When Irish Eyes Aren’t Smiling

categories: Ireland, Potato Salad

I wanted to make something really amazing for St Patrick’s Day and when I say something really amazing what I mean is an Irish Potato Salad Roll. And you all thought I was joking when I said I was going to make the PSR into a thing!!!

So, I found this recipe for an Irish Potato Salad – this baby has potatoes, cabbage and corned beef. Faith and Begorrah, could you get more stereotypically Irish?

I was so excited I played some Mumford and Sons and did a little impromptu Riverdance around the dining room.

Irish Potato Salad Roll here I come!!!!

The Luck of The Irish Part 1

The first problem arrived when I could not find celery seed in either of my two local supermarkets. Minor Detail. I have celery salt. And celery. How much flavour is the seed going to add anyway?

The Luck of The Irish Part 2

I”m just going to come out and say it. Corned beef is disgusting. Maybe I bought the wrong sort of stuff but it said Corned Beef on the tin:

The recipe said to cube it, so I assumed it was going to be kind of like Spam i.e. able to be cubed. What I did not expect was this disgusting gelatinous fatty mush which almost made me gag. There were also big chunks of fat left in the bottom of the can.

And it smelt really bad.

My original plan was to cook the corned beef, onion and cabbage together, then make a kind of chunky mash with the potatoes, mayo and pickle and swiss roll them together and serve it cold.

Having seen the corned beef cold put me right off though so that plan went out the window. Mine was going to be a warm salad.

The Luck of The Irish Part 3

So, I started cooking my corned beef and onion and….oh, god, this bit did actually make me gag. There was something weird in the meat. Initially I thought it was one of those lumps of fat. Except it didn’t melt.

It looked like a piece of skin. This picture does not even convey the disgustingness of this lump of….whatever the fuck it was…

So, whilst I was dry heaving, the corned beef started to stick to the pan. So I thought it might be a good idea to throw a glass of wine in there to deglaze the plan. Because wine makes anything better right?

Wrong. This is how doomed this dish was, Adding the wine just made a very fatty, milky, winey, even more stinky liquid rise to the top. This was so incredibly gross it’s kind of making me throw up a little in my mouth just thinking about it.

The Luck of The Irish Part 4

In the end I plated it up by making some chips with the potatoes and making a stack. Potato, corned beef, potato, mayo and chives, potato, corned beef, mayo and pickles.

The Luck of The Irish Part 5

If this was a Hollywood version or even a reality tv show, right about now, I’d saying something along the lines of “You know, when I plated this up, despite all the set backs, despite all the trials and tribulations, this tasted fantastic….best thing I’ve ever eaten”.

It was nothing like that.

It definitely wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever eaten. Then again, I ate bugs in Cambodia. It was the definitely worst thing I’ve eaten this year. And this is the gift that keeps on giving, not only did it leave a layer of grease in my mouth that survived at least two tooth brushings but even though I had the extractor fan on for the longest time, the day after I made this, there was still a fug of corned beef and cabbage through my entire house.

Hmm…maybe this really did need the celery seed.

Epic fail.

Sorry people of Ireland. I tried.

And my head told my heart
“Let love grow”
But my heart told my head
“This time no, This time no

But never fear…just like a benevolent Colin Fassnidge on My Kitchen Rules, I’m giving myself a redemption round.

And this time, it’s something not even I can fuck up. Roll out the barrel of Jameson’s…next up…we’re having an Irish inspired cocktail. Please let it be fabulous…or you know…just better than this. Otherwise, I might have to strategically vote myself out….

How do you plan to celebrate St Patrick’s Day? If at all?

What’s the worst thing you’ve eaten this year? Ever?

What are your thoughts on strategic voting – MKR or anywhere

Have a great week!

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24
Feb
2015

Crespéou (70’s Style Retro Picnic Bling)

categories: 1970's food, Eggs, Feta, France, Omelette, Turmeric

In his introduction to the Crespéou in Plenty More, Yotam Ottolenghi says

If I was going to sum up my cooking style in five words, 70’s-style-retro-picnic-bling would not be them”

Huh…Weirdly enough that’s exactly the style of cooking I aspire to.

