Home: cava-poached "amandes" clams

When a relationship ends, I am usually massively emotional, full of feelings of loss, and introspective about what went wrong. In my current situation, I am so shocked by the amount of lies and manipulation, that I have become eerily calm and empty. I have no sadness or regret, no hatred or anger. I like the other girl in the love-triangle, if you can call it that (you've got to give it to him, this guy has good taste), there was nothing I could have ever done to make the outcome different, and I am proud of myself for following my instincts and getting to the bottom of the world of lies he had created. I would make a great detective! I made the controversial decision to mention it on facebook not because I'm bitter, need sympathy or want to incite hatred, but because I want everyone I know to be warned. I am not going to feel ashamed and through my silence become part of the conspiracy. Yet I am tired and I need to emotionally recharge, come to terms with the fact that I fell in love with a figment of someone's imagination. So I've come home. Eastbourne isn't where I was born, or grew up, yet it is one of the places that I consider home now. I have grown to love the blustery South Downs that back onto our garden and the sea soothes me, even when it's stormy and cold

 

These are local "amandes" clams, which I bought from my favourite shop on the seafront. I took a knob of butter and fried some garlic in it, then dropped the pre-washed clams in and covered them three-quarters of the way with Cava. Add a sprinkle of sea salt, turn the heat up, cover and cook until the clams open up - about 3min. You treat these like mussels so make sure you disgard any that do not close when you are washing them. Tonight, it's roast East Sussex pheasant.

La Stella Marina di Montecristo, Cagliari: possibly the best fish meal in Sardinia

It's the second year in a row that I've ended up in Sardinia, so it's fair to say that I am a little bit in love the place. This time round, I was there for over two weeks. I went to a festival and travelled down the east coast with girlfriends. Last year it was the west coast with my ex, LT. They are completely different, both equally beautiful and in some way, magical. At least to me

One place I do not love in Sardinia in Cagliari. It's a large city in the south. There is nothing wrong with it per se, it's simply a bit underwhelming in comparison to the rest of the island. It is nevertheless where we ended up having the best meal of our entire trip, in a weird, little, kitch restaurant full of locals

It was recommended to us by Alberto, our host through Airbnb. It's always fish and it's always cheap. You eat what they give you, no menu. For a person who doesn't particularly enjoy making decisions and loves all food, like myself, it's heaven

I could take you through everything we ate, all the different types of fish and seafood, finished off with sweets, mirto and limocello, but as it is different every night, I think it would be quite pointless. Also, having returned from Sardinia last night, I have found out the my second beloved gran (the only one left) is not well, possibly on the way out, so I need to fly to Poland today. I'm writing this in the one hour I have before I go to the airport again, therefore I do not have time to focus on the details of this meal. I hope that you get the idea of what it was like from the pictures. All you really need to know is that if you are in the area, you should come here. You need to book ahead and the meal will set you back around 30 euros per head with wine. You pay at the till at the end, no faffling around with bills and tips

Seafood by the sea, the way it should be

This is how I like to eat when I am by the sea

I really can't recommend this fish shop on the seafront in Eastbourne enough. I cooked the clams simply, in cider, adding a bit of crushed garlic, seasoning and a bay leaf, and simmering until they all opened up (of course, as with mussels, you need to chuck any ones that are already open beforehand). The prawns and scallops were fried together on a large pan with olive oil and more crushed garlic. Once they were nearly ready, after about 4 min (2 each side), I squeezed half a lemon on top, seasoned them with sea salt and freshly ground pepper and gave them one more minute, covered. They produced this lovely, seafoody, orange sauce all by themselves. Clever prawns

Food in Madrid - goose barnacles and cardoons

One of my favourite things about Madrid -  along with the fun people; a "clandestino" night club I found myself in at 8am that Sunday; and a massage here - is the food. Spanish food is everything I love - simple, unpretentious and natural. There were a few things that I ate while in Madrid that I've never eaten before, namely "percebes" and "cardo"

 I believe that this is what's called a "goose barnacle" in English. These are fussy, little sea creatures that only live on rocks where the waves break - because of this they are not easy to obtain and quite expensive. We were lucky enough to try them at the Mercado San Anton, when the clams we ordered were "not very well"

"Cardo" translates into English as "thistle" or "cardoon" and it looks like a massive celery. However, unlike celery, here you only eat the heart. I don't know why this appeals so much to me, but it does. Unai cooked it for me at home, with some other vegetables and I enjoyed it so much that I would like to share the recipe with you - this dish hails from the Basque Country, same as Unai. You can use it with any vegetables you like, especially artichoke - cardoon's relative. Cook the cardoon in water for about 15min. Fry the garlic and onion in oil until they are translucent, then add flour. Mix this while frying until it all turns brown. Now add a bit of water from the cardoon - about a ladle-full - and keep stirring and frying for another 8-10mins. Add the cardoon to the sauce, along with any other vegetables that take your fancy and the boiled eggs. Season and serve like this

Ingredients

Cardoons/other vegetables

Onion

Garlic

1 tablespoon flour

Eggs, hard-boiled

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Fisherman's spaghetti with courgettes and mussels

