A chi chi burger

Chickpeas have no etymological connection with small chickens.The last time you bit into a falafel or spread some hummus on warm pitta all you were probably thinking about was the warm spice and crunch of the chickpea fritters, and the way their texture and flavour played with your palate.
I had always thought of the chickpea as an unassuming bean and enjoyed the pleasure of chickpea dishes like hummus and falafel. But until I began digging into its story, I hadn’t realized the strong associations attached to this lowly legume. I was astonished to learn that the Roman orator and statesman Cicero’s name came from the Latin word Cicer for chickpea.The Italian name has remained almost the same today- ceci.But it was the French of course, with their ability to make showiness of an unpretentious object who made it chi chi.The name evolved into chiche or chiche-pois, which, on the model of the French, the good old English then transformed into Chickpea.How the Portuguese ever arrived at Grao de bico I will never know? The name for a small coffee in Portugal is a bica.The name bica originates from the way the coffee flows from the spout (bica or beak).You will notice that chickpeas have little beaks attached to them.Maybe this is how the name evolved in the Portuguese language.

A sprouted chickpea

Another possible explanation...
There is a very traditional Portuguese salad of chickpea and salt cod. The salad is called meia desfeita, which means “half an insult.” The unexpected combination of the two ingredients represented clashing cultures. The salt cod was a subsistence food for generations of the Portuguese. The chickpea, was associated with the hated Moors who had conquered Portugal and Spain.

Chickpea and coriander burger
Makes 4 Quarter pounders  or 8 sliders
This recipe has come in many guises,some including feta cheese,some involving pre-cooking and others only requiring a blitz in the processor and a quick flash fry.This burger is so delicious, you will not miss the meat, I promise! My original inspiration came from Donna Hay,but I have to admit much as I love and repeatedly use her recipes I couldn´t keep the burgers from crumbling and falling apart. I developed my own version which excluded the feta cheese and introduced home made bread crumbs.
2x 4oog jars of chickpeas,drained and rinsed
2 large onions chopped
2 large onions,chopped
1tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons ground cumin
4-5 garlic cloves,chopped
1 lemon
1 tablespoon Harissa paste or tomato purée (optional)
salt and freshly ground pepper
fresh breadcrumbs as needed
mixed leaves or rocket for garnish
Drain and rinse the chickpeas.Sauté the onions in the hot oil until glistening and add the cumin and garlic.When they become aromatic, add the chick peas and enough vegetable stock to barely cover them.Add the lemon juice,Harissa or tomato paste and cover and simmer for about 1 hour.Set aside to cool completely.place the coriander and the chickpeas in a food processor and process until roughly chopped,gradually add the breadcrumbs in stages,using the pulse action until you have aworkable dough like consistency.With your hands form the dough into patties the size you want.Heat 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil in a non-stick frying pan over a high heat and cook your burgers in batches for 1-2 minutes each side or until lightly golden.Serve with rocket or mixed leaves, bread and condiment of your choice.I served mine with a chilli coriander chutney.

No espetinho

This is a tale of tapas, pintxos, banderillas, gildas, montaditos and more.
"A pincho," a thorn or spike (or if you are in basque mode, pintxo) is a small tapa, typically eaten in bars traditionally in northern Spain but their popularity has spread to the south where we find pinchos morunos, among other derivatives, on many Andalucian menus.Variations of pintxos are "Banderillas"and"Gildas."(Lollipops).
"Banderilla" refers to the colourfully decorated and barbed sticks used in bullfighting.
It also refers  to a type of Spanish tapa mounted on a toothpick.
"Gilda"- The name refers to the main character of the film Gilda as embodied by the actress Rita Hayworth in 1946.The shape acquired by the pintxo when upright supposedly reiterates the silhouette of Gilda.
The term Gilda started being used in 1952 in a bar called Martinez ,located in the old quarter of San Sebastian.
In Navarre there is yet another variant, which is called Pajarico.
This type of tapa is marinated in salt ( brine ) and usually combines a pickle with olive and some form of pepper,pequillo or capsicum, sometimes also a little onion, and canned fish, usually  anchovies, secured with a skewer.  
 Like all foods in brine, its flavour is strong and very acidic, which makes it ideal to accompany an aperitif.In fact all tapas on a stick are great to accompany an aperitif.Here I have selected 3(see above)

