Bordeaux cold meats and salad

You can’t see the carrots very well on this photo, but I wanted to get the cathedral in 😉

I put some walnuts in the carrots, try it some time. The potato salad has some purple onion in and the olives are stuffed with achovies. The serano ham they prepared for me in Spain.

Here is a better picture of the plate.

Someone is really going to have to paint that little rail soon..

The chickpea salad has thinly sliced radish and mache in. Sorry no idea what the English word for it is. I added some sesame seed and dressed it with olive oil and lemon juice. I flavoured the vinaigrette with curry. An easy choice as my hostess has some 6 different curry powders on her spice rack.

Mix with  fork

and eat.

If you ask me avo would be good in that salad..

Caribbean Coast – Cozumel

The beautiful island of swallows lies about 20 km off the coast of the Yucatan peninsular, in the Caribbean sea.

The archetypal tropical island with swaying palm trees and turquoise blue sea.

Looks like stranded coral.

Many of the big passenger liners stop here

and this guy is fishing with a hand line.

Each note an artwork in itself. Frida Kahlo is popular in her own country now as well. Pity she had to die first..

Cozumel has one of the most important carnaval’s in the Caribbean, if I am deciphering it correctly.

My guess is these creatures that line the seafront are also from carnaval.

The last one is a tortoise with a banjo or something.

Loved the refrigerated transport. Apparently they have not agriculture on the island. It is mostly a nature reserve.

And they have nature! Around 800 bird species in the Yucatan.

Also the necessary sea birds.

And off course iguanas.

They bask in the sun on walls and get out of the way very quickly when you approach. Eaten I understand..

And dogs lie in front of the gate, in the street. To guard the property I assume? And the neighbours’ dog is in front of his own gate, just a few meters on.  Just goes to show, it is all social customs.

And a pharmacy on every corner. Perhaps the reason they advertise? A bit surprising..

You can buy snorkeling gear there as well.

And my favourite, new food.

Green tamotoes, in husks like gooseberries. They make a (famous) green sauce with them.

And Jicama. Peeled, they can be cooked and do very well in a stir fry, but also great raw. A fresh soft taste, a bit like apple.

Very handy for travelling, I found, as they don’t brown when cut.

And a boat  for you if you feel like going a little way.

 

 

Asparagus ‘Quiche’

I had half a bread stuck to the bottom of a pan and no choice but to soak it off.

It seemed a shame with lovely fresh baked bread so I thought to make bread pudding. A first for me, it had just never looked attractive enough.

So looking through recipes from the internet, I lost interest and remembered about the asparagus in the fridge.

Now you are very grateful for anything fresh here. For those who don’t know, Swakopmund is situated on the coast, but right in the middle of the Namib desert. So fresh produce is not so easy to come by here. This is what the place looks like.

I got these asparagus from Dutch people who do some excellent work here in the Swakop river growing veggies.

Did you know if you keep asparagus in a vase with water like flowers, in the fridge they will keep fresh for quite a long time? I put a plastic cover on as well, then they have their own terranium.

Line an ovenproof dish with the soaked bread. Soak your bread in milk if you like.

Snap the ends off the asparagus and spread them over the soaked bread.

Mix half a cup of milk thoroughly with two eggs, some olive oil, salt and pepper, half a teaspoon of paprika (smoked if you have) and a proper spoonful of cream cheese. Pour over the bread and asparagus.

I was a bit late with it but chop half an onion and fry until golden brown. Mix in, preferably earlier, I think into the bread will be ideal.

Bake half an hour in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius.

Grate some cheese and put on top of the dish 10 minutes before the end of the baking time.

Once again not a complete dish.. I loose traction when I see food 🙂

You could make yours somewhat thicker..

Spar in Salzburg

Guess who visited Spar? Looks good to me, but then I bought it..

The chocolate was still in my bag, its from the Czech Republic. A rich chocolate and chestnut butter filling, hmmm..

It is the Salzach flowing past my window there. It makes you understand why so many lieder in Austria were written about the rivers and streams.

Spaghetti with Mussels

One for the Italians.

Mussels are about all I can afford here! Wow but Norway is expensive, 2.5 euro for a liter of milk is a bit excessive I’d say..

It seems like many people live on bread and fish here. Well the bread is very good and hey, they have been living on fish for 10 000 years. Why stop now?

