unetetebrulee | Recent Entries

23/Nov/2014 — Lunch: sofrit, plus carrot cake for dessert.

Tomorrow (Nov 25th) it's Saint Catherine's day, aka my grandma's namesake's day. As it falls on a weekday this year, we (my mom's side of the family) got together yesterday to celebrate it.

This dish is actually made with the tiny, young potatoes that can be found when digging up the big ones. These tiny potatoes (patató(patatons) are peeled, fried whole, and then added into one big pot with the different cuts of meat. Sofrit's also a very typical dish of the island, usually made for parties and celebrations.

(Patatons are not in season right now, so we used small-sized potatoes, cut into halves and quarters.)

After asking her what she wanted for dessert a couple of times, my grandma finally decided she did want a carrot cake. I made the cake with almonds, and topped it with a white chocolate and lemon frosting.

23/Nov/2014 — An atypical breakfast: fried sweet potato and a tea.

22/Nov/2014 — Lunch: black and blue pasta with oyster mushrooms, and chicken broth.

21/Nov/2014 — Lunch: rice with cauliflower and prawns.

21/Nov/2014 — Breakfast: smoked salmon, mayo, and avocado on toast.

Putting the bottle of Kewpie I recently bought to good use.

Current Music: Lee Hyori - 쇼쇼쇼

19/Nov/2014 — Lunch: salmon with prawns and oyster mushrooms.

18/Nov/2014 — Lunch: chickpea and vegetable stew, with pork ribs and belly.

A repost of our recipe for Romesco sauce:

With a paper towel, gently rub six tomatoes with olive oil. Roast them, plus a whole bulb of garlic and an onion (peeled), on a hot oven (190ºC/374ºF) for 30 to 45 minutes. Squeeze the garlic flesh in a big bowl, discarding the skins. Peel the tomatoes and put them and the onion in the same bowl.

(We also use a kind of dried pepper called nyora, which are small and round. We soak one nyora in water for a bit —usually while the other vegetables are roasting— and then carefully scrap the flesh from the skin and add it in with the roasted tomatoes, garlic and onion. I really don’t know what could be a good substitute, though. Nyores have a sweet and slightly smoky taste, if that helps at all.)

To the vegetables, add one slice of fried bread, around ten roasted hazelnuts, one tablespoon of vinegar (my mom uses balsamic vinegar, but any kind should work well), four tablespoons of olive oil, and salt to taste. Blend everything together until everything’s combined into a smooth, creamy sauce.

Today's lunch: soup with oyster mushrooms and pork dumplings, and a bit of leftover pork bulgogi from yesterday.

My mom had made a pot of stock using chicken bones, common wood pigeon and some vegetables (leek, celery, carrot), and we used the last of it today. I decided to cook some store-bought dumplings in a bit of the stock, and combine them with some wild oyster mushrooms. The weather's been pretty good, and so far there's a lot of them growing in the fields! I picked some of the smallest ones and cooked them in a skillet on low heat with just a pinch of salt. Once they were cooked, I put them in my bowl and seasoned them with a few drops of sesame oil and a bit of chopped garlic.

As for the dumplings, I just took them out of the freezer a bit in advance, and then simmered them in two ladlefuls of broth for ten minutes.

To finish the dish: put the dumplings in the bowl over the mushrooms, with the broth they simmered in. Add as much extra hot chicken broth as wanted. Garnish with chopped green onion, and shichimi to taste.

(Recipe for the pork bulgogi here, btw!)