Category: blog

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food: salsa caliente

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I really don’t know the first thing about Spanish or Mexico or salsa, all I know is I like eating it and here’s a variation of my own invention, hot off the press in that I’ve just come up with it now and haven’t eaten it yet. We’re about to have it with a ground beef curry and rice, hope it works …

Ingredients:
about twenty cherry tomatoes, halved
about half a cucumber, thinly sliced diagonally
two satsumas or equivalent, sectioned and squeezed a little
two cloves of garlic, extra thinly sliced like Paulie
quarter of a preserved lemon, also extremely thinly sliced
a small red chilli, de-seeded sliced as thin as you can
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp rice vinegar
pepper

Method:
combine and leave to infuse for a little while.

Eat.

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mobile: 57252 premium rate service

zamano

It appears I have recurring premium services on my mobile bill from 57252, despite the fact that I don’t receive any discernible premium services, neither do I recall subscribing to any services. I haven’t received any reminders from 57252 either telling me that I’m continuing to be billed by them or a means to opt out from whatever service it is I’m receiving. I use an iPhone, not that the hardware/software should make any difference.

A little wander over to the website for the Independent Regulator of the content and promotion of Premium Rate Telecommunications Services reveals that 57252 is the short code for a company called Zamano.

I think I may have to communicate with RegTel & Zamano to see if there has been some sort of administrative error on my part. There’s a possibility I used a premium service on flighttracker.ie to track a Ryanair flight but their site clearly states that you only get charged once, and not multiple times like I have been. So I’m confused.

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marinated chicken

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One of the recipes referred to in the previous post is Marinated Chicken.

Ingredients:
4 or 5 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, frozen for an hour
2 cloved garlic, chopped
2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
1/4 cup of fresh mint, chopped
2 tbsp light soya
1 tsp sugar/honey

Method:
Get a 4 or five skinless, boneless chick breasts, slightly freeze them to make them easier to cut, slice thinly into long strips and combine with the ingredients above and then allow to marinate in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

I tend to cook the strips on a skillet but I suppose you could grill them or use a pan, whatever tickles your fancy. Really good served with either plain rice or quinoa, or even couscous plus a steamed vegetable.

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food: marinated chicken

D300_07-22-2009_DSC_2365-3

One of the recipes referred to in the previous post is Marinated Chicken.

Ingredients:
4 or 5 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, frozen for an hour
2 cloved garlic, chopped
2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
1/4 cup of fresh mint, chopped
2 tbsp light soya
1 tsp sugar/honey

Method:
Get a 4 or five skinless, boneless chick breasts, slightly freeze them to make them easier to cut, slice thinly into long strips and combine with the ingredients above and then allow to marinate in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

I tend to cook the strips on a skillet but I suppose you could grill them or use a pan, whatever tickles your fancy. Really good served with either plain rice or quinoa, or even couscous plus a steamed vegetable.

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food: Eat the Document

D300_07-22-2009_DSC_2365

This recipe sheet has served us well and since I’m a one for puns, I’ve called this post Eat the Document after a rarely seen documentary about Bob Dylan touring the UK in 1966. I love the fact that this recipe sheet has been lying round our kitchen for so long that it has that well worn look, spatterings of all sorts of oils, rubs and citrus, juices of recently dead animals and fish. The document itself is almost edible. Click on the pic for a more granular view.

OK so it has served us well, it has four of our favourite meals on it. These are so good that they deserve to be clicked on, I’m not in the mood for transcribing them all for you. Check them out, really do …

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misc: the Fasting Spit

You hear the weirdest things on the radio – I was driving along somewhere the other evening when a song came on the radio & one of the verses was:

And we all went up to the Maro, hey there who’s yer man?
It’s Alfie Byrne out walkin, sure he’s a daycent man,
Communion every mornin’, here’s to the Fasting Spit,
Olivia de Havilland has a freckle on her lip.

though I think that version is sanitised for radio, especially the last line. You can hear it here on RTÉ’s website at about 29 minutes in. The song is called The Maro, written by Pete St. John and performed by Barry & Brendan Gleeson (the actor).