Oh yes, and a lot, really a lot of pizza.

While the spaghetti is boiling, warm a pan to medium heat and add a tablespoon or two of butter together with a teaspoon of sesame seed oil.

Add two cloves of crushed garlic and fry for a bit, then add one or two dozen mussels (according to the number of people you are feeding) and continue frying slowly together with a quarter teaspoon of curry masala (or according to your taste).

When the flavours have had a chance to blend, add a three quarter cup of fish stock and allow to boil slowly for 2 – 3 minutes, or until all your mussels are open if you are using fresh mussels. Throw all mussels that remain closed away.

Thicken the sauce with flour, add to pasta,

add some salt and black pepper and serve.

And a big thank you to my hostess for the decorations 🙂

Casava Manioc or Yuca – chips

Being a complete novice I had to look up how to cook yuca, apparently you have to peel them.

See the starch on the knife?

Done in my medieval little kitchen..

You first boil them for about 15 minutes before frying.

You would probably want to do a neater job of cutting them. Mine were slightly overcooked, so I had to make do with more or less how they fell apart.

served with pink sauce, – perhaps after the Casa Rosada 🙂

The pink sauce is a bit in the shade, but it is a rainy day.. I’m sure you know what pink sauce looks like.

Slightly better?

In Argentina the feeling of nostalgia for a time when they were rich is never far away.

And maybe better times much longer ago than we can imagine. There is evidence of plants that were genetically modified to detoxify them. And that long before Columbus or Magellan or whoever got here first, got here.

But hey someone had to have built those pyramids and they were not stupid.

By the way there is a bitter version of the casava as well. You can’t eat that one raw. The sweet one sold in the supermarket today, you can, if you fancy.

Dragon Scale Soup

Ramen; – the recipe remains a secret, the chef only speaks Japanese.. The dragon scales themselves were not my favourite but the rest was very good. Chopped onion and bamboo with a slice of pork..

In Japan you never have to ask for water with your meal, from the moment you sit down they keep your glass filled with ice water. If you have google translate you can have it without ice as well 🙂

Sweetcorn and Mushroom Fritters

Mix a cup of selfraising flour with 1/4 teaspoon salt and some pepper.

Fry thinly sliced mushrooms in butter, – mix oil in of you worry about the butter burning

Open a tin of sweetcorn 😉 or if you are lucky enough to have fresh corn use that of course

Beat an egg and add a few tablespoons of milk (less milk if you use creamed sweetcorn) add the corn (half a tin) and fried mushrooms

Mix the egg mixture into the flour mixture and check the consistency. You must be able to ladle it out into a frying pan.

Fry in a pan with a little bit of oil, turn when the bubbles come through.

You can serve it to your own taste off course. I enjoyed the cumin cheese and cottage cheese with spring onions.

The courgettes are completely random, I just had some fresh ones that I felt like eating. Call it a warm salad if you must.

Fish pate

In the ice cold water of the South African West Coast you get the most wonderful fish and a favourite one for pate is Snoek. It has firm flesh and huge flavour.

Cooked fish – deboned and flaked

Olive oil (about a tablespoon)

Chopped onion – enough

Mash potato – enough to get the correct texture

Mayonaise

Mango chutney

Salt en freshly ground black pepper

Mix together and put in the food processor if you prefer. Mine doesn’t look much like a pate 🙂 but all you need is a fork.. And it certainly doesn’t hurt the flavour.

Delicious served with lettuce on seed bread. Eat with some more chutney. If you are fortunate enough to have grape jam, this is a traditional and wonderful addition to snoek.

Tips – fish can be prepared very successfully in the microwave. It keeps this dish from being dry as well.

Another tip 🙂 – if the pate is dry add boilled water bit by bit and mix in until your problem is solved. Off course you can always add rich things like cream as well but you don’t always want to.

Variation

Add chopped chili and rocket leaves if you have them. At the coast sometimes you don’t have such great availability of fresh fruit and veg and then the onion, mayo and chutney will serve you well. Here the Sandveld is around us and they grow lots of potatoes, so no shortage there.

Fried Potato Bean and Tomato

Cooked Potato

Favo Beans

Cherry Tomatoes

Olive Oil

Fry the potato and beans in the oil, give them some time before you add the tomatoes.

If you prefer off course you can add meat, fried pork sausage goes very well.

– Works well with left over potato salad!