Chorizo Hash
This is a recipe based closely on Lindsey Bareham’s recipe of the same name, but for one person. i.e. me!
I started by assembling the ingredients.
Chorizo Hash – Ingredients
Note the small 200 g pack of Waitrose potatoes and the 120g double pack of chorizo.
I chopped the potatoes and then boiled them for five minutes, before draining them.
The onion was then softened in about a tablespoon of olive oil over a medium heat, ater which the potatoes and the chorizo was added and heated until the potatoes and sausage were nicely crusty.
Chorizo Hash – Cooking The Onion, Potatoes And Sausage
The mixture was then turned out on a plate, the tomatoes were then added and everything was topped with a fried egg and some herbs. Lindsey used chopped parsley, but I just sprinkled marjoram on the top.
Chorizo Hash
I enjoyed it and will cook it again.
Eating Alone In Restaurants
It is usually several times a week, that I eat a meal or have a drink in a pub or restaurant alone. I often do this in places where I’m known and may annoy the staff a bit, by talking to them too much!
But that is a problem of loneliness!
I remembered yesterday a story from my past. I think I’d driven to Bristol to do a presentation in something like 1990, and I’d not eaten particularly well. It was before my diagnosis as a coeliac, and I think lunch had probably been something like an egg salad sandwich and a Coke. Not what I’d eat now!
I was driving back by a cross-country route to Suffolk about seven and I knew that I’d told C that I was going to be home late and not to cook for me.
So somewhere in probably Oxfordshire, I happened to pass was looked to be a village pub with those magic words of Real Ale and Home Cooked Food on a sign. There were a couple of good cars in the car park and it all looked pretty welcoming. So perhaps I could have a pint and meal.
I walked in and approached the bar and ordered a pint of something real and after choosing a ham steak and chips, I asked the landlord where I should sit.
He told me to sit on the large table along the side of the bar, as that table was reserved for people eating and drinking alone, who might want to socialise.
I’m not sure what we talked about, but I did have a pleasant hour or so in that very friendly pub.
I just wonder why, so few pubs and restaurants seem to treat single people in a creative manner.
An Elegant Design
One problem I have with my gammy left hand, is eating on the move, as salads can be a bit much to manage, as I really need a plate and a knife and fork.
I saw this excellent spoon/fork/knife in Cotswold in Islington this morning.
An Elegant Design
At only two pounds, I bought one.
Eighteen Minute Pasta
I tried to see how fat I could cook the fast pasta recipe on Friday night.
It took me eighteen minutes! The biggest waste of time was waiting for the water to boil for the pasta, despite using a kettle first.
Is This The World’s Fastest Pasta Meal?
Last night, I did the Lindsey Bareham pasta meal, which I described here.
I really do think, that if you cook it as fast as you can, it might be one of the world’s fastest pasta meals.
I started by boiling a saucepan of salted water. I used my 2.8 litre saucepan with a lid that has a built in strainer. I also put a plate in the oven to get warm.
When it was boiling hard, I threw in a tumbler of Carluccio’s gluten-free pasta, which cooks in eight minutes. After five minutes, I threw half a cup of peas, which can be frozen or fresh. Obviously, for more people you add more pasta and peas.
Whilst the pasta and peas was cooking, I’d taken half a pack of Waitrose pulled ham hock and taken out the bits with any fat and gristle, of which this time there wasn’t much. I also chppped a couple of tablespoons of chives. Note if you don’t like ham, it works equally well with smoked salmon.
When the peas tasted cooked, I just strained the mixture and that was the cooking done. With my saucepan, I just left the pasta and peas in the saucepan and then used it as a mixing bowl.
i added the ham, a good slug of Rachel’s Greek yoghurt with honey, the juice from one half of a lime, the chives and a teaspoon of marjoram to the mixture and gave it a good mix with some salt and pepper.
I then just turned it out onto the plate.
As you can see, it takes the time it takes to boil the water plus how long the pasta takes to cook and the time it takes to mix everything at the end.
I challenge anybody to properly cook a real pasta meal quicker!
Not Much Washing Up!
It doesn’t even require much washing up, as the picture shows.
Is Gluten-Free Beer Illegal In Italy?
I have puzzled for some time, why there is no Italian gluten-free beer, as if Germany with their strict brewing regulations can have one, surely can most countries.
So I searched Google using “birra senza glutine” and found this Italian site. It says this about a beer called Beautiful Elena.
Beautiful Elena : Italian craft beer derived from rice. By law in Italy can not be called beer, because this name is reserved only to beverages that contain barley or barley malt, then find it on the shelves labeled “rice drink alcohol.”
So it looks like many of the gluten-free beers we have couldn’t be brewed in Italy. But they can sell other countries’ products.
A Very Different Gluten-Free Beer
Most beers these days are light in colour, but this Dark G-Free from St. Peter’s Brewery in Suffolk is very much like an old-fashioned brown ale.
A Very Different Gluten-Free Beer
It was rather nice and very different to all other gluten-free beers I’ve tasted.
Until further notice, I shall make sure, I’ve always got a few of these in my cupboard.
I bought mine from Beers of Europe.
Handling My Peas
Some of the recipes I use need about half a cup of frozen peas for one person. So as my freezer is downstairs in the garage, I thought it better to store the peas already divided.
Handling My Peas
Whether it will work out, I don’t know, but the plastic cups stood nicely in a drawer in my freezer.
A Gluten-Free Lunch In Shanklin
I needed some lunch and was walking back to the station, when I saw Micky’s Munch Box.
As you can see I sat in the sun and ate a toasted cheese and bacon sandwich in gluten-free bread.
With the long lasting qualities of some gluten-free breads like Genius, I think we’ll see more of this type of cafe catering for those like me, who need to be gluten-free.
Tuna, Red Onion And White Bean Salad
I’m not a great lover of salads, as I suppose most have masses of rabbit food, but I will have occasional had a nicoise in somewhere like Carluccio’s or Pizza Express or bought one in a supermarket.
On the side in my kitchen was a pack of red onions and a couple of weeks ago, I searched for something I might make and found this recipe on the BBC web site.
I made it tonight.
The ingredients were very simple and this makes two portions.
2 tbsp of olive oil. I used Carluccio’s lemon oil, that I use a lot on fish.
1 tsp of mustard. I used Tiptree. Not Dijon, but East Anglian
A splash of lemon juice.
1 x 200g can tuna, drained and flaked into chunks.
400g tin cannellini beans, rinsed and drained.
Half of red onion, finely sliced.
50g rocket
This is all the ingredients, after combining the oil, mustard and lemon juice in my Little Chopper.
The Ingredients
Note the Estrella Damm Daura, which is the only gluten-free beer I have at the moment.
As I said, I started by comibining the oil, mustard and lemon juice, which was then tossed with the tuna, beans and onion, and seasoned.
Finally, I tossed in the rocket and served one portion.
My Very Quick Supper
The other will be my lunch tomorrow.
The Anonymous Widower 