Still, with an introduction like that, there was no way I was not making a Crespéou! I was already thinking about having a month of food I have no idea how to pronounce (Kouign Amman anyone?). Google tells me this is Cresp-ay-oo. And also that it’s from Provence and so-called because the layers look like crepes. Never say I don’t do the research hard yards for you…

So what is this unpronounceable piece of 70’s style crepe like Retro Picnic Bling?

Well, it’s layers of three differently flavoured omelettes stacked on each other and baked. One red, one yellow, one green. Which just goes to show the difference between those classy people of Provence and around here. We’d be calling it something dumb arse like “Traffic Light” Special.

Crespéou – Red Layer

Yotam suggests red peppers for this layer. I used sun-dried-tomatoes because red peppers and I have a love-hate relationship. Without the love.

Hmm, I have realised in looking at this picture of the red layer that I may have put in fresh coriander rather than ground. Oops.

Still, I think that is one of the benefits of a dish like this. You can mix up the flavours. I have seen other recipes where people have used, zucchinis, mushrooms, olives, all sorts of things. It could really become a “clean-out-your-fridge” type dish.

Crespéou -Yellow Layer

The yellow layer was intriguing. I have never used turmeric in an omelette before. It really works!!! If I was going to mix this layer up a bit thin crispy discs of pan sautéed potato would be great!

The trick with this dish is to leave the top of your omelettes much more runny than you would any other omelette. The idea of this is that when you stack them and bake them the egg will solidify and the layers will stick together.

Crespéou – Green Layer

Another genius combination – green onions, green chilli, basil, tarragon and cumin!!! Wow!!! This layer was really perky and fresh!!!

Once you have cooked all your omelettes, stack them up as neatly as possible. And into the oven they go to cook up that last bit of runny egg.

Once cooked through, you can eat your Crespéou as is or trim the edges with a sharp knife to be able to see the layers. I used a small square pan so I cut mine into four cubes…

These were superb. I had it for lunch I think 3 days running and looked forward to it on day three as much as I did on day one.

And I know what you’re all thinking. Which layer tasted best? I did separate one of my cubes and ate each later alone. And they were all really good. But the combination was a-may-zing!!!!

Yotam Ottolenghi also says of the Crespéou that:

“If there is one recipe that might make me cringe in years to come, it will, for sure be this one”

I say “I love you. Can you not be so happily gay and be my boyfriend? You could cook me Crespéou and we could go on a picnic in a field in Provence and I could dance around listening to “Total Eclipse of the Heart” on a vintage Walkman. Or…hold your head up high and embrace the Crespéou for the lunchbox saviour that it is. And I’m sure even better on picnics. Especially picnics in Provence. With heaps of rosé wine and 1970’s disco music on your vintage Walkman.

Which is fairly redundant – I can’t think of ANYTHING that wouldn’t be better on a picnic in Provence with heaps of rosé wine and 1970’s music on your Walkman. Can you?

Speaking of which…before she was Totally Eclipsed in the Heart Bonnie Tyler was Lost in France which would actually be the perfect musical accompaniment to the Crespéou…

The full recipe can be found in Plenty More or online here

GlitterPhoto
Bonnie Tyler being Lost in France is here:

Make. Listen. Drink lots of rosé and imagine yourself lost in France.

This week, I’m cooking up some more 70’s Style Retro Picnic Bling courtesy of Jane Grigson! Have a tres fantastique week what ever you get up to.

And turn around bright eyes.

And P.S. – I’m totally contemplating the name of this blog to Retro Picnic Bling. Loving it madly!!!

