gastronomic treats

Things have been slow here on the blog front for the last few weeks. It seems that my life is currently filled with either work or cooking and eating, which to me seems like no bad combination. I've had a series of fantastic couchsurfers over the last few weeks, from all around the world, and together we've been cooking up some amazing treats.

A trained cook from Taiwan spent a few days here and created one of the best Chinese meals I've had since leaving Beijing. A troupe of Japapenese friends came round for a night and used my takoyaki pan to great effect, adding to that a few sumptuous plates of okonmiyaki, and over the last couple of weeks I've had a South African friend stay, who not only provides me with cryptic crossword clues which keep me puzzled for hours, but happens also to be an excellent chef. Today as I returned home from lunch I was greeted with the smells of fresh fish and nori as plate after plate of sushi arrived on the lunch table. He had also dived into my kimchi jar (in need of refilling next weekend I feel) and had gone to town on an array of exotic nigiri and makizushi. Over the weekend I had also made my first batch of pickled ginger (thinly sliced ginger boiled for a few minutes in half vinager half water with a touch of salt and sugar) which was the right accompaniment to the tuna and salmon purchased earlier in the morning by my gaggle of current residents.

Anyway, this was the result today, kimchi with tuna nigiri, an unusual combination but a good one:

tuna and salmon makizushi with avocado and pickled ginger

and this was the paella I made yesterday, before the monk fish and fresh langoustine were added. I'd forgotten how good the smell of peppers are when you are charring them!