Lazy Bank Holiday Monday dinner

Today's dinner was cooked by the boyfriend (to be referred to as Quoth). It was: Chorizo omelette (chorizo is our new favourite thing), prawns cooked with ginger, garlic and chilli, chicken caesar salad (with a yoghurt based dressing) and crusty French stick. 




I should probably explain that in the last 6 months I've started to eat meat again. I went vegetarian in about 1983 and was vegan from 1985 to 1998, then started eating fish again around 8 or 9 years ago. I'd always wanted to make a roast chicken, ever since I'd seen my friend, Mrs C, making one and thought what a grown-up thing it seemed to be! One evening Quoth and I were having some friends to dinner in a kind of 'Ready Steady Cook' style (they brought me a bag of ingredients and I produced a delicious meal for them, adding some things of my own choosing obviously). One of the friends HATES fish with a huge passion, and normally I'd do something fishy. They would have been quite happy to eat veggie food, but I got it into my head to do roast chicken. I wasn't actually going to have any myself, but when it came out of the oven, all crispy skin, smelling of lemon and garlic and rosemary, well, I just had to. And it was delicious! Since then I've done quite a few equally delicious roast chickens, and I've made lots of other stuff with chicken, and with bacon, and the chorizo that Aldi so kindly sell very cheaply. I've had pork in various forms, and I've tried lamb and beef, but I'm not fussed about those. I intend to explore the world of poulty, and next Sunday I'm going to do a duck or possibly guinnea fowl for dinner.... watch this space!

Anyway, here is the recipe for the prawns, which is one of my most favourite dishes ever, and just the easiest thing to make, and also for the low-fat caesar dressing. 

I can't claim credit for this recipe, it came from my favourite cookery book, Flavours of Morocco by Ghillie Basan.



3 tbsp olive oil
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
25g fresh ginger, peeled and grated (or chopped, I chop it)
1 chilli, deseeded and chopped (I use 'lazy chilli', cos, well, I'm lazy!)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp paprika
500g raw or frozen large prawns (the recipe says 'shelled but with their tails intact', I say to hell with shelling prawns!!)
Fresh coriander to taste (that's LOTS then!)
sea salt and black pepper
1 lemon, cut into wedges, to serve

Heat the oil in a heavy based pan

Stir in the garlic, ginger, chilli and cumin seeds and as soon as a lovely aroma arises (that's what the book says) add the paprika and the prawns 

Fry quickly over a medium heat for a few minutes till the prawns are just cooked

Season to taste with salt and pepper and sprinkle the chopped coriander over

Serve with the lemon wedges and some crusty bread to mop up the juices 

I usually just plonk the pan on the table and then everyone can wipe round the inside of it with their bits of bread, because that's delicious!

Low-fat Caesar salad dressing

1/3 cup low-fat or fat-free plain yoghurt
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp vinegar - I used cider vinegar
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
1 tsp soy or Worcestershire sauce
1 garlic clove, crushed

Put everything in a jar or something with a tightly fitting screw top and give it all a good shake.

That's it. 

You could add more of whatever you think it needs once you've tasted it, maybe salt and pepper, maybe a little sugar if your hand slipped a bit with the lemon juice or the vinegar (as mine did). I thought this was a bit too sour when I tasted it, but once it was on the salad and the chicken it was just perfect. We didn't put croutons in our Caesar salad, and I think we maybe should have, because the dressing would have been sublime on croutons!

 

 

Marrakech Part 2

Riad Vert.

It’s a traditional riad, which is a Moroccan house, set around a courtyard. These houses turn their faces away from the street. Outside it was MENTAL! Narrow, dusty lanes full of honking car horns and kids running and donkeys and people shouting and all kinds of furore. Once we stepped through the green door, hidden in a little alley off the narrowest street, it was a different world. A short passage brought us out into the courtyard, with palm trees growing in the middle. It was covered with a canopy, because it’s COLD in Marrakech at night in the winter. There were tables set out in the courtyard for dining, and rooms opened off it with sofas and low tables. The owner, Dominic, a rather groovy Frenchman, greeted us and we sat and had mint tea with him and some other guests, also French. I smiled and nodded and pretended to understand while Mr Fuss-Pott chatted away. I’d really been looking forward to that mint tea, and it wasn’t a disappointment (but I discovered those lovely silver teapots need some kind of holder for the handle, as the heat doesn’t know where to stop!).

Monsieur Dominic said that he had put us in a larger room, so I was a bit upset that I wouldn’t be getting the pretty drapey bed – I’d so looked forward to that. The room we were in was lovely though, and the bed was incredibly comfy. I think the room we’d originally requested was on the next floor up and perhaps they didn’t use that floor if they weren’t very full. I will say that although the bathroom LOOKED gorgeous, all terracotta plaster and marble with brass fittings, it wasn't terribly efficient. The shower was passable, I've certainly stood under more dribblesome ones, but the sink was just silly! It was a lovely brass bowl set into a tiled worktop, with a brass tap. Trouble was, the plug didn't work, the tap only trickled, and the trickle barely went into the bowl, it was mostly over the tiles! It took a fair while to get enough water in there to wash your face! There only seemed to be 3 other couples staying at the riad. A French couple who seemed a bit mad (they hired scooters one day and a car the next – totally bonkers!!!), a Polish man living in Switzerland, and his partner, I think she might have been Swiss, I’m not sure, and a very young and rather perfect-looking French couple with a lovely toddler.

After the madcap ride through the streets of Marrakech in the taxi, and having noted how far we seemed to be from anything vaguely resembling a restaurant, or even a shop, we decided we didn’t actually dare to go out of the riad in the dark, so we opted for dinner a la maison. I gather Riad Vert do wonderful meals. Dominic looked at us quite strangely when we explained (well, Mr F-P explained) that neither of us ate meat – most French people look askance at you if you tell them that! In the end we decided on a meal of omelettes, salads and strawberries. That sounded perfect. We got all our stuff sorted out (which means I forced Mr F-P to unpack – he always tries to just leave his things in the case and the case open in the middle of the floor!) and then went down for dinner.

We were served at a little table in the courtyard, under a palm tree. First we were brought a basket of bread and 2 earthenware bowls of ‘salads’, which were in fact cooked dishes. Both seemed to be aubergine based, but were quite different, and equally delicious. I did indulge in some of the bread – it was like French bread but even nicer – golden and really crusty on the outside and fluffy inside. We were also brought a big bottle of water. Then the omelettes came, one each, great big things, gorgeously cooked and oozing with fresh herbs. The waiter left the remains of the ‘salads’ so we had those with the omelettes. Mmmmmmmm! Pudding was fresh strawberries with vanilla yoghurt, and we had coffee to end. It was the most delicious meal. Later, back home, Mr F-P promised me he would email Dominic and beg for the recipes for those aubergine salads.

We went to bed quite early – you’re always knackered after travelling, aren’t you, even if you didn’t have to get up especially early or anything. Funny that. I didn’t get much sleep cos Mr F-P makes little noises in the back of his throat when he’s asleep, and I could hear him despite having cotton wool balls in my ears!