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23
Jan
2015

Drunk Food – The Meat Pie Floater

categories: Adelaide, Australasia, Meat Pie, Soup

I guess each culture has a food they like to eat when drunk. The Brits for instance love a curry when they are five sheets to the wind. Closer to home, we in Melbourne like nothing better than a kebab or its Greek cousin, the souvlaki. Ahhhh….greasy meaty goodness wrapped in pita bread…deeelicious whatever you call it. There was also a spate, back in the 1990’s of mobile hot dog vendors but they were a passing fad. Nothing beats the 3:00am drunken kebab. Not in this town anyway.

So ubiquitous is the post pub/club kebab run that I assumed it was a national pass-time. Oh, so wrong. A few years ago I ventured across the border into South Australian territory for a wedding. Post-wedding we ventured into the casino and post-casino we ran into one of the weirdest instances of drunk food I have ever seen. Which of course, in celebration of the month of crazy and Australia Day (January 26th) I am going to replicate here. We’ll return to that in a moment.

But first, Adelaide. It’s a weird place. City of Churches and bizarre serial killings. And before anyone from South Australia gets their knicks in a knot. It is true. Dexter said so.

And…the very second I typed Adelaide and serial killers, the little app that I have that tells me about related content brought up an article on a body found in a wheelie bin. You can fool some of the people some of the time South Australia but the internet will not be fooled. I on the other hand….did I say I lived in Melbourne? I meant Sydney. Or Perth. Yeah, Perth. It’s even further away and in the opposite direction. Yep, I definitely live in Perth. Just in case you are thinking about crossing any boundaries with your serial killer ways, take a leaf from the Village People and Go West.

But I digress, we’re here to talk about food. Australian food to boot. The picture above shows one of the classic legendary Australian dishes. The Meat Pie. Second possibly only to the Vegemite Sandwich as THE Australian dish.

We love to eat our meat pies with a bit of….and now here’s some Aussie slang for you….a bit of “dead horse”. And no, not in that ooky, literal European way. “Dead horse” is Australian rhyming slang for tomato sauce. That would be ketchup to my American friends.

And in ~~Melbourne~~ Perth this is how we eat our pies. Just as pies. With ketchup. Lovehearts optional.

And, if we have soup…lets just say a rather hearty pea and ham soup. We have it like this. Just soup. Maybe with some crusty bread. Or a crouton.

Let us now return to the street outside the Adelaide casino at 3:00am.

The BF had gone over to the van to get us each a kebab. He came back empty handed and shaking his head. “It’s not kebabs. It’s pies and soup.”

“Ewww…who wants soup at this time of night. But I’ll have a pie. ”

“No, it’s not pies and soup. It’s pies IN soup”

I honestly did not believe him. Until I wandered over to take a look.

And sure enough….pies in pea soup…..

This is drunk food in Adelaide. Seriously. Loveheart optional.

And if you don’t believe me, here’s some independent confirmation.

I told you they were freaky over there.

I would love to tell you that I tried this and despite all my ~~Victorian~~ West Australian prejudices it was awesome.

Except it wasn’t.

It wasn’t as repulsive as I thought it would be. But it was definitely a whole that was a lot less than the sum of its parts. And nowhere near as good as a kebab.

Maybe you need to be drunk to enjoy it.

If you want to try this delight for yourself, you can find a recipe for a Beef and Shiraz Pie here. I have used this recipe before and it is a beauty, however I just bought the ones I used for this. I made the soup though and it was really good. I subbed in chorizo for the more traditional ham and it made the soup super tasty! Recipe below.

I am looking forward to a long weekend celebrating Australia Day. Just not with a meat pie floater….

Have a great week where ever you are!!! I would also love to know what constitutes drunk food in your neck o’ the woods. Drop me a comment….

