One meal two ways,butternut squash ravioli with walnut sauce

One recipe two different meals, one a midweek supper that you can whip up quickly without breaking your back, the other, one that will be a little more involved.A starter for a more special occasion or for when you are catering for guests.
 My intention is that two versions on a common theme will allow extra-busy people the chance to get ahead when they have time.Prepping at the weekend for midweek suppers eases the strain.The walnut sauce can be made up to 4 days in advance and kept in a sealed container in the fridge.The ravioli filling can be made in advance too and even the ravioli themselves can be filled up to 24 hours ahead, tossed with some flour or semolina and kept chilled in a sealed container.Which leaves us with yours and my only big headache, the pasta.You can make your basic pasta dough up to 24 hours ahead, wrap in clingfilm and chill or freeze for up to 1 month in a freezer bag.I am not providing a recipe for the pasta dough as this is something so personal.What recipe works for one fails another.You have to experiment and find a recipe you are comfortable with.Some recipes just use eggs and flour while others include semolina.Some advocate making the dough in a processor while others painstakingly apply love and knead the dough with their hands.A method I have come to prefer.Whatever recipe you go for,we are all in agreement that `00´flour is the only way to go.Another personal option is whether to roll out the dough by hand or whether to employ a pasta machine.Ideally, whichever method you go for  you want to be able to see your hand through the pasta once it is rolled.
 

I wasn't quite sure what an "open faced" ravioli would be like

FOR THE FILLING

This filling is also delicious served as a pasta sauce,in which case you should thin it slightly before using with some single cream.

1 small butternut squash,peeled seeds removed,cut into 2-3 cm chunks

125g unsalted butter

1 garlic clove sliced

1/2 tbsp dried oregano

1 tsp fresh sage leaves,chopped

100g ricotta

75g freshly grated parmesan, plus extra to serve

1 quantity of basic pasta dough (see above)

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the squash for 15-20 minutes until very tender.Drain in a colander and leave to cool..heat half the butter in a large frying pan and cook the garlic until soft.Add the oregano, sage and the cooked squash.

Use a wooden spoon to mash the squash and cook for about ten minutes or until the mixture appears quite dry.leave to cool.Add the ricotta and parmesan and mix well.Then taste and adjust the seasoning.

FOR THE WALNUT SAUCE

1/2 garlic clove
100g shelled walnuts
Juice  1/2 lemon
75g parmesan grated
2 tbsp whole milk
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 heaped tsp finely chopped fresh parsley

Crush the garlic and a pinch of sea salt in a pestle and mortar,then add the walnuts.Pound until smooth,then mix in the lemon juice,parmesan,milk,olive oil and parsley,one after the other.Work the mixture together so the sauce becomes emulsified,then taste and adjust the seasoning.

When ready to cook,Boil the ravioli in a large pan of salted water for 3-5 minutes.Drain lightly,then toss gently in the pan with the walnut sauce, and a little of the cooking water.Serve in hot bowls with a little parmesan and a sprinkling of fresh parsley.

For the quick midweek supper version 

"Open faced ravioli" 

Take 4 sheets of fresh lasagne dough and cut them into 8 sqares.You will need four squares per portion.Boil the squares of lasagne in a large pan for about 2-3 minutes or as manufacturers recoomendation.Stir constantly to avoid the sheets sticking to each other and the bottom of the pan.I always cook an extra couple of sheets more than I need to cover this eventuality.When the pasta is cooked drain and lay the sheets out on a clean tea towel and fold the towel over to keep the pasta warm.Meanwhile heat through the pasta filling and in another pan the walnut sauce.Spoon some of the filling on the bottom of a warm plate and cover with a square of pasta.Repeat until you have used four pasta squares.Pour over and around some walnut sauce.Sprinkle with parmesan and chopped parsley. Repeat with your second portion or more.

Kefir panna cotta with saffron and cardamom jelly

  “If it takes you more than five minutes to put it together, you’re doing something wrong.”

