Tag Archives: Dinner

Jan14

Recipe time – Roasted fennel

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It seems an ages since I’ve posted a recipe, I think throughout December , people call for traditional tastes and family favourites, I know I do.  But recently I’ve been craving something different, to tantalize my taste-buds – My recent visit to the local market, did the trick, and one of my favorite vegetables was sat on the stall in all it’s glory – Fennel !

Fennel plant botanical

Fennel is wonderful , with the whole of the plant , seeds, bulb & foliage being used for many things, from culinary to medicinal.  It has a an aniseed flavour, and sliced in salads it gives a fresh and vibrant taste, slowly roasted it becomes sweet & tender.fennel seed
This recipe is easy to make, and a great supper accompaniment to roasted meat or chicken.

ROASTED FENNEL WITH THYME

Roasted Fennel Recipe

2 Bulbs of fennel sliced through the core into chunks

Place in a baking dish

Drizzle with olive oil & balsamic vinegar

3 garlic cloves peeled & sliced and sprinkled over fennel

Crush a few pink peppercorns and sprinkle over

2 tbsp of fresh thyme sprinkled over

add a dash of balsamic vinegar, and sprinkle with rock salt

Bake in a hot oven for approx 45 mins until beginning to caramelise and become tender.

The dish is perfect like this, but you can add a handful of grated parmesan or your favourite cheese, and pop back in the oven for 5-10 mins to gratinise.

Roasted cheese fennel

BUEN PROVECHO !

Mar15

One Pot Mediterranean Marvel

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I’m starting to feel rusty !

I never really get quite prepared for the weather in Spain.  It always seems to take me by surprise, even though I religiously check the forecast each morning.  I suppose it’s because we live IN the weather at La Rosilla.  Up in the mountains, be it in the clouds, nearer the sun, closer to the lightening, secluded for the frost, the route for the rainfall we are IN it.

Each year the weather changes, in the 7 years that I’ve lived here, no two winters have been the same.  We experienced the first snow, in 80 years !,  The hardest Frost, that killed our plants, the wettest one, that turned us and everything mouldy ! This year has been mild, Thank goodness ! So we havent had too many moments of seeing our own breath in the house, and we have had chances to eat Alfresco, and we’ve even had a day on the beach and applied SPF, so we’re not complaining.  But as I said never prepared.

So when the rains fell this week, my washing was on the line, and it’s stayed there since ssshhh don’t tell my Mother !  My logs weren’t covered, and my arroyo’s that help the water flow around my house not through it, had not been cleared!!

So as a family we were feeling soggy, along with our two damp, muddy dogs, who love to snuffle, and dig in the fresh wet mud…oh how I wish there were truffles on this mount !  Their air in our little ‘Finca’ was not the sweetest.

That needing changing.  We needed the aromas of summer…

Only one thing for it . Freshly baked bread and my one pot Mediterranean marvel.

Nothing beats putting a large rustic earthenware dish full of Mediterranean goodness on the table, for one and all to enjoy, taking big spoonfuls, tasting Summer, washed down with a ‘Big fat Rioja’, And some Mosto for the kids .

 

ONE POT MEDITERRANEN MARVEL

Chop each ingredient to a similar size.

Serves 6.

2 x Onions

2 x Green Peppers

3 x large tomatoes

2 x Handfuls of Mushrooms

2 x handfuls of Small potatoes

1 x Chorizo

1 x Courgette
Place everything in a large dish suitable for the oven.

  • Add 4 cloves of garlic peeled.
  • 1 x handful of chopped rosemary
  • Add Olive oil, to coat ingredients and mix with hands.
  • Season generously with good sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
  • Cook for 40 Mins, until everything is golden and softened.
  • Then Sprinkle the dish with tasty grated cheese.
  • Make 6 ‘wells’ in the cheese and crack in 6 eggs.
  • Put back in oven for 5 / 10 mins until eggs are set to your liking.

Enjoy with Chopped salad  with fresh herbs, and Home baked bread.

I baked Olive tapenande foccacia, to enjoy with our flavours of the med…you cant beat it.