Quackkkkk

Pan fried duck, France

There comes a point when you get sick of eating chicken, beef and pork...your tastebuds, if they were an emoticon, would go like this 😖 This is when my heart desires duck or venison and then settles on duck as more easily available. That meaty, gamey taste is just so amazing and I would have it more often but organic duck seems impossible to find. 

Crispy duck, Bratislava, Slovakia

The Chinese make amazing crispy duck - the Chinese make pretty amazing everything, let's be honest - their cuisine is their all time most popular export, isn't it? and to reason. 

Duck Teriyaki, Nanayo, Barcelona

The Japanese are not far behind with the above version of duck teriyaki.

Roasted duck, Casa G Krauss, Sighisoara, Romania

But this wee beastie is made flavourfully by many nations. Roasted in its skin and bathed in a wine and cream sauce, tis heavenly too

Duck with mushrooms, La Palmera, Barcelona, Spain

And how about this delightful pan fried duck with seasonal mushrooms, in a port sauce? 

Somewhere in the catalan countryside, Spain

Add red wine reduction and oh my...

And lastly, with a berry sauce...

I WANT ME SOME DUCK NOW!

Some random beauties

The other day, I revisited a place I hadn't been to for ages, to order a tapa I hadn't eaten in ages but which had stayed in my head as THE tapa to eat. Tis called 'Pop a la brava' which translates as octopus on a 'brava', the 'brava' being the Spanish version of the English chip. You must like/love octopus to like this dish but even for those who don't like octopus, trust me, you will have an orgasm eating this. Imagine a firm and tender slice of octopus on a crunchy but tender piece of potatoe, with a spicy binding sauce in between. Yummmmmmm. Definitely worth the nearly 12€ you fork out for 6 bites of heaven.

Recently too, I had this yummy and wondrously stodgy 'tapa' of what the Spanish call 'Russian salad' but is unheard of in Russia. Boiled taters, boiled veg like carrot and peas plus lashings of mayo and there you have it, a dish to see you through any Siberian winter. Add a delicious cava and voilá!

I am not in general a fritter fan but once in a while, who can refuse hot and crispy fresh squid with an unctuous sour cream dip next to it, accompanied by my favourite summer rosé cava? 

The king of (non dairy) milks- Hail Horchata!

Tiger nuts

Spain has a wonderful tradition of drinking 'horchata' of 'chufa' or Tiger nut milk. 
Sounds cool, huh, TIGER NUTS- but, never fear, no tiger has been unmanned ( untigered?) for this delight so PETA adherents, calm down. Funnily enough, these nuts are not even nuts but the tubers of a sedge family! The plant was first introduced by the Arabs in the region of Valencia and over time, the resulting milk/drink, which is very popular in summer, can be found everywhere in Spain. Though grown in many countries, especially for animal feed, tis just in Spain that the tubers are harvested for their milk. Once the sun has started sliding towards the horizon, people start coming out of their homes and mill around 'horchaterías' which sell this cooling drink, along with ice cream. 

As you can guess, I LOVE this milk but generally find that most places make it so sweet that just one sip gives me diabetes. Argh. And then a few years ago, a friend told me that the 'Horchateria' near my home also does the sugar free version so imagine my delight when I asked for it! Over time, my order has come to be half of the sugary one, mixed with half a glass of the sugar-free one and I am in heaven! 

Recently, I wondered if I could make my own. At 1.90€ for a 100 ml glass, it ain't cheap and frankly, anyone who has made soya milk can easily make this so I decided to go for it. Weirdly enough, finding organic 'chufa' was not easy but I found a place. The nuts themselves definitely look like dried dwarf tiger nuts ( ergo the name?), or even monkey nuts. LOL And yes, you can eat them raw and I wonder why most people don't since they are so tasty, like a more intense and sweeter almond. Yum! Here goes the making of:

Makes 1 litre
Ingredients:
125 gms tiger nuts
1 litre water
6 drops stevia + 1 teaspoon muscovado sugar (optional) or demerara or refined sugar. Please, no saccharine or chemical crap - UGH UGH
Method:
Soak the nuts in water for 24 hrs and make sure to change the water 2-3 times.
Do a final rinse the next day and put them in your blender with a cup of your litre of water.
Blend away till you get a thick and mostly smooth sludge.
Add the rest of the water and mix well. And now for the fun! Sieving! Woot woot! 
Once you have sieved the milk, add the sugary stuff to your taste or don't. DON'T chuck the leftover dried sludge - integrate it into your pancake or bread mix or why not, to your chicken à la coco (tiger) nut - it's delicious!
I also add poppy seed, chiia and or finely chopped almonds to my horchata as a post workout drink full of all the goodness and protein that the expensive, chemical laden protein shakes claim to have. And why not blend it with a banana? Sluuuuuuurp