Panna cotta is such a lovely blank slate, like its savoury sister polenta it can be flavoured according to one’s desire. What’s not to love about a dessert like that? Vanilla is an obvious choice, but cardamom, cinnamon, tonka, nutmeg, lemongrass, ginger, lemon geranium are all spices you could toy with.Inspired by a creme caramel I saw Nigel Slater make on his tour of Iran,I thought i would go for a combination of saffron and cardamom,topped with a wonderful golden jelly.Interestingly enough it’s become popular in Paris and nowadays, it’s just as common to see it on menus as crème caramel and crème brûlée.This is perhaps the easiest dessert to make ever.As David Lebovitz aptly describes panna cotta, “If it takes you more than five minutes to put it together, you’re doing something wrong.” The spin I put on it made it an Italian dessert with Indian flavours.The spices enhance the rich flavours of the Kefir, cream,and Greek yoghurt (yes i know,before you say it,not authentic but try it, it gives the whole thing a moussey texture) and  pull the whole thing together with a heady top note of flavour and perfume. An amazing fusion dessert with melt in the mouth texture and mildly sweetened with a subtle enticing aroma of cardamom.It gives the saffron cardamom flavours a chance to shine.
Kefir panna cotta with saffron and cardamom jelly 
makes 4  
kefir is fermented cows milk, full of gut friendly bacteria.
It´s used in recipes for its tangy flavour similar to soured cream.
Find it in supermarkets and health food stores.
250ml greek yoghurt
125ml kefir
125ml regular cream
4oz caster sugar
12 cardamom pods shelled and ground up
large pinch of saffron threads
3 leaves of gelatine
Beat the yoghurt lightly with a fork until smooth and creamy.Soak the saffron in a little warm water and stir.Combine the cream and kefir in a small pan with the sugar, ground cardamom and saffron.Heat over a medium flame until the sugar has dissolved,the mixture is nicely warm to the touch.Remove from the heat.Dissolve the gelatine in 4 tablespoons of water and add to the cream mixture.Stir to mix.Beat in the yoghurt.spoon the mixture into four individual ramekin dishes and chill for several hours or ideally overnight.Dip each ramekin briefly into some hot water to loosen the panna cotta and then turn out onto serving plates.

'Choose Our Food' economizar a quilometragem dos alimentos e pegada ecológica

 O pastor do cabrito Nuno Coelho. Foto:Beatriz Ruiz Martinez, Al Algarve conmigo

How much of the food you will eat today will be locally produced? And how much will travel hundreds, if not thousands, of miles before it is delivered to your plate?
The more food miles that are attached to a given food, the less sustainable and the less environmentally desirable that food is. The term food miles has become part of the vernacular among food professionals when describing the farm to consumer network of food.It’s so rare we get to connect with exactly where our food comes from,but when I return from the market with dirt that grasps my potatoes, it does just that.
Once upon a time organically classified produce was all the rage.Times change and fashions change.The fashion now is for foods that are "locally produced".Nobody seems to be able to answer the question why this produce can not be locally produced and nevertheless be organic.Money I presume is the the short answer with "locally produced" a concession to the supposed cost (and carbon footprint) of transport.
Local food now represents an alternative to the global food model, a model which often sees food travelling long distances before it reaches us the consumer. A local food network involves relationships between food producers, distributors, retailers, and consumers in a particular place, where they work together to increase food security and ensure economic, ecological and social sustainability of a community.Locally grown food has a significant connection to organics. For one thing, many local farms are organic (some certified, some not certified).
More important, though, is the raging debate about which is better: certified organic food or local food. While both local and organic foods carry pros and cons, people have some very strong opinions about which is best, and many like myself would like to purchase both locally-produced and organically-grown food.
People who buy this produce may also want to see sustainable production and distribution business practices. Animal welfare issues and fair farm labour practices also are important to many customers who strive to "buy local."

Photo: O homem que comia tudo

Finally, "the story behind the food" may be important to some customers, who like to meet growers and understand their ethics.
Organic farming can help cut greenhouse emissions: it uses less water and less energy than conventional farming, which is heavily dependent on high-energy processes and fossil fuels for fertilisers and pesticides. Organic food production is also better for wildlife, livestock, people and the environment. 
A word on buying direct: because all the produce has been grown, reared or produced by the people who are selling it, you can find out everything you want to know about the food and how it was grown or cooked. The money you spend goes directly to the people who actually do the work to produce the food you're eating - the farmers and makers - rather than supermarkets and wholesalers.
Stay in touch with the seasons and discover produce you've never had before. There won’t be plums or sardines in April but, when they are in season, the farmers,fishermen and artesan producers will bring in many different varieties. You’ll also find produce you may not have come across before, such as organic hams ,cured sausages and rare cheeses. 
 It has always been part of our mission statement here at Casa rosada to dispel the view that the Algarve is just about beaches and leisure activities.In Baixo Guadiana,the area in which we live,far from the main cities of the Algarve is an unknown world.We are in Castro Marim a stones throw from Spain.Our nearest town is Vila Real de Santo António and just up the river is the pretty little town of Alcoutim.These three towns for some part live off the produce of the people who work in the surrounding countryside.To give this area the recognition it truly deserves a project has been launched to show that this area rises above the vulgarity of mass tourism and exposes a "real Algarve"
'Choose Our Food' project wants to broaden horizons and get the message out there to promote wonderful local artesan products.This is a movement for the Algarve, for those who live here but also its visitors.

