doesn't sound all that exciting, but it was delicious because it was beautiful ingredients, perfectly cooked.

The next day was our last day. We went in search of fish and chips, but in the end this looked more interesting:


Spicey kebabs of scampi. Massive meaty prawns. Delicious.


We couldn't resist buying some smoked wild salmon to take home. Its buttery textured, smokey flavoured, and melt-in-your-mouth perfect.


So there you have it: We went to Norway, we ate more fish and seafood than you would ever believe, we walked, and saw the sights and the countryside, we had a lovely time.

And came home feeling distinctly poor!

I'm so over winter

Oh for goodness' sake: This winter seems to be going on FOREVER!

I'm dreaming of beach holidays, sunshine, and feeling warm. I could do with lying on a sun drenched beach, soaking up a winter's worth of heat.



Sadly, my finances won't run to that. Its all very well to make the choice of music for a career, but just once in a while I regret not selling my soul to make a killing in the city!

Anyway, I digress. I lieu of actually heading to warmer climes I have been cooking Caribbean food and pretending.

In the last couple of days we have had Jerk Chicken Kebabs and Salmon with Mango and Ginger.

Jerk Chicken definitely got the thumbs up.
I'm still considering the salmon dish.

The mango was a strong flavour; sweet and fruity. I liked it, but such a fruity flavour on the main course is not usual for our northern European taste buds. Would I make it again? Yes I think so. It was a good dish, just not the kind I'm accustomed to. However, that's part of the point of this project - to broaden my culinary horizons!

Here's the recipe for the Salmon dish - have a try & see what you think!

Salmon with Mango and Ginger (enough for 2)

2 portions of Salmon

Marinade:
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
Squeeze of lemon
1-2 crushed cloves of garlic
salt and pepper

Sauce:
1/2 ripe mango
75ml water
2 cherry tomatoes
1/4 onion
2 teaspoons of ginger syrup (the syrup from a jar of stem ginger)
salt and pepper

Mix together all the ingredients for the marinade, pour over the salmon. Leave it to marinade for 1 - 2 hours (no more).
Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180C.
Chop up the mango, onion, and cherry tomatoes. Whizz them up in a food processor until smooth. Season with salt and pepper and add the water and ginger syrup.
Once the salmon has marinated for long enough put it into an oven proof dish and put into oven to bake for 10 minutes.
Warm the sauce through over a gentle heat. Once the salmon has cooked for 10 minutes pour the sauce over it and return the dish to the oven for another 10 - 15 minutes until the fish is cooked through.
Serve with rice.

Paris, snow, and the best laid plans...

Back in October I booked a couple of train tickets to Paris for my Mum's birthday. We headed off on our jaunt on the first week of the new year, had a lovely time being culture-vultures in the biting cold, hoping from museum to cafe to museum. Then we tried to get on our train home.



It was cancelled.

The queue for the 3 previous departures went all the way round the Gare du Nord. There was no way we were getting back to London that night. But, you know, Paris isn't such a bad place to be stranded for a day longer than anticipated! We sauntered back to our hotel, which fortunately still had a room available, had a lovely meal of houmous, olives, tapenade and fresh crusty french bread, a couple of glasses of red wine in the cafe round the corner, and resolved to try again the next day.

I was convinced we would spend all day queueing for a train, so we fortified ourselves with coffee and croissants, bought quiche and biscuits from the bakery on the corner, and headed back to face the Eurostar.

Finally arriving home through the snow at 8pm (not too late considering the circumstances), after a magical mystery tour of northern France I realised we had virtually no vegetables and because of the thick snow no vegetable box had been delivered. That left us with a cooking apple and some red cabbage until I next felt ready to tackle the snowy roads. Still, the red cabbage looked like a nice one, and I'd been meaning to try out a braised/pickled red cabbage recipe for a while. Recipe of the week was decided by default.



