And still it rains... and Comfort Food.

[curiouswombat]

I have been remiss about posting. There have been odd moments when I've thought 'I should post about that', but winter ennui set in.

We are the verb 'to rain'.

Yesterday (or last week, or last month....) it rained.

Today it is raining.

Tomorrow (and the day after, and next week...) it will rain.

It is hard to tell where the sea ends and the land begins, sometimes;



(Note - not my picture.)

But I have continued the 'cook something new each month' thing - in fact, having done February yesterday, I might even manage two this month.

This month's recipe was a one pot comfort food recipe that would be Manolo-friendly, I think pondhopper...



This recipe is from Domestic Sluttery. Those who are fellow fans will recognise the style!



Chorizo, Sweet Potato & Halloumi Bake (serves 4)

You will need:

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 5cm pieces
1 red onion, peeled and cut into rough chunks
2 red peppers, roughly chopped
1 head of garlic, each clove peeled but left intact
Olive oil
225g (1 ring) chorizo, skin removed and cut into 1cm discs
150g halloumi, finely sliced


Make it!

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6.

Put the sweet potato, red onion, peppers, garlic, and olive oil into a large ovenproof dish and use your hands to coat everything in oil.

Add the discs of chorizo in a layer on top.

Place in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour, mixing the chorizo through the dish after about 25 minutes (it should be looking slightly crispy by this time - that's why we leave it on top for a bit before jumbling it all up).

After the cooking time is up - the sweet potato should be nice and soft by now, and the other veg should look, well, cooked, with slight charring to some of the edges - add the finely-sliced halloumi to the top of the dish.

Turn the oven heat right up - as far as it will go, unless you have some sort of bonkers oven that can incinerate stuff, in which case, use your discretion. Pop the dish back in for about 5-10 minutes, until the halloumi has melted and turned goldenish.

...............

I actually also added some black pudding, because I had some and both husband and daughter, who was eating with us yesterday, love it. Their favourite cookery books include The Stornoway Black Pudding Bible which was a gift from dougalsservant. I simply cut about 100gm black pudding into pieces to match the chorizo and treated it the same way.

Also - due to bad weather there was no boat on Friday night - so no halloumi. I used some mozzarella thrown in instead - which was rather elastic - halloumi would have been better. Despite the wrong cheese it was really good. We will certainly make it again.

This is what the left-overs looked like before I ate it for my dinner tonight not very flattering - but very tasty!

Comments

[ellynn-ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Lots of rain here, too...

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Still - I guess it beats a metre of snow, or drought all summer...

[slaymesoftly.livejournal.com]

What is/are chorizo and halloumi?

Nevermind - I googled them. I thought at least one might be cheese.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

You know it never occurred to me, with the USA being such a melting pot of peoples and foods, that you wouldn't have chorizo, or halloumi.

Just think 'spiced sausage' and 'slightly elastic cheese with high melting point'!

[slaymesoftly.livejournal.com]

LOL Well, I live out in the boondocks, so not a lot of ethic restaurants out here. Some Mexican, a few good Italian, and one or two decent Chinese - all of which I would consider pretty much standard American fare. LOL And I am not an adventurous cook or eater, so it's possible those things are available in our bigger grocery stores and I just don't know about them because they aren't on my radar when shopping.

[brutti-ma-buoni.livejournal.com]

Ooh, that does sound nice. And forgiving, too, as you say. I don't eat peppers, but I could probably hide some tomatoes in and they'd dissolve and be tasty. Good wintry grub (which we need). I'm off to Preston tomorrow. Better than across the west country, but I'm expecting it to be exceedingly soggy. And I've got the west country *next* week. Sigh.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Preston's weather is doubtless very like ours - wet. But guess what? The Beeb 5 day forecast reckons it actually won't rain on Thursday!

The chorizo and the sweet potatoes, plus cheese, as a recipe base seems pretty adaptable, I reckon - the flavouring from the sausage, and the fat that cooks out of it, helps flavour and soften the vegetables very well. The black pudding put on top so that it, too, became slightly crumbly worked very well - but was very much an optional extra.

[shirebound]

I'm so hungry now.

I wish we could get some of that rain!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

We would be very happy to share....

Actually both dinner and rain.

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

You have rain - we have snow - everyone is miserable these days.

We have Chorizo but I'd never heard of Halloumi before.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Even poor Shirebound in California where she's got a drought.

To be honest the mozzarella worked - and a nice piece of cheddar sliced thinly over the top would have been fine, too, I think.

[kathyh]

Mmm...that looks scrummy. Just my kind of dish.

*drum roll* We had a day without rain here today. It was fine for most of yesterday but ruined itself by raining in the evening, but today was a dry day! I don't think this happy state of affairs is going to last though.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is really tasty - and incredibly easy - also the sort of thing you could change to fit the ingredients you have available.

Gosh 24 hours without rain! Aren't you worried there will be widespread panic and a hose-pipe ban?

[kathyh]

also the sort of thing you could change to fit the ingredients you have available.

I just made it tonight with butternut squash and it went down very well. Hubby liked it so much he said to thank you for the recipe :)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

My pleasure! I'll remember that it works well with squash, as well.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

That recipe looks wonderful...and quite simple. I am not sure I can get halloumi here, though, as I've never seen it in the cheese sections. I may have to use mozzarella like you did though that is much blander.