Choose our Food, launched by Odiana, the Baixo Guadiana Development Association, which includes Alcoutim, Castro Marim and Vila Real de Santo António, is a project that aims to create a cooperative network to promote food products in the region and reveal the potential of its gastronomy.Choose our Food aims to maximize regional agri-food products and strengthen business cooperation in the region. The agricultural heritage of the Baixo Guadiana is of unequaled wealth, the result of diverse cultural influences and ideal climatic conditions. The excellence of the products from the region are untouched by the major engines of the tourist industry.Despite their excellence these products,are sometimes more easily exported from the region than sold and consumed within its boundaries. It seems that the hotel industry consumes products from outside the region rather than promoting what is readily available locally.This disregard for local resources is also linked to the large proliferation of supermarket chains with a wide range of associated products which, either because of low cost or centralized purchasing makes traditional products less competitive. All these factors led to the development of the "Choose our Food" project. This project is a mission for the sustainable development of the region.Over the coming months Casa Rosada is planning some field trips to meet and then promote through blog posts some of these artesan producers.We then at some point plan to have a tasting evening for an invited audience of restaurateurs and members of the expat community who work and live here.
Shop local, buy local, get to know local, spread the "local" word and take local home.

Green beans changed history,mango sushi too?

mango sushi with fresh mint

475 years ago this year a maritime mishap caused a major change in the history of gastronomy.In 1543, a Chinese ship with three Portuguese sailors on board was headed to Macau, but was swept off course and ended up on the Japanese island of Tanegashima. Antonio da Mota, Francisco Zeimoto and Antonio Peixoto – the first Europeans to ever step on Japanese soil – were deemed ‘southern barbarians’ by the locals because of the direction from which they came and their ‘unusual’, non-Japanese features. The Japanese were in the middle of a civil war and eventually began trading with the Portuguese, in general, for guns. And thus began a Portuguese trading post in Japan, starting with firearms and then other items such as soap, tobacco, wool and even recipes.The Portuguese left an indelible mark on the island: a battered and fried green bean recipe called peixinhos da horta. Today, in Japan, it’s called tempura and has been a staple of the country’s cuisine ever since.
A 1603 Japanese-Portuguese dictionary has an entry for namanrina sushi, literally half-made sushi.Sushi was originally produced by fermentation of fish with rice.With the invention of rice vinegar a process was gradually developed which eliminated the fermentation process and used vinegar instead.
The namanari was fermented for a shorter period than its predecessor the narezushi and possibly marinated with rice vinegar.I had a short foray into making sushi some years ago and recently thought I would  give it another go.Previously I had made a stab at creating an Algarvian sushi  Biqueirao, espinafres enrolado ( marinated spinach and anchovies rolled in spinach leaves )

  my inspiration masu-zushi-smoked fish sushi

This time I was looking for something a little more avant-garde.There are so many elements and so much variety to Japanese cuisine that it is very difficult to put it under one banner.Sushi has been popular outside Japan for years,but there´s so much scope for growth with the lesser known elements of the cuisine.

“There are so many elements and so much variety to Japanese cuisine it is very difficult to put it under one banner. “Sushi has been popular in the UK for years, but there’s so much scope for growth with the lesser known elements of the cuisine.

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/food-and-drink/chefs-predict-food-trends-2018

There are so many elements and so much variety to Japanese cuisine it is very difficult to put it under one banner. “Sushi has been popular in the UK for years, but there’s so much scope for growth with the lesser known elements of the cuisine.

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/food-and-drink/chefs-predict-food-trends-2018/

There are so many elements and so much variety to Japanese cuisine it is very difficult to put it under one banner. “Sushi has been popular in the UK for years, but there’s so much scope for growth with the lesser known elements of the cuisine.

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/food-and-drink/chefs-predict-food-trends-2018

I decided to use a type of process called Oshi-zushi (pressed sushi ).This sushi normally uses smoked fish either salmon or trout.My sushi was going to be somewhat different, not sushi as in raw fish,but sushi as in sweet coconut rice topped with fresh succulent mango and fresh mint.I thought of using fresh pineapple which would work beautifully too, but I thought the colour of the mango was  more tempting.I wanted something you could pick up and eat in your fingers, something sweet to round off our tasting menu.

