Sunday, May 30, 2010

Chilli & Garlic Gambas, Fried Green Beans, Puy Lentil & Sausage Cassoulet

Eating is the one thing that I can do without messing up. Clothes excluded. It's great, even if I decide to eat curry with chopsticks, or cut my steak with a spoon, it really doesn't matter as all I have to do is get the food from A) the plate or bowl or whatever to B) my mouth using C) spoon, fork, fingers. In fact, apart from trying to stuff food in my ears (great days!) I am pretty confident that I can get the food from A) to B) via C) most times.

This is why I enjoy eating. I am really good at it. It's just a shame that you can't be a 'professional eater' as such. Like maybe I could be one of the guys that tastes food for the President. That would be great, but I am not sure if I could hand back a great plate of food to The Pres just because, well just because they are the President.

A food critic could be a type of 'professional eater'. But then you can't just eat, you have to critique, which, to me at least, sounds too much like multi-tasking. And I haven't tried multi-tasking since trying to scratch my nose while holding an ice cream. That, and I also guess to be a food critic you have to be able to write and 'regular reader(s)' would by now have wondered if it is in fact a 5 year old writing the texts on this blog. And I also have a vocabulary that can be jotted down onto a post-it note. This would also limit me to writing such poetic prose of how 'the contrast of flavours and textures was like a ballerina slam dancing on my tongue with her rocker, stoner mates'. No, I don't think I could do that.

But all is not lost, as I can still eat despite these failings and I can still enjoying stuffing way to much food into my gob before proceeding to tell Miss Salty Squid how nice her dress is. I also imagine if you were to write about food you would need to be able to tie things in together at the end. Eh, not a chance! This is just random ramblings!

Also Tapas Friday was in fact Tapas Saturday - special thanks to our friend Sinead for the lovely nibbles and drinks on Friday.


Top and tail the beans. Blanche. Make a batter of flour, sparkly water, paprika, salt, then shallow fry and serve. They look like I sneezed on them. But these are really nice and Irish and in season!




Again, this is not really a technically challenging dish. Get some good fresh prawns. Add some vegetable oil to a wok and heat. Add the prawns. Keep them moving around the pan for a couple of minutes, then add a generous helping of garlic, chili and parsley. Cook for another min or so, give it s squeeze of lemon juice a serve straight away. Good solid, messy finger food.




First, pre-heat your oven to 180. Place the sausages onto a baking try and slip into the oven until done. Remove and let cool. Finely dice a carrot, a stick of celery and an onion. Chop some garlic and sweat the lot in a pan with the lid on. Once soft, add the lentils (about 500g) and stir. Cook for a min the add some vino and reduce. Add some stock, maybe a pint and a half and herbs - bay or thyme or whatever you have. Cook with the lid on stirring now and then for about an hour until the lentils are cooked. Add more stock or hot water if needed. Chop your sausages to whatever size suits and add them to the pan for the last 30mins of cooking. Season and serve.


Shopping List:
Lentils €2.00
Eggs and veg €2.87

Green Beans €3.10
Prawns €8,60
.........................................................

Total €15.57


Drinks:
Tesco Cava, Brut, 11,5%
Rasteau, Domain Grand Nicolet, 14,5%

On the stereo:

Basement Jaxx, Justin Timberlake, Eurovision Song Contest, Oslo 2010

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