Thanks for this!
:)

I am fighting my own winter ennui. This week and next just look dismal weather-wise though we don't live by the sea so I won't be able to get a photo like this one.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It was very simple. And pretty adaptable - such as my addition of the black pudding that was in the fridge.

I did think, afterwards, that if I'd just put a layer of sliced cheddar on top it would have probably worked well, even if not quite the same effect as the recipe required.

Our weather is pretty unexciting right now. Unless you live near the sea...

I don't really mind storms and rain - but a nice bright calm day would be a welcome change. Even snow would make a change!

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

That recipe sounds delicious. And wow! Wen I first looked at that shot I thought it was all sea.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is a winter comfort food recipe - right for your weather, too, at the moment I reckon.

The picture is of the top of Castletown harbour - that row of chain is pretty standard locally between the edge of the road and the harbour - I really should have posted a 'before' to go with it.

It is the upper part of the harbour -



above that small footbridge you can see near the right - most of the part nearer the camera was flooded too.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, yum!

Looks like something the B.H. would like and since it is red pepper I should be able to eat it,(Green pepper and I do not agree!)

Ah, black pudding, haven't had any in years, I might be able to get it here, there is a British Food store to the north of us, in San Jaun Capistrano I think, so maybe one of these days I will drive myself up there!

Well it rained again last night, not sure how much we got, Miss Kitty was not amused, needed her wellies today for her morning patrol, even mewed to come in the front door, which is unusual, the mewing and the coming in the front, not her usual form of ingress and egress!

Stay warm and dry,
Huggs,
Lynda

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Green peppers can be bitter, aren't they? Red is certainly better in this.

Hurrah for you getting some rain - even if Miss Kitty was not amused!

[thismaz.livejournal.com]

The juxtaposition of boat and car is what makes that photo, isn't it? Very effective. (That and the name of the boat.)

It is too early to think about food, so I skipped over your recipe *g* I need more coffee; I slept in today.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is a well spotted picture - but the sort of opportunity you might wish you didn't have if you live anywhere near Castletown harbour!

And yes - food with chorizo and root vegetables is not easy to contemplate before the middle of the day!

[chaotic-binky.livejournal.com]

That looks yummy - I would use a different cheese; Halloumi is nasty!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I was willing to try it as they was what the recipe asked for - but I reckon a layer of good cheddar on top would be really good!

[suzll.livejournal.com]

That recipe sounds delicious! I just might have to add it to my 'to-make' list...

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is very good - and one of things that would adapt, and be quite elastic!

[spikereader.livejournal.com]

We had no rain at all yesterday, and today has been mostly dry! (Though we've not been as badly rained on as other parts of the country thank goodness - looking at all the flood pictures and reports on the news just makes me so sorry for all the people and animals, and it just isn't going away).

That recipe sounds like something all mine would eat, so I'll pinch it too (though I've never cooked with halloumi, but could replace it with mozzarella or cheddar if I don't like the look of it).

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Today we have had bright sunshine, torrential rain - and snow!

The recipe works well - and is one of those things you could easily make bigger or smaller - and pad out with hunks of bread, if need be, I think.

[sulien.livejournal.com]

It's a pity we can't send your excess rain to the parts of the planet that really need it! Then again, that may be a good thing, because we'd likely put things even further out of balance. :-p

This recipe sounds wonderful and the picture looks even better! Thanks for sharing this, I'm going to have to try it, even though I think it did make me gain a pound just from looking at it. :)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Sorry I missed your comment; the e-mails were a bit hit and miss for a couple of days.

We would be happy to share our rain - honestly.

The recipe is real winter comfort food, and filling, so the portions don't need to be all that big...

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain...

We actually had a sunny, if cold, weekend. But it's been pouring with rain off and on again ever since and Oxford is still sitting in a lake. Every time the water goes down a foot, it rains again!

Still, as you point out, no chance of a drought or a hosepipe ban this summer. And if we do ever actually get a summer, then the berries next autumn should be fantastic... [clutching at straws here].

It's been incredibly blowy here today and I did wonder, given that it's been horrendous down on the south-west coast, how the Small Island is doing?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It has blown trees down - our car park at work was full of tree yesterday, and damaged sea walls -




But we are all clinging on like limpets!

I hope your new home is still above the tide-line?

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

Yoicks! That's scary!

New house dry as a bone, thanks. Very reassuring really - if it's come nowhere near flooding after the wettest January in the South of England for over 250 years...

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

There was similar damage in a couple of other places too - it is a very stormy winter.

You will be able to sit, warm, dry, and confident, in your new abode come next winter, and have no fears if it turns out to be another such winter...

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

At least, only worry about the wind bringing slates off the roof!

We've had fallen trees on towpaths and footpaths too - so many of the trees near the rivers and streams have been standing in floodwater for weeks that their roots are just rotting, I think. A bit of strong wind and over they go :-(

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I keep expecting to lose slates, too. But so far, so good.

I agree about the trees - the roots are rotting, and the earth is like rice pudding - some of them would probably fall over if anyone even leant on them...

[estelcontar1.livejournal.com]

You're drowning, and we haven't had any rain in over 20 days, and apparently there won't be any at least for the coming 15. We definitely could do with some of your rain.

That dish sounds tasty. Not a good one to try during our hot summer though. Salads are it right now.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Instead of 3D printers, someone should be trying to work out how we e-mail rain...

And the dish is lovely, but certainly winter weather food.