I used a 100% national rice produced exclusively in the Ribatejo flood plains by The country´s greatest rice producer Orivázea.It has much more starch than arborio rice.The banks of the river Tagus offer the ideal conditions for it to flourish.Its consistency and large grains have a great capacity to absorb liquid whilst retaining their shape.This is why the particular rice is the favoured choice by chefs preparing sushi dishes in Portugal.

Mango Sushi  
makes 12
300g best quality sushi rice 
100g caster sugar
200ml organic canned coconut milk
400ml water
500g peeled sliced mango
Put rice,sugar,coconut milk in a pan and bring to the boil,stirring constantly to prevent the rice from sticking.Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes,stirring occasionally to avoid boiling over.Once the rice has absorbed the liquid but is not yet fully cooked,remove from the heat,cover with atight fitting lid and leave to steam for 10 minutes more until the rice is tender.
Lightly rinse out a 20 x 15 cm shallow rectangular ceramic dish and tip in the cooked rice.Spread it out evenly to a 2 cm depth.Smooth the top and leave to cool.when cool,cover with clingfilm and chill for at least two hours or overnight.
Once chilled cut the rice into 3x8 cm fingers.Trim slices of mango into matching rectangles and place on top of the rice.garnish with a fresh mint leaf.

Green parsee curry,Thus spoke zarathustra

For those that are a fan of the Green Thai Curry – a caution. This neither tastes nor looks anything like the Thai version – this one is 100% Parsee style.
Parsees, in case you are not quite up to speed on them,are most famous for the Dhansak curry.They were originally from Persia, which is now Iran.They base their beliefs on the teachings of Zoroaster, aka Zarathustra, the monotheistic divine who flourished in around 1,000BC.Many of the Parsees later shifted to Bombay and acquired culinary styles of Maharashtra and Goa.Later still Parsee cuisine opened itself to the coconut and kokum influences of the Goans and Portuguese.  Within a few years this cuisine acquired western styles of cooking, like most of the other Indian cuisines.
Parsee cuisine is shaped by its history. This culinary binding between Ancient Persia and Gujarat was an accident of fate. Persians came to India and brought along with them their unique recipes and culinary skills, forming a delicious blend of Indian flavours and Persian technique.This unusual historical background gives Parsee food a unique flavour. Today, the cuisine is a rich combination of Indian cooking methods and those of many other parts of the world.

Green Parsee curry
This is a Parsee speciality and represents the simple style much adapted to this cuisine. 
Originally a side dish or vegetarian dish I took the preparation further and and made it a full blown curry. This is my basic vegetarian recipe but, you can also make it with mutton (account for longer cooking times) chicken,prawns or a robust fish like hake or grouper.

For the curry base
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
8-10 curry leaves (fresh or dried)
2-3 green chillies (cut into three pieces each)
1 level tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp asfoetida
2 medium onions,( thinly sliced )
750g potatoes,(peeled and diced)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1tsp ground coriander
1tsp ground cumin
200g fine french beans, chopped 
1/2  tsp lime juice
1 tbsp fresh coriander (chopped)
salt and pepper to taste

For the curry 
100g runner beans  or french beans pre-cooked divided cross ways into segments
4 green chillies cut into shreds
Cooked chicken breast,prawns,mutton or fish (all optional)

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed medium sized pan until it forms a haze.
Add the mustard seeds and let them crackle.Add the curry leaves and the green chillies and sizzle for a couple of minutes.Add the cumin seeds and as they change colour add the asfoetida and almost immediately the onions. Once the onions are soft add the potatoes and sauté for a couple of minutes.In a cup or a small bowl blend the powdered spices with alittle water to form asmooth thin paste.Add this paste to the pan and mix i slowly.The reason for mixing the spices is to prevent them from burning and spoiling the taste, a tip I recently learnt from chef Cyrus Todiwala on the TV.It also helps in De-glazing the bottom of the pan.Add salt and just enough water to cover the potatoes.Clean the edges of the pan with a spatula and cook the potatoes covered with a tight fitting lid.The water can be just below the line of the potatoes to cook and get almost dry as well.Reduce the heat and stir from time to time.Once the potatoes are cooked and the liquid thickens add the beans and cook for another couple of minutes.Check the seasoning again with the addition of the lime juice,blend in the chopped coriander and remove from the heat.Allow to cool
slightly the blitz in a processor.The resulting mixture will be on the thick side so you will need to thin it to your desired consistency with a suitable stock, some coconut milk or Greek yoghurt.Return to the pan and add the green beans chilli and meat or fish if using.Heat though until everything is cooked.