Dan was really enthusiastic about how this turned out. It was delicately spiced, fruity, with enough sharpness to keep it interesting. Often when I've had red cabbage cooked in this way the fruit and spice have overwhelmed the flavour of the cabbage, but the quantities in this recipe didn't do that.

We had it with roast chicken, and the next week I reheated it to have with pheasant casserole. I've had it with turkey in the past, and Dan tells me it goes well with beef too. I think it would also be tasty served cold, so all in all quite a versatile recipe.

Apple and spice Red Cabbage

1 dessertspoon olive oil
1/2 a red cabbage, finely sliced
1 medium sized cooking apple, peeled, cored and diced
3 tablespoon apple juice
Dark brown muscovado sugar
Cider Vinegar
Cinnamon
6 cloves
1/2 handful of raisins or sultanas
salt & pepper

Put the olive oil into a heavy bottomed saucepan and swirl it around until it coats the whole base. Put 1/3 of the red cabbage into the pan and spread it out to form an even layer. Put 1/3 of the apple in a layer on top of this, add about 2 teaspoons of sugar, then pour over 1 tablespoon of apple juice, drizzle over a small amount of cider vinegar, scatter on a couple of cloves and a shake of cinnamon, and season with salt and pepper. Repeat for 2 more layers, then sprinkle the raisins over the top and add a good slosh of cold water.

Bring to the boil over a low heat, then cover and simmer for about 2 1/2 hours. It doesn't need any attention to speak of during this time. I actually went out for a run and left it for a good 45 mins, but it might be a good idea to check it every half an hour or so and give it a good stir so that it doesn't dry out on top.

Enjoy.

PS look what a beautiful cake display we spotted in the Saint-Germain district of Paris! Pretty pretty....

Christmas catchup

Apologies for the rather long Christmas break between posts. I won't bore you with a super long post but here's a brief run down of my new recipes over the Christmas period:

1. Christmas cake!



I was really pleased with this. I made it from Nigel Slater's fruit cake recipe and it turned out with just the right amount of citrus and fruit. Lovely.

I'd made fruit cakes before but never one that was such a high proportion of fruit to flour. The recipe was quite free and easy with the fruits you should use which made it easy to tailor to your own tastes. I used my new favourite dried fruit - figs! I had dried figs for the first time this past spring when we went to Croatia. They were served with coffee and schnapps absolutely everywhere and I liked the sticky grainy texture of them. We bought a bag from the market - you can just about see them for sale in the picture, bagged up with bay leaves.



They appeared in Sainsburys just in time for my Christmas cake. Marvellous!

I also made the marzipan (a bit fiddly to get onto the cake) and the royal icing (took longer to set than I'd anticipated). I felt I had make both in order to keep in the spirit of the recipe challenge; shop bought would have seemed like cheating.





2. Mulled white wine

I think the recipe for this needs a little tweaking as it tasted more like mulled cider, and I would definitely have preferred a winey-er taste. I think next time I'll put a lot less apple juice and less sugar too (the quantity here is half the recipe quantity and it was still a bit sweet for my tastes). Don't get me wrong, the flavours were nice and it was a lovely warming drink, but it seemed a shame not to taste the wine much. Didn't stop us drinking it all of course!

Here's the recipe:

Apple & spice white wine

1 * 750ml bottle white wine (I used Riesling)
400ml apple juice
2 cinnamon sticks
2 star anise
50g demerera sugar
a few strips of orange rind

Put all the ingredients in a pan over a medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Heat gently for about 10 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse, but don't allow the mixture to boil or you will lose all the alcohol content.
Serve.
Easy peasy.

3. Pickled pears

I made these a couple of weeks ago after catching a bit of the Hairy Bikers Christmas cookery special. They need about 10 days pickling time before you can eat the pears, so we had our first taste of them shortly after Christmas with cold meats, oatcakes and cheese.

Yes, you read correctly - I did eat cheese. I bought some Manchego cheese to have when we had my younger sister and my Dad up for lunch, and I discovered I actually liked it. In very small quantities.

