Nachos, Sesame Chicken Wings, Prawns On Toast

Another week and another post - well apart from the fact that we didn't post last week, but who's counting? We are actually. We have also been struggling a little with time lately and as the Salty Squid ethos is something along the lines of only doing something that you love and enjoy, well we tend not to do a post if it's not going to be given 100% love and attention. But we will be trying so much harder not to miss any more postings!

Please bear in mind that the Salty Squid ethos is free to change repeatedly to suit us and be used as an excuse for whatever we need an excuse for. But lets not get bogged down in all this legal This is a food blog, by food eaters, about eating food so let's get to business.

Nachos With ....

Ingredients: Corn or flour tortilla; an avocado, good cheddar, creme fraiche, chilli - lots of chilli, beans or mince - I used chickpeas!; onion, garlic, paprika, fresh tomatoes, coriander

There is something very comforting about nachos. Surprising really considering that what we have here is heart-stopping amounts of melted cheese on posh crisps - with some salsa, guacamole, chilli straight from the mine and bucket-fulls of creme fraiche. Yep a real surprise.

Make the tomato and coriander salsa by chopping your fresh tomatoes, coriander, crushing a clove of garlic and giving it all a good mix and an even better seasoning. Refrigerate overnight if possible or until needed. This gives the flavours a chance to mingle. But I have bored a tiny hole in our fridge and spent many a night spying on such salsas and have never seen them mingle. A little bit of small talk but honestly, there is just awkward silences.

Cut your tortillas into triangles and fry until golden and crispy, sprinkle with salt and paprika and set aside. Repeat until all the tortilla has been fried.

For the guacamole, crush your avocado, and mix it with red onion and lime juice and a tiny blob of creme fraiche. Season.

To assemble, plate some tortillas first with a healthy topping of grated cheddar and pop into the oven to melt the cheese, Remove, add another layer of nachos, followed by more cheese, guacamole, salsa and creme fraiche. Sprinkle with sliced fresh chillies.





Darina's Sesame & Ginger Chicken Wings

Ingredients: 400-500g chicken wings
For the marinade: 30 ml soy sauce; 30 ml red wine ; 30 ml honey; 2 tsp (or as much as you can take) freshly grated ginger; 30g untoasted sesame seeds

Clean the chicken wings and separate joints if not already done. Mix all ingredients for the marinade together in a saucepan and bring to boil for 2-3 minutes. Allow to cool down and then combine with the chicken wings. Set aside for at least couple of hours, or overnight if you're better prepared than me.

Take the chicken wings out of the fridge and bring them to room temperature. Pre-heat the oven to 180c and bake the chicken wings for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown and sticky.

This recipe was robbed from the Ballymalloe Cookbook.






Prawns On Toast

Ingredients: Prawns, fresh or frozen; garlic; chilli, lemon juice

Clean the prawns if using fresh ones. A nice shower will do or a bath if time allows. Prawns do like a nice bubble bath - but be careful as they do tend to fart and giggle and try blame it on the bubbles. Don't believe them.

Heat some oil in a pan and add the prawns, garlic and chilli. Cook for a couple of mins until the prawns are done. Add a generous helping of parsley and serve on some toasted sourdough






In the glass
Chateau Cotes Du Gros Caillou, Saint Emilion, 2008

On the stereo
The Cure, David Bowie, retro baby