mini chorizo toad in the hole

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The other day I saw a friend’s pic of toad in the hole on Instagram and I said, hang on that’s just yorkshire pudding with sausage in it. Duh. I don’t know what I thought it was before, I just knew it involved sausage and some sort of pastry. So then I wondered how this would work with the mini yorkshire puddings, with mini chorizos. Spoiler: omg they were good.

So obviously you can play around with different types of sausage. I liked how the mini chorizos ended up lightly flavouring both the onions and the dough with smoky pimentón. Bear in mind that these were raw chorizos, not cured, and are meant to be either pan-fried or cooked on a bbq. The puddings didn’t rise as much as when they are cooked without a filling, but they were still very light and crispy. Perfect snack food, or for a party. And the mini versions are easy to store in the fridge and reheat the next day.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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papas bravas casa del tigre

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I have been missing La Casa del Tigre so much, their wonderful staff (who are also my friends), and their amazing food, especially THESE layered papas bravas. Happily chef Luis was kind enough to give me their recipe the other day, and then also gave me permission to post it here. As you can see from the photo below, my homemade ones didn’t quite turn out as perfectly as theirs, but they were still damn good. At Tigre they serve them with bravas sauce and alioli. I used their bravas sauce recipe but had mine with salsa az, since I usually have some made up in the fridge.

The recipe calls for agar agar to help bind the potatoes together while cooking, but I didn’t have any. Will try it with next time. Also, Luis told me that for weight on top of the potatoes while they are cooking in the oven they have a special pan that fits over/into the baking pan they use. I used light bricks, which may have been a bit too heavy (?) as mine were decidedly “squishier” than the Tigre ones. But that also may have been due to me not having as many layers. Whatevs, these are delicious. And although this takes time to prepare it’s not a difficult dish to make.

Note: to make a smaller quantity I found that 1 kilo of potatoes works well with an 18cm x 18cm pan.

Ingredients and instructions below…

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crispy baked pork ribs

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Don’t ask. I wasn’t even planning to make ribs today, but one thing led to another and here we are. Then, since I suddenly had both ribs and a huge chunk of presa Ibérica, and the original plan had been to do a whole presa in hoisin marinade (more on that later) I didn’t want to make my tried and tested hoisin pork ribs. So I got to wondering if my friend Lizzie’s method for baking chicken wings would work on ribs (it works great on drumsticks!) but without the help of nice fatty chicken skin I wasn’t sure if the ribs would get crispy. Then I found a recipe that slathered whole racks of ribs with mayo before dredging them in flour and baking them so I thought I’d try doing this with spare ribs and my salsa az. And they turned out great, nicely crisp and still tender. I would just make sure to shake off more of the excess flour before baking next time.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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gambas al ajillo

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Possibly the simplest recipe on here (which is maybe why I haven’t posted it before now). Ideally these should be made in a clay cazuela (see below) which can be used on either an electric or gas cooker, but sadly not on an induction cooker (like mine!). But the good news is that you can just as easily make them in a small skillet. I’ve done them both ways and they turn out great either way. I like making them very simply (and traditionally) with just four ingredients. I’ve never added extra seasoning (the prawns are salty enough) and I just think anything else would take away from the simple goodness of this dish. Make sure you have some nice crusty bread on hand for mopping up all that gorgeous garlicky olive oil.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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manchego cheese croquetas

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It seemed like a good idea to make croquetas on a rainy afternoon, as they are a bit labour intensive and I wasn’t going anywhere. Plus, it had been a long while since I’ve made croquetas, so wanted to be sure I still knew how. I should say that I have a different idea of croquetas than the average Sevillano (and many Spaniards in general) in that I like mine to taste of something other than bechamel. There are many points of view about what constitutes the “perfect croqueta” and I actually don’t care that much. The ones I like best are full of flavour, soft and creamy on the inside and with a good solid crunchy outside. Anyhow, today I opted for cheese croquetas, which in the end is like making a thick cheese sauce, breading and frying it. Which is amazing! My recipe has maybe three times the cheese as I’ve seen elsewhere – you can decide how cheesy you want them.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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hoisin pork ribs

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I love hoisin sauce and don’t use it often enough, so when I thought of making ribs the other day I remembered the two jars of hoisin in the pantry I’d recently stocked up on. This sauce was delicious but I think I’ll try adding some ginger and maybe a few chilli flakes next time. Also most of the recipes I came across online included 5 spice powder, which I have yet to come across here. I think with a base of hoisin, soy and rice wine vinegar – I added the white wine just to thin it out a bit – you can easily play around and adapt it with whatever else you like (or happen to have in the kitchen). Very sticky, super tasty.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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espinacas con garbanzos 2

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I’ve already posted a nice recipe for espinacas con garbanzos here, a very traditional version, and it’s delicious. But it turns out that I almost never make this dish the same way twice and the other day I looked up a few more recipes, got confounded by some that add tomato (wut) and then made this version, which is kind of what I’ve been doing for a while, except this time with added ground almonds (game changer!). So here it is. Oh, and as I didn’t have any bread in the house I used some olive oil regañas (kind of a cracker, and as they were already baked with olive oil I didn’t have to fry them). I like using the baby spinach because then you don’t have to boil anything and the spinach comes out much brighter and tender, and (I think) has more flavour.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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presa ibérica al palo cortado

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This was inspired by a delicious tapa of presa al palo cortado that I had at the fabulous Bodeguita Romero a few days before NYE. I decided then and there that I wanted to try and make it myself, even though I’d only ever cooked presa “a la plancha” before. Presa is an upper shoulder cut (see diagram below, pluma is a lower cut and a bit fattier, both are delicious) and the piece I found for this meal was 600 grams.

What I didn’t expect was that it would shrink so much but, to be honest, I think I overcooked it a bit (full disclosure: fell asleep watching netflix while it was on low heat). Later I discovered that some of the “shrinkage” was due to a fair bit of meat shredding off and ending up in the sauce, which was QUITE reduced by the time I woke up again. But hey, no problem. I removed the presa and slowly added more broth and sherry, whisking madly until I got a nicely textured sauce again. In fact, this might be what I do in future, because then you end up with MEAT SAUCE, which frankly was totally yum. But I digress.

Many thanks to my friends, the family at @bodeguitaromero and chef @jose_pizarro who helped out with cooking tips while I was making this. With sides, serves four.

Ingredients and instructions below…
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yorkshire pudding

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I am new to the whole Yorkshire Pudding thing, partly because I was a bit intimidated by the idea of having to bake something light, airy and crispy (and I’m no baker). I shouldn’t have worried – these are so easy to make and pretty much fool proof. Best tip came from my friend Pam who said she mixes hers up ahead of time in the blender and just keeps whizzing the batter up every 20 minutes or so while she’s preparing the rest of the meal. I used a stick blender with a whisk attachment.

I usually play around a bit with recipes I find online, but this one by Mary Berry is perfect. And why mess with perfection? The BBC recipe link comes with a video too.

Mary Berry’s Yorkshire Pudding

Ingredients and instructions below…
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honey-garlic-mustard Ibérico pork ribs

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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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