Cooking food from home

Good idea for a thread.

As you saw I made myself a pot of stewed sausage the other day. The only problem was the stock cubes you get here make the gravy taste a bit odd. The ''carne'' ones I used tasted more like a veg stock cube than beef. They're obviously shit compared to the UK beef stock cubes. I'll shop around and see if better quality ones are available. The biggest problem I have with creating UK style dishes here are fishy ones. I love smoked fish which you can't buy here. I've tried cold smoking fillets of merluza which was a bit of a success. However the quality of fish you get here absolutely stinks.

It's the Knorr cubes I used. I'll see what other Beef stock brands are available and give them a try. They can't be any worse.

Apart from fish and seafood I can create almost every dish I used to make in Scotland. I can even make tomato baked beans. However it's things like HP Sauce,Mango Chutney,Mint Sauce, Horseradish Sauce etc I used to have with the dishes I miss the most.

Quote from serafina

Today, I am making peperonata, which is a bell-pepper dish made fairly simply: garlic (some add also onions, I do not), EVO, bell peppers (red, yellow, green) and tomato sauce. It is very tasty if the ingredients are ripe and of good quality. Since bell peppers are a summer vegetables, it is traditionally cooked in summer and eaten hot (or cold). They are available all year long here, so I prepare this dish even during Argentinian winter. With some nice slices of crusty breads, they are a tasty main dish. The longer it sits in the refrigerator, the tastier.

Thanks for the recipe! I liked to cook with bell peppers before living here, but now I use them almost every meal. For the reason you mention, which is they are available fresh almost everywhere all year round here in Argentina. I stew them with onions, though less often with tomato. What is EVO? Our standard is to almost char them on the cast iron plancha to add to a green salad of lettuce and arugula. We mix in caramelized onions and peppers, almost charred, with garlic and ginger into a pan fried grain mix of rice/barley/wheat (cebada y trigo en grano) and often with pancetta.

Do you use Tofu here much? In other countries I will use it occasionally or weekly instead of other meat protein, though here it is not as easy to find. I have to make a special trip to the few places.

Quote from serafina

And do you use vinegar, too?

I only use vinegar for descaling the electric kettle!! After seeing how much they like to put vinegar on salads here I bought some cider vinegar to try it on my salad. The missus only puts EV Olive Oil and fresh lemon juice on ours. Have to say a few drops of the cider vinegar worked wonders.

I like charred veggies too, but different ones besides bell peppers and onions. My favorites are broccoli, Brussels sprouts, eggplant, zucchini and crookneck yellow squash.

Many people in Argentina dress green salads with EVOO only, no lemon juice or vinegar. So we started eating our salad that way, and were surprised to learn that we like it.

Before I met the missus for years salad was always accompanied by Heinz salad cream. Nowt else. When I was young you only ever ate salad during summer.

I used to be force fed sprouts when I was young. It put me right off them until I saw a hillwalking mate of mine make a boiled carrot, onion,sprouts and potato mash when we were away camping. I've loved it ever since.. I made it for the missus and she loves it as well. We call it 'rustic mash'.

UK Man , your rustic mash sounds delicious. As do your Brussels sprouts, serafina . And please tell what a rice salad is? Sounds interesting!

Quote from serafina

Last night I made Brussels sprouts, another favorite of mine.

Very simply to make: remove outer leaves, wash well. Then cut in half, and lie them - face down - in an oiled pan. Let sizzle and brown a bit, then add a glass of water, salt, cover with a lid and let it steam. They are ready in about 15-20'. With some white pepper, they turned out delicious!

You can get a heavier version by adding either bacon, blue cheese & nuts (oven grated), beer.

We had same last night. Your picture has them looking tasty. It must be the season, or second harvest of the year. Pretty close to the same technique, though only top off to steam when using a sauté pan. With the cast iron plancha I keep it dry until crisped a bit.

Quote from serafina

EVO = Extra Virgin Olive Oil

I use tofu occasionally, usually to replace cheese in Indian recipes such as Palak Paneer. However, tofu has become quite expensive here, so I am limiting my tofu purchase! I find it in dieteticas, some even sell smoked tofu.

oh right EVO! we use for almost everything. It’s been expensive this year. Yeah having tofu only at the dietéticas just makes it inconvenient, plus the price makes it a less realistic choice. In the US it helps to mix up the weekly routine, and it’s found easily in the normal supermarket. Not something I care too much about missing here, so only prepare every month or two.

I’d be interested in a good EVOO brand too. We always bought Paz label at our nearby La Granja store, which closed during Covid. It wasn’t gourmet, but excellent quality for the very reasonable price.

I’m going to want some as soon as we land, so I hope you all have recommendations.

When I lived in Spain, I did some consultancy work with a couple of Olive Oil companies.

Pricing in Spain is totally dependent on the total harvest - as last year there was a major drought in all olive growing areas, prices more than doubled.

When the harvest comes back to normal pricing will go back to normal. No one makes them do it, it's just there are lots of producers, and the laws of supply and demand work fairly well.

Here pricing depends on the manufacturer and they keep increasing every couple of weeks.

Last month in Uruguay I was able to buy some good Spanish oil at 10 USD per 750ml bottle in the duty free shops in Rivera in the north of the country.

A Bloody good price, given in Spain the current retail price is between 9/00 and 12.00 Euros depending on the brand.

Good find, GlasgowJohn . I wondered if EZE’s duty free shop has a similar deal.

This is the brand my wife buys in bulk. I know nowt about it but she seems to think its good.