Anyway, I digress - the pears were tasty, although my sister thought it was distinctly wierd that I would pickle pears.
She may have a point.

4. To go with the Manchego cheese - hazlenut and black pepper cookies.

I came across the recipe for these on a blog called Chocolate and Zuccini. Its written by a French lady (in English although there is a French version). They sounded interesting and she mentions that they go well with figs. Since I had a few figs left over from the Christmas cake it seemed the ideal time to make these biscuits.

They turned out to be a semi-sweet biscuit, and did go well with the dried fruit. The black pepper added a pleasant zing but I think I would use cinnamon instead in future, just because I prefer the warmth of cinnamon.

5. Brussel sprouts

I know these are a love-them or hate-them vegetable, but I definitely fall into the love-them category. Which is just as well as we've had them in our vegetable box quite a lot recently.



A colleague at work suggested baking them in the oven in a parmesan cream sauce. I liked the general idea, but thought all that cream and cheese would probably disagree with my stomach. Instead I found a recipe that suggested baking the sprouts in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It was a good way to do them. I would imagine that a scattering of grated parmesan and a sprinkle of pinenuts would be a tasty addition.

Here's the method:

Balsamic Brussels

Mix 1 dessertspoon of olive oil with 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. Peel and quater your sprouts then toss them in the oil mixture until well coated.
arrange in a single layer on a baking tray or roastig tin and cook for about 20 mins at 180-190C.

Memorable meals

Ever had a meal that really stuck in the memory?

You try to recreate it at home, you find opportunities to return to the restaurant. You hope it will live up to the almost mythological status it has attained in your mind.

A happy collision of right place, right mood, right order.

For me its not necessarily the flashiest of meals. In fact, it almost never is. Just an inspired combination of superb ingredients allowed to speak for themselves.

Barbequed fish on the beach in Malaysia, served with rice and a lemongrass sauce. Sitting at a little table as the night fell on an island you could walk across in half an hour. I've been trying to recreate that lemongrass sauce for nearly 10 years. Simple, delicious, and perfect for the time and place.


A meal-deal of calamari and french fries with a mini bottle of prosecco; A winter picnic for a late lunch on the dock at Burano on new year's eve. Dry and subtly sparkling the wine was an inspired addition, cutting through the grease and lifting the meal from just another fish'n'chips to something we still reminisce about 2 years later.


Langoustines in Scotland. Caught that day. A mountain of them dished up in the harbour-side pub with freshly baked bread, garlic butter, and free-flowing wine. Sticky fingers. Pouring with rain outside, but snug and cosy in. I'm looking out for an excuse to return.

Scampi and chips from the fish market on the dock in Bergen. The perfect seasickness cure. Caught that morning, battered and fried in front of me, then straight into a box to takeaway. Salt and vinegar, and beautiful Norwegian surroundings. I'm looking for a reason to take Dan to Norway, just so that he can experience them. An unlikely reason for a holiday, but it'll do!


Then those meals which are delicious and memorable, but for some reason don't ever attain that lusted-for status. Looking at my list above, it could simply be that they're not fish!

Thin and crispy Italian pizza topped with smoked swordfish, rocket and wonderful milky buffalo mozzarella. Sitting in the autumn sunshine with nothing to do but relax for the rest of the day. Chicken with spices and dried fruit in a french restaurant that was really all about the wine. A sweet white I would never normally choose, but the perfect compliment to the food. Fresh bread rolls spiked with chocolate and strong espresso for breakfast in Dubrovnik. A meal of many courses in a restaurant carved into the rock in Matera. Wonderful and surprising - the host chose a selection of local specialities for us. My stomach hurt but it was worth it! My first ever taste of fresh buffalo mozzeralla. Gorgeous.

So many of the meals are really holiday memories...Of course I have my favourite bites and haunts closer to home. But perhaps because they are more easily attainable they are just that - favourites rather than legends.

