725.Mititei

Ages ago I was watching The Hairy Bikers, back when they had their original first series where they travelled around Europe on their bikes and cooked food from all the different countries, rather than now where they have 47 different shows and don’t ride motorbikes in any of them. They were in Hungary and they made these little meaty, sausagey, pattie type things called mititei and they looked pretty delicious and I wanted to try them and then I forgot all about it. Fastforward a few years and I realised they were on the list, so I searched out their recipe and gave them a go for dinner. The only difference I made was using all pork rather than half pork and half beef. They were really nice - just subtly spicy and juicy, a little like a burger without a bun. I served them with some mustard mayonnaise to dunk them in.

725 down, 1071 to go

724. Endive

On the side of my plate there is some mixed green salad which included endive. It tasted like salad. That’s basically all I have to say about it. I’m not really sure why some of these leaves are really even on the list. Ok, endive is a semi-decent salad vegetable, but a food you have to try before you die? Not even close.

The meal on the other hand was pretty damn good. I had some assorted leftovers of ground turkey and potato and veggies and I threw them all together and made a kind of shepherd’s pie type thing but with sliced potatoes not mash, and with baked beans in it. It’s suddenly reminded me of this meal my mum used to make me as a kid with beans and hotdogs and cubed potatoes. Damn that was good. I should find the recipe.

724 down, 1072 to go

723. Quiche Lorraine

Little story for you. When I was in high school, one day we had to make a quiche. It wasn’t a quiche lorraine, it was a vegetable quiche of some sort. I got all the bits ready, put all the ingredients in the pastry case and put it in the oven. Some time later I realised I had forgotten to add the cheese and my quiche was just a bland eggy, vegetably mess. Long story short it tasted like crap and I haven’t made a quiche since. I probably should though, as ditzy as I can be I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t make the same stupid mistake again. I think.

Anyway, this quiche was therefore bought from the store. I got the ‘finest’ type range as standard supermarket brand quiche is usually rubbish. This was not rubbish; it was tasty and crispy, and they had not forgotten the cheese.

723 down, 1073 to go

720. Greek Monastery Olive Oil, 721. Greek Oregano and 722. Kourabiedes

You remember how I went to Athens in July last year? Well it’s taken me until now to realise that I completely forgot to post the picture of the various food goodies I brought home with me. D’oh. Also, forgive the weird creased background. I’d bought one of those fabric boxes you use to take product shots, and totally ignored the advice to iron the cloth before you take any pictures. Double d’oh.

The olive oil and oregano have been put to good use in all kinds of general cooking, and the kourabiedes just got eaten because they’re biscuits and biscuits don’t tend to stick around that long in my house. They’re a crumbly sort of biscuit, with almonds, and they’re covered in powdered sugar so you have to be careful or else you end up in a giant mess.

722 down, 1074 to go

719. Hunza Apricots

Hunza apricots are a specific variety of apricot grown in Afghanistan and dried. They’re smaller and paler than regular dried apricots, and they come fully dried so you have to soak them in water for a couple of hours before you can use them. They’re recommended as being good for using in tagines and stews, but on this occasion I decided to make a compote out of them to eat for breakfast.

719 down, 1077 to go

717. Kabanos

In the past few years British supermarkets have started stocking a lot more authentic Polish foods as a result of Polish people emigrating here. I have no complaints about this as all the foods I’ve tried so far have been great quality and good value too and it’s awesome to have all the new choices. Kabanos are great for lunch as you can just chop them up into chunks, put them in a sandwich or a salad, dip them in stuff, or just snack on them by themself.

718. Smetana

On this occasion, I dunked them into a tzatziki-like dip I made, along with some cucumber and celery. For the dip I used a ready-made tzatziki seasoning I got in Greece (which I think is mostly garlic powder and dried mint), and mixed in into smetana. Smetana is an Eastern European version of sour cream but I found that it was slightly more creamy and slightly less sour than regular sour cream which made it perfect for the dip.

718 down, 1078 to go

716. Microleaf

For my birthday I ate out at Ffresh restaurant in Cardiff. The meal was fantastic; every course was great. To start I had this grilled halloumi with roasted peppers and smoked aubergine puree (which was insanely good and I could have eaten a giant bowl of it). For the main I had probably the juiciest, most tender pork belly, and I finished it off with an unbelievable salted caramel and chocolate truffle cheesecake for dessert. Anyway, that said, the point of this post is to talk about the microleaves which came as a garnish. Unlike a lot of garnishes they actually added something to the meal though, contributing a fresh and peppery flavour which really complimented everything else on the plate.

716 down, 1080 to go

715. Mulligatawny

Mulligatawny is one of my favourite soups. It’s spicy and chunky and filling and delicious. I think it’s one of those hybrid Indian/British dishes that came about when the empire was still around (like kedgeree). This particular one is with chicken, though you can have it made with other meats too.

715 down, 1081 to go

713. Hazelnut Oil

There is a fantastic shop in town called Vom Fass which stocks all kinds of both alcohol, and oils and vinegars. They have them in this huge jars and you buy whatever size and shape bottle that you want, and then they will fill it up with your choice. You can taste what you like before you buy too, and they always have out samples of mixed oils and vinegars with bread to dunk it. This combination of date balsamic and hazelnut oil was phenomenal. The hazelnut flavour was so powerful, and the mix of it with the syrupy date balsamic gave it more than a hint of nutella about it, which is always a good thing!

714. Walnut Oil

A while later I went back to the same shop and tried a different combination of walnut oil with pear white balsamic. It was also good, but it didn’t have the same wow factor as the hazelnut. It still had a lovely flavour though - very walnutty, and it would have been a delicious dressing for a pear, walnut and blue cheese salad.

714 down, 1082 to go

711. Melokhia

I have to make a slight confession, there actually isn’t any melokhia in this picture. I was planning on putting it in the curry, but I (thankfully) tried some before I put it in the pot and it was so bad that I decided against it. I read that it was supposed to be a bit like spinach, and I suppose that it was, if you got all the bitterness from an entire bag of spinach and concentrated it down into one single leaf. Would not recommend!

712. Amchur

On the other hand, there actually is amchur in the dish. Amchur is a spice made from dried green mango, which means that it has a really sour, tangy flavour. I made a raita dip and added the amchur in place of lime juice and it worked really well.

712 down, 1084 to go