I once read somewhere, that in a certain part of Italy the fishermen eat spaghetti with courgettes, olive oil and garlic on days when they have no fish. For some reason, I have remembered this little fact for years. This will surprise anyone who knows me and my inability to remember facts, peoples' names, even songs I love. But with food it's different and the image of these fishermen, tired from a day's hard work and salty air, worn out from the sun, the toil, but somehow essentially content from living a life so close to nature... has always stayed with me. And I have made this dish many times, with many variations, and always with a thought for the fishermen. This one was the best I've made so far. Since they are fishermen, I reasoned, it therefore follows that this kind of dish would be especially good with something that comes from the sea. I imagined a fisherman's wife casually throwing in a handful of fresh seafood into the pan. Just like the mussels that I had left over from the paella we made the other night. As you can see if you clicked on that link, the paella really couldn't handle any more of them

I felt really mean waking up the mussels by splashing cold water on them until they closed their shells, then boiling them alive, but what can you do... I boiled them in fish stock with saffron. At the same time I also boiled the spaghetti in salt water, until it was al dente. In the massive frying pan, I fried small, fine, almost translucent chunks of courgette and garlic in plenty of olive oil, and some sea salt. Finally, I added both the spaghetti and the mussels to the pan, along with a splash of the saffron stock. I cooked this for a while longer, adding more stock to make sure it didn't burn, and squeezed some lemon in right at the end. I served it with ground black pepper and some cold beer. I love to imagine that by eating this some little part of me is right there with the fishermen, in a cosy kitchen somewhere in Italy

Authentic Spanish Paella

When it's dark and cold as you get up in the morning, dark and cold as you leave work, and grey for most of the time in between, you need to try and bring some sunshine into your life in any way you can. And this winter, sunshine comes in the form of paella for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about eating seasonally and locally, and I try to do that even when making paella, yet there's no need to be obbessive about it, is there now? Just look at my beautiful paella and tell me it doesn't tempt you

A friend of mine, Mariana, who grew up in Spain, has taught me how to make this dish in the proper manner. It's always good to learn how to make something authentically first, as close to the original as possible, before experimenting I find. Like when I learnt to make risotto in the proper manner in Italy. It gives you a good strong foundation to build upon. Incidently, the only thing those to dishes appear to have in common is rice. And not even that really, since Mariana insisted that we used this particular rice, which sadly isn't widely available

Calasparra hails from Murcia, and although paella is traditionally Valencian, I've visited that part of the world and the arroz-type dishes are just as common in both the regions, though the meats, fish and vegetables vary. I had a beautiful rabbit paella in the mountains of Murcia for example. Of course, Valencian rice is just perfect. But do not be tempted to make paella with risotto rice, because it is simply too creamy

Here's Mariana hard at work, when she made it the first time a couple of weeks ago and I decided that when it comes to winter get-togethers with friends, paella is the way forward. Especially, if your friends are willing to help, because two pairs of hands come in really useful here!

Ingredients (serves 3)

2 cups rice

3 tablespoons olive oil

Red pepper, chopped into tiny cubes

Small onion, chopped into tiny cubes

1 tsp saffron

3 tsp paprika

Mussels - 3 handfuls

3 tiger prawns

2 squid, in rings

Fish stock cube

Lemon

2 garlic cloves

Sea salt

Black pepper

Ok, bear with me here because I will need to go into quite a bit of detail. It's not my usual style, but as we've established, you need to do this properly the first time round. Firstly, the red pepper and onion need to be chopped very, very small, but not minced. Crush the garlic cloves and heat the olive oil in a large pan. Fry the garlic to flavour the oil then discard. Fry the onion until golden, then add the red pepper and continue to fry, not stirring too much as it needs to caramelize. Add salt to taste and some paprika. Meanwhile put the seafood in cold water, with the saffron and salt, and bring to the boil. Make sure it's all covered. Cover and cook for about 3min, then remove from the water. Add half a fish stock cube to the hot water, and allow to simmer. Now add the rice to the first pan and stir in for a little while, maybe 3-4min, before adding some stock. You do not stir again. Ever. You shake the dish a bit instead, to spread everything out evenly

It should look like this. Now leave it until the water evaporates, when you can add some more. Keep doing this, shaking the pan a little from time to time. Finally, arrange the seafood on top of the paella in an attractive manner. Cover the pan and allow to cook a while longer, until the rice is perfect. Basically after about 10min, try a bit and see what it tastes like. Sprinkle with more paprika and serve with lemon wedges. When you serve it, you'll see how it's all caramelized at the bottom in a slightly crunchy and incredibly tasty way. That's exactly how it should be - enjoy

Cha Ca La Vong - Catfish at Little Hanoi

I just have to tell you about this dish I ate at Little Hanoi (147 Curtain Road) not long ago, because I've never had anything like it and my mouth still waters at the memory! It's called Cha Ca La Vong and it is a well known thing apparently, with some restaurants in Hanoi specializing in cooking only this. And what it is, is a sizzle-in-front-of-you, melt-in-your-mouth-delicious catfish - a great starter for 2-3 people, though you may want to wait until you've eaten it to decide what you want to follow, as it is filling. The owner recommended it to us, and from now on I plan to seek him out to recommend other stuff. The thing with Vietnamese restaurants is because the menu is so extensive and the choice so large, I often wonder if I'm not missing out anything. It turns out that I have been...