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Courgette fries with spicy mayonnaise

14 May

courgette fries

According to my daughter, these courgette fries are like “vegetarian calamari”.  I know what she means.

While no one would confuse the texture of squid with courgette, they are similarly satisfying in flavour and crunch. And being baked, they are reasonably healthy as well.

I first ate them at a Vancouver restaurant called Las Tapas that I adored, and have been making my own version ever since.

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Churros with chocolate sauce

8 Jul

churros with chocolate sauce

Churros and chocolate sauce and another day of sun… It’s enough to make you feel like you’re on holiday… Continue reading

Pinchitos morunos (little pork skewers)

8 Jul

Pinchitos morunos

There is a lovely brightness to the marinade for these pinchitos morunos. We have enjoyed these many a time in Spain and as Moro is one of my favourite London restaurants, I was happy to see this recipe in their first cookbook.

As long as you avoid overcooking it, pork loin is an excellent meat to barbeque. Served with a tossed salad, this made a lovely, light evening meal, eaten outdoors. Continue reading

Chicken, cannellini beans and kale

30 Nov

chicken-cannellini-kale

Chicken, cannellini beans and kale is not the catchiest of names – more of a list of ingredients really. Which makes sense for a dish whose elements remain proudly distinct while combining in a deeply satisfying way.

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Sugar-free orange cake

29 Sep

Sugar-free orange-almond cake

When the Great British Bake-off contestants were tasked with making a sugar-free cake, I immediately thought of Claudia Roden’s orange cake.

This Judeo-Spanish cake relies on puréed whole oranges for much of its sweetness, which I thought would make it relatively easy to adapt. And because it calls for ground almonds instead of flour, it’s gluten-free as well, which seemed in the spirit of the challenge.

As this was my first attempt at baking with agave nectar, I did some reading first. The recommendations are to cut the quantity of sugar by about quarter, reduce the liquid in the recipe and lower the oven temperature – all of which I did.

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Albondigas

1 Jul

albondigas

Albondigas, tortilla and gazpacho are on the menu for our Spanish World Cup meal. I don’t remember where I got this albondigas recipe from – I have a vague memory of copying it from a magazine. At any rate, I’ve been making it for years. Continue reading

Tortilla

1 Jul

tortilla

I often make tortillas to use up leftover boiled potatoes or green beans, reheating the vegetables in a frying pan then adding beaten eggs and allowing it to set.

For our Spanish World Cup dinner, I followed the recipe in the Moro cookbook, slowly caramelising the onions, frying the potato slices in olive oil, and turning it half way through to fry both sides instead of just sticking it under the grill.

More work, but a much tastier tortilla. Continue reading

Gazpacho

1 Jul

gazpacho

Expecting better things of  Spain, I put them on day 22 of our World Cup menu plan. This recipe takes about three minutes to make –– about as long as it took Spain to crash out of the World Cup…;-)

Nova has never liked gazpacho much, which dragged the family score down considerably. Continue reading