Category Archives: food & drink

rick stein

11 Wednesday May 2011

Posted by in food & drink, friends, television, travel, video

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , ,

So there I was watching an episode of Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey the other night, and the Sri Lankan curries looked so amazing I just had to tweet about them, which started up a twitter conversation between myself, @WeeRascal and @Seville_Writer, both of whom have met Rick Stein and used words like passionate, honest, charming and genuine to describe him.

I had to admit that I’d never heard of Rick Stein before watching this series, which is a wonderful combination of glorious travelogue images and amazing food porn, along with lots of good information about  the local dishes, geography and history.

So imagine my complete surprise yesterday when the doorbell rang and I received an Amazon delivery of Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes, courtesy of that rascally friend of mine. I shall have to find a way of “getting him back” when he next visits (possibly in June) but meanwhile I have just finished watching the first segment of the first episode, which took place in Corsica. Next up … Sardinia. I am totally loving this!

the haggis

01 Sunday May 2011

Posted by in cooking, food & drink, friends, home

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

,

When my friend Del (aka @WeeRascal) came for his third visit to Sevilla last month he brought me not just a haggis but The McSween Haggis, which I was assured was the very best haggis in Scotland. The proper accompaniment to a haggis dinner is tatties & neeps and luckily I was able to find some small turnips at the market. And so last night was the night! I had been waiting for flatmate Jessica to be in town long enough to join Nog and me for dinner and so, although I’d spent a pleasant afternoon tapearing with Rebecca from Jaén and wasn’t sure if I was up for another meal, there was nothing for it. The time had come to finally cook The Haggis.

A traditional haggis consists of lamb, beef, oatmeal and onions, plus a special blend of spices and seasoning, which are all cooked together in a natural casing, so all that is needed is to wrap it in foil and heat it through in the oven for about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, the potatoes and turnips were put on to boil and afterwards were mashed with a bit of butter (didn’t know at the time that I was supposed to mash them together but they ended up being mixed on the plate anyhow). I had been “warned” by Del that I may want some ketchup or HP sauce as haggis tends to be a bit dry so, as I had no HP and can’t stand ketchup, I made up a batch of salsa az. Turns out it wasn’t necessary and most of it was left on my plate because the flavour and texture of The Haggis was simply wonderful and went perfectly with the mashed veg (and also with the excellent Ribera del Duero that Jessica had picked up that afternoon).

We all loved it and were reminded of Morcilla de Burgos, which is a delicious black pudding & rice Spanish sausage. And a big part of the fun was being able to share our first haggis experience with Del on Twitter, with other joining in too.

Thanks again Del – it was fabby!

what did you get in the post today?

26 Tuesday Apr 2011

Posted by in food & drink, friends, wine

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

, , ,

I got this!

From a very silly and totally adorable Frenchman who lives in Germany, and who I am lucky enough to call my friend.

Thank you honey, both for the surprise wine and for making me smile.

Maison Louis Latour
Grand Ardèche Chardonnay 2008
Vin de Pays des Coteaux de L’Ardèche

The Grand Ardèche Chardonnay comes from Southern France. The grapes are treated as if they were grown in one of the Grand Cru vineyards of the Côte d’Or. Fully-ripened grapes are selected and pressed lightly before being aged in oak barrels made at the Latour cooperage in Beaune. The result is a full-bodied wine that is smooth with notes reminiscent of exotic fruits and vanilla spice imparted by the oak.

I wonder if it would pair well with The Haggis…

impromptu

19 Tuesday Apr 2011

Posted by in food & drink, restaurants, sevilla, tapas, twitter, wine, work

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , ,

It’s been a bit of a crazy week, especially with me thinking I was quite mad to have taken on five – FIVE! – tapas tours during Semana Santa. The logistics of trying to organise the tours so as to avoid crowds and processions has been challenging to say the least. And so, having just finished three days in a row of evening tours – which all went very well I am happy to report – I was looking forward to making a nice meal at home and putting my feet up this evening.

So Nog & I went out to the Encarnación market (under Las Setas) to see what looked good and I decided to check out the little café/bar inside the market that Agustín had told me about. A bit like La Cantina in the Feria market, La Encarnación has a short list of daily fish on offer which they will fry or grill for you. Super fresh and very tasty.

Then along came a couple who asked if we spoke English and Spanish and said they needed our help. Turns out they wanted to find out if “huevas” were the same as shad roe and I suggested that they should try a tapa of it right then and there. Which they did. Verdict: almost the same but shad roe wasn’t quite so dry.

So after chatting a while and tweeting this photo of Philip with his huevas (which Fiona said came so near to being a naughty comment!) I mentioned my tapas blog and the tours and it turns out that I won’t be putting my feet up tonight. Instead I’ll be meeting Philip and Mary from New York at their hotel and going out on an impromptu tapas tour! They even invited Nog along.

As it’s been raining off and on all afternoon I don’t expect there to be many (if any) processions tonight, but that doesn’t mean that the bars won’t be crazy busy. Anyhooo… I just love it when stuff like this happens. And I’m quite looking forward to doing something a bit different tour-wise tonight as Philip & Mary have expressed an interest in trying out Flores Jamones & Vinos, which isn’t usually on my list as they don’t do tapas per se. They also told me that they didn’t mind if we had to get a taxi to go somewhere special – cool!

Stay tuned to my Sevilla Tapas twitter feed later if you’d like to come along…

a day in the country

27 Sunday Mar 2011

Posted by in culture, food & drink, friends, photos, restaurants, sevilla, spain, tapas, wine, work

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

[click to enlarge]

One of the reasons I occasionally wish I had a car (and a valid driving licence) is to take day trips to the many little villages near Sevilla. So I was delighted the other day when my Twitter buddy Eduardo got in touch to ask if I wanted to go with him and his girlfriend Mercedes to an olive oil & wine tasting in El Viso del Alcor. The tasting was held at the magnificent Basilippo hacienda in the countryside amongst their olive groves, and the snacks we enjoyed during the event were catered by Más Que Tapas. I was keen to go not only to learn more about olive oil (and, as it turned out, caviar!) but also to meet Aurore and Eduardo, who run Más Que Tapas, as they have often asked me to come out and see their place.

After a presentation on the different types of olives oils (we sampled three) inside the museum, we went out to the gardens to sample five different wines, paired with delicious snacks prepared with the olive oils we had just tasted.  But first we were in for a special treat – some local caviar and sparkling wine. We had a great time and I got to meet some new people, as well as a small pregnant cat which I ended up feeding chunks of bread dipped in my carrillada gravy. By the time the tasting finished we were informed that Más Que Tapas was offering a special “after hours” lunch menu (it was way past lunch time) and so we made our way over for something a bit more substantial.

[only click to enlarge if you’re not hungry]

In the end we didn’t go for the fixed menu and just (just!) ordered three dishes to share. Above you can see owners Eduardo & Aurore in the top corner, and at the bottom that’s Aurore again with Eduardo & Mercedes. In between some fabulous food: risotto with mushrooms, cashews & raisins, a burger of goat cheese, a slice of apple and foie, and some grilled scallops and chorizo on puff pastry with carrot purée. As if that weren’t enough we were given a couple of hot desserts to sample and I found myself wondering how on earth I was going to manage to eat anything on my tapas tour that evening…

It was a fabulous day in the country with lovely people. We got back to Sevilla around 6.30 and so later I wasn’t too concerned to discover that my clients were delayed getting into town from Lisbon which meant the tapas tour was rescheduled for today. In fact, I have to leave in a few minutes – see ya!