Squid Ink Pasta with Prawns is one of my favourite dishes of all time.

It’s so so easy that I’ve been making it for years but, I don’t know whether it is because squid-ink pasta can prove tricky to find, I actually consider it a bit of a treat.

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*Receta de Cogollos de lechuga con anchoas en español más abajo*

This Little gem lettuce with anchovies recipe is so easy that I shouldn’t even call it a recipe, if you look a the recipe I posted just before this one, it’s brilliant to serve as a side dish or as a tapas dish, try them with Chorizo and hummus pita pockets so that you have my special ingredient below ready made.

You can increase the number of lettuces and tins of anchovies as much as you want, making it fabulous for a party or when you have lots of people round and want to make something easy.

Little gem lettuce with anchovies 

– 1 little gem lettuce, leaves separated, washed well and dried with a clean towel or in the salad spinner
– 1 tin of anchovies
– The juices of cooked chorizo (see the Chorizo and hummus pita pockets recipe for cooking instructions)

Distribute the clean lettuce leaves on a pretty (or practical) plate, place one or two anchovies on top of each one, drizzle with a bit of the oil left in the tin and then drizzle with the juices left in the frying pan after cooking the chorizo.

Have you seen my Easy Guide to Spanish Tapas?

Esta receta de Cogollos de lechuga con anchoas es tan fácil que ni la debería llamar receta. Mi truco es añadir la salsita que deja el chorizo frito así que está riquísima como acompañamiento del Pita con chorizo y humus que ya os deja ese juguito listo.

El número de lechugas y latas de anchoa se pueden aumentar ad infinitum, perfecto para fiestas o cuando teneis a un montón de gente en casa y necesitais algo fácil que está listo en dos minutos.


Cogollos de lechuga con anchoas

– 1 cogollos de lechuga, con las hojas separadas, bien lavadas y secadas
– 1 lata de anchoas
– Jugo de chorizo frito (en la receta de Pita con chorizo y humus teneis el modo de freírlo)

Distribuir las hojas de lechuga limpias y secas en una fuente, colocar una o dos anchoas sobre cada hoja, rociar con un poquito del aceite de la lata de anchoas y luego con la salsita que ha dejado el chorizo.

*Receta de Pita con humus y chorizo en español más abajo*

I love a quick dinner or lunch, the easier the better. I first made these on a day when husband was doing some DIY, we were hungry and there wasn’t that much in the fridge. However, in this house there is always chorizo in the fridge (whatever the state of everything else). Well, you may have heard of my chorizo obsession already, no? Hummus and pita are fantastic combination, hummus and chorizo go fantastically together so I couldn’t believe this hadn’t occurred to me before….

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During this time of year whenever I see an avocado I always have the same craving: it goes back to the day when my mum used to do something fantastic with avocado flesh, prawns, who knows what else because there really weren’t that many ingredients and presented it in the shells of the avocado. It was simply delicious. I have been finding myself googling for such recipes in an attempt to recreate what she used to do and instead have ended up giving up and using what I had at home and needed using, 4 ingredients: avocado, sushimi, coriander and lime.

This is the kind of “cooking” that I used to do when husband met me, he claims it isn’t cooking. I don’t know, it kind of qualifies, no?

I love citrus on avocado, I always add a squeeze of either fresh lemon or lime. This was the result today:

Avocado and surimi cups (recipe)


Ingredients:

– 1 large avocado
– 4 seafood / surimi sticks (2 per avocado half)
– Half a lime
– Fresh coriander

Method:

Scoop the avocado flesh onto a board or plate, chop (but do not mash), slice and then quickly do a chopping action over the sushimi so that it shreds a bit and then start mixing it with the avocado flesh, adding squeezes of the lime as you go. Chop and add the coriander, mix well with a gentle chopping action. Scoop the mix back into the avocado shells and serve with Spanish flair!

It works really well,  other ingredients I would try adding to this base, in no particular order, are: chopped feta cheese, boiled egg, chopped spring onion, a couple of drops of tabasco

¡A la mesa!

