Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Reckon you would have once someone had cooked it for you!
Cooking tips and wonderful flavour combinations
- Thread starter baboon2004
- Start date
Reckon you would have once someone had cooked it for you!
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
I've always wanted to try doing a proper choucroute garnie. But in a house with only one meat eater, I can't see it being a practical idea.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
roasted pineapple curry with fennel, coconut flavours is a winner. should have left the pineapple in the oven for ten minutes longer though, let it caramelise properly. Probably needed a sour too - maybe tamarind or just vinegar - to round it off properly.
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
Wouldn't have a clue how to make it, but had a tapa last night of fried aubergine with a honey and cheese sauce and...oh my...
viktorvaughn
Well-known member
If you can get baby aubergines I made a wicked salad with them.
Roast baby aubergines and cherry tomatoes. Put some pittas/flat bread, in towards the end.
Cut up some feta or that cheap turkish salad cheese and mix with a little raw veg of your choice (i used fennel). When the flat bread is toasted chop into pieces and mix in with this veg, add a little olive oil and mix together.
Add the aubergines whole and tomatoes when cooked and finish with yoghurt dressing (yoghurt with splash of water, bit of olive oil, pomegranate molasses, salt, pepper and small amount of raw garlic).
This is well nice, the toasted bread stays a bit hard but soaks up all the dressing, gorgeous.
Roast baby aubergines and cherry tomatoes. Put some pittas/flat bread, in towards the end.
Cut up some feta or that cheap turkish salad cheese and mix with a little raw veg of your choice (i used fennel). When the flat bread is toasted chop into pieces and mix in with this veg, add a little olive oil and mix together.
Add the aubergines whole and tomatoes when cooked and finish with yoghurt dressing (yoghurt with splash of water, bit of olive oil, pomegranate molasses, salt, pepper and small amount of raw garlic).
This is well nice, the toasted bread stays a bit hard but soaks up all the dressing, gorgeous.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Sounds very good.
http://www.horecadigital.com/horecadigital/index2.php?sec=16&id=928&fam=1
This is interesting if you are interested in tapas and can speak a bit of Spanish. Describes the particular tapas that won the Zaragoza tapas competition. I like the idea of the winning one - longaniza (a kind of sausage that apparently uses black pepper instead of the more usual paprika) with strawberry vinegar.
I feel this will cause some consternation here (pasas = raisins) : 'La tapa más original se la llevo el bar Cuéntame de Utebo, con su "Sombrero relleno de queso azul, bacon y pasas" '.
I was very taken by morcilla, but failed to buy any. D'oh. Still, always places in London, I guess.
http://www.horecadigital.com/horecadigital/index2.php?sec=16&id=928&fam=1
This is interesting if you are interested in tapas and can speak a bit of Spanish. Describes the particular tapas that won the Zaragoza tapas competition. I like the idea of the winning one - longaniza (a kind of sausage that apparently uses black pepper instead of the more usual paprika) with strawberry vinegar.
I feel this will cause some consternation here (pasas = raisins) : 'La tapa más original se la llevo el bar Cuéntame de Utebo, con su "Sombrero relleno de queso azul, bacon y pasas" '.
I was very taken by morcilla, but failed to buy any. D'oh. Still, always places in London, I guess.
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Benny Bunter
Well-known member
Cool, i will try and read that if I can. I still need to build up my tapas vocabulary as I am still quite bewildered when i see a tapas menu here. So far the best things I've had in Seville have been the bulls-tail stew, salmorejo, the seafood (if you like everything deep-fried that is) and obviously the jamón/fino sherry combination which is actually as good as everyone says it is.
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
Halved dried figs, halved walnuts and little chunks of reasonably firm goat's cheese is a really amazing combination - any one of them is quite nice, any pair is very nice, and all three are magic. It takes three minutes to prepare and makes you seem like a culinary god.
I can't quite decide whether this is a starter, a pudding, something unbearably pretentious like an amuse bouche or what, though. Meself and Alison took a little box of it with some ciabatta on a train for a light lunch and it was nice, but I can't decide how I'd get it into a proper meal...
Also, what to drink with it? Sweetish sherry? Really rich dark ale? Desert wine? Brandy? A smooth scotch?
I can't quite decide whether this is a starter, a pudding, something unbearably pretentious like an amuse bouche or what, though. Meself and Alison took a little box of it with some ciabatta on a train for a light lunch and it was nice, but I can't decide how I'd get it into a proper meal...
Also, what to drink with it? Sweetish sherry? Really rich dark ale? Desert wine? Brandy? A smooth scotch?
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
That does sound amazing, and I'd been looking for something a bit Turkish to do tonight...
There's also quite a good thing to do with them where you slit them down the middle, stuff the slit with spice powders (turmeric, chilli, coriander, dried mango powder iirc) and then slowly fry them, with the slit upright, in a covered pan until they're soft through.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
is an amuse-bouche a small canape?
I'd go for a dessert - goat's cheese whipped up with cream or whatever, and flavoured with the fig and walnut. Couldn't fail? Or salad with nice leaves and honey-flavoured vinaigrette, obv.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
http://www.lingolex.com/spanishfood/glossayen.htm - I was looking at this to translate in retrospect stuff I'd seen, but so many tapas seem to have obscure and/or localised names.
How is the jamon/sherry presented?
viktorvaughn
Well-known member
I'd go with sherry yeah - maybe have with a drop of honey in bread for a sweet sandwich? Or a drop of sherry vinegar would push it salad-wise.
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
On a plate/in a glass. Basket of bread on the side. There's nothing really fancy about most tapas here.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Or go mad: http://ginandcrumpets.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/fig-walnut-and-goats-cheese-baklava/
http://www.food.com/recipe/walnut-and-fig-tapenade-with-goat-cheese-241406 This looks completely amazing.
http://www.food.com/recipe/walnut-and-fig-tapenade-with-goat-cheese-241406 This looks completely amazing.
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viktorvaughn
Well-known member
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
OK, interesting. In Zaragoza it was a bit fancy, really nice presentation (which I'm not normally bothered about, but they looked really impressive racked up behind glass on the bar). I liked most of what I had, but I think if the presentation had been less good, I might not have been as impressed - nothing was overwhelmingly good, except the morcilla.
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
It was! Although mine looked a lot less artistic than yours...
Re figs, walnuts, goats cheese - some interesting looking recipes, although frankly just the three together on a plate is very easy and shockingly nice.
I'd consider an amuse bouche to be a sort of little pique-your-interest-and-get-you-excited pre-starter micro-course. A couple of mouthfuls at most, but something to get you raring to go before the starter arrives. But I think dried figs and walnuts might be a little overbearing for that...
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
The old cumin-chilli-soy-garlic marinated lamb. Yum!