Utterly butterly

Utterly irresistable,so perfect, but thinks better add salt.

I can not believe I have just made butter. Utterly perfect in every way. I can not believe its butter.Sometimes you even surprise yourself. There is a first time for everything, and today it was the time for me to lose my virginity to buttermilk. I had a pile of recipes in front of me and buttermilk was required before I could proceed.Scones are calling. Where do I find buttermilk? In the Algarve- no chance mate.I need help. Call buttermilk helpline? Tinternet.About.com had the answer...."Once you see how easy it is to make buttermilk, you'll want to make your own everytime. Here's how:"

A question was asked "Do you have a jar of heavy cream in your fridge"

The answer was yes: We are back  in business.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients: a jar of cream

1. Fill a jar halfway with heavy cream. 

Then, screw the lid on firmly (a canning jar works well for this purpose).OK

2. Start shaking the jar back and forth. After several minutes, the cream will thicken and turn into whipped cream.Within only a few minutes I had whipped cream. OK

I now have no faith in the next step. It is just not going to happen. How can you cause agitation to a jar of solid whipped cream. I persevere.....

Keep shaking until the whipped cream is replaced with a yellow glob (butter) and a separate liquid (buttermilk).

I continue shaking but nothing is happening then suddenly my face lights up. Something is rattling in the jar. EUREKA!! I have a lump of butter and a whole lotta liquid which is the buttermilk I set out to acquire

3. Pour the buttermilk out of the jar, and use it in any recipe that calls for buttermilk.

To Use the Butter: Knead it under cold water for a couple minutes to remove any remaining buttermilk (it will spoil very quickly, if you don't). Then, salt (if desired), and store in the refrigerator until you're ready to use it.

The cats feet had been buttered, The buttered cat paradox is a paradox based on the tongue in cheek combination of two adages.

Cats always land on their feet

Buttered toast always lands buttered side down

The paradox arises when one considers what would happen if one attached a piece of buttered toast (butter side up) to the back of a cat, then dropped the cat from a large height.

Whatever, I have landed on my two feet having made butter. Oh Joy!!!

Enjoying the fruits of our labour

Enjoying the benefits in winter of what you have harvested in the summer is immense. Celebrate the honest and earthy goodness of flavours from the garden by using them in both new and classic ways.You may remember back in September I sundried my tomatoes on the dashboard of the car, well Its only a short ride from sunning on a vine in the summer to the stain down the front of a shirt in the winter.

Pesto can be made in either a blender or food processor;a food processor usually does a better job though. Note: when using a blender to prepare pesto, it may be necessary to add the oil at the same time as the herbs.
This home made sun-dried tomato pesto is pure condensed summer in a jar, and one of the best things I've ever tasted.

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto or Spread
makes about 6 cups

2 cups sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil
(drain oil before measuring if there is a lot)
2 cups coarsely grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4-1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
1/4-1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 cup home made tomato sauce 
2 tablespoons of pine nuts or toasted pistachios or a combination of both
6 large cloves garlic
sea salt to taste, about 2 tsp.
fresh ground black pepper to taste

Put garlic cloves into the food processor and process until finely chopped. (You could use the food processor to chop the basil and parsley if you wanted too, but I just chopped it with a chef's knife.)
Add sun-dried tomatoes, parmesan, olive oil, basil, parsley, tomato sauce, and process until mixture is well combined. I kept mine a tiny bit chunky. Season with salt and pepper, buzz for a few seconds to combine again.

(If you don't have the fresh tomatoes to make fresh tomato sauce, use 2 cans diced tomatoes, puree in food processor with some fresh torn basil leaves, then cook down to make 1 cup sauce. Cool before using in this recipe. You could also use canned tomato sauce, but the flavor would not be as fresh.)

This will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for a month. Chance would be a fine thing, it will never last that long!

Sundried tomato pesto pairings
A container of home made pesto in the refrigerator can be the inspiration for any number of interesting dishes.

