Tuesday 27 April 2010

Tulips in Pamplona













Friday 16 April 2010

Thursday 15 April 2010

The Cafe Cat.. Coming Soon...

www.thecafecat.blogspot.com

WATCH THIS SPACE

Wednesday 14 April 2010

Noa Noa





God Bless you Noa Noa.

Please give me a job at your headquarters?

Thanks.

Monday 12 April 2010

Beetroot and Goat's Cheese Delight

Yes, I know. I have been away for a whole month. Quite frankly, I think it has something to do with the sunshine.
I'm like a moth to a flame. As soon as Mr Sol winks at me, I am out the door and on a stroll. Plus, I made quite a visits to Pamplona to drink Martini's with the Ear. Excuses Excuses. But really, I never knew Martini's could be so good at 11am on a Sunday morning. I think he's onto something here... the sweet taste, the deep rust colour, the lemon and the little spanish olive with his sour taste. SO YUMMY.

Look!



I have also been to England to see the family and I am now trying to readjust to the Spanish life. But oh! How I HATE the supermarkets here. I nearly wept this morning as I pinched some asparagus and found it had little life left. Why? Why sell old produce?


Anyway, the good news is I am back and I have a secret to share.

Potentially the greatest and coolest recipe of ALL TIME.

The greatest and coolest recipe of ALL TIME, you say?

Well yes, it's no dish from El Bulli but I like it alot.

The colours are amazing, the taste is delicious and people just go crazy for it.

Look!



Look at the vibrant pink! The crisp green! The naughty slice of sour dough and little speckles of parmesan.

How did she make the pasta so pinky purple? I hear you ask.

Basically you must do the following:

Pop down to your local Tesco and grab a packet of beetroot. If it is organic, it is better. Or if you buy it fresh/pull it up from your garden and cook it yourself then it is INCREDIBLE. In fact, I would probably recommend the latter if you want serious results.

While you are there, pick up an onion, a bag of spaghetti, a lemon, some rocket, a loaf of sour dough, some hard Goat's cheese and some parmesan.

I'm assuming you have some veg stock in yourcupboard at home and some garlic. If not, buy some more.

OK. Down to business.

Take about 300g of spaghetti and break it into smaller pieces.

Chop your onion.

Puree or mash your cooked beetroot (about 200g, but who's counting?)

Now, heat your saucepan with some nice olive oil and cook your onion on a medium to high heat until it goes clear.

THEN whack in your spaghetti strands and BE CAREFUL... when dry spaghetti and onions get together in a pan it's like a passionate romance and they both do a little love dance.

After about two minutes of dancing, pour in your puree beetroot and enough stock to cover the lovers.

Bring to the boil and then turn down to a simmer and cover with lid.

I reckon you should occasionally peek under the lid and what you basically want to see is the spaghetti soaking up the liquid like a risotto and turning a wonderful purple colour.

When all of the moisture is absorbed you can then grate in 75g of hard Goat's cheese and stir into your pasta until it turns a lovely creamy pink.

Toast a couple of slices of sour dough, mix olive oil with lemon juice and crushed garlic, place slice on top of pasta, toss a handful of rocket on top, drizzle generously with the oil and shave some parmesan to finish.

Et Voila!

On the subject of food, I have officially fallen out of love with prawns this year.

Primarily because in Spain, potentially one of the laziest nations on the planet (not that I'm complaining), they don't bother to clean out the black poo thread. This may sound fussy to some but when I eat them, all I can think of is the rancid stench of a very dirty fishtank.

ANYWAY, as my lifestyle here has generally grown increasingly horizontal, my laptop has pretty much become my best friend. So, despues a little google search it turns out that Prawns are farmed in a way which makes the life of a battery hen seem like 5 * accommodation.

See here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1067963/Is-prawn-cocktail-toxic--Read-want-eat-again.html

Interesting, huh? Turns out a little black poo thread is the least of my worries.

Oh and as for anchovies? Turns out they're becoming extinct.

See here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/04/fishing.endangeredspecies

Bye!