Monday, March 18, 2019

Pickle Juice, IP Beef, Sunday Afternoon, Roasted Broccoli, Tapas

I just read an article on Food and Wine entitled What to do with Leftover Pickle Juice. There are some good ideas like using it instead of vinegar or for flavouring dressings etc. but one they didn't mention, chop up some vegetables, boil the pickle juice and pour it over the vegetables in a Mason jar, seal and hey presto, more pickles. You need to keep them in the fridge mind you. Without putting them in a water bath they would not be safe to leave in a cupboard somewhere.  Another use for pickle juice is for cramps I am told.

Saturday night I cooked the Instant Pot Deli Style Roast Beef again. I cut down the resting time inside the pot from 35 to 15 minutes and only used 1 cup of beef stock. Much better, very successful in fact. I will certainly be doing it again now I have the hang of it for a smaller piece of beef. I didn't use Bisto this time either. There is enough for seconds, but I chickened out again, preparing veg and I have a Yam I want to make into fries. However, Mac and Cheese is so quick.

Matt managed to do the washing on Sunday morning so that is OK. He has had 3 sessions with the TENS machine now, poor man twinges for 20 minutes. He swears it's set OK and the same as the therapist set it. Sunday afternoon at 1 ish my friend turned up - we had a good visit and talked up a storm. She described the trip she and her family are taking to South Africa in about a month's time. They will also be meeting up with our friend Mary and her husband Jeff. We met Mary a year or two back when they made a brief visit to Canada. Would love to visit South Africa, but not likely to happen now unfortunately.

Also went shopping - Sunday is a very busy day for the Click and Collect people. They had 61 orders to complete.

I just came across something saying everyone would rave about a roasted broccoli side. Not us, I did some the other day and Matt thought it was awful. I wasn't particularly keen either. IMHOP it spoils the vegetable.

This recipe reminds me of the days when my parents live in Alicante, Spain and when we visited we would go on what we called a Tapas Run, i.e. visiting various places and eating their tapas with a drink. Tapas were served in most (if not all) bars and have a long history in Spain. They can range from something extremely simple to something pretty complicated, but this shrimp dish used to turn up all over the place. Absolutely delicious. The first time Matt ate this, he was with my father and was served two huge shrimp as big as lobster tails. Never got to try those myself. This recipe adds a few chilies and some parsley, but otherwise is absolutely the same. This brings back so many memories.

Garlicky Shrimp with Olive Oil

At La Casa del Abuelo, a tiny taberna in Madrid, gambas al ajillo (shrimp with garlic) are cooked in individual earthenware cazuelitas and served with plenty of bread to dip into the garlicky oil once the
shrimp have been eaten. This dish can also be prepared in a skillet.

1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
6 whole dried red chiles
1/4 cup minced flat-leaf parsley
2 lbs shelled and deveined medium shrimp
Salt
Crusty bread, for serving

1. In a very large, deep skillet, heat the olive oil until shimmering. Add the garlic, chiles and parsley and cook over moderately high heat for 10 seconds, stirring. Add the shrimp and cook over high heat, stirring once, until they are pink and curled, 3 to 4 minutes. Season with salt and transfer to small bowls. Serve with crusty bread.

Yield: : 8 first-course servings

 Source: FOOD & WINE


Have a great day
 

16 comments:

  1. I used to love to drink the pickle juice. I still like the flavor, but don't need all of the salt. I'm one of those believers in pickle juice for cramps. I'm goin got try the pickle juice trick with some cauliflower. I love pickled cauliflower.

    And your humble opinion is same as mine on roasting broccoli. I think it makes it dry and bitter.

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    1. You are the one who first told me about pickle juice and cramps Liz. Pickled cauliflower works well.

      I know, it is not a way of preparing broccoli that I would ever do again.

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  2. Hi Jo - I prefer fresh natural things ... but understand the need food writers need to try different ways of using veg. Love tapas of any sort! Glad the beef worked, and good to know Matt appears to be getting better. So happy you had that visit with your friends - Southern Africa is wonderful - just sorry you never got there ... cheers Hilary

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    1. Yup, I basically agree Hilary. As for Matt, slow recovery, but TENS is helping. Yes, would have loved to visit SSA especially with friends living there.

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  3. Mustard also works well for cramps. Makes sense that the pickle juice could substitute for vinegar since it's pickle-flavored vinegar!

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  4. Now I'm going to start saving my pickle juice. We eat a lot of pickles. Almost no calories and my body can handle the excess salt.

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    1. I eat a lot too Diane, but Matt never touches t hem.

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  5. We pickle our own onions/shallots as I like to add lots of extra chilli and spices to the juice but otherwise we don't eat many pickles. I did see an idea the other day for colouring devilled eggs. You put shelled hardboiled eggs into a pickled beetroot juice jar and leave for 12 - 24 hours. The outside layer of egg white gets coloured which makes for a more interesting hors douvres!

    We have a lot of taps when at our holiday home in the Canary Islands ... I love the dish you described - what we call 'sizzling prawns'

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    1. What other spices do you add Sue, would be interested to know.

      Knew about the beet juice, but never thought of it for devilled eggs.

      I so used to enjoy tapas especially the Gambas al Alijillo which is what I remember it being called.

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    2. I put in most everything in my spice cupboard :)

      cloves, peppercorns, mustard seeds, chilli flakes, cardamom, bay leaf and allspice. We like plenty of heat/bite. Actually, I've been known to cheat and buy some of the supermarket own 'Value' brands of pickled onions and then spice up the pickling juice this way. The value onions are ridiculously cheap but not very tasty.

      Yes Gambas al Alijillo is the correct name for the tapas dish - we'll be back in the Canaries next week enjoying some!

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    3. I only use mustard seeds and peppercorns. I must do a few additions by the sound of it Sue.

      Lucky you, I miss my Spanish visits.

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  6. I heard about pickle juice being good for cramps but I never tried it. I am not sure why but Africa has never been on my must see list even though I love the animals. It's always wonderful getting together with friends

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    1. The continent of Africa is vast of course Birgit, with many different countries, but I would like to visit South Africa because I have friends there apart from anything else.

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  7. I use left over pickle juice to make pickled hard-boiled eggs! Glad you got the shopping taken care of, and hope Matt is being careful with that machine! I have a friend who goes to South Africa every summer for photo safaris and just because she likes to do that. I'd love to go with her one day...

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    1. I used to make pickled eggs years ago Lisa, guess I should do so again. I used to put them in a fridge in the shed in NC and one night we had a really bad frost, ended up with broken glass and eggs and juice everywhere. Haven't done them since. Supposed to do a good egg in the Instant Pot.

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