Pissaladiere

Pissaladiére

The notion of taking a flat piece of bread dough and baking it with a savoury topping is a widespread and longstanding one.The Armenians claim to have invented it and certainly it was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, but it is Italy and particularly Naples, that has given its version of the dish (pizza) to the world.
As in all dishes of ancient origin which have eventually become national as well as purely regional property, there have been various evolutions in the composition of a pizza.Flat open tarts were originally made from bread dough.Gradually the bread dough came to be replaced with pastry while toppings of course varied enormously.
Pissaladiére is a substantial dish of bread dough  spread with onions,anchovies,black olives,and sometimes tomatoes,baked in an open oven on large baking trays and sold by the slice in bakers´ shops or straight from the baking tray by street vendors.It is not as common nowadays as it was before the war,when une tranche de pissaladiere could be bought hot from the oven in the early morning at every street corner in the old quarters of French towns like Avignon, Marseille and Toulon.
This was Pizza provençal style.I find it odd that Neapolitan pizza had captured people´s imaginations,even in the south of France where they already had their own traditional versions of it.The great difference was that the Provençal variety was made without the top being smothered in chewy cheese, characteristic of the Neapolitan pizza.In fact, the Provençal version more nearly resembles the traditional Roman pizza, and it is I suppose possible that it was introduced by Roman cooks during the reign of the popes in Avignon.
Truthfully it will be admitted that both the Italian  pizza and the Provençal pissaladiere lie somewhat heavy on the stomach because of the bread dough which is the base.The modern versions made with pastry, which are sometimes served in restaurants and homes and may be bought ready made at patisseries,are often an improvement.It is the topping, which if you happen to like the taste sensation of onions,olive oil, anchovies, and olives, that is important.Not wanting to mistrust the food gurus like Nigel Slater whose recipe cites shortcrust pastry, I had to be sure of it´s provenance before I made it.Nevertheless I settled for the more authentic bread crust rather than its more modern incarnation.
It would seem that the pissaladière originates from a Genoese recipe, from Imperia (Italy), at the end of the 15th century. Piscialandrea, the first version of the Italian pizza, was named in honour of Andrea Doria, a great condottiere and admiral of Genoa from the 14th and 15th centuries. The major difference, compared to the pissaladière, is that piscialandrea is prepared with tomatoes and garlic. Just like socca (farinata) or fougasse (focaccia), this other recipe of Genoese origin has been handed down from generation to generation to the families of Nice.

Pissaladiére

1 quantity of home made pizza dough

250g strong white bread flour

250g plain white flour 

15g fresh yeast or 1 x 7g sachet of dried yeast
10g salt
325ml warm water
1 tablespoon olive oil

In a bowl, mix together the flour,yeast, salt and water to form a sticky dough. Mix in the oil. turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and silky ( 7-8 minutes )When the dough feels elastic, shape into a ball, put back in the bowl and leave to rise in a warm palce covered with a clean cloth, until doubled in size ( 1-2 hours).Pre-heat the oven and pizza stone or substitute to as high as it will go. Roll out dough into required size rounds or alternatively freeze 1/2 the dough for a later date.

8 medium onions thinly sliced,
2 skinned and seeded tomatoes,chopped
12 or more canned anchovies
12 small stoned black olives,salt and pepper ,olive oil

Heat 3 to 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy frying pan.Put in the thinly sliced onions and cook them very gently ,with the cover on the pan,until they are quite soft and pale golden,They must not fry or brown.Add the tomatoes and the seasoning( plus garlic if you like). continue cooking until the tomatoes are amalgamated, and the water has evaporated.
Roll out the dough to a circle the size of a pizza pan and with your knuckles press it gently and quickly outwards until it has spread over the whole pan to its edges.Cover with the topping.make a criss cross pattern over the top with the anchovies,then fill in with the olives,bake in the centre of a hot oven 200C for 20 minutes or until the dough is crisp.Remove from the oven cut into slices and savour the sensation.

