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Flat mate (and sous chef) Peter on Parsley Duty. The cats are mesmerised.
15 Tuesday Feb 2022
Posted in casa azahar, cats, caturday, home, homecooking, sevilla
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Flat mate (and sous chef) Peter on Parsley Duty. The cats are mesmerised.
14 Friday Jan 2022
Posted in birthdays, casa azahar, home, homecooking
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You know those things that you didn’t know you needed until you got one? Well say hello to my new potato ricer, a birthday gift from my friend (and neighbour) Tania. I am pleased to say it makes the smoothest creamiest mash and apparently I can do other things with it too as there are three attachments. Plus it’s dishwasher safe. I’m the first to admit that I am impossible to buy gifts for (perhaps I should set up an Amazon wish list?), but this time Tania got it right. Thank you!
03 Wednesday Nov 2021
Posted in casa azahar, home, homecooking
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So remember when I upgraded my coffee AND my coffee container? Of course you do π. Anyhoodle, now that it is baking season once again I’ve been going through my cupboards and getting things organised. Turns out I have several types of flour still in their paper packaging from last winter and of course I should be storing them better. Not only to prevent weevils, but also to help keep them fresh. I liked the design of my new coffee container so much that I went back to the shop to see if they had larger ones suitable for flour and yep they did, so now I’m in business.
Pre-lockdown I did very little baking so one bag of all-purpose flour pretty much did what it said on the package. But now I have AP flour, whole wheat, self-raising, garbanzo, corn flour… next up I’ll be looking at new containers for rice and pasta. I think I’m going to stick with these ones. Rectangular makes so much sense (round ones waste so much space), plus they are stackable. I’m in love!
26 Tuesday Oct 2021
Posted in azahars kitchen, casa azahar, homecooking, sevilla
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Today turned into a Stay At Home Day, which was fine by me. Nothing much planned, not much to do other than the usual (photo editing, updating Sevilla Tapas, social media, etc)… and so I decided to make biscuits. Because it’s cool enough now (only 27ΒΊ!) to put the oven on. This time I experimented with my basic baking soda biscuit recipe and added grated manchego cheese to half of the dough. And omg they were good, both versions. The cheesy ones didn’t actually need any butter added but, you know, what the heck. How’s your Tuesday going?
10 Friday Sep 2021
Posted in casa azahar, homecooking

This is seriously taking hasselbacks to another level. I don’t remember where I first saw this but I knew straight away I had to try making deep-friend baby hasselback potatoes. Basically you take some baby potatoes and parboil them for about 8 minutes, then strain them and let them cool. Then do the hasselback thing to them (I used a spoon so I didn’t cut straight through) and deep fry them, again for about 8 minutes (oil temp about 185ΒΊC).
I normally use a large frying pan for “deep frying” so the oil isn’t actually that deep and you have to flip the whatever (fish, chicken, chips) but it seemed like these babies had to be submerged, so I used a small saucepan instead. Same amount of oil, just less space, so I did these in three batches. Oh, and I always use extra virgin olive oil for frying.
Anyhow… they turned out well but I would have liked them to be crispier. I think next time I should spread the sliced potatoes open a bit more before I pop them in the hot oil. Tricky when they’re so small as there’s more risk of them just breaking apart. Apparently you can also roast them or use an air fryer, but of course then you’d have to slather them in herby butter first. Good for making ahead of time too, then just quickly reheat in the oven.
I had mine as a side dish with a greek-ish salad (and salsa az for dipping). I think because they’re so small they could also be great as an appetiser or a party/movie snack with dips. So if you try making them and manage to get them extra crispy, please let me know how you did that.