BBQ Snacks

Summer is finally here. There is a BBQ frenzy this week as rumors around town claim rain is back next weekend.
So, in the mean time, use shorter skewers for these antipasto kebabs, perfect to avoid oily hands.
Sun dried and fresh baby tomatoes, artichokes, olives, mozzarella, halloumi, feta, peppers, even big caper berries.

To Have And Have Another

Yes, everyone around is drinking Hemingway cocktails at the moment.
Here is an easy guide to successful making:

2 oz white rum

1/2 oz ounce fresh grapefruit

3/4 oz fresh lime juiced

1/4 oz Maraschino liquer

a pinch of brown sugar

1 cherry, slice of grapefruit (optional)

Combine all ingredients except the optional into a shaker over ice.

Shake hard

Strain

Serve up with a cherry or slice of grapefruit 

Drink

Repeat procedure

Be happy 

Vegan Paella

It is always a pleasant challenge to cook for vegan friends and Paul is the latest to join the vegan club. So we had him and his girlfriend over for dinner last night. I found three different recipes for vegan paella online and made this by combining all. Yes, one of them was an apparently well known Gwyneth Paltrow recipe. Do not let that little fact put you off - she cooks better than she acts - this is so nutritious and tasty, carnivores will love it too.
Ready in 35 minutes.


1 red, and 1 yellow pepper, deseeded and cut into strips

olive oil

½ Spanish onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

½ tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp turmeric

½ tsp cayenne

250g easy cook rice

100ml sherry (optional)

1 tsp saffron strands

500ml boiling vegan stock

Sea salt200g tender stem broccoli

200g organic nice mushrooms

200g sweet peas

1 can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

a jar  of artichokes

200g broad beans

roughly chopped parsley

4 lemon wedges, to serve

Heat the oil in a paella or other shallow frying pan and fry the onion. When golden add the peppers and mushrooms and fry for about 8 minutes over medium heat until soft.  Add the garlic, cook for a minute, then add all the spices, stir, add the rice and the green beans and cook, stirring, for two minutes. Add the sherry and saffron, boil down for a minute, then add the stock and a third of a teaspoon of salt. 

Bring to boil, reduce heat to low and cook covered for 7 minutes or until most of the liquid has been absorbed. 

Taste and add salt if needed then scatter the artichokes, kidney beans and broccoli over the rice and cook for another 7 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with lemon wedges. 

You can also replace rice with quinoa and get even more big vegan smiles. 

Drunk Mushrooms

Lets assume you do not mind peeling onions and garlic cloves. Good. So keep on reading then. If you also do not mind Ouzo in your food then go for it.
It is an old Ottolenghi recipe that I decided to turn Greek, mostly because a few ingredients were missing from my supply cupboard.
It is unusual but very tasty.

olive oil

80g butter

25 shallots, peeled

25 garlic cloves, peeled

dried thyme 

2 cinnamon sticks

200g portobello or oyster mushrooms, chopped

250g chestnut mushrooms, quartered

100g buna-shimeji or wild mushrooms

pinch of chilli flakes

200ml vegetable stock

1¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground black pepper

100ml Ouzo

dried parsley & dried oregano

250g ricotta or (hard to find in the UK) Manouri cheese

Zest of 1 lemon

Heat the olive oil and two-thirds of the butter in a large pan and gently sauté the shallots, garlic cloves, thyme and cinnamon for about five minutes, until the onions begin to soften. Add the portobello and chestnut mushrooms, stir well so the mushrooms pick up the oil, and cook for a couple of minutes on a medium-high heat. Add the buna-shimeji and chilli flakes, and cook for a further minute.
Pour in the vegetable stock and simmer over a high heat for eight to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has almost disappeared, and the shallots and garlic are cooked through. Season, then pour in the Ouzo. Cook for a minute or two to allow the alcohol to evaporate, then stir through the remaining butter and all the chopped herbs.
Mix the ricotta (or manouri) with the lemon zest in a small bowl. Divide the warm mushrooms between four plates and top each serving with a quarter of the ricotta mixture. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil. Serve with watercress or other leafy salad and rice.

The Butter Bean & The Chorizo

I made this stew for the 'welcome back' party of a dear friend who just came back from Spain.
I don't know what I was thinking with the chorizo. I bet he must be so fed up with it, but I guess I thought it would make him feel like home.
I also thought it would be a very heavy dish but it wasn't at all. It is a stew that -apart from the initial preparation, chopping etc- you can let it do it's own thing and just stir occasionally.


180g dried (or canned) butter beans
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
250g raw chorizo sausage (available at every good deli), cut into 5mm-thick diagonal slices
1 onion, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
paprika
400g can chopped tomatoes
500ml chicken stock, hot
dried oregano
Grated zest of 1 lemon

Soak the butter beans in a bowl of water overnight.
The next day, place the beans in a saucepan and cover with plenty of fresh water. Bring to the boil and simmer rapidly for 1 hour until just tender. Drain. You can always use tinned butter beans instead.
Heat the olive oil in an ovenproof casserole and fry the raw chorizo for 2-3 minutes until starting to brown. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add the onion, garlic and paprika to the pan and cook for 5 minutes, stirring, until the onion is beginning to soften.
Add the chopped tomatoes, stock, oregano and lemon zest and add the chorizo and beans to the casserole. Mix well, bring to the boil and simmer, partially covered, for 1¼ hours or until the sauce is thick and the beans are tender. Check the seasoning.
Serve with crusty bread and leaf salad and of course Rioja.

Fresh Courgette Spaghetti

People who call courgette, 'snozcumber' and refuse to even try it, do finally surrender to this simple but tasty combo.
It is one of the quickest and freshest recipes, really cheap too. I made it with gluten free spaghetti and vegetarian parmesan. You can add bacon for a non-veggie version.
• 3 medium courgettes grated
• zest and juice of half a lemon
• spaghetti
• grated parmesan
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 3 gloves of garlic
• Olive oil
• salt and pepper
• half a pot of crème fraîche
Put the spaghetti into boiling water along with the stock cube and 1 peeled garlic clove.
While the pasta is boiling, grate the courgette or ask your kitchen bitch to do it. Then grate the parmesan.
In a frying pan put the grated courgette and the rest of the garlic, finely chopped.
Cook for a few minutes, stirring, until just wilted.
Stir in the lemon zest and crème fraîche. Simmer for a few minutes – it will look quite runny. Season to taste and keep over a low heat.
Remove pasta from the pan, get rid of the garlic clove and drain well.
Return to the pan and add the courgette mixture. Toss well until the pasta has soaked up the sauce, then stir in the lemon juice and toss again. Serve hot with parmesan on top.

Peas In Tomato Sauce (Arakas Latheros)

This is indeed a lovely, hearty dish from home land.
It is also by far, my son's favorite food at the moment.
Here is how it goes. It is divine.

500g frozen peas
3 carrots sliced
2 small potatoes diced
1 onion finely chopped
1/4 bunch of dill finely chopped
1/2 cup of olive oil
1 can of peeled or chopped tomatoes
water

Heat some olive oil in a saucepan and sauté onion until translucent and soft. Add frozen peas and stir for a couple of minutes.
Add carrots and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add tomato and water, reduce heat and simmer until cooked, for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add more water if necessary.
In the last ten minutes of cooking add the dill and an extra bit of olive oil.
Remember to mop the sauce in the end with bread, a fine activity known between Greeks as 'papara'.