dinner party

spanish orange glazed squid

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I have a oldish Spanish cookbook with fantastic recipes in it that are great as tapas. I’m working my way through it pretending I’m in Barcelona. This recipe from that book has the sweetness of oranges which work really well with squid and the smokiness of the smoked paprika giving it a real Spanish vibe. I’ve tweaked it slightly and replaced the sugar with maple syrup so it’s low glycemic. You can eat it as tapas with other small plates or combine it with pasta as I did. I bought my black pasta from my Italian deli but it works equally well with plain old standard spaghetti or Linguine. It’s perfect for a dinner party or a date night. My friend Timna says it’s up there with my crab Linguine as one of the best things she’s ever tasted.

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moroccan carrot salad

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I love this recipe so much. I got it from the Moro cookbook and have tweaked it a little to make it easier. Every time I serve it everyone adores it and wants the recipe. The taste is sweetly delicious and very Moroccan because it’s really fresh and fragrant with the perfume of cumin and coriander. It’s great with meat, salads and couscous dishes or with my vegetable tajine. I don’t peel the carrots because I can’t be bothered and I assume most of the goodness and taste is in the skin and no one notices if you do or don’t.

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fennel salad with pistachios and feta

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I had a salad similar to this with my friend Amanda this week in a restaurant. We really liked it and thought it was a great idea, but thought the dressing needed a bit more oomph. Roasted fennel is a fantastic ingredient in a salad, it loses its liquoricey flavour and has a delicious delicate flavour and texture. I’ve also added a few extra ingredients to make it more tasty. This recipe has all the right components for our tastes plus there’s the crunchy and creamy thing going on which we love.

Recipe

Serves 2.

Ingredients:
2 fennel bulbs sliced fairly thinly
100g Feta
A lemon cut into wedges
Some baby salad leaves
A sprinkling of Sumac
A handful of pistachios
2 tablespoons of pomegranate seeds
3 tablespoons olive oil plus a bit more for roasting the fennel
2 teaspoons lime juice
2 tablespoons of pomegranate molasses
Salt and pepper to taste

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paella

~ aplotzi ~ 5 Comments

Hola! This is one of my favourite dishes ever.

I make it with a lower ratio of rice to seafood so it’s mostly seafood, which makes it more delicious and healthier. My version is created with all the amazing moorish flavours that are really special as I combined all the best bits from each Spanish recipe I could find and reworked it and it is really simple to make and only needs one pan. My friends think it is the best paella they’ve ever had, partly because the seafood is steamed on the rice for the last ten minutes so it’s tender and not dried out and over cooked. If you are feeding more people just double or triple the quantities, as needed. Just make sure you use a big enough pan.

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aloo gobi

~ aplotzi ~ 4 Comments

This is my own version of the Leon Aloo Gobi. Even though it’s got a lot of ingredients, it’s worth making as a stand alone veggie dish. It’s perfect for a vegan or vegetarian dinner party served with basmati rice or a paratha. It has all the righ flavours and textures. Sweet and savoury and  very creamy. Everyone loves it, including die hard carnivores. It has been wheeled out for many a dinner party and vegetarian dinner à deux.

Recipe

Serves 3-4.

Ingredients:
1 medium onion finely chopped
2 carrots thickly sliced
2 tablespoons olive or coconut oil
1 red chilli
2 thumb sized pieces of fresh ginger
5 cloves peeled garlic
1 heaped teaspoon madras curry powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon black onion seeds
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/2 a cauliflower broken into florets
1 x 400ml tin coconut milk
1 cup frozen peas (thawed)
Juice of half a lemon
A handful of sultanas
Finely chopped parsley or coriander
A handful of desiccated coconut (and some optional coconut chips to sprinkle on top)

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