honey-garlic-mustard Ibérico pork ribs

Not super accurate measurements for this one. With the marinade you can obviously play around a bit. Just make sure there’s enough acid (wine, vinegar), seasoning (s&p) and whatever other flavours you like. Fresh herbs like rosemary, thyme or sage also work well. I usually like to marinate these babies overnight in the fridge, but just a couple of hours at room temperature is also fine.

I also like to use a glass roasting dish I have with a handy plastic lid because then I can use the same marinating dish for cooking (the lid is also good if you’re keeping it in the fridge overnight, plus it’s extra easy to occasionally shake it up and slosh the marinade around, getting it all over the ribs). Otherwise, just marinate the ribs in a large bowl, turning often to keep them coated on all sides. Then transfer them to a baking dish to cook, draining off most of the marinade (but keep it to one side in case you want it for basting). Anyhow, really tasty comfort food, made even better if you take advantage of the oven being on to roast some veg on the side.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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feta spinach potato bake

Another Lockdown Lunch that happened by chance when I realised that I had a bag of baby spinach leaves that was starting to go off. So after washing and picking out some icky leaves I was left with about 3/4 of a bag, but that turned out to be plenty for what I had in mind. It also gave me a chance to break out the mandolin I’d bought back in September 2017, which only occurred to me because in a fit of cleaning  a couple of weeks ago I took it out of its box and ran it through the dishwasher. So it was all ready to go.

And well… OMG. There is no going back. I used it to thinly slice the potatoes and onions (no more tears!) and was actually way too excited about this, to be honest. But that’s fine, because during these long cloistered days I gotta get my thrills however and whenever. Anyhow, it’s a really easy recipe and you can play around with the ingredients, and amounts. The main thing is to bake the ingredients separately adding layers so that the potatoes cook through but are also a bit crispy.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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chicken, spinach & cashews

chicken cashew  (1)

This is the first dish I made to serve with my first batch of cauliflower rice. It was basically just thrown together with stuff I had on hand but it turned out so well that I thought I’d put it up here. One thing I didn’t happen to have on hand was fresh coriander, which I think would have been fabulous, so I’ll add it to the recipe below…

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cauliflower rice

cauliflower rice (1)

I tried my hand at making cauliflower “rice” today. No, I’m not 5:2ing (don’t get me started on that nonsense) but I’ve seen this mentioned so much on the ‘net lately – and I love cauliflower and am always looking for new low-carb options – so I thought I’d try it out. It seems the main problem people encounter when making this is that the cauliflower ends up mushy. So I took the precaution of letting the cauliflower thoroughly dry on a tea towel before chopping it up. You can see the instructions below…
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grilled soy(a) tuna

This isn’t so much a recipe as just a great idea – came across it on Twitter the other day and now can’t remember who posted it. Anyhow, you just take some fresh tuna steaks, lightly salt & pepper them and set aside. Then sautée some spring onion and garlic in olive oil; when nicely browned push to one side of the pan and add the tuna. When the tuna is cooked to your liking splash some soy/soya sauce into the pan, turn tuna to coat in sauce. Done!

Very simple and very tasty.

chicken in spicy peanut sauce

I kind of just threw this together one day last week and have ended up making it three times since. It’s very satisfying and also low-carb, though my flatmate had it over basmati rice and said it was wonderful. I’d never made peanut sauce before so just used some crunchy peanut butter as a base and it turned out quite well. Measurements for the sauce are a bit slapdash, but it’s easy to just add and taste as you go along.

Ingredients and instructions below…

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carrillada de tenera (aka beef cheeks)

[click to enlarge]

Awhile ago I made my first ever pig’s cheeks and they turned out to be a resounding success that I have made several times since. Then I saw some beef cheeks at the supermarket the other day and, given some of the negative reports of them here, I wondered if I could make some delicious ones. And I totally did! Thanks to Carlos Riva for the recipe suggestions. I kind of put them all together and came up with this one. And quite tender and succulent darlings they turned out to be – even better eaten the day after…

Recipe below the links…

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courgette tortilla

courgette tortilla

This is a super fast and super simple low-carb version of the traditional spanish tortilla omelette, which is typically a potato omelette. It’s important to get as much excess moisture as possible out of the grated courgette before adding it to the egg mixture. And the (optional) grated cheese can either be added to the mixture before cooking or melted on top afterwards.

Recipe and instructions below the links…

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carrillada (aka pig’s cheeks)

I wasn’t planning on making carrilladas today, and had never made them before. Though I’ve had them several times at tapas bars and especially love the ones they serve at Bodeguita Romero. Anyhow, there I was in the supermarket and I saw these rather plump pig’s cheeks and thought – what the heck. After I got home I scoured the internet looking for a recipe and I started to despair when I saw most of them called for a pressure cooker. So what I ended up doing was taking ideas from about four different recipes and incorporating them into one. And I must say they turned out amazing! Served here with mixed veg and a bit of potato purée.

Recipe and instructions below the links…

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