Category Archives: azahars kitchen

distraction therapy

28 Wednesday Apr 2021

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Yes, more brown food and one of my specialities – the fridge forage. Today’s was frozen pork & beef meatballs cooked with sweet onions, garlic, portobellos, amontillado… buttery mash with wilted baby spinach on the side. Took me about two hours to do this and it totally saved me. Because I woke up this morning not sure how I was going to get through another day, as in what the fuck was I going to do with all those hours. So I did a bit of this and that, realised I wasn’t able to go out, and then decided to COOK SOMETHING. In the end I got to do something creative, share it on my social media (yes, I’m one of those) and also have a tasty meal. By then I was calmer and could settle down with Morcilla to do a bit of Netflixing. Somehow it’s now almost time for bed, again, and then it will be tomorrow, again. Wish me luck!

the kitchen

26 Tuesday Jan 2021

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espinacas 2 (1)

If you haven’t been to Azahar’s Kitchen for a while, go check it out. New recipes have been added and #homecooking photos are also posted on my azahar Instagram account (along with cats and city pics).  I was actually quite excited about this new spinach with garbanzos version. A bit like making it up as I went along, but it turned out great. Honestly, making lunch has become the highlight of my day.

mission accomplished!

31 Thursday Dec 2020

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nye

New Year’s Eve dinner was AMAZING. Inspired by the wonderful presa al palo cortado that I’d had at Bodeguita Romero earlier in the week.  It was the first time I’d slow-cooked a whole piece of presa Ibérico de Bellota (pork shoulder) and so I got some cooking tips from my friends, the family at @bodeguitaromero and chef @jose_pizarro. It wasn’t that much different than making my (now famous!) carrillada al oloroso but this sauce was made with palo cortado sherry, LOTS of sweet onion, portobellos, garlic and a few sprigs of fresh thyme. I think I maybe overcooked it a bit as the sauce ended up VERY reduced and had a fair bit of meat in it, that had fallen off the shoulder. So I added more broth and sherry to it and wow, so tasty. Side dishes: roasted potatoes, courgette and spring onion, and Yorkshire puddings. What did you have?

nye dinner

the chicken sharing project

06 Friday Nov 2020

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chicken express

Well why not? I have an oven, my friend Peter doesn’t, and so this happened. An agreement whereby every couple of weeks or so during the winter months Peter will purchase a nice free-range chicken at the market and then I will prepare it in different ways using my oven and then we’ll split the bird. Did the first one today and, well, as you can see that IT WAS AMAZING.

It’s a good idea on many levels. We both get to enjoy a well-cooked bird, which of course I could do on my own (since I have an oven) but I mean, how much chicken can one girl eat in a week? This way is win-win. I also give Peter the carcass to make a soup or stew, so that’s a bonus for him, and because he buys the bird that goes towards what I spend on electricity. Looking forward to trying all kinds of new roasted chicken recipes too – I think spatchcocking is coming up next.

dilly

29 Monday Jun 2020

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dilly
It all started when I had a hankering last week for some tzitziki, which I hadn’t made in something like 35 years. So I got online, found a few recipes and, as usual, patched a couple together to make my own. Most called for fresh mint and/or dill, but I don’t like minty food so I went off to buy some fresh dill at the supermarket – and they were sold out! Instead I got some dried dill and well, it was just okay. So this week I was determined to try it again with fresh dill and it was heaven. A perfect summer dish, so light and fresh. You can find the recipe here in Azahar’s Kitchen.

Anyhow, this left me with a surplus of fresh dill, which I could tell wasn’t going to stay fresh long, even sitting in a glass of water in the fridge. But short of making tzitziki for the third time in a week, or dill pickles (something else I haven’t made for over 35 years) I didn’t know what to do with it. So I got back online and found this…

20 Bright & Fresh Recipes to Use Up a Bunch of Dill

dill feta

Which inspired me to make something completely different. But there are actually quite a few great sounding recipes there, so I expect my newly rekindled love affair with dill will continue throughout the summer. I also love how it feels so soft and silky when you run it through your fingers, though this could just mean that I’ve been in Lockdown too long.