Exhausted Octopus
I felt like 'exotic but not spicy' for dinner tonight, so it turned out to be a cold Roast Vegetable Salad, with Pan-fried Octopus on a bed of Wild Rice & Pinenuts and organic Lettuce [picture below].
The octopus was lovely and cooked just right. It's one of those things that's a bitch to do correctly - half the time it's just that weeny bit overcooked, and tastes like washing-machine lining rubber. Ick. But this time it was great. The Roast Vegetable Salad was made of an Aubergine (or 'eggplant' to half the world), a Capsicum pepper and 2 heads of Garlic. The first two were delicious but the latter was a little overroasted so I threw one of the heads out. It would have been better with two, unfortunately. The Wild Rice, one of my favorites, was as delicious as usual, the distinctive taste and texture interspersed with the little bursts provided by the pine nuts. Carmargue Rice would also have done well in its place, I think.
There aren't really any recipes for this, but here goes some approximates:
Roast Vegetable Salad
(I use organic veges because they taste best!)
1 medium sized aubergine
1 capsicum pepper (red or green)
2 heads of garlic
Basalmic vinegar
Salt and pepper
Put aubergine, pepper and garlic in a roasting tin and baste with olive oil. Put in medium oven [Gas 5] for an hour. Remove garlic. Roast aubergine and pepper for further half hour. Skin and deseed aubergine and pepper, and chop roughly. Skin garlic and chop in half. Mix. Chill. Drizzle with basalmic vinegar and season just before serving.
Wild Rice with Pinenuts & Vermouth:
100 gm Wild Rice
400 ml of Water
20 gm or a couple of tablespoons Pinenuts
Vermouth
Put 100 gm of wild rice in 400 ml of water and bring to low boil. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Place in 20 gm of pinenuts and a couple of healthy splashes (OK, very healthy splashes) of dry Martini vermouth. Cover and simmer for a further 15 minutes or until liquid is mostly absorbed and rice is tender.
Octopus:
120 gm Octopus, fresh or canned
Olive Oil
Toss the olive oil and the octopus in a heavy frypan over a medium heat for about 2 minutes. No more or you'll be chewing rubber!
This was washed down with a new 'Tryout for my House Red'; an Australian 2002 Merlot, label Tempus Two | Lisa McGuigan. I was a bit dubious about buying it - cost was £4, and it came flaunting a screwcap (yeah, yeah, spot the wine snob! [grin]), but I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't too heavy, had a smooth finish and slipped down silkily. An excellent choice for housewine that I'm definitely going to go stock up on!
I have just about done my fill of working around the house today. The lounge, kitchen and bathroom look great - the bedroom is a disaster area! I also found I have to go buy a special drill bit for my drill, as the brickwork is still too hard to pound in the mortar nails I bought, and the brickwork pointing is way too soft to support anything. Grrr.
So I am going to run a nice hot, hot bath, relax for a bit, wash my hair, remove my nailpolish and then sleep the Sleep of the Just for at least 7 hours.
The octopus was lovely and cooked just right. It's one of those things that's a bitch to do correctly - half the time it's just that weeny bit overcooked, and tastes like washing-machine lining rubber. Ick. But this time it was great. The Roast Vegetable Salad was made of an Aubergine (or 'eggplant' to half the world), a Capsicum pepper and 2 heads of Garlic. The first two were delicious but the latter was a little overroasted so I threw one of the heads out. It would have been better with two, unfortunately. The Wild Rice, one of my favorites, was as delicious as usual, the distinctive taste and texture interspersed with the little bursts provided by the pine nuts. Carmargue Rice would also have done well in its place, I think.
There aren't really any recipes for this, but here goes some approximates:
Roast Vegetable Salad
(I use organic veges because they taste best!)
1 medium sized aubergine
1 capsicum pepper (red or green)
2 heads of garlic
Basalmic vinegar
Salt and pepper
Put aubergine, pepper and garlic in a roasting tin and baste with olive oil. Put in medium oven [Gas 5] for an hour. Remove garlic. Roast aubergine and pepper for further half hour. Skin and deseed aubergine and pepper, and chop roughly. Skin garlic and chop in half. Mix. Chill. Drizzle with basalmic vinegar and season just before serving.
Wild Rice with Pinenuts & Vermouth:
100 gm Wild Rice
400 ml of Water
20 gm or a couple of tablespoons Pinenuts
Vermouth
Put 100 gm of wild rice in 400 ml of water and bring to low boil. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Place in 20 gm of pinenuts and a couple of healthy splashes (OK, very healthy splashes) of dry Martini vermouth. Cover and simmer for a further 15 minutes or until liquid is mostly absorbed and rice is tender.
Octopus:
120 gm Octopus, fresh or canned
Olive Oil
Toss the olive oil and the octopus in a heavy frypan over a medium heat for about 2 minutes. No more or you'll be chewing rubber!
This was washed down with a new 'Tryout for my House Red'; an Australian 2002 Merlot, label Tempus Two | Lisa McGuigan. I was a bit dubious about buying it - cost was £4, and it came flaunting a screwcap (yeah, yeah, spot the wine snob! [grin]), but I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't too heavy, had a smooth finish and slipped down silkily. An excellent choice for housewine that I'm definitely going to go stock up on!
I have just about done my fill of working around the house today. The lounge, kitchen and bathroom look great - the bedroom is a disaster area! I also found I have to go buy a special drill bit for my drill, as the brickwork is still too hard to pound in the mortar nails I bought, and the brickwork pointing is way too soft to support anything. Grrr.
So I am going to run a nice hot, hot bath, relax for a bit, wash my hair, remove my nailpolish and then sleep the Sleep of the Just for at least 7 hours.