Most of the Foodie Friday posts thus far have been descriptions of local dishes that I have tried along my travels or something related to my experiences of eating a range of foods in a range of different countries. At the moment we are actually having a small rest bite from constantly being on the move and are settled in England. One thing that we miss greatly when being on the road is actually being able to cook for ourselves as this forms such an important part of our daily lives when we are living ‘normal’ lives. Since we have been back in England and had access to a real kitchen we have taken full advantage, cooking up some of our favourite treats as well as experimenting with a couple of new things. One of the banes and the beauties of trying to cook new dishes is the unknown element of preparing something new and just how far you can go with adapting a recipe in order to fit your personal preferences. Fortunately, more often than not both Riv and I get away with the minor alterations as we have a fairly decent idea of what ingredients are in dishes as a necessity and what can be substituted or omitted. This is a result of the fact that both of us would consider ourselves to be fairly decent and knowledgeable cooks. However, that being said, there are certain things that in spite of our knowledge and experience of food and cooking we find almost impossible to master. What I find most amusing about this is that in our case, and those of others I have spoken to about this, these are often shockingly easy culinary tasks! Ask my wife to prepare some kind of massively complicated multiple layer cake with a variety of fillings, frostings and decorations and she will get it on point nearly every time. Alternatively, she is also incredibly adept at lovingly and intricately slicing, dicing and chopping a range of Asian ingredients in order to prepare the most beautifully balanced homemade dim sum steamed dumpling filling. However, ask my darling spouse to prepare popcorn, in any form (microwave, stove heated, air-popped) and she is almost guaranteed to serve you up a bowl of black popcorn shaped charcoal bits! Personally my kitchen roadblock comes in the form of eggs. Not all eggs might I add, but probably the easiest of all the cooking methods. I can fry eggs, I can poach them, I make a pretty good omelette and courtesy of a Heston Blumenthal trick I make what have been described by more than one person as the best scrambled eggs in the world! But can I soft boil an egg? Never! However hard I try, whatever methods I follow, one of two things always happens, it is either hard boiled or I crack the top to reveal a gooey opaque and lukewarm raw egg! I have actually reached the stage now where I am starting to believe I will never be able to master this unfeasibly easy skill and might just as well give up and stick to what I know! Maybe that sounds defeatist but after as many soft boiled eggy fails as I have had I’m just not sure I’m willing to waste any more time or any more eggs! As I’ve said, I’m not the only person I know who has this one simple method or dish that they just cant master, it seems to be a trend amongst many a cooking enthusiast but that doesn’t really solve to ease my frustration around soft boiled eggs or Riv’s repeated stress when faced with a popcorn preparation situation! What’s your cooking black hole? Where do you face the challenge of whipping up something ridiculously simple and feeling like it is comparable to teaching yourself Japanese using a German dictionary?! Share your tales of trouble and strife in the safety of the ‘Foodie Friday’ family!!
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The Galapagos is an expensive place to visit but there are ways you can save costs without dampening your experience. A lot of the accommodations have cooking facilities including the slightly nicer hotels such as España. We managed to keep food costs to under $5 USD per person per day by cooking with what was cheap and available. Here is the recipe for one of our favourite creations.
Gringo Risotto 1 cup of white rice (don't be fussy any will do) 5 good sized tomatoes - diced Salt 2 garlic cloves - crushed 3tbsps margarine (butter or oil if you have it) 100g powdered parmesan (or whatever cheese you can find) 1tbsp marmite (optional but we always travel with it) You may need additional hot water. ...as you can tell, this is a pretty flexible recipe, but this is what we had to work with when we were there! Step 1: Sauté the garlic in 1tbsp of your fat of choice. Once softened and fragrant add the tomatoes and your desired amount of salt and or marmite (less salt if using marmite) and bring to a simmer. Simmer until the tomatoes have reduced to a thicker consistency and then set this aside. Step 2: Place the remaining oil into a pot and once hot add the rice. Stir until the rice is transparent. Once transparent add a cup of stock to the pot. Keep stirring until the liquid is absorbed. Continue to add 1 cup at a time and stir until the liquid is absorbed. If you run out of stock and the rice is not yet cooked just add water. Step 3: Once rice is cooked to your liking add the parmesan and serve. You now have a hearty portion of Gringo Risotto. All of these ingredients are available on the Galapagos and will cost you about $2 per portion. Happy cooking and happy diving! |
Follow us on Instagram or send us a messageAbout Foodie FridaysWe love food, as most people do! And when we are on the road this doesn't change. We, like many people, believe that food is one of the best ways to really get to know a culture and it's people, as so much about the way people live their lives around the world is centred around food. This means that when we travel we actively seek out the local foods and delicacies. Sometimes that comes in the form of unusual and exotic produce from markets and sometimes from street food vendors serving an array of barbecued, fried, steamed or entirely indistinguishable goodies. Having tried and tested these goodies for some time now, on our adventures around Asia, Europe, North and South America we have discovered some pretty wonderful treats that we have decided should earn a bit of publicity. So, as the working week drifts away and the weekend winks at you like a naughty temptress we will share with you one of the delights that we have encountered from around the world! We hope you enjoy reading about these as much as we enjoyed eating them! Archives
October 2017
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