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Pea and Chorizo Soup

Print Recipe

A delicious hearty take on a pea and ham soup – a classic winter warmer

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

1 tbsp olive oil
3 chorizo sausages, removed from their casing and diced
2 carrots, peeled, diced
2 sticks of celery, peeled, diced
1 onion chopped finely
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
300g green split peas
2litres cold water
Salt and Pepper

To Serve

Warm bread rolls or a meat pie and sauce

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Rinse the split peas under cold running water until the water runs clear. Drain.
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the chorizo and cook until the meat is browned. Add the carrots, celery, onions and garlic and cook, stirring occaisionally, until the onions are softened.
Add the split peas and water. Bring to the boil over high heat.
Reduce heat to medium low and simmer, covered for about an hour or until the split peas are cooked.
Allow to cool slightly then process the mixture to your desired level of “chunkyness” either using a stick blender or by processing small batches of the mix in a blender.
Season with salt & pepper.
Serve with warm bread rolls if you are normal or with a pie and sauce floating in the centre if you are not.

Notes

I like my soup fairly chunky so I usually only put about a third of it in the blender.

02
Dec
2014

Tasty Reads 2 – Persiana – Sabrina Ghayour

categories: Book Club, Middle Eastern

Persiana – Sabrina Ghayour

Confession time. I have a massive girl crush on Sabrina Ghayour, author of Persiana. Not in some weird way, I just want us to be friends, maybe even best friends. Mainly so I could go round to her house and whilst we chatted about boys and bras, she could make me all the gorgeous things in this book. I would bring wine. Then I could sleep over and we could put curlers in our hair and have a pillow fight.

This book. OMG, this book. Opening this book was like falling in love. Seriously. The photography is amazing. This is hard core drool worthy food porn. Persiana is my easily my favourite cookbook of the year; it may well become my favourite ever (sorry Nigella, I’ve got a new bestie…)

Recipes marked to cook: 75

Yep, pretty much all of them.

I actually feel bad I haven’t made more things from it. Paleo got in the way. but as at 30 November, this is the tally.

p10 Broad Beans with Garlic Dill & Eggs (made)

Loved it. Except for double podding the broad beans which took forever!!! Tried it with edamame and it was not so good. Sadly, looks like I will be double podding for some time as this was amazing.

p12 Aubergine Chermoula
p15 Yogurt with Cucumber, Garlic & Dill / Cacik
p17 Marinated Feta
p20 Yogurt, Cucumber & Mint / Maast O Khiar
p33 Turkish Feta Pasty Cigars / Sigara Borek Peynir
p35 Salt Cod Fritters
p36 Pistachio Feta Dip
p38 Safavid-Style Beef Pastries

p41 Baked Eggs with Feta, Harissa, Tomato Sauce and Coriander (made)

Loved the flavour combination! This is pretty much my ideal meal. One dish. Eggs, Cheese, tomatoes, chilli.

p45Lahmacun (made)

This one didn’t do it for me. I like meat on my pizza to be quite chunky and even though I did not chop the meat through as much as Sabrina recommended it was still too paste like for me. Use this same mix and make tiny little meatballs to scatter over the top of the pizza base and you’d have a winner from me. On the other hand, he really liked it.

p46 Spiced Lamb Kefta
p48 Spice Salted Squid
p53 Eastern Style Focaccia
p55 Persian Flatbread / Naan Barbari
p60 Persian Bejewelled Rice / Morassa Polow

p 63 Persian Basmati Rice / Chelo (Made)

I love a claypot rice and this is very similar. Mine didn’t work out exactly as per the picture but I think it was an ok first attempt. And Sabrina does say even the experienced cook sometimes needs a bit of luck to pull this off.

Sabrina’s:

Mine:

p65 Rice With Lentils and Crispy Onions / Mojardara
p68 Spicy Prawn Rice / Maygoo Polow
p72 Lamb Biryani

p78 Spiced Vegetable Soup (Made)

Delicious!

p83 Persian Saffron Chicken, Fennel and Barberry Stew

p85 Chicken, Walnut and Pomegranate Stew / Khoresh-e-Fesenjan (Made)

This photo does not do justice to this delicious dish. Either in how good it tasted or how pretty it was. Sorry. But take my word for it. This was really good!