Those of you who are baking experts, look away now as you will be absolutely appalled by this
marble cake recipe. This must have been the first cake that needs an oven that I ever tried making, in fact I don’t think I have tried any others ever since, I just stick to this one. This is perfect for clumsy inexperienced bakers like me, it’s so easy.

I lie, I tried muffins, it was a disaster, anyone got a fail-proof recipe?

I digress, I can actually make one other chocolate cake, my no-bake biscuit cake. That’s it. I don’t think I was born to bake but I was clearly born to eat cake, above all chocolate cake so, every once in a while the need to bake rises (so do my toddler’s requests for cake).

29-11-2014 *I have changed the top photo and a couple of the instructions but not the wording, I have (since writing this post) learnt to bake a bit more, only a bit mind.

Once you know how to make marble cake, it becomes so easy, you can  make it really quickly. My daughter loves helping with this one and is in fact geting so good at it that she even tells me off when I get it wrong*

Really Easy Marble Cake Recipe


Ingredients

• 225 g unsalted butter
• 225 g self-raising flour
• 225 g caster sugar (I’ve been trying to get the sugar down, 200 g perfectly, even 180 g)
• 4 eggs
• 3 tbsp whole milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder and a bit more for luck

Equipment

2 mixing bowls, a whisk, 2 spoons, a frying pan/saucepan, 20 cm cake tin, parchment paper

Method


1.  Preheat the oven to 180º C. Now, every oven is different but this is what works on our fan oven and in our previous non-fan it was more like 200º.

2. Start melting the butter in a sauce pan or frying pan.

3. In the meantime place all the other ingredients (I start with the dry ingredients) except the cocoa in a large mixing bowl. When the butter has pretty much all melted, add it to the bowl and whisk all the ingredients at a good speed* for about a minute until it’s all mixed and it has a good consistency, thick but runny.

4. Grab the other bowl and pour half of the mix into it. Add the cocoa to one of the bowls and mix well.

5. Line the cake tin with the parchment paper, ensuring you have at least a couple of edges overhanging to pull it out easily later, and alternate spoonfuls (or splodges, whatever you prefer) from each bowl, making sure you don’t mix the spoons (use one spoon per mix). Once it’s done, lift it up and tap it against the table to make sure the mix spreads well, then draw a couple of swirls with a skewer.

6. Place in the oven for 45-50 minutes. You can check that it is ready by inserting a skewer. When the skewer comes out clean, the cake is ready to come out of the oven. I like it with a lovely crust so I tend to increase the oven temperature in the last 5-10 minutes (when I remember). Get it out and let it cool down (it’s better if you do but we have had it warm before and it’s not bad!).

There you go, baking goddess I am not but, if I can make this marble cake, so can you!

*I broke the whisk the last time I made marble cake, see?

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I have been meaning to write this post for a while as I would like to start a surreptitious campaign to bring fideos to the UK. Fideos can be defined as extremely short and thin spaghetti (well, the ones I like are thin). You can make lovely soups with them and one hugely popular soup is the Spanish recipe this post is for: sopa de fideos (pasta soup).

This is a really simple recipe, in fact if you have good homemade chicken or vegetable stock at home you can just add the fideos and, within five minutes, you could be ready to sit down to steaming hot comforting soup, spoon in hand. My mother always has stock in the fridge or in the freezer precisely for this purpose.

It should always be cooked the moment you want to eat, that’s when it tastes best and it takes so little time to prepare that it is totally feasible. This is the soup you eat when you’re cold and need warming up, when you don’t feel so well, when you need cheering up… Ok, by you I mean me but let me tell you, that cup of tea that the British fix everything with…this is my Spanish-style cup of tea. And, yes, being me it includes chorizo (you didn’t expect anything else, did you?).

Now, I like my pasta soups to be very thick, without too much liquid
(otherwise I call them consommés and I’m done with it), so make sure you adapt it to
your taste (don’t panic, it’s easy to do). Fideos are designed for soups so they get soak in the stock in a delicious way.

If you’re vegetarian, ditch the chorizo, use your favourite stock and you’re sorted. I promise you it will still be lovely.

