I’ve not taken to the keyboard since B in January but life has been insane and time seems to be something I am short of. Fear not though, this is a four recipe blog post with some doozies included! C-F definitely better than A and B. I’ll try and tackle them in alphabetical order but will admit that I did a French main and an Egyptian dessert in the same meal so there was a little bit of a switcheroo….

Frita Cubana (C is for Cuba)

When I started researching Cuban food, I can’t say I was blown away. Spanish and French influenced, neither of these cuisines gets me overly excited. I could have gone with the most traditional of dishes, the Ropa vieja (beef stew) but I cook a similar dish a lot and it includes olives. Which are obviously hot and that’s not ideal. So, the research continued and finally I fell upon Frita Cubana – the Cuban burger with shoestring fries INSIDE the bun. I was in!

I got the recipe from Panning the Globe and pretty much stuck to it word for word. The only switcheroo I made was to use chorizo instead of pork mince. In researching the frita cubana, another recipe had suggested chorizo. It did not disappoint although I would recommend blitzing the chorizo before adding the other ingredients as otherwise it stays too chunky (school girl food processing error really). I can honestly say that it was the best burger I have ever eaten. COD, LOD, EEROD, AOD and Matt all agreed and there were clean plates all round! Shoestring fries are worth all the faff to make. Next time, we’ll put the burgers on the braai and I suspect that will send them into stratospheric territory! Oh and I served it with sweetcorn on the cob.

Svinemørbrad med flødestuvede svampe (D is for Denmark)

I’ve been to Scandinavia. I can’t pronoun the letters, let alone the dishes but….. I like a challenge so Denmark required a fair bit of reading. The exciting thing about cooking Denmark was that my partner-in-crime was down from Scotland for the weekend and so we were able to cook this one together. We both found this recipe independently and shared it with the other. Translated, it roughly means pork in a creamy mushroom sauce. This was amazing. In fact, it was so good, I have cooked it again since and the girls loved it too – once they had fished out all the offending mushrooms obviously (I still find it incredible that I have managed to breed 3 children who all dislike so many of my favourite foods….). We stuck pretty much to the recipe on Danishnet.com although switched cream for coconut cream to reduce the dairy for COD. Served with mash potato, peas and carrots.

Coq au Vin (F is for France)

I can’t quite believe I’ve never made this before but it’s true. I am not actually sure I thought I liked it, having had it at various times in my youth and not really being blown away. I say youth as I definitely haven’t had it in the last 15 years or so….But, it’s really good! What did make me laugh though is when I was looking for a suitable recipe, I came across Raymond Blanc’s version which sells itself as ‘a quick and easy chicken recipe to cook at home for the whole family’. Yes! That’s the one for me I thought. I went in – got a little suspicious when the ingredients went ‘for the marinade’ as we all know there is never anything ‘quick’ about a marinade. I was right to be suspicious…… read step one of the method and it involves ‘marinade for 24hours’……So, not so quick then, Raymond!

Luckily, BBC Good Food came up trumps with a cracker of a recipe. As usual, following the rules isn’t quite my thing so I used just chicken thighs (12) and browned them with the skin on to add the flavour to the pan and oil – this came from another recipe. I then took the skin off before putting the chicken back into the dish for the long simmer. This really was fabulous and I served it with mash, beans (french obvs!) and carrots. This made enough for two meals for us so the remaining half has gone into the freezer for leaner times…..oh, and I paid no attention to using proper French wine and used the open bottle of Malbec on the counter. There’s often an open bottle of Malbec on the counter….

Om Ali (E is for Egypt)

My first pud in the adventure! My partner-in-crime made the very traditional kushari and claimed it was wonderful but I couldn’t wrap my head around macaroni and chickpeas in the same dish so I went for a pudding. Om Ali is an Egyptian bread and butter pudding really but made with filo pastry or Egyptian bread. The recipe I used suggested using palmiers to retain their crunch. This presented a problem – ever tried buying palmiers on our Island? Hmmm, not even trusty Waitrose. So, I made my own and they are super easy and moreish in a ‘I’m-going-to-be-fat-and-diabetic’ sort of way……..

Palmier ingredients: sheet of puff pastry (shop bought because who makes puff pastry?), 1 cup of demerara sugar (or almost a cup of demerara and some golden castor sugar)

How to make palmiers: lay out the sheet of puff pastry and roll out the creases. Cover the sheet of pastry in sugar and lightly roll it to embed in the pastry. Fold in both the long sides to the centre. Sprinkle with more sugar and roll again to embed into the pastry again. Now fold in half again lengthways to create a long, flat, pastry sausage. cover and chill for 30. mins. Once chilled, slice into 1cm slices down the full length of the pastry roll and place the slices, cut side up, on a baking tray. Don’t put them too close as they puff up in the oven. Bake at pastry advised temperature for 15-18 mins but keep an eye on them so the sugar doesn’t burn.

So, palmiers made, on to make Om Ali. I followed the recipe on Cleobuttera and added the pistachios and toasted hazelnuts. I also switched out the full fat buffalo milk for coconut cream (reduced dairy, COD, you know the drill…. also where does one buy buffalo milk?) and used good old English clotted cream. The dish tastes incredible but next time a flatter dish and less liquid.

In other news:

• Well, big news is that I have a new role at work. I am saying goodbye to educating for a circular economy and saying hello to a circular economy for food. I know! Could there be a better job for me? I am the new Food Lead and will be taking on the role fully from mid May. Right now I am doing 2 jobs and going slightly barmy but…..
• It’ll be OK because next weekend we are getting on a plane to Kenya for 16 days. I say we are getting on a plane but we have to get LOD, EEROD and AOD through dreaded PCR’s first which will be like playing (insert more appropriate country) Roulette
• I guess I should mention that we find ourselves watching Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and not quite being able to believe that in 2022, someone thought it was OK to head off and invade another country, causing untold misery and senseless deaths.
• I had to endure yet another ‘Mother’s Day’ assembly last week. I know I am supposed to get all soppy and starry eyed but by child 3, it really is an endurance. AOD did do a lovely painting of me and I got an eggcup and cress seed (more things to keep alive!). One more year of these to endure and then they are all out of the infant school.
• All three girls took part in the JMDA production of Peter Pan the ballet. It was really lovely and they adored being on stage. LOD and EEROD took part in the Isle of Wight Dance Festival two weeks ago and LOD did her grade 4 flute exam last week. It’s been bonkers trying to remember which child has which show or exam with which costume or instrument! We’ve got 3 ballet exams to go yet in 2022…….
• I’ve totally lost my running mojo. I managed to get out and finally get my 100 Parkrun but otherwise, I’ve not gotten out much. However, I will be taking on the first half of Challenge the Wight again in early June so I need to crack on and get training again.
• I am also teaching friends how to make sequin jackets. It’s going well. We will be quite the sight at the IoW Festival this year. 7 sequinned, glittery, kimono jackets jigging about in a field. Cannot wait!
• I have also just had to edit this post as I realised I have been using the initials ACOD for our youngest child for the last many, many posts. These are not her initials. She is actually AOCOD……. back to 3rd child issues………. Looking at my first post mentioning her (on my old London blog), she is referred to as AOD. I shall try and remember that for next time.