p88 Lamb Shank, Black Garlic and Tomato Tagine
p91 Persian Dried Lime, Lamb and Split Pea Stew / Khoresh – e – Gheymeh
p93 Seared Lamb and Apricot Stew
p94 Lamb, Butternut Squash, Prune and Tamarind Tagine
p96 Pomegranate Soup With Meatballs / Ash-e Anar
p99 Seafood and Saffron Stew
p104 Saffron and Rosemary Chicken Fillets
p109 Ras el Hanout Chicken Wraps
p110 Harissa and Preserved Lemon Roasted Poussins
p114 Saffron and Lemon Chicken / Joojeh Kabab
p117 Lamb and Sour Cherry Meatballs
p119 Mechouia-Style Lamb Leg with Cumin Dipping Salt
p120 Spiced Rack Of Lamb With Pomegranate Sauce
p122 Turkish Adana Kofte Kebabs
p125 Tray- Baked Rose Petal Lamb Chops With Chilli And Herbs
p127 Lamb and Pistachio Patties / Fistikli Kebap
p128 Spice Perfumed Shoulder of Lamb
p130 Seared Beef with Pomegranate and Balsamic Dressing

p135 Cod in Tamarind, Coriander and Fenugreek Seeds (made)

Cod in Tamarind, Coriander and Fenugreek Sauce

I made this during my weeks of Paleo. I just left out the flour and pinch of sugar from the original recipe. I don’t think the flour made much of a difference except for maybe bringing our the turmeric colour in the sauce, but my sauce was very tamarind tangy. Which I love. Even when I was a little girl, when my mum would make a curry I would dip a spoon in the tamarind and just eat it straight off the spoon. If you’re not equally minded, add the sugar! Also, we don’t have cod so I used monkfish. I loved this!!!

p136 Prawns With Sumac, Coriander, Lemon and Garlic
p138 Citrus Spiced Salmon
p140 Belly Stuffed Rainbow Trout / Mahi Shekampor
p143 Scallops And Shaved Fennel With Saffron, Honey, & Citrus Vinaigrette
p144 Za’atar Cod With Relish
p147 Bandari Monkfish Tails
p150 Blood Orange and Radicchio Salad
p152 Barley Salad With Griddled Broccoli and Za’Atar

p154 Radish, Cucumber and Red Onion Salad With Mint And Orange Blossom Dressing (Made)

Lovely!!! Fresh and Zingy!

p157 Puy Lentil And Quinoa Salad With Lentil And Sumac
p160 Tomato Salad With Pomegranate Molasses / Gavurdagi Salatasi
p163 Turkish White Bean Salad / Piyaz
p173 Chicken And Artichoke Salad With Yogurt Dressing
p176 Fennel And Apple Salad With Dill and Pomegranate Seeds

p178 Shirazi Salad (Made)

Totally Yum!!!!

p181 Red Rice Salad With Barberries, Grilled Vegetables And Toasted Almonds
p183 Fattoush Salad

P184 Chargrilled Aubergines With Saffron Yogurt Parsley and Pickled Chillies (Made)

The very first thing I made and one of my favourite things ever!

p186 Date And Tamarind Sauce
p193 Harissa Marinated Asparagus
p198 Butternut Squash With Pistachio, Pesto, Feta and Pomegranate Seeds

p201 Turmeric and Cumin Roasted Potatoes (Made)

I could not find the photo’s of these. They were pretty good though!

p204 Za’atar Roasted Squash With Spiced Yogurt And Pickled Chillies

P209 Spiced Carrot, Pistachio and Almond Cake With Rosewater Cream

OMG. One of the best things I have ever eaten. I got so giddy over this cake I tweeted Sabrina to tell her about it. She didn’t tweet back so maybe that best friends thing is a non-starter. However, in a year of good cakes, this and the Amanda Hesser Almond Cake are standout winners. This is how good this cake is….I cut some slices of this to take to work and I started eating the crumbs. Then I had a piece, Then another. I had three pieces of carrot cake for breakfast that morning and I am completely unrepentent. It’s that good. Also, the most compliments I have ever received from the work crew about my baking.

