26 Tuesday Jan 2021
Posted in azahars kitchen, cooking, homecooking
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.
19 Wednesday Aug 2020
Posted in casa azahar, cooking, home, homecooking
Tags
So this was supposed to be a grilled chicken sandwich on crusty bread with grainy dijon and paper-thin raw sweet onion underneath, and piles of chopped romaine and salsa az on top. Never happened. Because when I opened the packet of free-range chicken breasts I’d bought on Monday (expiry date TODAY) there was a… smell. It wasn’t strong, or even particularly unpleasant. It just shouldn’t have been there. And so I got on Twitter and asked what I should do. Meanwhile I started cooking the fuckers, since I had paid for them and, you know, maybe after cooking they’d be fine?
Well can I say? I’ve never had such a response to one simple question on Twitter before. Hours later people are still replying. Who knows? I may start trending!
Bottom line, I cooked them and then tossed them. As my pal Edward pointed out, the chicken might be fine but I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it because I’d be worried about whether it was okay or not, so why go through that. And he was right. So out they went, with me slightly annoyed that I now had extra washing up and that I had wasted perfectly good seasoning and olive oil for nothing.
Had a ham sandwich instead. Actually it was the SAME sandwich, but with sliced ham instead of chicken. And it was actually really good. So the moral of the story is… well nuthin really. It’s Wednesday! What do you want? 😉
10 Friday Jul 2020
Posted in casa azahar, home, homecooking, sevilla
What kind of idiot BAKES durning the hottest week of the year?? Um… that would be me. I reckoned once it’s 43º the kitchen isn’t about to get any hotter. I’ve been hooked on bouikos since the first time I made them last month, and this was my third attempt. Damn they’re good. Easy to make too. You can find the recipe in my kitchen. 🙂
29 Monday Jun 2020
Posted in azahars kitchen, cooking, homecooking, recipes, sevilla
Tags
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
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.
14 Tuesday Apr 2020
Posted in casa azahar, cooking, home, homecooking
It started off as a bit of a joke. That Ania @aniainspain and I would pick a day to make pierogi at home and have a little online “competition”. And despite my Winnipeg roots, Ania definitely had the upper hand by being Polish and – as I found out later – in possession of a little contraption that cuts, folds and seals the dumplings resulting in pierogi perfection. Meh.
But I had heart and determination on my side and, even though I hadn’t made pierogi since I lived in Canada more than 40 years ago, and I had lost my favourite pierogi dough recipe, I was keen to do my best.
