Just about the simplest supper ever!

I've started going to the gym and for someone who has never enjoyed exercise, I shyly admit to liking it.  I only do about 45 minutes but it gives me a break from my day and a chance to wind-down before I go home.

However, this does mean that I get home at about eight-ish so not only is it late for dinner but even though I find it quite therapeutic, I don't want to spent too long cooking.   This is one of my favourite quick and tasty recipes that I learnt while in Italy.  

For the full experience, the instructions need to be followed exactly ( :

Take about 120g of wholewheat spaghetti and add it to a pot of boiling water.  Then open the fridge and pour yourself a much needed glass of wine.  I recently found Viognier which is slightly floral and robust so stands up well to this dish.

Then crush 4 cloves of garlic.  I know that chefs don't like the garlic press but, Honey I'm sweaty and hungry so not in the mood for niceties.  Pop this into a small dish and add a glug of olive or rape seed oil.   

Then take four or five dried chilis, chop and add to the olive oil.  Add one anchovy fillet and then check the spaghetti after a sip of wine.  It should be al dente and you can drain the water and pop the pasta into your dish.

Add the garlic/chili mixture to the pot and fry until the garlic has softened and the anchovy dissolved.   Take the pot off the heat, add the spaghetti and mix until the pasta is coated.

Then shave a little parmesan over the top.   So very yum and pretty good with that glass of wine.

Lxx

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Pulpo Galicia

 When you speak to a none-foodie, you find that they can be quite squeamish about eating certain things.  The faces I have seen pulled at through thought of octopus are really quite funny.   I realise they are perhaps not the most attractive ingredients but to be honest neither is dead cow and most people will eat a steak if you cook them one.

However, many of the Mediterranean cultures - I’m thinking Spanish, Greek, Italian and Portuguese specifically – have made an art form of cooking octopus.   My two favourite octopus dishes are Pulpo Galicia and octopus done on the BBQ (or Braai as we call it in South Africa).

Firstly, you need to remember that octopus live quite a long time so need to be carefully prepared or they are like eating shoe leather.  Traditionally, they were killed and pounded against the rocks to tenderise them but this is less practical if you live in a built up area and is likely to worry the neighbours. 

So, take the octopus and pop it in boiling water for up to 8 minutes for a large one (down to 1 or two minute for the tiny ones).  Then – if it is a large octopus – remove the head as it doesn’t have much meat and isn’t particularly tasty before putting in an oven proof dish with herbs as well as a little water and cooking for up to 5 hours (if it is a big boy).

With regards to what herbs to use, it depends what you are going to do with it in the end but for the Spanish recipe, I tend to put a little garlic, rosemary, paprika and chilli but this is not hugely traditional.   Octopus will take on the flavour of the herbs and spices.

Cool the meat and boil some baby potatoes until soft, cool and cut into slices.  Place the slices on a platter and then cut up the octopus (if it is a large one, check that you don’t need to remove any fat on the inside of the tentacles) into slices.   Put the slices on the potatoes and drizzle with good olive oil, salt and a dusting of sweet paprika.

Really lovely especially when eaten with a crisp glass of wine on the veranda.

L xx

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Peppers de Padron

While to many American’s Spain seems deeply exotic (or it does to my friends), people in the UK suffer from ‘neighbour fatigue’.   Indeed, we live close enough and so many package holidays go there that it just doesn’t seem really different and it serves loads of fast food so why bother?

Well, I got to Canyamel each year which is at the top of the Island of Majorca – very un-touristy and utterly glorious.  Hot, relaxed and with the sound of the cicadas, nothing beats a cold tin of San Miguel on the terrace.   And the food on the island is utterly remarkable if you avoid the tourist traps so I will be wandering through the food heritage of this Island over my next few blog posts.

Let start with Peppers de Padron which are small green peppers that are deep friend and then sprinkled with salt.  Utterly yummy with a glorious Russian roulette effect as one in five (or so they say) is hot while the rest of them are sweet and just tasty.    Apparently a Franciscan Monk brought them to Spain from Mexico in the 17th century and they have been part of Spanish cuisine since.

They are not hard to make but it can be difficult to get hold of them so have a look online for seeds or in some farmers markets in the UK

First, wash the peppers (about 500g) and dry thoroughly.   Then heat a frying pan with olive oil (enough to shallow rather than deep fry) and pop batches of the peppers in.   They should just be blistering and developing colour when they are removed as if they are overcooked they are not nice at all.

Put onto kitchen paper to drain off and then sprinkle with rock salt before serving as a canape (ideally warm). 

Lxx

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @alittleofwhatyouwant 

Culinary Therapy

Today, the Daily Mail looks at a woman who built her confidence after becoming a stay at home mum by cooking all the recipes in Mary Berry’s The Baking Bible.   And this got me thinking about just how relaxing I find cooking.

Admittedly, I don’t have children or a husband and the most annoying ‘person’ I have in my kitchen is my large Maine Coon who is fairly certain that whatever I am cooking is really intended for him – veggie pasta included.  But I do find it very therapeutic.

I get home from work having spent a day marvelling that some people have managed to wander through life without getting hit by a bus and enjoying a ‘close encounter’ of the squished kind on the tube – before entering my sanctuary    

By South African or American standards the kitchen is tiny but it is just perfect for me with light wooden floors / counter tops and white tiles on parts of the wall.  It has a sink, sideboard, fridge and cooker with a door into the garden to let any warm weather we get in.

Having fed the cats, I unpack any shopping I have, pour myself a glass of wine and pop a CD on (loving Paul Anka at the mo) before to be frank, fiddling with food.   Somehow the crash of the pots, smell of my herb cupboard and relief at simply being home removes all the stress and by the time I finally eat, work seems a million miles away.

Even when I have friends over and am dodging people as I ferry pasta from the stove to the sink or try to find the potato peeler (which I am fairly certain my cleaner hides for the hell of it), I feel all domestic and relaxed.

Mmm, perhaps I was meant to be a domestic goddess after all.

L xxx

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Life without a Recipe

I know someone who is permanently discontented or minorly miserable.  Nothing to worry about but nothing to enjoy either.  They are family so I obviously care about them and I've spent some time trying to figure out the issue.

And - drum roll please - I think I finally have.  She came to the UK when she was supposed to, got married, had a child and returned to South Africa.  She worked, bought a house, had another child and - to an outsider - is living a perfectly lovely life.

However, she is living a tick-box existence or rather life within the confines of a strict regimented recipe. Did she want to get married?  Have a child?  Move back to South Africa?  I can't say she didn't want to do it but I do know that she did everything at the age you should.  A carefully planned out life - lived with what appears to be little joy as I think she is bored.

So what does that say?  To me it strikes me that if we use other peoples recipes as the blueprint for our lives then we will be discontented.  The first person to make lasagna didn't use a recipe, they experimented, they failed and they ended up with a brilliant dish.   Something that they loved but not necessarily something that is right for everyone else.

So perhaps what we need to do is to learn the techniques, find the tools and source the ingredients - then we will be happy because while we will never make lasagna, we will make the pasta dish that suits us.

L xx

Don't forget to follow me on twitter @alittleofwhatyouwant