Pintxo caprese con frutas

1 cantaloupe melon
1 Galia melon or piel de sapo
2 tubs of bocconcini (baby mozzarellas)
150g Presunto  in slices
manjerico or basil leaves
olive oil 
bamboo skewers
large Black and green grapes (optional)

Montadito de salami porco preto e pepinillos
1 slice of rustic baguette
1 thick slice of 
2 small cornichons or peinillos 
Secure all three ingredients with a long bamboo skewer in the order above

Banderillas de Olivas con Anchoas en Vinagre
This easy pinchos recipe consists of a stuffed olive wrapped in a strip of Moorish pickled anchovy, stuck on a toothpick to keep everything together. These spicy pinchos with pickled anchovies and green olives will refreshen the mouth and are truly delicious snacks.In Spain there are many recipes for these "Anchoas en Escabeche" or "Boquerones en Vinagre" 

A melancia amuse bouche

Humidity levels soared again this weekend and something refreshing on the palate has been more than welcome.There is an overabundance of lovely melons,particularly water melon in the market at the moment. As a result I have been serving up watermelon, canteloupe and galia melons to add some bright and unusual accents to the breakfast platter that we serve our guests.Melons do not lend themselves to being portioned into interesting shapes, cubes triangles and spheres etc. So inevitably there is a lot of waste, and as you know I am a stickler for being resourceful when it comes to food.I owe it to my mother.Cubing water melon is always a tricky one, particularly if you are not working with the seedless variety.For some reason I have always been wary of these hybrids so usually end up making more work for myself by selecting the seeded ones. After prepping up to six of these platters I always end up with a tupperware full of eccentrically shaped offcuts in different sizes.My usual solution is to blitz the whole lot with some citrus, ginger and yoghurt to make a cooling smoothie.This time I decided differently.I would keep the fruit until later in the day and make a starter or amuse bouche for the nights dinner in the garden.It certainly had the S-factor.....Sweet (water melon,fig, vanilla) sour (sumac) salty (pistachios) and sassy (the finished thing)

Watermelon cube,melted goats cheese and more

2cm cube watermelon
soft goats cheese
slithers of wafer thin red onion
cracked pistachios 
sumac for dusting
fig balsamic
Cut your water melon into 2cm cubes.
Spread a thick layer of soft goats cheese (I used chevre)
Shell the pistachios, roughly chop them, then sprinkle them on top of the cheese and around the plate.Dust everything with sumac.

FOR THE FIG BALSAMIC 
1/2 cup ripe fig pulp
1/4 cup balsamic
1/4 tsp vanilla
Scoop out the pulp from the figs and discard the skin.
Put the pulp,balsamic and vanilla in a small pan and heat on low for 20-25minutes,stirring every 5 minutes until thick.Allow to cool completely before serving.
You only need a very small coffee spoonful per serving as it is very rich.