Slather it on sandwiches
Toss it in with spaghetti
Stir it into risotto or soup
Use it as a pizza base
Blend it into a dressing
This pesto can become addictive and is well worth
keeping on hand as a store cupboard staple.
A fun way to turn a simple supper into a special occasion.

Pick a peck of prickly pears

Prickly pear mojito, a truly autumnal cocktail

"Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman." 

I have been foraging again, and look at the bounty I have returned with. Those prickly spines put most of us off, but when foraging, "A prick in the hand is worth two in the bush." I managed to get through four good years before summoning up the courage to tackle the fruits of the prickly pear. If done with care,not as I did, harvesting and processing prickly pear fruit will result in very little pain. Carelessness, as I discovered to my detriment will result in a whole lot of time spent picking painful spines and glochids as they are called out of your fingers. Consider this a Zen exercise in patience and attentiveness, neither virtues I have ever possessed.Once you have your prickly pear juice, you have to figure out what you are going to do with it. You can make jelly, always a popular and tasty gift, and something Casa Rosada could well introduce to its breakfast table or you can make syrup for dressings and drink recipes. Yes, there is even a recipe for prickly pear mojito.(pictured above)

Makes 1 mojito. 

1 1/2 tablespoons prickly pear syrup
6 to 8 mint leaves
juice of 1 lime (about 2 ounces)
2 ounces rum
1 to 1/2 cups cubed or crushed ice
2 ounces club soda 

In a tall glass, place the mint leaves, lime juice and the cactus syrup. Muddle the leaves for 20 seconds to release the mint oils using either a muddleror a wooden spoon.
Add the rum, and stir.Fill the glass until 3/4 full with ice.
Top off with the club soda
 

Prickly pear syrup recipe

6 cups strained prickly pear juice
6 cups white sugar
4 tbsp. lemon juice

Wash and chop prickly pear.  Cover chopped fruit with water about 2 inches above level of fruits in pan.  Cook over medium heat for approximately 20 minutes.  Use cheesecloth and a colander to strain liquid from cooked prickly pear fruit.  This will make the strained juice thinner to increase production of the syrup without any decline in flavor.

Combine strained prickly pear juice and lemon juice and cook over medium heat until solution is boiling.  Once boiling add sugar and stir constantly.  Keep at a rolling boil until all of the sugar is dissolved. Then remove pan from heat.  If canning syrup, ladle into sterilized jars.  If using syrup immediately, cool syrup and store covered in the refrigerator for up to one month.

Prickly Pear Cactus Jelly Recipe

4 cups strained prickly pear juice
6 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 package pectin*

Wash and chop prickly pear.  Cover chopped fruit with water even with level of tunas in pan.  Cook over medium heat for approximately 20 minutes.  Use cheesecloth and a colander to strain liquid from cooked prickly pear fruit. 

Combine strained prickly pear juice and lemon juice and cook over medium heat until solution is boiling.  Once boiling add sugar and pectin* and stir constantly.  Continue to keep mixture at a rolling boil for ten minutes, then remove pan from heat.  If canning jelly, ladle into sterilized jars.Prickly pear jelly may take up to two weeks to gel inside the jars.  If using for fresh jelly, cool jelly and store covered in the refrigerator for up to one month.

*I used a natural pectin made from the rind of lemon and orange halves .You need to remove the whole fruit from the jam mix and then strain the juice back into the jam through a muslin bag.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire....

 É dia de São Martinho;
comem-se castanhas, prova-se o vinho.
 

It is St. Martin's Day,
we'll eat chestnuts, we'll taste the wine.

 

A typical Portuguese saying related to Saint Martin's Day

In Portugal,today the 11th November we celebrated St. Martin's Day.It is commonly associated with the celebration of the maturation of the year's wine, being traditionally the first day when the new wine can be tasted. It is celebrated, traditionally around a bonfire, eating the magusto, chestnuts  roasted under the embers of the bonfire (sometimes dry figs and walnuts), and drinking a local light alcoholic beverage called água-pé (literally "foot water", made by adding water to the pomace  left after the juice is pressed out of the grapes for wine - traditionally by stomping on them in vats with bare feet, and letting it ferment for several days), or the stronger jeropiga (a sweet liquor obtained in a very similar fashion, with aguardente  added to the water). Água-pé, though no longer available for sale in supermarkets and similar outlets (it is officially banned for sale in Portugal), is still generally available in small local shops from domestic production.