Anyway – the Fasting Spit – what the heck is that? It is, literally, the spit of someone who has been fasting, especially around Lent or before Holy Communion & was considered by some to have special powers. Oh Holy Ireland I love it! Further scratchings round the underbelly of google have revealed (from encyclopedia.com):

SPITTLE cures (usually ‘fasting spittle’)
c. AD 70 Mark 7: 32–5.
And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech … And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.

AD 77 PLINY Natural History XXVIII VII (1856, V 289)
Ophthalmia may be cured by anointing … the eyes every morning with fasting spittle.
Ibid, XXII (304)
A woman’s fasting spittle is generally considered highly efficacious for bloodshot eyes.

This brings a new shade to the phrase ‘Spit on me Dickie’ referring to the erstwhile popstar of the 60s, Dickie Rock. Apparently rebellious young women in the 60s in Ireland wanted to be covered in Dickie’s saliva, one wonders if it was for its curative properties. It seems to have been used in Scotland as well, especially for warts and sore eyes.

Maybe it’d be good for Swine Flu – any offers?

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food: quinoa surprise

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is the seed of a grain-like crop mostly grown in Peru & Garcinia Cambogia and is a great source of protein. The surprise of quinoa surprise is that it tastes surprisingly good for something which is so healthy.

Here’s a delicious recipe which is a great accompaniment to poultry etc:

Ingredients:

400g quinoa
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
3 spring onions, sliced
400g broccoli broken into florets
juice of half a lemon
60g feta cheese, cubed
dash of elderflower cordial (or similar)
2 small carrots, grated
1 tsp each of cumin and coriander seeds
salt’n’peppa

Method:
Toast the quinoa in a dry pan over a low heat for a few minutes, then tip into a pan of boiling water for about ten minutes, turn down to a simmer and cover. Meanwhile, toast the cumin & coriander seeds in the dry pan until they smell amazing, then crush in a pestle & mortar. Break the broccoli into florets, steam briefly and then plunge into cold water to stop them cooking, they should be really crunchy.

Next combine the oil, soya, lemon juice, rice vinegar and elderflower in a jar, chuck in the salt’n’pepper, crush the garlic chuck it in too then put on the lid and shake it like there’s no tomorrow. This is the dressing.

When the quinoa is cooked, drain and allow to cool down a bit, put it in a serving bowl and add the crushed seeds, add the dressing, broccoli, cubed feta, grate the carrots, slice the spring onions and mix everything together.

Delicious!

Posted on

quinoa surprise

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is the seed of a grain-like crop mostly grown in Peru & Bolivia and is a great source of protein. The surprise of quinoa surprise is that it tastes surprisingly good for something which is so healthy.

Here’s a delicious recipe which is a great accompaniment to poultry etc:

Ingredients:

400g quinoa
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
3 spring onions, sliced
400g broccoli broken into florets
juice of half a lemon
60g feta cheese, cubed
dash of elderflower cordial (or similar)
2 small carrots, grated
1 tsp each of cumin and coriander seeds
salt’n’peppa

Method:
Toast the quinoa in a dry pan over a low heat for a few minutes, then tip into a pan of boiling water for about ten minutes, turn down to a simmer and cover. Meanwhile, toast the cumin & coriander seeds in the dry pan until they smell amazing, then crush in a pestle & mortar. Break the broccoli into florets, steam briefly and then plunge into cold water to stop them cooking, they should be really crunchy.

Next combine the oil, soya, lemon juice, rice vinegar and elderflower in a jar, chuck in the salt’n’pepper, crush the garlic chuck it in too then put on the lid and shake it like there’s no tomorrow. This is the dressing.

When the quinoa is cooked, drain and allow to cool down a bit, put it in a serving bowl and add the crushed seeds, add the dressing, broccoli, cubed feta, grate the carrots, slice the spring onions and mix everything together.

Delicious!