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.
31 Thursday Dec 2020
Posted in azahars kitchen, casa azahar, food & drink, home, homecooking
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New Year’s Eve dinner was AMAZING. Inspired by the wonderful presa al palo cortado that I’d had at Bodeguita Romero earlier in the week. It was the first time I’d slow-cooked a whole piece of presa Ibérico de Bellota (pork shoulder) and so I got some cooking tips from my friends, the family at @bodeguitaromero and chef @jose_pizarro. It wasn’t that much different than making my (now famous!) carrillada al oloroso but this sauce was made with palo cortado sherry, LOTS of sweet onion, portobellos, garlic and a few sprigs of fresh thyme. I think I maybe overcooked it a bit as the sauce ended up VERY reduced and had a fair bit of meat in it, that had fallen off the shoulder. So I added more broth and sherry to it and wow, so tasty. Side dishes: roasted potatoes, courgette and spring onion, and Yorkshire puddings. What did you have?
30 Wednesday Dec 2020
Posted in casa azahar, homecooking
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While out enjoying the Christmas lights on Monday we stopped for a couple of tapitas at Bodeguita Romero and one of them was this totally tender and tasty Presa Ibérica al Palo Cortado. I mean, it was seriously OMG good. So I decided that I would try to replicate it as a New Year’s Eve dish. Then I got this 600 gram monster and have since been trying to figure out how to prepare it! The Romero family have given me some vague instruction, and my friend José Pizarro has also helped out. But I’m still kind of going in with a bit of knowledge but nothing step by step to follow. Stay tuned!
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.
