Tempest63

Work has been manic and stressful just recently and though I have photographed some of the meals I have made, most have been home cooked meals out of the freezer. I thought I had a sleeve of chorizo in the freezer so I got it out to make beef and chorizo meatballs, only when I looked at it this afternoon it was a sleeve of salami (Milano to be precise). Well, waste not want not; I followed the recipe taking out all the chefy faff and made the meatballs. I used the tomato sauce from nigellas meatballs with black pudding and it was good. Possibly a little less salt next time as the salami added more than I thought it would. No fresh parsley, so substituted with fresh coriander (Cilantro to those across the pond). The recipe produced 45 meatballs I didn’t bake them as per the recipe, just dropped them in the sauce for 25 minutes. I served them to my wife with mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli. I tasted one meatball and they were very good. My Crohn’s is making it a little difficult to eat at present so small and often, no big meals, nothing heavy.

I had a sleeve of Morcilla left over from Tapas night and found a Nigella beef and black pudding meatball recipe. I made it tonight and it was very good(as are most of Nigellas recipes). She suggests serving it with crusty bread or colcannon, for speed we settled for Penne. https://www.nigella.com/recipes/black-pudding-meatballs

If I am having guests round for a food fest, I invariably book a couple of days annual leave leading up to it. So much can be pre-prepared and ready to finish on the night.

I used this recipe as the base. I’m sure I would have added a few of my own twists to it, I usually do. https://www.venturists.net/braised-pork-cheeks-carrilladas/ I use cheeks for a pork Vindaloo as well if you like an Indian. https://meerasodha.com/recipes/pig-cheek-vindaloo/ Another Indian dish where I use cheeks instead of belly pork is Vivek Singhs Coorgi Pork Stir fry. Worth the couple of days marinating before cooking and and allowing it to mature in the fridge before finishing the dish. https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/coorg-pandhi-pork-stir-fry/

Wishing you a speedy recovery and hearty appetite.

I haven’t visited the site recently, work and other commitments have not left me with much spare time but after shooting yesterday I kept back two partridges which I prepped and roasted today. Served with roasted potatoes and roasted beetroot, steamed Brussels and carrots, and a red wine and redcurrant sauce. Smashing! From this. To this And ultimately this.

Cold Tapas to start with, cream cheese stuffed red and green chilli peppers, mixed Spanish meats and cheeses, Spanish smoked almonds and Spanish olives. And bread, some toasted to rub garlic on and some just served sliced. Edit, I didn’t mention the marinated anchovies. I didn’t get many photos of the hot tapas as I was run off my feet. But we served up, pig cheeks, Russian salad, cheese croquettes, smoked cod scotch eggs, morcilla scotch eggs, albondingas, scallops with corn, potato bravas, chorizo cooked in cider, garlic shrimp and stuffed mushrooms. Edit, I didn’t mention the Padron Peppers This was our working list. Only thing that didn’t hit the table, other than the paellas, was the Spanish omelette.

We have a butcher about half hours drive into the country. It is sited on the same site as a slaughterhouse so you know the meat is fresh. I will enquire if they can supply them. I don’t know the US very well, having never visited, but I believed pork is one of the more preferred meats so I would have thought cheeks would be available if you knew where to ask. The cheeks I brought home are much larger than I usually get so I suspect they are from a different breed of porker.

We are planning our next curryfest for some time in November. I was thinking about a Kashmiri Wazwan spread. My big problem is our local and traditional butcher is lost to us. It has closed down to be replaced by a delicatessen which is doing absolutely no business and will no doubt also close. My caterers at work responded and sourced me 2kg of Pork Cheeks 2kg of ox cheeks and 2.5kg of lamb cutlets. I don’t think beef regularly turns up on a Wazwan menu, and pork is a definite no no. I will look at the ingredients we have available and build a menu around them.

Leftovers from Tapas night cooked two days later. Morcilla scotch quails eggs. Smoked cod scotch quail eggs and cheese croquettes

Tapas night came off very well. Unfortunately I overdid the tapas and nobody wanted the paellas. So Mrs T63 and me had paella during the week. But whilst nobody had room for paella they all tucked into Mrs T63’s Burnt Basque Cheesecake, which she served with Malaga raisin and Pedro Ximenez ice cream.

The big day is here. I’ve been up since six a.m., walking dogs and prepping food. Stuffed mushrooms in the fridge and made up some other hot tapas ready for cooking later. From left, cheese croquettes, morcilla scotch eggs and smoked cod and potatoe eggs. We have a friend who doesn’t eat meat but does eat fish, so the quail eggs with the cod and potato case in golden breadcrumbs accomodate her preferences. Also, no ham in the croquettes for the same reason.

Long day in the kitchen today prepping for our friends coming round tomorrow. I fired up the Weber traveller, a small gas bbq, to cook a couple of sirloins, but just as I was about to put them on the temperature had dropped right away. Looks like the gas canister was empty. I resorted to the cast iron skillet to cook the steaks and served them with steamed green beans and broccoli and “extreme” garlic potatoes. The potatoes I found as a tapas dish and thought I would try it as a side dish before subjecting others to it. It worked and I would do it again. https://spainonafork.com/extreme-garlic-garlic-potatoes-recipe/

But of a theme going on here. I initially posted this recipe using meatballs made from sausages with the skins removed. I tried it again tonight with fresh lamb meatballs from Waitrose, a UK supermarket. I baked the meatballs on Sunday and reheated them in the sauce tonight with macaroni and beans. Mrs T63 preferred the sausage meatballs as she said they had more flavour, but agreed that if I had made the meatballs they would likely be much tastier. But overall it is a good recipe to use as a base for experimenting with different ingredients.

Spanish cheese (two types) and ham. Very good.