Category Archives: cooking

comfort food

01 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by in cooking, culture, diet & nutrition, food & drink, health & happiness, home

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Today I made this very comfort-foodie dish based on having tried it a few times elsewhere. It has some of the usual comfort food ingredients (potatoes, eggs) as well as some chorizo and spicy pimentón thrown in for good measure. And most enjoyable it was too!

Here is the recipe: huevos rotos

But as comforting (and delicious) this late Sunday lunch was, when it comes to comfort food I’d probably say my favourites would include cheese. Like, mac & cheese or grilled cheese sandwiches.

What’s your favourite comfort food?

my first fabada

13 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in cooking, culture, spain

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I’ve had a kilo bag of alubias (white beans) in the cupboard for ages and finally decided it was time to do something with them. But what? Twitter foodie friends suggested a fabada, a stew from Asturias, so here it is. My first fabada.

As usual, when trying something new, I found a few different recipes on the internet and then did a sort of mash up while adding a twist or two of my own. I’ll try to write down my recipe and get it up on azahar’s kitchen this weekend. Meanwhile, any guesses as to what’s in it?

What’s the last new thing you tried cooking?

[update: recipe is up! Fabada Asturiana]

susana perezosa

14 Wednesday Dec 2011

Posted by in cooking, home, retail therapy, spain

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AKA Lazy Susan. A bit weird that in Spain they use a literal term (bandeja giratora = revolving tray) rather than a literal translation. In Portuguese they are known as “Susana preguiçosa”, which would be “Susana perezosa” in Spanish.

Anyhoodle, do you have any idea how hard these f*ckers are to find in Sevilla? That is, without spending the better part of a day hiking out to IKEA on the bus (which isn’t actually in Sevilla anyhow)? Well, it’s hard. I’ve been looking out for Lazy Susans ever since I moved into the latest casa az last February and have not seen them anywhere. But it turns out that a few places have started stocking them for the holiday season as they tend to be used here more for entertaining than the practicial use I’ve always thought they were made for.

Which is to be able to get at stuff in corner cupboards.

As you can see in the photo in this blog post, I’ve got a very deep corner cupboard just above the microwave. I never know what’s in there and can’t reach into it without getting up on the footstep thingy. And so yesterday I finally managed to find a couple of inexpensive Lazy Susans made of bamboo, which fit perfectly into my corner cupboards. Am now thinking of getting another one for the cupboard below. And maybe a smaller one for my spice cupboard! I’m so pathetically thrilled that I can now easily reach up for access to this cupboard after so long. But hey, simple pleasures and all that.

Anyone know why they are called Lazy Susans?

which comes first… the mortar or the pestle?

21 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by in cooking, culture, language

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This morning my friend WeeRascal asked on Twitter… Mortar and Pestle or Pestle and Mortar? and my answer was mortar and pestle as that was how I was brought up hearing it said. But my English friend Annie Bennett says she has always called it a pestle and mortar, while admitting that “we Brits have some strange habits as you know…”

I remember recently wincing when on a cooking programme – I think it was Jamie Oliver though it may have been Rick Stein – it was referred to as a pestle and mortar. It just sounded so… well, backwards!

Thinking about it logically, you first put your food item into the mortar before using the pestle; alphabetically the mortar wins out too.

What do you say?