Marmitako- Out of the pot onto the plate

Winter is the time for comfort, for
good food and warmth, for the touch
of a friendly hand and for a talk beside
the fire:  it is the time for home.

Edith Sitwell

The temperature drops and up goes our appetite for foods that come in huge steaming pots.Goodbye salads and cold dishes, Hello comfort food ! It is a time to gather friends around a table overflowing with dishes steaming hot from the stove top or oven. When the days get shorter and the going gets tough, the tough need to tuck in. I have been checking out the provenance behind all these piping hot dishes. So Spanish, so Portuguese. Alright lets not argue, recipes vary from place to place but  have similarities both in their cooking method and choice of ingredients. In the Iberian peninsula it is just like looking over a neighbours fence and seeing something identical on the other side. Spain and Portugal are neighbours.To an outsider, not so close sometimes but both nations´ fishermen put out to sea to catch our fish and their survival on board translates into our mainland sustenance.
Marmita translates as 'pot' or 'casserole' in Basque, while the suffix ko is the genitive case, so that marmitako literally means 'from the pot'. Of course, just about everything in Basque cooking comes 'from the pot', but only this venerable dish goes by that name. Originally it was cooked on board fishing boats - and still is - but for decades now it has appeared on restaurant menus in the Basque Country, sometimes even prepared with salmon. The stew is soupy but thick, specially when the potatoes are 'cracked open' to yield more starch. You can prepare a marmitako up to the point at which the tuna, or for that matter any other robust fish is added,( I cooked it with hake on the bone) and then reheat the stew up to a day later and add the fish.

Marmitako, the traditional version 

2 dried choricero or ancho chiles 
1 pound fresh tuna fillet 
Coarse Flor de sal 
4 russet potatoes, about 2 pounds total weight 
1/3 cup olive oil 
1 brown onion, finely chopped 
1 clove garlic , minced 
1/2 green pepper, seeded and cut lengthwise into narrow strips 
1Tablespoon sweet pimentón  or paprika

In a heatproof bowl, combine the dried chilis with boiling water to cover and let stand for 30 minutes, or until soft. Drain the chilis, slit them open, and scrape off the flesh with the edge of a knife, discarding the seeds, skins, and stems, Set the flesh aside.
Cut the tuna into small pieces. Sprinkle the pieces with coarse salt and set aside.
Peel the potatoes. To 'crack' the potatoes into chestnut-sized pieces, make a small cut in each potato and then break it open the rest of the way. Set the potato pieces aside.
In a Marmita, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, and bell pepper, and the flesh from the chilis, stir well, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, or until the onion and bell pepper have begun to soften and all the ingredients are well blended.
Add the potatoes and pimentón and mix well. Season with a little coarse salt and add water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil, cover, decrease the heat to medium-low, and cook for about 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are fork-tender.
Add the tuna pieces to the pot and simmer for 5 minutes, or until the tuna is opaque. Remove from the heat and let stand for 30 minutes before serving. If the soup is very clear because the potatoes didn't release enough starch, mash a piece or two against the side of the pot with the back of a spoon and shake the pot a little.
Reheat gently to serving temperature (if your pot retains heat well, the stew may still be piping hot and you won't need to reheat it). Ladle into warmed bowls and serve at once.

Serve with a crisp Portuguese white wine.

Mary Queen of Scones

Bolos pequenos com romá e requeijao

Why don´t we have scones in Portugal I cry? My scone song has to be to introduce "Scones" to the Portuguese community. Home made scones, such a delicious treat, not just for afternoon tea. Sweet or savoury scones are so versatile and are so quick and easy to make.There is a scone for almost every occasion. Scones are believed to have originated in Scotland.The origin of the name 'scone' is just as unclear as where it came from. Some say the name comes from where the Kings of Scotland were crowned, the Stone (Scone) of Destiny.So donning my Scottish Toque I take on the role of Mary Queen of scones for an afternoon.
If I was to introduce the scone to Portugal I think this would be what I would bake.....

