23.7.10

What I´m loving right now

I´m sure you´re thinking, what´s the point of complaining about tomatoes in Scotland? How silly do you have to be?

You´re right. This is no vegetable paradise, but there are some amazing things I have here that I´d never find in Spain, like


1-tiny new potatoes. Steamed, roasted or boiled, with butter or oil or salt or herbs or in this very addictive salad, by Yotam Ottolenghi via The Wednesday Chef.


2- spring onions, the real thing, young and tender, perfect for going straight into soups or omelettes or sandwiches or risottos or anything, apart from the super-sauce, of course.


3-cucumbers that look like something you should use to sink a U-boat and yet are delicate and crisp and have none of that indigestible afterlife.


4- raspberries and strawberries. Of course. Perhaps when we have a car we´ll try the pick your own places, but for now, I try to buy these from small local shops. The supermarkets nestle all sorts of berries from Spain!


For the rest, I´ve discovered that when English recipe books say "add six garlic cloves", they´re not crazy, it´s just that here garlic cloves are tiny little runts.


I also have a big love for Yeo organic yogurt, which Pía and I consume by the pint, and for some dangerous little sausage called "cumberland cippolata". The flour is amazing, or else my new oven is, or else I have finally been touched by the fingers of the great baking gods, but the loaves and pizzas I make here are my best yet.


So there you go. Nice stuff, plenty of it. And that´s not even mentioning the smoked fish, which probably deserves a post all its own.

6 comentarios:

la ninja dijo...

exactly. make the best out of what you have. no point in "pedirle peras al olmo" :)

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) dijo...

Yes, it sounds like you are settling in to life in the north!

Katharine @ agirlinmadrid.com dijo...

Good luck with all the discoveries to be had in Scotland. When did you leave Madrid? I hope you could take some of the sunshine with you...

Also, I've just added you to my blogroll. Love you illustrations.

pRiyA dijo...

I am still wallowing in Spring Onion sauce with everything after reading about it on your blog :)
It's changed my life!

Anónimo dijo...

Katharine; no need for Ximena to take spanish sunshine with her.
She is the sunshine.!!!!

Keef dijo...

Oh, British New Potatoes. Fantastic. One of a fairly short list of things that I really miss here in Spain. The taste must be something to do with the soil. Thinking of importing a few tonnes of Yorkshire soil so I can grow my own.

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