Random acts of cooking...
I can think of nothing better to do on a rainy, overcast Bank Holiday than share some more food pictures with you. In fact, I can rarely think of anything better to do than share some food pictures (other than perhaps eating the subject of said pictures....). So here goes, rather randomly, as it's been a while since I've updated this blog:
Beans with chorizo and baby octopus:
This is great for a nice summer evening, after your frisbee's got caught up in a tree and you haven't been able to get it down despite throwing sticks and rocks at it for half an hour. Cut your losses and run by the nearest store to get a tin of beans of your choice: canollini, butter, it's all good. In Spain, they use El Barco beans from Avila to make Judias del Barco (beans with chorizo). We used flagéolet, but frankly, whatever's in your kitchen cabinet. Incidentally, I'm not a great snob with respect to tinned beans (really, who has the time), apart from when it comes to beans and rice, which I think you should always make from dried pulses. Whoever suggests you can substitute the tinned variety is just plain wrong.
Also, I have a general disdain for precision cooking and I do most things by eye, so I'm generally very vague when it comes to quantities of ingredients. And anyway, you alone will know the optimal chorizo to bean ratio to suit your tastes, so go with it.
Seafood is optional, but I think it goes quite well with this. We used baby octopus, but you can use squid, cuttlefish or whatever else takes your fancy. Marinate in some oil, salt, pepper and chopped garlic and fresh chilli and leave aside for at least 20 minutes. Slice some cooking chorizo, button mushrooms, and finely chop half a bell pepper, a small onion and two cloves of garlic. Heat an immodest amount of olive oil in a heavy-based frying pan. I usually drop a small piece of garlic in there so I know when the oil's hot enough. When the garlic starts sizzling, pour in the onion and the rest of the garlic and sauté lightly for a few minutes until the onion softens, then add the chorizo and fry for another few minutes. Add the pepper and stir-fry until almost soft (as an improvement to this, you could grill and skin the pepper first for that smoky taste), then add the mushrooms and some frozen peas and fry until mushrooms soften. Stir in a tin of tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste and herbs/spices of your choice. I'd go for some cayenne pepper, a little paprika, cumin, basil, oregano. You might wanna add a teaspoon of sugar to tone down the tomatoes a little. Turn heat down and leave to simmer for 25-30 minutes. Meanwhile, heat a separate pan and flash fry the baby octopus. They will ooze quite a lot of liquid, so you should try and dry them as much as possible, as you wanna fry rather than boil them. Keep the heat quite high and stir around for a couple of minutes. You can add a splash of white wine (or I tend to like Shaoxing rice wine) and reduce down. Arrange octopus decoratively over beans and serve with some bread.
Beans with chorizo and baby octopus:
This is great for a nice summer evening, after your frisbee's got caught up in a tree and you haven't been able to get it down despite throwing sticks and rocks at it for half an hour. Cut your losses and run by the nearest store to get a tin of beans of your choice: canollini, butter, it's all good. In Spain, they use El Barco beans from Avila to make Judias del Barco (beans with chorizo). We used flagéolet, but frankly, whatever's in your kitchen cabinet. Incidentally, I'm not a great snob with respect to tinned beans (really, who has the time), apart from when it comes to beans and rice, which I think you should always make from dried pulses. Whoever suggests you can substitute the tinned variety is just plain wrong.
Also, I have a general disdain for precision cooking and I do most things by eye, so I'm generally very vague when it comes to quantities of ingredients. And anyway, you alone will know the optimal chorizo to bean ratio to suit your tastes, so go with it.
Seafood is optional, but I think it goes quite well with this. We used baby octopus, but you can use squid, cuttlefish or whatever else takes your fancy. Marinate in some oil, salt, pepper and chopped garlic and fresh chilli and leave aside for at least 20 minutes. Slice some cooking chorizo, button mushrooms, and finely chop half a bell pepper, a small onion and two cloves of garlic. Heat an immodest amount of olive oil in a heavy-based frying pan. I usually drop a small piece of garlic in there so I know when the oil's hot enough. When the garlic starts sizzling, pour in the onion and the rest of the garlic and sauté lightly for a few minutes until the onion softens, then add the chorizo and fry for another few minutes. Add the pepper and stir-fry until almost soft (as an improvement to this, you could grill and skin the pepper first for that smoky taste), then add the mushrooms and some frozen peas and fry until mushrooms soften. Stir in a tin of tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste and herbs/spices of your choice. I'd go for some cayenne pepper, a little paprika, cumin, basil, oregano. You might wanna add a teaspoon of sugar to tone down the tomatoes a little. Turn heat down and leave to simmer for 25-30 minutes. Meanwhile, heat a separate pan and flash fry the baby octopus. They will ooze quite a lot of liquid, so you should try and dry them as much as possible, as you wanna fry rather than boil them. Keep the heat quite high and stir around for a couple of minutes. You can add a splash of white wine (or I tend to like Shaoxing rice wine) and reduce down. Arrange octopus decoratively over beans and serve with some bread.
posted by CCT at 10:35 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home