What I like to see in my cupboard

Fideos are not easy to find in the UK. In Tesco you can find Lubella Filini no. 2 (a Polish brand), but they’re number 2 (hence much thicker and they don’t soak in the lovely flavours like my absolute favourite: Gallo no. 0 (it has to be, it’s the only fideo brand I’ve been able to find in the UK, there are other brands in Spain of course). You can find the Gallo brand in the Spanish London supermarket R Garcia and Sons (you can order online or pop in for a visit). I’m pretty sure my husband has bought them from the La Plaza Deli in Portobello too. Of course, try any local Spanish shops or market stalls you may pass on your travels and, should you see a Portuguese shop, ask for their pasta soup range, even if they don’t have fideos, you will find tiny pasta dots, stars or teardrops that tend to be really good and work rather well.

Substitutes: De Cecco Stellette nº75 (I’ve seen them in Waitrose), Orzo pasta (I get it from Waitrose and I have seen it in selected Tescos), Tesco’s Farfalline, Lubella’s Filini. You could also break vermicelli into short length cut-at-home fideos.

Sopa de fideos a la Feisty Tapas

Ingredients

• 1 litre of stock or however much you fancy having (I have to warn you that it is addictive so you will be going back for more).
• 1 chicken stock cube if using water (I use Kallo), depending on the amount of water you may need more or less stock.
• 250 g approx of fideos or substitute pasta (how I calculate is by checking the resistance of the pasta against the wooden spoon when stirring straight after adding them, if there’s a bit of resistance, that’s about right, if it stirs too easily, it needs more).
• 1 carrot (quartered lengthways and then sliced not too finely and not too thickly so that it cooks quickly). 
• 25-50 g chorizo, peeled and “pierced” a couple of times with a fork (I tend to use either half a sausage or a whole one) peeled and  (as you may know from previous posts I tend to use Tesco’s Cooking Chorizo nowadays, I should tell them that, shouldn’t I? That failing, get the Revilla’s Chorizo de Pueblo. If you’re really lucky ask your local Spanish shop/stockist/market stall).

Equipment

1 medium pan, 1 chopping board for vegetables, one chopping board for hot food

Method

1. Place the water in a medium pan, when it’s boiling add the chicken stock and carrots. Let it bubble away.
2. After a couple of minutes add the chorizo.
3. When the carrots start feeling tender (it will only take a few minutes), add the fideos or pasta soup. Follow the pack instructions. If using number 0 fideos, try not to let them overcook, they are best al dente. Make sure you stir once in a while.
4. If using fideos remove the chorizo and, with the help of a fork and a knife so not to burn your fingers, chop it (you know my method, cut lengthways first and then slice away) before you put them in, if using pasta that takes a bit longer to cook, you can leave the chorizo a bit longer.

HINT: Should it be too thick, add more stock. Should it be too watery, just make sure you make it thicker when serving it by removing some of the extra liquid. See? I told you it was easy. If you don’t eat it all straight away, make sure you remove it from the heat and leave the lid either off or only half covering the pan so that the pasta doesn’t go too soft.

TIP: When immediate comfort is required, skip the carrots, add the chorizo and stock cube (if not using your own stock) when the water starts to boil and add the fideos or similar pasta for soup. In 5-10 minutes, depending on the type of pasta you could have a fantastic warming and comforting soup.

EXTRA TIP: You can also make a sopicaldo by chopping any leftover chicken and vegetables you may have.

YET ANOTHER TIP: Try making it with quinoa for a gluten free version, in that case make sure the chorizo is gluten free too (many tend to be but I am of the “you never know” persuasion).

If you’re new to my blog, welcome! You can find out more about in my bio.

I first discovered this Chorizo and Red Pepper Risotto recipe this time last year, I had never cooked risotto in my life and chorizo seemed the right place to start.

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This is one recipe I have been wanting to share for ages. I love chorizo, it is one of my favourite ingredients. This is based on my grandma’s recipe, when I started cooking (or trying to) many years ago I asked her for three recipes: her chorizo pasta, her meat with olives and her “arroz con leche” (the Spanish version of the British rice pudding). Let’s just say that the woman could cook and not only good food but for hordes of people as it was never just her and my grandad for lunch or dinner around their kitchen table (one of the favourite spaces of my childhood).

