Mercat de la Boqueria
We’re back from five days in Barcelona. We spent one morning wandering around the brilliant Mercat de la Boqueria, buying a few things and also doing the touristy thing and taking loads of pictures. Here are some pictures that Kerri took:
People having snacks and breakfast…
Lady at a vegetable stall…
Fruit at a fruit stall…
Loads of dried mushrooms…
Lady serving at a seafood stall…
Mmmm…. lots of tasty sea creatures…
Various sausages and other cured meats…
Mmmmm…. jamon…
We’ll put something up about the restaurants that we visited soon…
Duck with Rosti and Red Wine and Redcurrant Sauce
First, we had a steamed artichoke:
Then we had duck breast with rosti and red wine and redcurrant sauce. Served with some broad beans (which are unshelled and look rather grey and boring in the picture) and some savoy cabbage. We browned the duck breast in a frying pan and then roasted it in the oven.
For the rosti, we parboiled a potato, grated it, then mixed it with sweated onions and garlic, then fried it. The rosti tasted really good but the texture wasn’t quite right – I over-cooked the potato before grating. The duck was brilliant and we ended up with a lot of duck fat which we’ll be keeping for roast potatoes. The sauce needs a little work though as it was a bit too sweet.
We’re off to Barcelona tomorrow for five days, so no postings on here but hopefully we’ll eat loads of brilliant food there and have a few pictures when we get back!
Barbecue!
At last, the weather has become sunny again and we were able to barbecue. We were planning to start with prawn skewers, but we’d eaten them last night in a Thai curry instead. So we made some garlic bread as a starter. Then we had boerewors that I’d bought from the “farmers’ market” in Hammersmith a week or so ago and frozen. Also, we had some butternut and potatoes wrapped in foil and Kerri made some salad that smelled really fresh and summery.
It was really good to be outside in the sun and I think the camera appreciated it too because we ended up with loads of really good pictures.
Prawn Curry
Last time we made Thai curry, I made loads of curry paste so we decided to try freezing the extra. It came in handy tonight for an impromptu prawn curry as we hadn’t planned anything but had some prawns and loads of red peppers. The paste was better when it was fresh, but it served us well for a quick and tasty dinner.
Chilli
On Wednesday night, Stephen was out so I decided to make myself a quick dinner of chilli prawns and spaghetti. We’ve made it a few times before and it’s always been a success. Tonight, I added too much chilli. So much that I couldn’t eat it. I liked the picture though so thought I would post it anyway.
G
Thai Style Trout, Greens and Mushrooms
I’m calling the trout “Thai Style” because it contains typical Thai ingredients (it was marinated in chilli, garlic, lemongrass, lime and coriander), but it doesn’t come from a recipe so probably isn’t authentic in any way. The greens were steamed and the mushrooms were fried (with a sprinkling of chilli and a dash of fish sauce) and then tossed together with some oyster sauce and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds. Served with jasmine rice. All very tasty – quite a success – we’ll definitely be doing more of this sort of thing in the near future.
Chorizo, Broad Bean and Sage Risotto
In another attempt to use up our ever-expanding sage bush, tonight we made risotto. This is normally Stephen’s domain but I’ve long felt it was something I should conquer. It turned out ok, despite the fact that the shallots and celery caught, as did the chorizo.
Normally, we’d use rosemary for this but the sage worked well. And the broad beans added a nice freshness too.
G
Very Sagey Roast Chicken
Our herb garden is growing very successfully and one of the best plants is the sage. We’ve neglected it somewhat though so today decided to use some with our chicken. We filled the cavity with some of the bigger leaves, pushed some under the skin and chopped some up to make stuffing. The result: perfectly cooked roast chicken with a fragrant, sagey flavour.
Of course, we had to have roast potatoes too. Stephen has stolen my crown and he is now in charge of the roast potatoes (as well as the chicken) and he cooked these perfectly crunchy, tasty potatoes.
We also had some roasted butternut which was sweet and looked really pretty, both in it’s dish and on the plate.
Gravy, runner beans and cabbage completed the feast which brightened up a rainy Sunday.
G
Salami, Cheese and Olives
Last night we had a simple snack of salami, cheese, olives and bread while watching television. The cheeses were mature cheddar, smoked cheddar and an ash-rolled goats’ milk cheese. I’d bought the smoked cheddar and goats’ cheese at the farmers’ market in Hammersmith on Thursday and both were really good, which meant that the supermarket cheddar was rather neglected. The salami was Brianza salami, which was very tasty indeed. All washed down with a Corbiere rosé.
Lemongrass Beef and Thai Curry
Last night I came home to the smell of cooking, Stephen was busy mortaring and pestling lots of different ingredients for our Thai feast.
We started with lemongrass beef, which we’ve had before.
We grilled the beef rather than frying and, along with the extra marinating, it really seemed to help the flavour.
This was followed by green curry, which actually turned out more orange as we didn’t have enough green chillies and had to add some extra red ones; quite a lot of extra red ones. It was very hot but really tasty.
G