Messing with tapas

I decided to get my recipe in early this week. I'm meant to be running the pre-Christmas cross-country race in Hook Norton on Sunday, so doubt that I'd be feeling like cooking anything that requires attention on sunday afternoon. 6 1/2 miles of up-hill muddiness will do that to a girl!

So, last night's dinner was a slightly amended and beefed-up tapas recipe: Cod and mustard seeds. I upped the amount of fish and ham to make it a main meal rather than a tasting dish. It was lovely - a real winter warmer, comfort food dinner. Perfect for a cold night, and it was certainly that!

Cod and Mustard seeds serves 2 as a main meal

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
300g potatoes - peeled and diced
2 slices serrano ham - shredded
1/2 red onion - thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves - finely sliced
1 red chilli - deseeded and finely sliced
300g white fish - skinless, cubed
100ml vegetable stock

Put the cubed potato in a pan of cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Drain.
Heat the oil in a heavy based frying pan, add the mustard seeds. When they begin to sizzle and pop add the onion, potato and ham. Cook at a high high for a couple of minutes, stirring frequently, then turn the heat down to medium and continue to cook for 8-10 minutes until the potatoes are browned and almost tender. Keep stirring frequently.
Add the garlic and chilli and stir fry for a further 2 minutes.
Add the cubed fish and cook for 2-3 minutes until the fish is opaque.
Add the stock, salt and pepper. Cover the pan and leave to cook without stirring for 5 minutes.
You can add a handful of grated cheddar cheese to the top and of the dish and briefly heat it under a hot grill if you like.
Serve.

Just one note: as cod is one of the fish we're not meant to eat due to worries about overfishing I used pollack instead.


For a current list of which fish to avoid because of sustainability issues take a look at the Marine Conservation Society list here
And for a list of alternatives to try click here

Further forays into Latin American cooking

....Guacamole. Not technically cooking, just lots of chopping, mashing and mixing.

I don't like avocado. Not at all. So I should probably explain why I bothered to make this.

Firstly our vegetable box yielded an avocado this week.
Secondly it was a busy week so the thought of a no-cook recipe was distinctly appealing.
Thirdly, in homage to Carisa's love of Mexican food.
And fourthly, I wondered if I might like avocado this time.

I think that's enough reasons. My guacamole recipe, taken from a cook book stolen from my mum (sorry Mum) turned out nothing like the green goo you buy in the shops.



I don't think I will be eating avocado on its own anytime soon, but I'm not averse to making this guacamole again. The combination of crunchy red onion, zingy lime and the softness of the avocado was quite pleasant. It made a good addition to what I very loosely describe as prawn fajitas (really just stirfried prawns, peppers and onion with a bit of tomato sauce and some mexican-inspired spices wrapped in a soft tortilla).

I wouldn't go out and buy avocado, but if it makes an appearance in my veg box again I will not be completely disgusted. Progress of a sort I suppose!

Guacamole

1 avocado
1/2 red onion - finely sliced
1/2 red or green chilli - deseeded and finely sliced
1/2 garlic clove - crushed
grated zest 1/2 small lime
juice of 1 small lime
100g fresh tomatoes - deseeded and diced
1 tbspn chopped fresh coriander
1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1-2 teaspoons olive oil
salt + black pepper to taste

Cut the avocado in half and prise out the stone from the middle.
Scrape the flesh out of 1/2 of the avocado and mash it with a fork. Add the onion, chilli, garlic, lime zest, tomato and coriander and mix it all together.
Next add the cumin and seasoning and stir through before drizzling the olive oil over the mixture.
Peel the rind off the remaining half of the avocado, dice the flesh and mix in with the other ingredients. Squeeze the lime juice over.
Leave to stand for 15 minutes to let the flavour develop before serving.

I think my next Latin recipe will have to be Brazilian cheesy bread. I remember Yu Chen getting me some from a Brazilian cafe at the end of the Oxford Road in London when they were still warm from the oven. Although not usually a major fan of cheese I did enjoy these. I spotted the recipe in my Cuban book last week, so watch this space. I need to find Tapioca flour first though - anyone got any ideas where that can be bought?

