Boarding the train we have a long journey west through Italy and France to Spain, followed by a ferry trip out into the Atlantic ocean to the Canary Islands where this recipe originates.
A celebration of Europe #26 – Spain
Tapas
Squid braised in red wine
One of the (myriad) advantages of leaving Hebden Bridge is we are no longer hostage to the weekly visit of ‘Paul the Fish’ with his stall of filleted fish and erratic Welsh mussels. Living in sunny Brighton we now have access to the full aquatic range of anything with scale, shell or tentacle which swims, crawls, drifts or slithers in …
Puy lentils with Mozzarella and basil oil
Apologies (again) for the blogging hiatus. We can offer no excuses other than an extended trip outside the country, a redundancy, a three year old who has gone slightly bonkers and the usual plagues of locusts, frogs and boils. Here by way of compensation is a tasty morsel ideal for an extended al fresco (it rhymes with Tesco) weekend lunch.
Griddled courgette salad with tasty breadcrumbs
We started writing yumblog because (like most food bloggers) we wanted to give you dear reader, the opportunity to press your greasy nose against the window of our perfect world and enviously look in slack-jawed and drooling at our incomprehensibly magnificent lives. Yumblog Cottage is a haven of sunlit space, children’s laughter, crisp white linen, freshly cut flowers, beautiful friends …
Surf & Oeuf
Smoked salmon scotch (quail) egg You can tell you’re at the Ocado end of the middle-class spectrum when your 2.5 year old asks for smoked salmon and quails eggs for breakfast. Soon she’ll be insisting on Jo Malone bum wipes. Anyway, if you manage to wrestle the ingredients away from your toddler why not make these lush smoked salmon scotch …
Green peppers stuffed with hake and manchego
Pity the green pepper, no wonder it’s a little bitter, here in the UK its sole function is to ‘add a bit of colour’ to that dull and unwanted guest at every barbecue, picnic or family gathering* – the rice and sweetcorn salad. Not so in Spain where the pimiento verde is treated with the respect it deserves and makes …
Pan Con Patatas
Forget the mapping of the human genome, the discovery of the Higgs Boson God particle, or the invention of L’Oreal’s age defying Boswelox™, I think we here at Laboratoires Yumblog can humbly announce we have made the single greatest scientific breakthrough since our prehistoric ancestors rubbed two dinosaurs together and conjured up fire. Like many of humanity’s greatest achievements it …
Garlic bread
Ok, here’s a plan…the next time you make pizza dough (what do you mean you don’t make your own pizza dough?) make double/quadruple/sextuple quantities, portion them out and freeze the surplus for future generations. That way, whenever you fancy something a tad tastier than can be supplied by your local Dominoes, you’ll have a pizza instantly on hand (assuming of …
Clams with garlic & nut picada
For this recipe we experimented with frozen clams from a recent Ocado shop. Despite our middle class credentials we wouldn’t ordinarily shop at Ocado but we had a £20 off voucher and thought we’d make use of the offer. A flourish of reckless clicks and 240 quid later, this didn’t seem such a bargain. Also, frozen clams it turns out …
Pulpo a la gallega
Sorry about the irregular nature of recent posts but I have recently started a new job in Manchester and feel it would be considerate to my new employer to wait a few weeks before I spend all my working day writing up posts for yumblog. On the plus side I have discovered a superb fishmonger in the Arndale centre which …
Andalucian gazpacho
Over the years we’ve covered the entire spectrum of gazpachos – from the lush red of the classic tomato, to the cool white of almond and grape via the verdant green of avocado. I suppose we could start searching for other colours, possibly blue, but that would be getting dangerously close to Bridget Jones territory and before you know it …
Piedmontese peppers
…and talking of Simon Hopkinson, this week’s episode of TGC featured two vegetable dishes which looked so simple and tasty we knew we had to try them out here at Yumblog Towers. The first was this roasted pepper and tomato dish which if you cook nothing else between now and the world’s end (August 2012), cook this. It is astoundingly …
Grilled aubergines with olive oil, garlic, parsley and feta
…and so to the second Simon Hopkinson dish.
Mediterranean tuna
It was Saturday so we took our now routine trip across the wasteland to Victoria Park ‘Village’ for provisions. Wallet out. A score in the fishmonger, a Paul McKenna each at the offy and greengrocer, a few sharpeners at an impressive £4.40 a pint… where did that fifty quid go? Well, most of it went on a rather delicioso tapas …
Potato and Asparagus Frittata
In an attempt to escape the hysterical media build up to ‘the wedding’, not to mention the event itself with its stupid street parties, stupid bunting, stupid flag waving and general unseemly national deference to our ‘betters’, we left the country and spent Easter in the relaxed sun-drenched (republic) of Berlin. Fortunately for us the Berliners were far too preoccupied …
Brandade de Morue (Salt Cod and Potato Purée)
Oft of a weekend we don disguises, dodge the border guards, dash across the metaphorical railway tracks and stealthily enter the sanctuary of E9 – aka Victoria Park Village. VPV (as I am sure it is referred to by Foxtons) is a culinary oasis in the otherwise apocalyptic wasteland of Costcutters and sub-KFC-style ‘restaurants’ which like radiation-tolerant cockroaches infest our …
Elote (Corn on the cob with mayo, cheese & chilli)
I’ll never forget the charming little threadbare street vendor on the dusty corner of Presa Las Virgenes and Paseo de la Reforma where we would regularly purchase our Elotes at the end of a frantic day’s shoot. We’d take these tasty corn ‘popsicles’ up to the terracotta rooftops of our rambling majestic casa and accompanied by an iced bottle of …
Roasted Anaheim Peppers with Anchovies
Anaheim peppers are essentially mild with an unexpected and pleasing peppery warmth which registers a modest 500 to 2,500 on the Scoville scale. If you can’t get hold of them use the common or garden red pepper and cut it into 1 – 2cm strips.
Patatas Bravas
Rumours abound that Yumblog Holdings has breached its banking covenants (whatever that means) and that perhaps the Yumblog franchise is not the cash cow it once used to be. We would like to rigorously refute these allegations and point out that all of our ventures (including Yumblog at Claridges, Yum in Grosvenor Square, Ad Nauseyum on Royal Hospital Road, J.D. …
Almond & Grape Gazpacho
We’ve gone cold soup crazy this month. This particular variety is based on the classic Ajo Blanco but with the cheeky addition of cucumber and watercress.
Avocado Gazpacho
What could herald the arrival of summer more than a big bowl of cold soup. Wasps perhaps. Or possibly sharing the big bowl of cold soup with a wasp. A wasp in shorts. Anyway, if you’ve bothered to read the posts below, you’ll know I am intimately familiar with the red, tomato-based gazpacho, however, up until now have never tried …
Gazpacho
Summer reluctantly and briefly visited the UK this weekend, and so as a gesture of thanks to the mighty sun god Ra we held up this delicious offering – the first gazpacho of the cold soup season.
Chilli Prawns with Aioli
The weekend started with a nostalgic ‘The Only Ones‘ gig at Koko, and ended with a boozy tapas extravaganza of which this was the main attraction. Between the two the sun shone on Bethnal Green, a traveler returned and Thunderbirds Were Go.
Pimientos de Padron
I love these little beasties. Fried and salted and accompanied by a cold tube of Cruzcampo. Tradition and statistics dictate that 29 out of 30 are mild and sweet with the remaining rogue being hot and fiery. I’ve never seen them sold in this country before but have recently discovered them tucked away on a stall in Borough Market.