Month: September 2011

Copy Cat, Copy Cat – Doggy Treats and Scones for the Big People

Chica Andaluza41 Comments

Me that is…I´m the Copy Cat!  I´ve been picking up lots of fantastic recipes over the last few months via all the blogs that I am following, many of which I have promised myself I would cook once the temperatures started to drop and I could bear to put the oven on.

Well, yesterday the storm clouds gathered and at one point we had thunder and pouring rain.  It was dark and gloomy – perfect baking weather. Added to this was my technical nightmare with WordPress, but thanks to all you lovely people out there I eventually got things sorted and am able to post again.  It was lovely to have so much support – it´s a funny old thing isn´t it that people you don´t really “know” and will probably never meet face to face care enough to step in and offer help.  Made me feel very warm and good, so thank you again.

Anyway, back to the kitchen.  I have seen a few great recipes for dog biscuits recently and I asked myself “why the heck am I forking out for rubbishy treats for my beloved pooches, when the rest of the food they eat is healthy?”.  So, recipe number one comes from Greg and Katherine over at Rufus´Food and Spirits Guide, or more precisely their faithful hounds Mingus and Coltrane, who are probably nearly as good in the kitchen as their master and mistress.

That´s a lot of doggy happiness on one tray

Mingus and Coltrane, Luna and Alfi salute you.  It was hard to get pics of them eating the biscuits as they were gone too quickly and Luna, for some reason is camera shy!

Anyway, here are a few photos so that any dog lovers out there can say “aah” and chuckle again at Alfi´s new haircut.

The second Copy Cat experiment today was with scones.  Well, I did have the oven on.  I love scones but have never had too much luck baking them. Either they turn out really hard and I tell people that they were MEANT to be rock cakes, or they rise too much and are far too dry and crumbly.

Well, my scone woes are over thank to Cecilia at thekitchensgarden and this is the recipe that changed my scone baking forever.   God I love that woman and her family recipes.

Super Size Me

The only problem is that it was a long, long afternoon.

The butter was cold, I couldn´t spread it any thinner...honestly!

And I had so many jams to try.

Cherry or apricot? Oh go on...have both!

Well, I had to just check a few of them out to make sure that the first Super Scone of my life wasn´t a fluke.  It wasn´t.

PS. I did quite seriously debate with myself about not telling Big Man there were scones left and offering him a delicious “peanut butter cookie”.  But I didn´t.  You see, not such a greedy guts after all!

Thank You, Grazie, Gracias, Merci

Chica Andaluza33 Comments

Well, after my plea for help this afternoon I finally seem to be able to post properly again with links!

I´m not sure exactly what it was that sorted things, although I suspect a browser upgrade, but it all seems to be back on track.

I just wanted to say a huge THANK you to everyone and to say that “normal service” will be resumed tomorrow…phew!

In the meantime, please do pop in for a plate of paella if you´re in the neighbourhood!

Dinner won´t be long...

 

Can Anyone Help?

Chica Andaluza42 Comments

A little cry for help regarding WordPress from Up The Mountain!

For the last few days I have been unable to insert any links into my posts.  I also can´t work out how to contact Workdpress Support as I seem to keep going round in circles on the Support page.

Am I just being amazingly untechnical or is anyone else having problems?  Do you know how to contact support?

Thank you … any help will me most gratefully received.

Up The Mountain Spicy Tomato Ketchup

Chica Andaluza55 Comments
Getting Saucy In The Garden

When you have lots of tomatoes growing, or you can buy them cheaply, it´s fun to play around with recipes and see what you can come up with.  An excellent book for anyone interested in growing their own (or who just dreams about doing it) and cooking with the “bounty” is The River Cottage Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

One of his recipes that I´ve played around with over the years is the one he gives for tomato ketchup.  The beauty of it is that you can adjust spices and flavourings to suit what you and your loved ones enjoy.  I like my ketchup spicy, so I go heavy on the chili.  Some of the things he mentions in his recipe I don´t always have to hand (like mace or celery seeds) so I have changed things round just a little.

This is the Up the Mountain version, and I can highly recommend it.

3kg ripe tomatoes roughly chopped

3 sliced onions

1 large red pepper, chopped

¼ cup of celery leaves

100g brown sugar

200ml white wine vinegar (he uses cider vinegar)

¼ teaspoon of mustard powder

A stick of cinnamon

1 ½ teaspoons of allspice

1 ½ teaspoons whole cloves

2 teaspoons black peppercorns

Some freshly grated nutmeg

4 small hot chilis, roughly chopped

1 bay leaf

1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed

1 teaspoon of hot smoked pimentón (or paprika)

Sea salt to taste

You´ll need a very sturdy heavy based saucepan for this as you´ll be reducing and reducing the sauce until it gets to the right consistency.

Put tomatoes, onions, peppers, chillis and celery leaves into the pot and simmer until very soft.  Put through a mouli or fine sieve and then back into the pot with the sugar, mustard powder and vinegar.  Put the remaining spices apart from the salt, nutmeg and pimentón into a cloth and tie securely then drop this into the mixture.  Grate a little nutmeg over and if you want more later you can add it nearer the end. 

Cook the sauce slowly until it has reduced to the thickness you require.  If you like you can give it a whizz with the hand blender (don´t forget to remove the spice bag first though!), then season with the salt and pimentón.  You can either put it into sterilised bottles or jars (I use the small juice bottles we get here in Spain) or it will keep well in the fridge for a month or you can freeze it.

Delicious with chips (or French fries for my US pals), burgers, fish, veggies…well, pretty much anything in fact!  And mixed with mayonnaise it makes a wonderful Marie Rose style sauce with a bit of a kick.