I've had an odd couple of weeks. My work has abruptly returned to being more remote, with site visits (things I have gladly returned to post-lockdown, and which had become very normal again by the autumn at least) somewhat restricted. One because we *could*, because lockdowns had shown us sometimes it's fine to make discussions remote when it supports greater participation. One because it was yesterday and there was no way on earth I or the rest of the assessment team could get to [redacted] through the strikes. There are a lot of strikes. I support. And also I note how they create calendar havoc in a way that feels oddly familiar. I wonder how long it will be till we lose the pandemic as a kneejerk comparator to when anything gets a bit closed in or cancelled? Could be a while.
Meanwhile, I have mostly been cooking Mexican. It was a perfect month theme for January, the opposite of a meaty, creamy December menu. I have to confess I think it's the single worst month for food photography since I started this - an infinity of splodges. But the food was gooooood.
I'm starting with a recipe, because I haven't blogged it before and it is lush and easy and an old favourite: black pudding chilli. Serve it with squishy polenta with a decent amount of cheese mixed in.
For about 3 portions:
1 tin tomatoes
A pack of black pudding (4 slices in this case)
An onion, some garlic
Cinnamon stick, big pinch of allspice
Ancho or chipotle chillies, as you please
Optional: chopped tarragon, pinch or two of sugar if the tomatoes are sharp
Fry off the onion for a few minutes until soft, and meanwhile crumble up the black pudding out of its skin. Then add it to the onion and some chopped garlic and stir for a bit, till it turns itself into mince, more or less. Add the tomatoes, spices, chillies. Cook for at least 10 minutes at a simmer. I leave it longer out of habit, but it's one of the few tomato dishes like this that doesn't really need a long cooking. The beauty of using the black pudding is that it is already richly seasoned and spicy in itself, so you don't need to force lots more flavour in.
It looks like glop. But it is rich, lush glop and for early February, it is ideal.
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| I put parsley in the polenta, which was a good decision taste and vitamin-wise but does not enhance the appearance |
The rest of the month? It was halfway through before I really cracked and ate mostly tacos, but for the record those tacos included:
- Quick-roasted spring onions with watercress and cheddar
- Quesadillas featuring potato, chorizo, thyme and plenty of cheese
- Mushroom tostadas with goat cheese (mushrooms cooked stovetop with garlic, grated ginger, and splashes of soy and vinegar: a most excellent alternative to your garlicky/lemony version)
- Winter greens tacos, greens cooked with garlic, potato, white wine and sour cream
- Spicy bird tacos, which include shredded cooked chicken into an oniony/tomatoey sauce that has loads of allspice in, quite like the black pudding recipe
- Spinach and cheese moletes - open sandwiches rather than tacos, with a layer of soft goat cheese under spinach under grated cheddar, melted
- Roasted aubergine and goat cheese tacos, the aubergines tossed with hibiscus powder
- Roasted cauliflower tacos, with a yoghurty dressing over the cauli as it roasted
I think these are the aubergine ones. But you know what a taco looks like.
It wasn't all tacos. There's evidence of a fennel and hazelnut sauce for pasta, which was oustanding.
Several polenta dishes, including this one with veracruz sauce served alongside chard. I've made the sauce before, for meat. Lots of sherry, olives and capers in it. I like it better this way.
"Red snapper" [sea bass] cooked on a reduction of pineapple and tomato, very good indeed for a winter burst of fruity-sharp flavour
There was an avocado-and-pea guacamole which would have been better if I hadn't messed up my blender. Peas are hard to mash by hand. There was one failure, a chickpea scramble, which stuck to the pan indelibly and wasn't as good as the Italian equivalent.
Oh, and a tehuano sauce, which I had with a massive pork chop. Tehuano cooking apparently abounds in bananas. It was quite exciting. Olives and capers, with apple and banana and tomato, oregano, cinnamon, clove. It sounds like such a mess. It looks like such a mess. As a dish? Delicious.
And that's what matters, no? I am fairly housebound and rather wintry of outlook. But the stuff on my plate has been interesting and varied. Most of the recipes are from Tommi Miers, especially her newish Meat-Free Mexican, which I cheerfully commend to you all. Let there be more mobility in February, and I hope a little bit more spice to real life.
(There had better be. It's Franco-Belgian month in my kitchen, so bugger all spice on the plate for a bit. Hey ho.)
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