Crap Chef

I wanted something quick and easy that used some leftovers, so spanish tortillas it is. Brown some potatoes and mushrooms in a little bit of oil. When the spuds are cooked but not brown, spoon them out and drain most of the oil. Put the veggies back in the pan. Crack in four eggs and cook until done. One each for me and Vero, one with chorizo and one without. Some pan con tomate on the side. 5 minutes. Some steamed pork dumplings for me... And some pan-fried ones for Vero. Pork, cilantro, garlic, a little bit of nam-pla and some spring onions. The mackerel at La Boqueria looked nice. I wanted to do something with that. This is a couple of filets cooked in the pan with dill, paprika and garlic. Then the fish is taken out and the pasta tossed in the oil. The dill flavour is so good. And some mackerel done in the style of pickled herring. I fileted the fish then pressed it into a mixture of cider vinegar, bay leaves, dill, crushed peppercorns, garlic and a little whole c...

Today is Tuesday, but I did all this stuff yesterday.  We got back from England last week.  We ate lots of good stuff that I hadn't had for ages.  Sharp cheddar, fish and chips, toad in the hole, sausages, shepherds pie, steak and ale pie, scotch eggs and pork pie, for example! I wanted to try my hand at pork pie.  A bit beyond my usual stuff, and outside of my cooking comfort zone (which is, I suppose, asian).  Anyway, this is the saga of yesterday. First, I boiled some water with a carrot, an onion, sage, thyme and garlic. Then I threw in some pigs trotters and boiled for three hours. I took a kilo of pork shoulder and chopped it up into little bitty pieces.  Did the same with some bacon, and mixed them together with some sage, thyme, garlic, a clove and some bay leaves. I melted 200 grams of lard in the same amount of water, then added flour to make a dough. I don't have a deep dish to make the traditional shape of a pork pie, so this shallower...