Pomegranate scones with requeijao

makes 8 large scones 

2 1/4 cups plain flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2/3 cup butter, chilled and cut up
2 eggs
1/3 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
pot of requeijao cheese to serve
Combine the flour, sugar and baking powder.Cut in the butter until your mixture resembles coarse crumbs.Stir in the egg combined with the cream and vanilla. On a well-floured surface knead in the pomegranate seeds. Roll the dough into eight equal sized balls and press into a 6.5cm pastry cutter. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Repeat with the remaining scone dough. Bake at 200C /400F for 15 minutes or until bottoms of the scones are lightly browned.
Serve with a pot of Requeijao cheese,or if you prefer, a home made Seville orange curd.
 
If you eat all the scones before your guests arrive,I promise not to tell.
I have many more scone recipes up my sleeve so watch out for more ideas between now and Christmas.



 

Palmito´s way

I never look a gift horse in the mouth and as a result I sometimes acquire items that I have not got a clue what to do with.I have had a large jar of heart of palm sitting expectantly on the store cupboard shelf for a while now, and so decided to ask a Portuguese partaker of the Casa Rosada cookery workshop what I should do with it.She said open it and it wont get as far as the kitchen counter, you will start eating it from the jar and not stop until its all gone. She was spot on. It tastes like artichoke heart dressed up to look like white asparagus. I started to eat it from the jar but had to pull in the reins as I needed to try various ways of serving it.

First and foremost, to enjoy this Latin American delicacy one must be absolutely sure of its provenance, and therefore that the product has been organically or biologically farmed.

Heart of palm, also called  palmito or "burglar´s thigh", is  a vegetable harvested from the inner core of certain palm trees.Brazil was the highest producer of uncultivated hearts of palm, but in the 1990s its quality went down - mostly because of unsustainable poaching for stems (called colete, Portuguese for "vest") of the main producing species. The harvesting of many non-cultivated or wild single-stemmed palms results in palm tree death since their apical meristem (tissue whose cells divide indefinitely, giving rise to new cells that enable plant growth) is eliminated. An alternative to harvesting wild heart of palm are palm varieties which have undergone a process of adaptation to become a domesticated farm species.The King of Palms, the product I tested comes from the palm variety Euterpe Olerecea, best known for Acai. In English this is called the peach palm.This variety is the most widely used for canning and bottling. Peach palms are self-suckering and produce multiple stems, up to 40 on one plant, so harvesting several stems from a plant is not so expensive and also sustainable because the plant can live on.Thus, even with its introduction to cultivation, extraction of the palm heart in its natural habitat has endangered species of which is acquired, especially the species Euterpe edulis, the most popular.  To mitigate the threat of extinction, the cultivation and harvesting of the acai and peach palm is now encouraged.The harvesting takes place in a sustainable manner and is fertilized naturally from the richness of plants and nutrients in the soil from the land flanking the Amazon river provides. No pesticides are used and the manual cutting of the palm preserves the ecosytem, contributing to the future development of the palms.In the additional production and bottling process no chemical additives are used.

Palm heart and requeijao risotto

A delicious risotto of palm and cheese, with a subtle flavour

Serves 4

350g(12oz) Arborio rice 
60 g butter  
50 ml extra virgin olive oil   
6 shallots peeled and chopped finely 
2 bay leaves  
1 / 2 cup dry white wine  
250g requeijao curd cheese ( you can substitute ricotta)  
1 litre vegetable stock   
2 sticks of palm heart, chopped  
Grated Parmesan cheese  
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the onion with the butter and olive oil and add the rice (stirring constantly with a wooden spoon to get a good coating on the rice) Add the bay leaves and wine. Add hot vegetable stock gradually stirring gently and adding more stock as needed  (about 20 minutes).  When the rice is al dente but still has a slight bite to it  remove from heat and stir in the cream cheese, chopped hearts of palm, Parmesan cheese and seasoning to taste.  Mix well and let stand a few minutes before serving. garnish with fresh parsley

Variations on a theme of palmito

Palmito vinaigrette

Creamed palm heart canapé with bacon

Palm heart salad with fresh mango and prawn

The palm heart is low in calories and fats, rich in minerals such as calcium, iron and phosphorus. It is also a good source of vitamin C, and smaller amounts of complex B.

