Lou en peru

"If I have courage, it's because the Federation women have given it to me. On the same day that [the Shining Path] put a bomb in our offices, we met. We reacted rapidly. This gave me strength and a sense of worthiness. There, the women agreed to reject and repudiate the Shining Path and even publicly name them. Also, inspired by the example of Villa El Salvador, the metropolitan association of soup kitchens agreed to sponsor a march against hunger and terror."

posted by Lou @ 10:53 PM 0 comments

All quantities are very approximate, it's all done by sight and cost!

A kilo of mussels or so, less if they are pricey!
A handful of squid, cuttlefish is just as good
A handful of shell on prawns, optional, nice to put on top.
At least a handful of peeled prawns
Some chicken ( 2-3 thighs) or pork (a chop or 2) or even some rabbit if you're feeling adventurous, chopped into about 1" cubes
A red or yellow pepper, chopped into cubes
A couple of onions, chopped
A couple of garlic cloves, chopped
Rice, paella rice is best but you can use basmati
A cup of frozen peas (defrost by adding a little boiled water)
Some veg stock, marigold bouillon powder is great, about a pint.
If you have them, put a couple of saffron threads in the stock to colour and flavour it a bit.

Clean the mussels, which means scrape off any unsightly bits, and remove the beards. Prepare the squid, and chop into whatever shapes you fancy, rings, cubes, it's up to you. Chop up one onion and sweat in some olive oil in a big saucepan with a lid. Once nicely soft, add the mussels, a cup of white wine (or stock if none is handy) and put on the lid. Shake occasionally, and take quick peeks. Keep cooking until the mussels are nicely open. Put aside but KEEP THE JUICE! Once they have cooled a bit, remove some of the mussels from their shells, but leave some in the shells to poke in later.

In the largest frying pan you have, a wok may do, slowly cook the other onion until soft. If you plan to make this regularly pick up a paella pan when next on holiday in Spain. Once the onion is cooked, add the meat and brown it slightly. Now add the garlic, squid, peppers, peas, and cook for a few minutes. Now add the rice, as much as you fancy, it's really dependant upon how much paella you want! Fry the rice with all the other ingredients for a few minutes until it goes more opaque. Now add the juice from the mussels, the peeled prawns, the stock and the mussels removed from their shells. Salt and pepper quite generously. Let this cook slowly until the rice is nice and cooked, mix around a bit at the start, but less later on as you want it to stick a bit at the bottom (the crunchy stuff at the bottom is the best bit). You may have to keep topping up with water until the rice is cooked. It will probably take 30-45 minutes.

When you are almost ready to serve, quickly fry the shell on prawns and some garlic in a little butter or olive oil, until lightly browned, and sprinkle over the paella, at the same time, poke the remaining mussels in their shells into the rice to warm them through. You can swap, skip or alter the quantities of most of the ingredients, for example you can add firm white fish such as monkfish, crab claws, you can make it without the meat. I have made it without mussels when they weren't available, but to be honest it is best with mussels or at least some sort of clams.

I think that's it, it's not as horrific as it sounds, and is delicious.

Enjoy!

Lozzer's Steak & Ale pie recipe:

Serves 4.
1.5 pounds of chopped steak/ beef.
6oz kidneys
1 large onion (or 2 medium)
Large handful of mushrooms
1.5 tablespoon plain flour
Mixed herbs
Worcester sauce
7-8 fl.oz beef stock
7-8 fl.oz ale
Ready to roll puff pastry

Tips: don't get stewing steak. I did once and it was really chewy. I would recommend going for good quality meat (I recently got the end of the rump which was about £4 a pound. Going to a butchers is always a good idea, especially for getting a whole load of kidney which is really cheap, so if you're feeling a bit skint, just use less steak and more kidney!)

Method: fry chopped onion in a large pan. Then add steak and kidney and brown it off. Once the meat is cooked, add the flour and mix in with the meat. Next add the stock and the ale (I normally do about half and half, but you can choose your own measures), herbs, worcester sauce and mushrooms. Simmer on a low heat for 2 hours, stirring occasionally to stop it from sticking. Transfer the meat mixture into a pie dish and cut the pastry to fit (leaving a bit over the edge). If you like you can ponce around fitting a strip to the side of the pie dish first, then press the lid onto the edges - but personally I can't be arsed with this. Press the lid onto the edges of the pie dish and spread some milk over the top to make it go brown. Cook in the oven at about 200 (need to check this) for 30-40 minutes.

Hey presto. A fab pie to impress your friends. Serving suggestion- with mashed potatoes with leeks mixed in, and a green vegetable.

L

Three things I'll miss:

Sitting around my friends kitchen tables enjoying their delicious dishes- I've realised I do this a lot. My friends are totally responsible for my healthy eating over the last 12yrs.

Drinking fresh coffee out of my red dog mug which Han gave to me.

Paul Scholes & 10 other men in red shirts and white shorts.

1 chicken (approx. 2-2.25kg) cut 10 pieces (I usually buy cuts like thighs and drum sticks- less hassle!)
1 head of garlic seperated into unpeeled cloves
2 unwaxed limons, cut into chunky eighths
small handful fresh thyme
olive oil (3tbsp)
white wine (big glass about 150ml)
black pepper

Preparation:

Put the chicken pieces into a roasting tin and add garlic cloves, lemon chunks, olive oil and the thyme. Roughly pull the leaves off the stalks, leaving some intact for strewing later. Mix everything together, making sure all the chicken pieces are skin side up. Sprinkle over the white wine and grind on some pepper, then cover tightly with tin foil and put in the oven to cook at low heat, for 2hrs. After, take out the foil from the roasting tin and turn up the oven to 200°C. Cook the uncovered chicken for another 30-45mins. The skin on the meat should turn golden brown and the limons caramelise at the edges. Serve straight from the roasting tin adding the remaining thyme.

I usually serve it with roast new potatoes. Just cut the potatoes into small cubes and spread over the roasting tin. Add some olive oil (2tbsp), rosemary, garlic (2-3 cloves unpeeled) and salt. Cook for 1.5hrs in the oven with the chicken, stirring halfway through to make sure all the sides of the potatoes get slightly brown.

Bon appetite!

posted by Lou @ 1:35 PM 0 comments