Mushroom & Blue Cheese Croquetas, Chorizo En Sidra, Seafood Paella

For a brief moment last week, it almost felt like the summer was hot on our heels. The evenings were bright, heck, even the days were bright AND warm. Lunatic kids were diving into the green water of the river Liffy, emerging like some radioactive monster from a 50s horror movie. Ice creams were selling well and herbs were starting to grow. Sadly, that WAS last week and as I write today, it’s dark, wet and cold. And it is also May. And as Salty Squid was holding onto the feeling of summer.... we went for the typical tapas theme, Spanish! Sometimes, being predictable is the most unpredictable. Or sometimes is just nice to cook whatever you feel like and eat something that you know will make you smile. Sadly, Miss Salty Squid wasn’t smiling too much as it was almost 10pm by the time we ate – time management was never a strong point of mine. A bit like writing and grammar. And spelling.

The best thing about this entire dish is that it had no impact on the budget this week as I had all the ingredients already. Actually, that makes it sound like it tasted terrible. Let me re-phrase, the best thing about this dish was in fact the crispy, fried, battery exterior and the luscious, liquid interior all contrasted together like some orgy of texture and how the mushroomy Béchamel gave it a real earthy meaty flavour and the combination of flavours was blah blah blah. Yes this was really really nice. It is the type of dish that makes you want to convert your bath into some sort of deep fryer so that you can fry off hundreds at a time. It was sinfully good. And sadly our landlord refused to let us turn the bath into a deep fat fryer, so we could only do a small batch. Sob.

Melt about 90g of butter and then add a chopped onion and cook for about 5 mins. Add the chopped, soaked Porcini and cook for a few mins. Add 125g of flour, stirring until it starts to colour slightly and becomes a little crumbly. Remove from the heat and slowly mix in a cup of (warm) milk. Don’t know why I used brackets there. Or why I just typed that last sentence. Return to the heat and add about another cup of stock. I used the liquid the porcini were soaked in. Combine and stir until it bubbles and thickens. Give it a damn good seasoning and transfer it to a bowl to cool for a couple of hours (or overnight). There I go with the brackets again.

Make the croqueta shapes, ramming some Cashel Blue into the middle of each before tossing in flour, dipping in a beaten egg and rolled in breadcrumbs, then fry until crisp on the outside and liquid goo on the inside. Season then taste one. Pass out. Then as you regain consciousness serve the rest while still a little dazed. Preferably while drooling.

So easy. So fast and so so so good. Regular readers (stop laughing!!!), might be aware of our total Chorizo addiction. By cooking it in cider it makes it a little lighter and more summery. Or that is just a lie and an excuse to have it featured, yet again, on our blog. Either way all you have to do is chop your Chorizo, cook it with some shallot, garlic and a chopped tomato until it (the Chorizo) starts to colour, add some cider, let it reduce and then throw in a huge handful of parsley. There you go. It’s done. And it just tastes so so so good.



This was supposed to be a poor mans paella as to get all the ingredients would cause me to go way over budget, and seeing as neither myself or Miss Salty Squid are claiming ministerial pensions, I had to be a bit more frugal. I was able to get some prawns and a squid from our local friendly fishmonger for about €9. Bargain. I cleaned and deveined the squid/prawns, where applicable. I chopped up a little Chorizo. As in, it was a big Chorizo and I chopped up a little bit of it, not that I bought a tiny sausage... you get what I mean.

I cooked a chopped red onion with some garlic, chopped parsley stalks, red pepper and a chopped tomato, before adding the Chorizo and some white wine. Let it reduce and cook away for a few mins. Add the rice. I had Italian Arborio rice lying around which worked well. Season a give it a stir.

Next, I mixed some saffron (which I had, hee hee suckers) in some hot veggie stock and added to the rice. Boil and reduce the heat. Let it cook for 15mins, uncovered. Don’t be tempted to stir. After 15mins, add the seafood and frozen peas, kind press them down into the mix, then cover it and cook on a low heat for 10mins, ish, turning the seafood over after 5 mins. Once the rice and seafood is cooked, remove from the heat and let it rest for a couple of mins before adding a big handful of chopped parsley. Serve.

Shopping List:
Seafood €8.30
Chorizo €4.00
Veggies € 3.00
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Total €15.30

Drinks
Cidre Fermier de Normandie, Brut, 4,5%
Valpolicella, Terre di Verona, 2009, 13%

On the stereo
Pantha Du Prince, PJ Harvey, Drive By Truckers