.

Thinking pink on the Algarve

Nigella bless your little pink cotton socks, twinset and pearls. You uppity minx, you had me stirring till I was as red as the pomegranate that I had just juiced. My right arm nearly dislocated itself but and a huge but....... this recipe is so simple, so gorgeous, and so ungodlessly DEELICIOUS that I totally forgive you and I simply couldn’t keep from sharing it not only with Portugal but a wider audience. I have no plans to purchase an ice-cream maker. What’s the point if you dust it off once every few years out of guilt? Nah, for this recipe all you need is a little elbow grease as I soon found out. - Agitating a thick liquid with "shall we call it an implement"...

250ml. fresh pomegranate juice (2 pomegranates depending on size Nigella?!)

Juice of 1 lime

175g icing sugar

500ml. whipping or double cream

Serves: 8

1. Juice the pomegranates and the lime and strain the juices into a bowl.
2. Add the icing sugar and whisk to dissolve.
3. Whisk in the double cream and keep whisking until soft peaks form in the pale pink cream.
4. Spoon and smooth the ice cream into the airtight container of your choice and freeze for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
5. Scatter with some pomegranate seeds before you eat it.

What Nigella said about her own recipe....

It's not hard to think of a pudding that can be made in advance. But mostly the advantage is simply that all the effort is upfront and early. The thing about this recipe is that you do it in advance - it's ice cream, so that stands to reason - but what you do in advance is negligible in terms of effort. You don't make a custard, and you don't have to keep whipping it out of the deep freeze to beat the crystals. No, you simply squeeze and stir.

On top of that cause for greater contentment, there is also the fact that this delicate pink ice cream tastes like fragrant, sherbety heaven.

and what Nigella forgot to say...

....And pink matches the colour of my website, my range of kitchen stickers and the Nigella mousemat, not forgetting my angora cardigan.

"Now, I wouldn't presume to tell a woman,
what a woman oughtta think,
But tell her if she's gotta think: think pink—!

The quintessential Christmas sweet

Turrón de guirlache

Doesn’t it seem like every year Christmas preparations start earlier? As soon as November arrives, I start seeing the first signs of Christmas:leaflets coming through the door, decorations, advertisements, special Christmas foods, etc. As I was thinking about this, I realized that starting Christmas earlier gives one the excuse to enjoy one of my favourite Christmas treats for longer, Turrón Turrón! I just love Turrón, a traditional Spanish Christmas sweet, in English known as Nougat.There are two types of Turrón "hard", made with whole almonds and "soft", made with ground almonds.Turrón is made by amalgamating almonds with a whole range of other ingredients, chocolate,hazelnuts, walnuts, pine nuts,peanuts, honey, sugar, lemons and eggs.The choice of components is the individuals choice. 

Nowadays there are all sorts of varieties and flavours, but the original one,was brought to Spain by the Arabs during the Moors occupation.

In Spain there are some very artesanal turrones that are a real treat, but if you can´t get your hands on these, try to make it yourself! And it will be a lot of fun too!!

During Christmas, and now starting in November!, it is kind of moorish to have a plate with different turrones and Christmas sweets around the house to have as a bite in the afternoon.

The 16th-century Manual de Mujeres ("Women's Handbook"), Spain´s forerunner to Mrs Beeton, a sort of Consuela´s handbook of recipes for cosmetics and foodstuffs, has what is probably the oldest extant Spanish Turrón recipe. It calls for honey and some egg whites, cooked until it becomes breakable once cooled. Once the honey is caramelized the recipe suggests adding pine nuts, almonds or hazelnuts, peeled and roasted. The mix is then cooked a bit further, and finally removed from the heat and cut into slices.