Atún encebollado

Atun encebellado al Jerez is a very typical Southern Andalucian dish, originating from the Costa de la Luz,and more particularly from Cadiz.It is emulated in many different styles all across Spain and is one of the country´s most popular dishes.In traditional Spanish family recipe books there are a lot of traditional dishes such as paella, gazpacho, tortilla or tuna with onions. They are those meals that, throughout our lives, remind us irrevocably of the our mother and grandmother´s kitchens. If you are Spanish and reading this, it is most likely that you have your own recipe for tuna with onions.This is one of those recipes that once you have cooked and eaten it you will never forget it.I haven´t cooked it for a while and found a beautiful piece of bluefin tuna in the freezer and thought it was time to cook it again.
The Spanish recipe is different to the Algarvian version, where more often than not the tuna steak is kept whole as opposed to being cooked in bite sized pieces.I was lucky enough some years ago to have this interpretation of the recipe  passed to me by our dear friend, the lovely Lola from Sevilla.In turn it had been handed down through generations of her family.She actually showed us how to cook it and we all sat round the kitchen table to eat it together.
For this recipe to be a success it is essential to poach the onion over a very slow heat, almost in the style of caramelized onions, although without sugar. It takes a minimum of 30 minutes. It may seem a bit tedious, but believe me it's worth it. The onion poached in this way is spectacular. Also, although the cooking time is long, it does not require excessive attention, since as the flame is so low it does not burn, and you must stir it and turn it it from time to time.
Atun encebellado al Jerez
Literally tuna smothered in onions and cooked in Manzanilla sherry

For 4 people

1 Tuna loin (kilo)

4 large Spanish onions or 6 medium onions, thinly sliced

1 glass of  sherry or manzanilla wine (250g)

Flour

Salt and pepper

Butter ( 2-3 tablespoons)

Olive oil ( to sear the tuna)

1 chicken stock cube (optional)

Cut the tuna into medium sized pieces,sprinkle them with salt and pepper.Coat the tuna pieces with flour and fry them briefly in olive oil (to sear them).Set the tuna aside to drain on kitchen paper and put

put them in a large ovenproof clay dish. In another pan, heat up the butter with a littlle olive oil and add the onions.Sautée the onion over a very low heat until it is golden brown and tender. add ateaspoon of flour to thicken the sauce.Keep frying very lightly and add the glass of sherry.Flambée it or cook it over alow heat for about ten minutes in order to burn off the alcohol.Add to the bowl with the tuna and cook it over a low heat for 5or 10 minutes.At this stage you can add the stock if you want.

Serve with parsley and butter coated new potatoes or mash. Put the clay pot in the middle of the kitchen table, with the potatoes, a basket of bread and let everybody serve themselves.

A beurre necessity/ potted shrimps

It seems these days that we heap criticism on TV chefs for the amount of butter they use.In my opinion butter has been unfairly demonised, and of course, if you eat too much of it you might become fat.What the supermarkets offer as an alternative is even worse.Plastic tubs of margarine (“Margarine is one molecule away from plastic.”) and other weird low-fat nonsense that  have usurped the proud pat of butter in the modern kitchen.

Over time a diet high in saturated fats, such as butter, can lead to raised blood pressure cholesterol and increases the risk of heart disease and heart attacks. Yet a variety of blogs indicate the public are not convinced. Some people reasserted the golden oldie, a substantive part of a balanced diet, in moderation of course.
A crucial part of my morning routine, like many others, involves a visit to the kettle, swiftly followed by the toaster. It’s therefore a concern knowing that my two slices of buttered toast, peanut butter and a mug of tea with full fat milk contain 16.1g of saturated fat – already 80% of my daily allowance, and not even an hour of the day completed!

I will always want my Sunday morning poached egg laid upon a slice of thickly buttered, soft white toast rather than oil-soaked bruschetta. And it is only best butter that makes scrambled eggs taste so good. An omelette without butter is unacheivable.When it comes to mushrooms on toast,there must be butter and plenty of it.This is not bruschetta - olive oil and garlic have no place here.This is the best of the something-on-toasts.Crunchy soggy and utterly butterly.
 Though a Spanish tortilla made with onions quietly stewed in olive oil may be fabulous when perfectly executed, it will always be a secondary treat compared with onions stewed in butter.the same can be said of onion gravy.
Shiny happy people thicken their gravy with butter, mixing equal parts of soft butter and flour to form a paste(beurre manié).And of course the French classic, beurre blanc,quite frankly, indispensable to any cook.
Lemon curd ,potted shrimps,anchovy butter are all unachievable without it.A fish finger butty without it would be unthinkable. Asparagus, too, is glorious eaten warmly buttered. And if I ever found that my new potatoes were glazed with olive oil rather than butter, I would regrettably have to shoot the cook. Discreetly, of course.The onions that begin the making of a risotto, I have always believed, should be gently stewed in butter, rather than olive oil. Yet cooking onions in olive oil now seems to be the initial instruction of all risotto recipes.And what is ghee,the staple fat of India,but clarified butter? Curry just wouldn´t be curry without it. Suet, lard,goose fat,duck fat,extra virgin olive oil, all have their places,and it is easy enough to cook many a nice dish without butter.But a butterless cuisine anywhere outside the mysterious Orient beggars belief.Lots of butter. Whole lots of butter. So much butter that no one person should consume on a regular basis. And yet, you need even more.To make puff pastry, you need to feel like butter is your friend and treat it as such.
Pick up a buttercup and hold it under the other person´s chin .You ask "Do you like butter?" You already know the answer,because the buttercup throws a pool of yellow light under the chin,as a sign that,yes,they like butter.It always does and they always do.But then nobody ever says "NO".I wonder if parents have stopped playing this game with their children when butter became demonised.When I was growing up post, second world war, not much butter was used for cooking, which I have to confess is what happens to most of ours nowadays.The reason being that in those days most butter was salted and you can´t really cook with that unless you are a Breton.Off pat, butter is not a luxury item it is an essential.

