Foodie Weekend!

Well, it's been a food filled weekend; buying, cooking, eating, even growing!

With friends Les & Jac round for tapas yesterday - a thank you for looking after Pooky whilst the Missus and I went off to Seville to celebrate my 40th birthday, shopping was a little more interesting than the usual trip to Tesco (other supermarkets are available).

For a touch of the authentic, I popped into Liverpool One to visit the excellent Lunya Deli. I left with two types of olives, one stuffed with orange and chilli, the other marinated in olive oil, paprika, chilli and oregano - both wonderful. I also bought some fantastic manchego cheese, jamón Iberico, morcilla with rice (which I pan-fried and served with a little rocket and topped with caramelised red onion) and some of those marvellous little breadstick like nibbles which were served with every beer in Seville.

I also served up some chicken wings seasoned with a little paprika, patas bravas with a great spicy tomato salsa, roasted asparagus wrapped in Serrano ham, roasted almonds and another wonder discovered in Seville - pringá.

Pringá, or certainly the version we had, is slow-cooked pork (I used shoulder steaks) cooked for hours with chicken stock, garlic and onions until the meat is falling apart and served with crusty bread. From what I've read, I think it's traditionally a way to use up leftover pork and is sometimes also made with morcilla or chorizo.

Needless to say, that was all washed down with a considerable amount of Spanish beer and a couple of nice bottles of white Rioja.

Which brings me to today and the growing part.

Today I finally got my seedlings in the ground. For a couple of months now I've been growing a batch of plants in propagators, waiting for them to get big enough to fend for themselves.

So, after getting rid of the weeds and giving one of the beds a good dig over, I've planted my broad beans, radishes, peas and Brussels sprouts. Hopefully the frosts have passed now and they'll be ok out there.

I still have some onions, grown from seed, and butternut squash indoors. They're not yet big enough to go out but I'm sure they will be in a few weeks.

Now I've got empty propagators now though and that'll never do. Courgettes, leeks and tomatoes are next to go in and I'll be sowing them later on today.

Anyway, today's roast (topside of beef with all the trimmings) won't cook itself so I'm off to sort that out.

I'll leave you with a photo (although I'm updating this via email so I don't know if it will work). I'll keep you updated on the progress of my crops and hopefully I'll soon have a bountiful haul of fresh produce to cook, eat and write about.

TTFN

The Bloke