Tag Archives: homecooking

mission accomplished!

31 Thursday Dec 2020

Posted by in azahars kitchen, casa azahar, food & drink, home, homecooking

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nye

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?

nye dinner

new year’s eve challenge!

30 Wednesday Dec 2020

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presa (1)

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!

presa (2)

the chicken sharing project

06 Friday Nov 2020

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chicken express

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.

NOT a chicken sandwich

19 Wednesday Aug 2020

Posted by 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?  😉