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