As with other childhood memories of unpasteurised milk in a glass bottle or a lick of thick, pale yellow cream, there is something about a lump of butter cut with a big knife from a block that speaks of special treats.I was a dedicated lover of butter from birth.In those days there was only Anchor (salted) or Wheelbarrow (unsalted )to choose from.Nowadays buying butter can be as hard as buying shoes.The last time I went to Appolonia ( the Waitrose of the Algarve I was faced with the quandary of choosing between 20 or more different varieties.Did I want to pay €3 for a meagre 125g of Burro Occelli made from the milk of Piemontese Bruna Alpina cows or perhaps The Appellation d´Origine Controlée Lanqeuetot Beurre d ísigny demi-sel in a glazed claypot?
Next time I will fly past the butter section just throwing in two 250g blocks of Portuguese unsalted butter at half the price.I am not saying though that folded into its hand-wrapped paper package, artisan hand-churned butter seems like it would be a heavenly present bought for oneself.For butter for worse, tell you what, I am not even considering shaking up even my favourite morning routine. I know what jug I’ll be using to pour my milk, and which side my bread’s (not!) going to be buttered…
What do you think to it all – would you give up your toast’s best friend in pursuit of a healthier heart?

"Zip it shrimpy" - Potted shrimps my way
Potted shrimps are in a league of their own.Properly spiced and potted,they are simply one of my favourite things.Who can resist delicious,buttery shrimp on toast?

100g/4oz butter
2 blades of mace
a good pinch of cayenne pepper
freshly grated nutmeg
570ml/1 pint peeled  shrimps
6 tbsp clarified butter

grated zest of 1 lime

tsp freshly grated ginger

small sprig of coriander leaves chopped finely

Put the butter, mace, cayenne pepper, lime zest, ginger, coriander leaves and a little grated nutmeg into a medium-sized pan and leave to melt over a gentle heat.
Add the peeled shrimps and stir over the heat for a couple of minutes until they have heated through, but don't let the mixture boil. 

Remove the mace and divide the shrimps and butter between 6 small ramekins. Level the tops and then leave them to set in the fridge.
Spoon over a thin layer of clarified butter and leave to set once more. Serve with plenty of brown toast or crusty brown bread.

Chocolate "pond" pudding reinvented with baby rocha pear

my take on "Sussex pond pudding"

Oh Sussex, Sussex by the Sea!
Good old Sussex by the Sea! 

So the refrain goes of the South East England county's unofficial anthem. It was written in 1907 by William Ward-Higgs.The recipes for Pond Pudding date back to the 1700s but the addition of a lemon was a modern interpretation of  the recipe.The earliest citing of the recipe used a whole apple not a lemon. I am always interested in how recipes get tweaked and changed to suit different tastes,and in this case cross European borders.It certainly left me feeling like this particular pud could do with a 2018 makeover to suit Casa Rosada´s more modern slant on traditional food. 
Reading up on ‘pond’ recipes got me thinking about how the rich flavours could be given a new twist that is perhaps slightly less heart-stoppingly high in cholesterol.Sussex pond pudding traditionally contained a whole fruit with no spice.
Chocolate is the ultimate comfort food, a sure-fire stand-by in times of stress, a reliable source of consolation when life has let us down, and a mood-enhancer and romance-inducer in more positive circumstances ( Valentines Day is just around the corner). Scoffing lots of it is not going to do you any favours.But there are a host of medically proven ways in which chocolate — good chocolate, which is to say dark chocolate, with a cocoa percentage of around seventy per cent or more — really is good for us.
This is my take on Sussex pond pudding. I decided to take the suet out of Sussex and put chocolate back in Casa Rosada.What I created was a rich chocolate pudding, which makes its own sauce when cooked and rises like a chocolate sponge island in a syrupy chocolate sea. Your mothers, like mine, probably made chocolate puddle pudding.Everybody’s mother seems to have had a similar recipe – and what sensible mothers they were, because this  rich and delicious, malevolently chocolatey modicum of temptation is so quick and easy to make.
At first glance, this Sussex pond pud looks like a winter warmer, but what flows out from inside will make you want to tuck in well into spring.The freshness that having a whole baby Portuguese Rocha pear baked inside brings stops it feeling like a purely depths-of-winter pudding, and I hope will render it servable well into the warmer months.
The ‘pond’ is made when you cut into the piping hot pudding releasing an irresistible stream of chocolate sauce from within the sweet sponge casing.
The sensation is like a fabulous fondant, light and spongy on the outside and liquid gooey gold inside.
Chocolate pond pudding with baby Rocha Pear

