Right ... Happy Mummy's Day y'all!! I will be ringing mine shortly but as she is in a different timezone and will still be at church praying for my sins, I am unable to do it now ... so let me while away the hours by telling you about the Tapas party we had last night.
Spur of the moment thing completely, got a txt from K & M asking whether we were free Sat nite, and we said .. er .. yah!! Like we would be otherwise occupied?? We were relegated the responsibility of bringing the meat component .. I had already toyed with the idea of pork ribs in an orange glaze, and doing something with bacalao was a fait accompli ... but decided that our main contribution would be meatballs in a tomato and pea ragout:
When I was preparing the veal and pork mince I was concerned that I was over-spicing it, it had coriander, nutmeg, cinnamon, cummin and all I could smell was a really heavy all spice flavour which I thought may overpower everything, but once it cooked in the tomato ragout, it both sweetened the sauce and turned just absolutely perfect ... simple dish but very proud making ... considering I shorthanded the piri piri mix by simply blitzing tomato and capsicum with a bit of vinegar and lemon juice.
The rib dish was a comparative failure, I was hoping for the orange flavour to intensify in the caramalization. But it was just too mild and parts of the orange sauce had turned slightly bitter ... I'm sure we can tweak some of the details when we do this next. I would certainly be doubling the amount of juice that the recipe required:
The crowning success was our Bacalao croquettes (and you can't have a Tapas party without some form of croquette!). I have done this before, difference this time was that we bought pre-soaked salt cod which was actually really really good! So in future bugger all that soaking and water-changing I say. The other difference was a bit of our preserved lemon went into the mix. These are so easy to make. You still need to soak the pre-soaked fish and change the water once, before you shred the flesh. It still a little too salty just using it as is. Combine this with mashed potato and whatever herb component you desire, we used parsley and coriander. You need a bit of paprika, salt and pepper, breadcrumbs to aid the binding and an egg to smooth the mixture out. Roll into oval pellets and deep fry.
Of course we didn't do all the work, the H's and sis J in tow made the following yummy treats:
Prawn cakes, smoked almonds, and a olive and chorizo salad which was lightly pan-fried
Potato croquettes and an Avo and rocket salad
We also had some scallops wrapped in Prosciutto and some cubed meat empanadas. All of this washed down by quite a few bottles of vino, including, you guessed it, a temparanillo, and a killer 2005 sav blanc from Voice of the Vine, and one of our russian roulette turra murra pinots ... which actually turned out alright.
And here's the next generation of Gourmands in the making ... I'm so glad that he's here to bear the flag for future times!
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
Comments:
Temasek wrote:
Damn only just read your comment ... I don't really get them so I don't really bother checking. I'm glad you're in canberra! I think that was a wise decision on your part. I was sooo pumped about Master Chef starting and now I don't even watch it. They don't show enough of the food. Oh and Po is Sylvia from Shop Sui's friend. MISS YOU HEAPS ... COME BACK!!!
20 May
dan cope wrote:
Why aren't you on Master chef yet??? I just read some of your blogs.. Oh.. they are so good. I love your photos. I am stuck in canberra.. However i AM COOKING.. For 2 households.. It's freezing so, lots of soups, osso bocco.. can't spell, spanikopta.. stir frys.. more soups.. chicken leek and cous cous.. even desserts.. i am tired. Seeing lots of the family and trying to make the best of it all. We are moving here.. Too hard being so far away. LOVE your photos.. Say howdy to everyone.. MISS you. xx
15 May
0 comments:
Post a Comment