Home Alone

I put  my wife and daughter on a plane bound for blighty last night for some UK shopping, catching up with family and other things so am home alone. At times like this I always seem to get the same questions from friends asking how I'll cope alone and what will I eat. I haven't thought up a snappy come-back yet to this yet but really... come on! I'm a grown man and can cook. Even if I couldn't its not rocket science to simply open a tin of baked beans and eat them with toast. In fact there's a lot to be said for the humble baked bean. A nice tasty meal with entertainment thrown in when they reach the end of the digestion process. Name that tune with farts instead of piano. Dinner and a show; what more could you want.

Anyway, rather than rocking back and forth in my chair and drooling into my beans I arrived home from work, took the dog for a quick walk, poured myself a glass of single malt, put some Divine Comedy on the stereo and started to cook.

Tonight I mostly had pork with creamy mashed potatoes and fresh green beans. While I prepared this feast I also cooked something for Wednesday and Thursday to save me from cooking after getting home from work. (I get home late you see). I went back to the old favorite of stew made with fresh vegatables and a small quantity of meat and beer. Very simple to make too. Just fry a couple of chopped onions in some olive oil until soft, roll the diced meat in flour, salt pepper and rosemary then fry with the onions. After a few minutes pour in two bottles of beer and your choice of vegetables (and it really is your choice). I used chunky cut carrots, new potatoes, light green cabbage and garlic.

Add a stock cube, top up with water, bring to the boil then turn down the heat, cover the pot and simmer for an hour or so. Fantastic and so easy to make. It will be great tomorrow after resting overnight.

No photos with this one. My wife took the camera with her.

So for all those who doubt a man can cope on his own, watch this space as I blog a variety of easy and practical meals over the next two weeks.

Tapas in Madrid

We went to Madrid last weekend. It's about 6 hours drive from where we live (nearer 7 if you count pee pee stops) and well worth the journey. Actually travelling up is part of the adventure however the place itself is fantastic. We stayed on the outskirts in a town named Alcala de Henares and travelled in to Madrid centre on Sunday evening to wander around Plaza Mayor and get something to eat. More on Madrid at another time but for now here is an observation and a piece of advice for the traveller thinking of visiting Spain's capital city.

Tapas in Madrid is free!!!

On the Costa del Sol and Costa de la Luz we get fleeced. You go into a bar, order a drink and then buy tapas at around €2 to €3 each which, considering the size of the dishes takes 3 or 4 tapas to fill you up. Not so in Madrid where you go into the bar, order your drink and then order the tapa of your choice. This is then brought to you along with your drink free of charge. This meant that we were eating out at a fraction of the cost we originally budgeted for. Superb! How do they do it? Who cares? Free food!!!

While there we watched Spain beat Chilli in the World Cup qualifier. I was quite surprised at one point when the team wearing blue kit scored and every one cheered. I had assumed the blue team was Chilli you see while the other team wore red (Spain's usual kit). Someone later explained to me that each team has two kits of different colours and on this occasion Spain wore blue. Anyway they won which was good as I now live in Spain and its not as England has got a team right now is it? But, what do I know, I hate football.

Back to tapas and here, in true spirit of this blog is one quick recipe for a tapa. More will follow soon. Just you try and stop me.

3 eggs
3 rashers of bacon (or 4 depending on how big they are or how much you like bacon)
About 4 good handfuls of green beans (well how else do you measure them)
2 measures of vodka
Half a glass of orange juice
Half a glass of cream soda
1 shot of Grenadine

First, chop up the green beans and put in a pan with salt and water. Bring the water to the boil and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Next, beat the eggs in a jug or bowl then throw them in a frying pan with some olive oil and fry them up until, well... fried I suppose. When fried break up into little pieces and leave in the frying pan.

Then, chop the bacon into little pieces and again throw into the frying pan with the eggs. Fry for about 4 minutes.

Finally, drain the green beans and add them to the frying pan. Cook together for about 5 minutes and then serve with fresh crusty bread as shown below courtesey of our new camera.

The observant of you will have noticed the extra ingredients listed but not used in the above recipe. For those new to 'Burning Down The Kitchen' there is a law first and foremost that must be obeyed as drilled into me by my friend and Executive Chef (who will remain nameless to protect his professional reputation) namely...never cook without alcohol within arms reach.

Get a tall glass and place it in you freezer for 15 minutes. Take it out and immediately fill it with the vodka, orange juice, lemonade and a dash of Grenadine. Throw in a couple of ice cubes and sit back and watch.

The Grenadine is for artistic effect as it sinks to the bottom of the glass and set against the orange juice gives the appearance of a sunrise. Very effective. Just as efective is the result that comes from placing the empty glass in the freezer before filling it, but I'll leave this to you to try.

Anyway, more tapas recipes are to follow and we still need to get around to that Italian feast.

Hasta luego

Steve 

High tech cooking

So were in our new place now and starting to settle in. There have been a few disasters along the way, like the car choosing the weekend we move house to finally die (beyond economical repair I believe is the correct term) and my camera to go missing hence the lack of photos on my blog. Never mind though, we're here and here to stay this time.

I finally began to calm down after the stress of the move and a recent Trust law exam (which I passed by the way - yeh me) and decided it was about time I set foot in the kitchen again. Actually, the kitchen in this place is great. Everything is new and high tech. We've got a touch sensitive hob with digital display and bleeping noises to remind you that you've left something switched on. The microwave doubles as a grill and the oven has so many settings we don't know what to do with them (especially as the instruction books are in Spanish). The oven even has network capability so I can hook it up and operate it from the PC and even my mobile phone while we're out. Not that I see the need really but you never know, it may come in handy one day.

Anyway, I decided to cook this weekend and with all the mayhem going on around here all I could think to cook with my new futuristic kitchen was comfort food.

The ultimate comfort food.

A huge fry up. Bacon, sausage, eggs, beans, fried bread... the works.

Now were on a month of de-tox and dieting.

Until next time, if I don't have a heart attack first.

Steve