Cuban cooking

I've been going on and on about wanting to go to Cuba for ages now, so this year Diane bought me a fantastic Cuban recipe book for my birthday. It is packed with lovely photos of the country and the people who live there, as well as some exciting sounding recipes.

I've had the book sitting on my shelf since August, and although I'd looked longingly at the pictures I hadn't actually cooked a single one of the dishes until this week. The recipes seem pretty authentic, which I think is fantastic as it gives a wonderfully evocative sense of how people might actually cook in the country, but it does make some of them quite tricky to do in the UK as we obviously don't have all the same ingredients readily available.

This week I was determined to use the book for its intended purpose, and flicking past whole roast piglet (a little impractical I felt, although maybe I'm being unambitious?!) I decided upon pork meatballs stiffed with quail eggs in tomato sauce.

Have you ever had a quail egg? I hadn't, but I found them in the shops fairly easily, and I was charmed by their prettiness - a lovely blue tinge to their shells and speckled all over with brown freckles.


The recipe called for them to be hardboiled and peeled. They were fiddly little buggers to peel! I got there in the end though, and they were certainly a lovely added touch to the meatballs. I did adapt the recipe slightly from the one in my book. A year or so ago I made this recipe for lemony meatballs which suggested just cooking the meatballs in tomato sauce without pre-frying them. It tasted good and cut out an extra step in the cooking (I'm all for simplifying) so I always do that with meatballs now. If you want to fry them though, go ahead!
I served this with rice and some spinach. It might work with pasta, or just a chunk of nice fresh bread. Please don't be daunted by the fact that this recipe looks long - its actually easy!

Here's the recipe (including my changes); enough for 2 people:

9 quail eggs (hardboiled and peeled)

For the meatballs:
1 garlic clove (crushed)
1/2 onion (sliced)
200-225g pork mince
1/2 beaten free range egg
1 slice of white bread (crusts cut off)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
pinch ground cloves
about 1 teaspoon dried oregano (or a tablespoon of fresh if you have it)
salt and black pepper to taste

For the tomato sauce:
400g tin of plum tomatoes
100g passata
1/2 onion (sliced)
1 garlic clove (finely sliced)
salt + pepper to taste, plus a teaspoon dried oregano

Put all the ingredients for the tomato sauce in a pan together and cook over a low heat while you make the meatballs. The sauce can happily cook away for anything up to an hour (not that it will take that long to make the meatballs!)as long as you give it the occasional stir, and perhaps add a little water if its getting a bit too thick.

Turn oven on to heat up to 190C.

Put all the meatball ingredients for the meatballs into a food processor and blitz them to combine. Then take a small handful at a time (about the size of a golf ball), flatten it in the palm of your hand, place a quail egg in the middle and wrap the meat mixture around it. Repeat until you have 9 meatballs and have used all the mixture.
Place the meatballs in an oven proof dish and spoon over the tomato sauce which you have had cooking away. Its best to use a dish of the size where the meatballs fit reasonably snuggly in the base rather than having lots of room around them. Cover the dish and place into the preheated oven. Bake for 40 minutes.

The taste test:
I loved the flavour of the cloves in this - I would never have though to add that myself, but it enhanced the flavour of the pork.
The quail eggs were beautiful - a richer taste than hens eggs, but so small that it definitely didn't overwhelm the other flavours.
I realise that the pictures below do not make this look appetizing! What can I say? I was hungry so I just took a quick snap and ate! Don't be fooled by my poor photography - its delicious!




The meatballs could be roasted or fried and served cold as part of a picnic meal, a bit like scotch eggs, or served warm with or without the tomato sauce as part of a tapas-style dinner.

All I've got to do now is actually make it to the country! I've got my eye on this tour. I even have some vouchers. Fingers and toes are all crossed for the hope I might finally make it this spring.

Also this week: Dauphinoise potatoes with obscene amounts of double cream. Dan was a very happy boy!



They didn't last long.