Chorizo and Potato Cassero'

I tried this is Odder on the Oxford Road and was inspired to try my own at home.

This is the best recipe I've managed to do:

Chorizo Potato Cassero'

Ingredients: Red onion(s), red pepper(s), Chorizo(s), tinned tomatoes/tomato sauce, paprika, tabasco, garlic, chicken stock. New potatoes.

To serve: Creme Fraiche and sour dough bread

1. Fry a red onion and red pepper (chopped roughly - this is a rustic style dish) in olive oil.
2. Add the chorizo (after cutting into chunks - about half a cm thick but about 3 cm long. If you cut 'on the diagonal' it looks prettier)
   
3. Add garlic salt/fresh garlic, lots (and a bit more) of paprika and a bit of tabasco. Bit of celery salt tastes good too. Or you can use fresh celery for a bit more texture.
   
4. Fry for a few minutes. (5-10 should do it). If it looks a little dry with the powders, don't worry as the oil from the chorizo will come out. If you are worried, add an eggcupful of water or so.
   
5. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes and tomato puree or add a red pepper and tomato pasta sauce
   
6. Add one of those Knorr liquid chicken stock things. Or a stock cube.
7. Season.
   
8. Simmer for a while.
9. Meanwhile, boil the potatoes.
10. Go and do something interesting for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
    
11. Chuck the potatoes in the stew after draining them.
    
12. Serve with a dollop of creme friache on the top and a chunk of the sour dough bread on the side.
    

I allow one chorizo sausage for 2-3 people and 1 onion and red pepper for each sausage.

Free Pizza

Two-for-one voucher for pizza at pizza express valid until end of February from the Times website.

Prague

Just got back from spending a weekend in Prague (with the Boy, not debating).

Was great fun :)

If you go, I do recommend doing one of the walking tours for one of the mornings, our guide was fantastic and it meant we got lots of extra anecdotes.

Hotel was great (5 mins from Josefov, the Old Town Square and Wenceslas square) and I hava e anew found love for Bohemiam Sekt and Moravian red wines... I'm not a beer drinker or I would have stayed on the Pilsner, I'm sure :)

Weather was fantastic (it was colder in Manchester when we arrived back yesterday!).

I wasn't so impressed with the Chirstmas markets. Whilst the ones in Germany are, of course, the best, the ones in Prague had piles of tat a lot of the time. Though the hot mead hit the spot as did a funny curly cake which was grilled over an open fire on a wooden rolling pin, not baked (trdlo - though God only knows how you pronounce that!) I was far less impressed with most of the other things on offer. that said, we did get an angel for the top of our Christmas tree, so it ca't have been all bad!

WRIST - sign language for restaurants

This is fairly amusing.

I especially like 5 and 6:

6) Perhaps the most famous WRIST gesture is when customers take it upon themselves to sign a giant invisible cheque in the air. For centuries this has meant: 'Can I have the bill and go home, please?' These days this action is so archaic, it's almost amusing. In the UK, the correct World Restaurant International Style Technique for requesting your bill now means holding your hands apart, as if your are requesting a parrot-sized coffin. Now stab the palm of your hand four times with a finger, simulating the act of punching in your PIN number.

7) Grimace and repeatedly thump your lightly perspiring forehead with clenched fists. This means: 'What in the name of crikey is my pin number again?'

Free Rice

I quite like word games.

In free rice, you're given a word, a choice of four definitions and you must choose the correct one.

If you get it right, you get to feel smug and sanctimonious. Smug because you're obviously intelligent, sanctimonious because you've just helped donate rice for UNICEF.

Have fun, give money to charity, get better at scrabbulous and word-twist. Where's the down side?

My top score so far is 41. You know you're competitive, give in to the urge...

Biscuits

I've been looking for a decent basic biscuit recipe for ages and now, after a couple of months experimentation with this one, I think I've found it.

8 oz plain flour
6 oz butter*
4 oz fat

mix all the ingredients together.


For messy shaped biscuits: roll walnut size bits of the mixture together, place on grease proof paper on baking tray, squash a little and refrigerate for 20-30 mins.

For tidy, round biscuits: take half the mixture and make it into a sausage shape by rolling it. Wrap in baking foil and put in fridge. After cooling for 20-30 mins, just slice round shapes from it.

Bake for 10-12 minutes at gas 4, 160C.

*If you're feeling lazy or don't have an electric hand whisk, melt the butter before adding it to the mixture and just cool everything in the fridge for 10-20 mins longer. If you make neat biscuits, the mixture won't 'sausage' easily if you've used hot butter. Bring the mixture together in a ball in the mixing bowl, then leave in the fridge for 10-15 mins before 'sausaging'.

The book I originally found this recipe in was Mary Berry's cake book (highly recommended) where she uses lavender to flavour it. I've not actually tried lavender, but here are some alternative flavourings:

Ginger: if your ginger is quite old, it will have less flavour so use a little more. I recommend 2-3 teaspoons.

Lemon: zest and juice one lemon. Add to mix. Looks pretty if you sprinkle icing sugar on top after baking.

Oats and raisin: If you're adding oats, use them as a replacement for the flour. So, if you're using 4 oz of oats, only use 4 oz of flour. Add as many raisins as you want. With this version, I also chuck in mixed spices (ie: indeterminate amounts of whatever I have in the cupboard that needs using up: ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon usually).