When I don’t have access to a Spanish shop I buy Tesco’s cooking chorizo (in fact there’s always some of it in our fridge), you could also try Revilla Chorizo de Pueblo Puchero which you can find easily in Sainsbury’s or Waitrose.

Thermomix version here.

…

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I started cooking this Noodle salad with pork a few months ago and it has quickly become one we all get excited about, LittleT included (minus the nuts for now to avoid accidents). It is so easy that you’ll have it ready in 20 minutes.

If you don’t eat pork or meat in general, you could of course prepare the noodle salad on its own, it is full of flavour. In which case you just need to add the dressing from step 2 and chopped coriander to your favourite noodles. Or you could try it the way Tor Ince adapted it with tofu (her method is below in the comments section).

Or, if you prefer chicken, we have Lesley’s report in the comments below that she has tried it with diced chicken breast and it was delicious (updated 24-7-2014, I have tried it with chicken today, delicious!).

Thank you to everyone who is trying this recipe. 

I have added a little note and simple tip at the end that I hope will be useful.

Noodle Salad with Pork


Ingredients

• 250 g pork fillet, the best quality you can afford (pre-packed ones tend to be about 450-500 g so I just freeze one half for next time)
• 1 bag of fresh rice noodles (you could also use 1 nest of dry noodles per person)
• 1 lime (one half will be used for juice, the other will be cut into wedges to serve). If you really like lime, use a whole one for juice and the other one for wedges.
• Fresh coriander, chopped coarsely
• 1 spring onion, either roughly chopped or thinly sliced lengthways and then cut (optional, it works well without it)
• Garlic (1 clove)
• 1 chilli or a teaspoon from a jar of chopped chilli (I always have Easy on the red chilli from Waitrose in the fridge nowadays)
• A handful of raw cashews or salted peanuts (crushed)
• Olive oil
• Honey
• Soy sauce

Equipment

• Ideally a griddle pan but no need to go buy one because any frying pan you own will do
• One large bowl (it will hold meat)
• One salad bowl 
• One small bowl for the dressing
• Your favourite music in the background (optional)

Method

1. Cut the pork fillet into 1 cm slices (roughly) and place in a bowl with 1 tablespoon of olive oil + 1 finely chopped garlic clove + 1 tablespoon honey.

2. Prepare the dressing in the small bowl by mixing: 1 tablespoon from the jar of crushed chilli OR a finely
chopped red chilli + 1 teaspoon of honey + 1 tablespoon soy sauce + the
juice of 1/2 lime (or juice of a whole lime if you prefer). Of course you could stick a fresh red chilli (I always have some in the freezer as they can be used straight away) and everything else in the Thermomix for a few seconds, speed 7 with half the coriander and have it done in no time (it’s what I do nowadays).

3. Heat a little oil in the griddle pan/frying pan and cook the pork slices for 2-3 minutes on each side until the juices run clear or (if you’re like me) just get one out, cut it in half and check that it’s cooked through). Remove the pork onto a plate, keep the pan on the heat.

4. Fry the fresh rice noodles in the pan for 2-3 minutes. This is optional though and you may want to just fry them in a little oil in a clean pan. Either way it’s delicious.

5. Place the noodles in a large bowl, add the chopped coriander and the dressing and toss together. Sprinkle the crushed nuts and chopped/sliced spring onion over the top. Tuck in.

Presentation tips: You can prepare the plates individually or you can place the salad bowl on the table along with a plate with the pork so that everyone can help themselves.

Note: If using dry noodle nests, cook according to instructions while the pork fillet marinades for a bit (between steps 1 and 2), drain.

Tip: You don’t have to use rice noodles, you could replace them with the noodles of your choice, I would recommend ribbon or fine egg noodles (I have made it with fine egg noodles before).

I can’t really say Serve with Spanish flair for this one but, since you found it here, do it anyway!

Que aproveche.