Ementa banquete dia 30

Ementa banquete dia 29

Ementa banquete dia 28

Ementa banquete dia 27

Ementa banquete dia 26

Dias medievais 2015- braceletes na alvorada

I hear you yawning.Here in Castro Marim its festival time again.This year the festival is bigger and larger than ever-5 days.This year has seen a lot of resentment and hostility (bracelets at dawn),myself included, about this years impositions.Castro Marim is an unnoticed town at the "east end" of the Algarve where we meet with Spain.We are all working at a cidade European.There is a lot on offer to be enjoyed here.This year an entrance charge of €2  has been introduced,which I personally do not agree with, but as a tax paying resident understand.The festival has a proven financial success  which shows that serious revenue can be achieved from vast attending numbers.For residents,for sure, the  run up has been an upheaval and sacrifices have had to be made. Five days of entertaining guests is a lot of hard work and financial investment, but hey guys this is the last big Algarvian festival of the summer and then we have to all go back to "School", adults and children alike in our own ways.This festival profers some  of the best Portuguese street food and a medieval banquete every night in the Castelo.Variety of choice and and value for money. Give this festival a chance.We cant promise a star line up but how much would you pay for "Rock in Rio" for instance without the ambiance  a small historic medieval town strives to provide.Lets all work together, me and you, to accept the barriers that have been put up and despite our misgivings pay our entrance fees with grace and party on.The weather could not be better, so lets do it.Lets make it work.Follow the daily medieval menu on here.

Você tem que obter o gimmick

Courgettelle with prawns and a summer tomato sauce

Have you been inspiralized yet? If the verb "to spiralise" has not yet entered your vocabulary, get a grip, or even better get a gimmick. You'll be more than just a mimic when you get this gimmick.You will be able to customize your very own carb free recipes and put a bit of spirality into the way you cook.Trends and fads can pass us by but you gotta have this gimmick if you wanna have a chance.

Forget spaghetti, this year it’s all about ‘courgetti.’Vegetable pasta seems to be the new big thing this summer. Naturally, cooking  courgetti is a much speedier process than boiling bags of weighty pasta. Bet you didn´t see that one coming, me neither, keep up. If you're wondering how to transform your vegetables into spaghetti or noodles, reach for the latest must-have gadget, the spiraliser. I haven´t actually got mine yet but its already in the Amazon basket awaiting the next order. And meanwhile if you want vegetable pasta but not necessarily spaghetti you can use a descascador (regular julienne peeler) to create courgetelle (above) or vegetable pappardelle.This is exactly what I did. I got so inspiralized by all those recipes in magazines and blogs that I had to do something about it. The Helmsley sisters, Melissa and Jasmine Hemsley, were among the first of the recent band of "beautiful bloggers" to make vegetable spaghetti fashionable. They actually branded their own spiralizer too.

Courgetti with prawns and tomato sauce
Loosely interpreted from an original recipe by Isabel Zibaia Rafael
serves 4
2 curgetes
500g peeled prawns
600g ripe tomatoes,skinned de-seeded and coarsely chopped
1 small tin anchovies including the oil
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 stick celery
1 leaf of leek
50 ml olive oil
50ml white wine
few sprigs of manjericão (basil)
salt and pepper to taste
Skin and seed the tomatoes,Set aside.
Chop the onion and the garlic.
In a pan heat the olive oil and the oil from the tin of anchovies.Add the onion and garlic and cook until they are soft and golden.Stir in the anchovies until they break up and melt.Add the tomatoes,stick of celery and the leek.Leave to cook until reduced to a thick sauce.
Using the thin noodle attachment on the spiralizer or the vegetable peeler create long twirls of pasta-like vegetable noodles.
Remove the celery stick and leek and strain the sauce through apasse-vite or blend in the pan with a stick blender.In the pan bring back to the heat,add the basil leaves,season with salt and pepper to your taste.Add the prawns and cook briefly then add the courgette noodles and cook for another 30 seconds.tip the sauce and noodles into abowl and bring to the table immediately with a bowl of grated parmesan for garnish.
NOTE:
When selecting courgettes just remember, the smaller the courgette the better the flavour. Courgettes can reach marrow-size surprisingly quickly - and if you are growing your own no one wants their veg patch to star in its own Day of the Triffids remake... The mutant courgette that wins the horticultural show is not always the tastiest.
VARIATIONS ON A THEME:
Summer courgetti and meatballs
Follow the method as above but substitute meat balls for the prawns
Courgetti putanesca
Spaghetti alla putanesca is an old school italian recipe literally translated as "tarts Spaghetti"Its no wonder its been around forever,that slutty sauce is to lie for.
Use your favourite putanesca recipe and stir through courgette noodles at the end.