Choripán – or grilled spicy sausage in a toasted baguette – is Latin America’s take on the hot dog.
Argentinians make their choripán with chorizo sausages and slather them in fresh chimichurri sauce – definitely a winning combination.
Choripán are ubiquitous at football matches, making them an obvious choice for our World Cup 2018 cook-off. Continue reading
The other day, I asked my husband to pick up some sesame seeds on the way home. Instead of the little packet I was expecting, he plonked a 500g bag on the counter. That’ll to take years to get through, I thought ungratefully…
I know that I have nothing to complain about. My husband and daughters are willing to pop to the shops at a moment’s notice, and generally return with a reasonable approximation of the requested item.
(Not like a former housemate who went to buy half a dozen eggs and returned with a six-pack of beer. “I knew it was six of something,” he said.)
And without that enormous bag of sesame seeds, I might not have discovered how easy it is to make tahini. Or how there is no comparison between fresh tahini and the pale lump of hardened sludge submerged in low-grade oil that is most store-bought tahini. Or how amazingly good it tastes.
Salsa verde (or “green sauce”) is the most wonderful Italian concoction. It goes particularly well with fish, and with some new potatoes and steamed green beans alongside makes a great weekday supper. Continue reading
These roasted pears with warm butterscotch sauce pull off the clever trick of being both light and decadent. They also make the kitchen smell wonderful while they’re cooking.
Until recently, I couldn’t have you the difference between butterscotch and caramel. But having Googled it, I now know that caramel is made with white sugar and butterscotch with brown. Continue reading
I love applesauce – such bright, cheerful stuff, and a great way to reduce a trug of apples from our trees down to size. Every autumn, I make several batches to freeze for the winter. Our apples are pretty tart, so I generally add some sugar, but it’s not necessary.
I always make applesauce in a pot on the hob. My mum used to make it in the pressure cooker. I’m not sure why, as it’s so quick to make, but she did. In one of my earliest memories, I was sitting at the kitchen table while Mum was making applesauce. There was a problem with the pressure cooker lid, and she called for my dad to help. Continue reading
I was surprised to notice that the recipe I’d found for chismol didn’t contain any chilli. But when I looked at a few others they had little or none, so I stuck with the version on the This is Honduras website. Nova loved this salsa, and polished off the leftovers with a spoon after we’d finished the baleadas. Continue reading
Making ajvar to go serve with our Bosnian meal of cevapi and somun was a last-minute decision, when I realised that making proper kajmak took a day and a half (a few hours before dinner).
A flavourful purée of roasted vegetables and garlic, versions of ajvar are made throughout the Balkans. It keeps well in the fridge. Continue reading
Chile’s version of salsa. Looking at a few recipes, the key elements are tomatoes, onion, garlic, cilantro and vinegar. I stuck with my version of the recipe from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant, which I’ve been making for years. It keeps for several days in the fridge. Continue reading
Ten More Bites 