I’m linking up with Lavender and Lovage’s Herbs on Saturday for August, if you don’t know Karen’s blog already, please check it out. It is fantastic and has lots of ideas for those of you doing the 5:2 Diet.

I originally found the recipe for this Maple-glazed Roast Chicken with Sesame Seeds in Delicious Magazine a while back and have prepared it quite a few times ever since and have tweaked it a bit. It turns out deliciously juicy every time and, if you keep the cupboard ingredients at home like we do now, it’s just a matter of buying the best chicken you can afford. This is really simple and after a while you will adapt it to your taste and remember it by heart. It looks lengthy but that’s only because I’ve embellished as well as added my tweaks, otherwise I could have just sent you to the Delicious Magazine website, couldn’t I?

Maple-Glazed Roast Chicken with Sesame Seeds


Ingredients

– 1.5 kg chicken (preferably free-range). If your chicken is bigger, just increase the below amounts and the cookign time accordingly (i.e. a little bit). For example for a 2.25 kg chicken you will need about 2 hours.
– Unsalted butter cut in slices then cut again to turn it into strips, about 25g should do it
– 5 tablespoons red wine vinegar
– 4 tablespoons maple syrup
– 1 teaspoon cinnamon
– 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
– A brush for the glaze
– Salt and pepper to season (although the result is so tasty that it’s not even necessary)

Right, you have all your ingredients at home, ready? These are the steps to follow.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas 6. If you have a rubbish oven like we used to have, adjust this to whatever you’re used to to achieve that temperature, if you have a fan oven 180ºC will do the trick.

Chicken buttered, vinegared and seasoned ready to go in the oven

2. As soon as you’ve turned/pressed whatever gets your oven going, get the chicken out of the fridge, it’s better if it isn’t totally cold.

3. Place on a roasting tin. Insert the butter strips between the breast skin and the breast itself, if you’re squeamish get someone else to do it for you or just think of me stressing to you with a Spanish accent that it is well worth it. Then pour 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar in the cavity (nowadays I just do this calculating roughly as I tend to lose the measuring spoons easily, it doesn’t matter if you don’t get it exactly right). Season (I don’t always season it) and into the oven it goes, middle shelf preferably (then again this depends on your oven).

4. Set your timer for 1 hour and 10 minutes, adjusting it to the weight of your chicken. You can prepare the glaze now or 5 minutes before the alarm goes off, either way it’s time to put your feet up, let someone else do the side dishes*.

5. In a bowl mix 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar, 4 tablespoons of maple syrup, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds. Give it a good stir as the cinnamon tends to not want to mix too easily.

6. As soon as that little nifty timer goes off, it’s time to get hold of the brush and get crafty by spreading half the mixture all over the chicken. Make sure you get into every nook and crannie, I even get a bit of the mix in the cavity. Back into the oven for 10 minutes, then spread the rest of the mixture and back in for another 10 minutes.

7. Ring ring (or in my case Marimba Marimba) goes the alarm. Time to get that fabulous chicken out of the oven, place it with pride wherever you can find some space and let it rest for 5-10 minutes.

8. (Optional) If you fancy some lovely gravy, my husband tends to take over with it and boil the juices left in the roasting tin rapidly with some white wine while stirring (or rather getting me to stir), the result is a delicious gravy.

Final step: Get everyone at the table and enjoy every mouthful in good company.

*Don’t forget: “Serve with Spanish flair”, in this house we also serve it with my husband’s amazing roast potatoes, vegetables such as carrots, broccoli,… usually steamed and drizzled with a bit of good extravirgin olive oil. Finally, something that I love about British gastronomy: bread sauce.

Tip: You won’t always be able to get a chicken that weighs exactly 1.5 kg, also you may have more people to feed sometimes, just increase the amounts as you see fit.

Another tip: I sometimes increase the maple and cinnamon amounts.

Third tip (bear with me, I’m on a roll): If you’re going to do roast potatoes, we have come to the conclusion that the best way is to start parboiling them once step 3 is done with. That way they are ready more or less at the same time as the chicken.

Roast chicken makes for fantastic leftovers, in weeks to come I will share with you how we make the most of it for a couple of days.