10 Tuesday Nov 2020
Posted in casa azahar, homecooking
First ever attempt making caramelised onions. Gotta say, they turned out pretty good. The trick, as everyone on Twitter kept telling me, was cooking low and slow. Bit like cooking spinach though. You start off with a whole whack of stuff and end up with a small bowlful. So what did you do today?
06 Friday Nov 2020
Posted in azahars kitchen, casa azahar, food & drink, homecooking
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.
19 Wednesday Aug 2020
Posted in casa azahar, cooking, home, homecooking
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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. 🙂
11 Monday May 2020
Posted in casa azahar, home
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Got a supermarket delivery on Saturday and discovered that instead of sending me the 3 lemons I’d ordered they sent 3 KILOS of lemons (!!!). Well I mean, what on earth does someone quarantined on their own do with 3 fucking kilos of lemons? So of course I did the wise thing and asked Twitter, specifically requesting that no one mention lemonade.
Gotta say there were some very interesting ideas, mostly for lemony baked goods, preserves and jams, and lots of mentions of gin. Sadly or otherwise I hardly ever eat sweet things and, ever since The Unfortunate Incident with gin when I was a teenager, I can barely be in the same room with a gin and tonic. Then someone suggested freezing the lemon juice in ice cube trays for future use, but I don’t actually own any ice cube trays (something that must be remedied, along with getting a potato masher, a rolling garlic press and a muffin tin for making yorkshire puddings).
Anyhow… that same someone also said I could freeze sliced lemon and just add them to drinks as required. Bingo! Because since the warm weather hit I’ve gone back to my usual 1 litre of lemon water per day, which is why I’d ordered those damn 3 lemons in the first place (good thing I didn’t order 6!). Frozen lemon slices are perfect for my needs, but of course there isn’t space in my freezer for 3 (fucking) kilos of sliced lemons.
As luck would have it, my friend Lucy is having her hair done at a place around the corner from me today, so when I take out the rubbish I will drop off a bag of lemons for her. Apparently her Bakewell Tart is famous and lemon curd is the magic ingredient. Win-win.
Glad that’s sorted! And I’m sure this has all been just as exhausting for you as it was for me. 🙂