You MUST make this! Sorry for the shitty photo though. Too busy shoving this glorious thing into my face to take anything decent.

p210 Baklava
p216 Pistachio and Lemon Shortbreads
p217 Strawberry and Pineapple Carpaccio with Basil And Mint Sugars
p221 Cinnamon and Citrus Almond And Pastry Cigars
p223 Eastern Mess
p226 Pistachio, Honey And Orange Blossom Ice Cream

p229 Pistachio Rose And Rasberry Madeleines (Made)

Superb!

p232 Syrup Poached Apricots With Walnuts and Clotted Cream

I am so looking forward to cooking so much more from this!!! Let me know what you like on the list and I will cook it sooner!

You can find the recipes for a few of the things I have cooked and some on the list here:

The Guardian Persiana Recipes

If you have Persiana or you cook any of these recipes please let me know how they turned out, I would love to see them! And let me know if you love this book as much as I do!

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17
Nov
2014

Century Scallop Ceviche with Ancho Chillies (Spice Peddler)

categories: Ancho, Mexico, Scallops, Spice Peddler, Starters

About a billion years ago, the wonderful team at the Spice Peddlers sent me some fabulous Ancho Chillies to have my evil way with. I had never cooked with Ancho chillies before so this was a totally new and delicious experience for me.

I also have a new manifesto for my Spice Peddler treats – I’m going to try to cook one thing in the spirit of which it was intended and then I’m going to go kind of out there with the next one. So, to familiarise myself with the anchos and also to push my own boundaries I decided to make a ceviche. I have always been terrified to make sashimi or any “raw” fish at home in case it killed me. And before you start shouting, I am aware that ceviche is technically cooked but it’s not like it’s been crumbed, fried and coated with cheese is it?

Ancho Scallop Ceviche3 — Ancho Scallop Ceviche

But I did it and hey, still alive!!!

And it was super delish!!!!

So why the century ceviche I hear you ask? First I am fond of alliteration but second…the last post I wrote was the hundredth for this blog!!!

So let’s all raise a glass of something (Jenny, I hope it’s another of those Joan Crawford Cocktails) and join in as I do a little celebratory dance….

It seems fitting to celebrate this milestone by showing off some of the ingredients from the amazing team at the Spice Peddlers. They have been such big supporters of this blog and I, in turn adore them and their products!!! The ancho chilles were a very dark blackish red colour, and quite fleshy. They were not not very hot at all but were quite fruity and had a touch of sweetness ( this actually went really well with the scallops which are also slightly sweet.

The perceptive of you may have noticed from the photos that my ceviche is loaded onto a very un-Mexican pappadam. I guess traditionally this should be a tortilla chip. However, we had gobbled all of them with Joan Crawford Danti-Chips and I couldn’t be bothered going back to the shops so pappadams it was. And in some weird Indo-Mexican affinity they actually worked quite well with the ceviche.

The last 100 posts have been super fun to do and I am really looking forward to the next 100. In fact, I have so many ideas for posts at the moment, I feel like I have the next 100 already planned.

I was going to end this with one of my favourite ever Blur songs “End of A Century” then I realised the key lyric is “End of a century, it’s nothing special” which is completely wrong because whilst I love doing this you guys are what makes it special. Thanks to you all for reading and your comments, it is always lovely to hear from you.

You’re the best.

Around.

So, as you wax on, wax off this week, make it fabulous!

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Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: World Cooking

When Irish Eyes Aren’t Smiling

The Luck of The Irish Part 1

The Luck of The Irish Part 2

The Luck of The Irish Part 3

The Luck of The Irish Part 4

The Luck of The Irish Part 5

Crespéou (70’s Style Retro Picnic Bling)

Crespéou – Red Layer

Crespéou -Yellow Layer

Crespéou – Green Layer

Drunk Food – The Meat Pie Floater