My artesan favourite is the brittle Turrón de guirlache. Its name comes from the French "grillage" (toasted  ) and was popularized  in Aragon.It is now a regional speciality of Aragon, particularly around Zaragoza, Catalonia and Valencia.Lets get cookin´.......

1Kilo sugar

Half a kilo of whole raw Marcona almonds

Juice of half a lemon

2 tablespoons honey

Place a piece of lightly oiled parchment on a cutting board, a baking sheet, a piece of marble, or anything else flat that can take heat.Set aside.

In a skillet heat the sugar until it forms a caramel. Add half a kilo of raw almonds, the juice of half a lemon and two tablespoons of honey.Cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly for about 15 minutes.Pour the mix into the reserved baking sheet and with the help of half a lemon greased with oil, spread the the mixture evenly into your desired shape and thickness, normally a rectangular bar about one inch thick. When cold and set you can start cutting it, and tuck in.

Ruby Tuesday

The table is set

This week we  had a special dinner booked in. An expat couple,living here in the Algarve were celebrating their 40 married years together.(I have changed the names to initials in this post to protect the privacy of the individuals).They had been given,by their daughter across the oceans a present of an away day ( and night ) at Casa Rosada.She gave them the choice of a night at one of 6 selected Algarve bed and breakfasts and they chose us. When we get a booking like this we pull all the stops out to make it special.The menu was sent to Australia ,and was very rapidly given the seal of approval. A little fine tuning was done and suddenly it was all upon us.The sun shone for them and they enjoyed morning coffee in our garden.Having settled into their room they set off at midday to spend the rest of the day exploring the local area.

8.30am Shopping in  market for flowers and fish.First hiccup of day.
Due to the recent storms at sea,the fishing boats have not been going out so there is very little choice of fresh fish on the stalls. My plan to serve a "signature dish" main course of pan fried red mullet with spinach and saffron potatoes must be abandoned.I revert to the plan B - main course with Quail.Next stop my butcher,closely followed by  flower stall. Mission accomplished, return home with flowers and fowl, fresh bread  and prepare myself to greet our guests.

10.30am  Guests arrive half an hour early.throw arms up in the air - exclaim, minor expletives. Pass task of their welcome to  thespian who serves them coffee in the garden.


11.00am Kitchen prep begins...

1.00pm 3 menu items for starter prepped, main course marinating in fridge and  desert  already prepared in advance.Cook can now relax for a few hours.


6.30pm Glass of Ninfa Bruto in garden

Anniversary couple move indoors to be seated for anniversary dinner

7.30pm Starter served of warm beetroot parfait, Manchego cheese and home made marmelada (quince cheese) lemon scented meatballs roasted in lemon leaves.
Anniversary couple asked what they think of show so far- daughter in Australia done ém proud.

8.00pm Main course of oven roasted five spiced quail served with a jewelled Ras al hanout cous cous and Tunisian carrot purée.Complete silence from dining area. Silence is golden or as many present-day feminists would prefer it:

"Silence is a woman's best garment."

"everything perfect" anniversary couple thoroughly enjoying their dinner. 
Apron off, thespian and I can sit down to dinner at kitchen table till time to serve desert....

9.00. Dessert of Ruby poached pears with peach, wine and vanilla granita. garnished with frozen grapes.


9.55. Coffee for one served. the day is done,time to put feet up


Dear diary what a busy day, able to go to bed relaxed,more happy customers.

J and J´s

Ruby Wedding Dinner

Saturday 29 October 2011

Aperitif

Ninfa bruto Reserva

Starter

Manchego Cheese with hme made quince jelly

Beetroot parfait  with artesan breads

Lemon scented meatballs

Main course

Roasted 5 spiced quail with jeweled Ras al Hanout

cous cous and Tunisian carrot puree

Pudding

Drunken poached peaches,

with wine and vanilla granita


J and J drank


Quinta da barranco Longo Escolha 

Valdepenas Reserva 2004, Tempranillo