makes 6 individual puddings
125g butter melted
200g caster sugar
3 large eggs
180g flour
75g cocoa powder
tsp baking powder
70ml milk
6 baby rocha pears peeled and cored but stalks left intact
Pre-heat  oven to 170C
If the pears are not ripe poach them in some wine sugar water and vanilla.
Beat the butter and the sugar together in a medium bowl until smooth.Add the eggs, one at a time beating them well.Sift the flour,cocoa and baking powder over the mixture and beat well with a wooden spoon.Add the milk stirring until smooth.Divide the mixture equally between six previously buttered ramekins.Push the pears down into the middle of the chocolate and bake for 30 minutes.Cool slightly before serving.They will be molten hot when you take them out of the oven so be careful.

Roll on Spring..... spring rolls are on

After the ice age of a winter we have experienced,roll on spring I say. You’ve never really had a spring roll until you’ve tried homemade ones,believe me.They are absolutely incomparable to the spring rolls served in Chinese restaurants and fast food joints,the ones with unidentifiable fillings.You take one bite and oil sqirts everywhere. You think but can´t place whats inside it. We love takeaways,and sometimes letting the chain take the strain is a great option,but the East Algarve is not known for its takeaways, let alone deliveries, aside from food courts and outlets in large shopping malls.Lets face it its a pretty run of the mill experience.Ironically, last night as we were about to sit down to dinner the door bell rang and the telepizza man was there with a pizza.We had not ordered one.It was the wrong house No longer being city slickers and along with being expensive it’s also not the healthiest option open anyway.I know spring rolls are one of those things that may seem daunting to try your hand at. But it’s actually not that tricky at all. Wrapping spring rolls is more straight forward than it seems. Nowadays I try to make as many homemade alternatives as possible, pizzas, burgers,fish and chips. We can still enjoy the delicious taste of a takeaway but it’s much healthier and for a fraction of the cost. Spring Rolls are one of my most favourite takeaway  options, so I set out to make a version that can be baked rather than fried.
I encased the filling in filo pastry. You can of course use spring roll wrappers too, but filo pastry is easier for me to buy and it bakes really well too, meaning you get a wonderfully crisp spring roll without frying.These are definitely going on the casa rosada starter menu.

The filling

Vietnamese chicken spring rolls
serves 2

Total Time: 40 minutes 

1 boneless, skinless cooked chicken breast,skinned and shredded
2 cups thinly shredded Chinese cabbage
1/2 cup (60ml) shredded Carrots  
1/2 cup chopped fresh herbs:  coriander, mint, basil, and/or coriander
1/4 cup (60ml) crushed, roasted Peanuts 
1/4 cup (60ml) fried Shallots optional

4 sheets filo pastry, each cut into 4 rectangles (approx 15cm x 12cm)
50g salted butter, melted
Sweet chilli sauce to serve 

For the stir fry base 
Teaspoon dried chilli flakes
2 garlic cloves minced
Small knob of fresh ginger, grated
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon soya sauce
1 tablespoons nam pla ( Fish Sauce )
1 tablespoon Sugar
1 soup spoon peanut or ground nut oil

Heat all the ingredients for the stir fry base in a wok over a high heat till thick
add the veg, herbs, peanuts and shallots,stir well to mix for about a minute.
Add the chicken and keep stirring. Spoon the veg into a sieve over a bowl 
and allow to cool slightly.
Place a spoonful of the veg mix at one end of a filo rectangle, in the centre. Roll the filo around the veg until halfway along the filo sheet, then fold each side of unfilled pastry into the centre. Continue rolling into a cylinder and brush with butter to seal. Place on a baking tray and brush with butter. Repeat with the remaining pastry sheets.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and crisp. 
Serve hot with sweet chilli sauce.