Food adventures - new discoveries this week - good and bad!

[Shimmyshimmy]

Chorizo and chicken paella - no fish involved, it was really good, everyone enjoyed it and not too much effort either.

Trying to experiment more with cuts of meat so I made an oxtail stew - the stew tasted ok but there was loads of fat and eating around the oxtail was messing and tricky - will revert to Ox cheek for stews.

Dcs made lovely Argentinian biscuits with a dulce de leche filling - thankfully I'm off sugar for lent or I'd have scoffed the lot!

Today I'm making a batch of brioche for burgers later on - I screwed up and added all the butter at once - they are taking their time to rise, so it could be a mad dash to the supermarket to buy some rolls later.

What have you been doing this week?

Only good so far!

Cherry tomatoes brushed with honey and olive oil bakes in the oven

Sandwich spread- full fat creamy cheese with tinned mackerel in oil( drain the oil), chopped spring onion and cucumber.

Will have to try potato dauphinose but with full fat milk instead of cream- apparently it works very well and it's not so rich as cream.

Hi Shimmyshimmy
This type of paella is popular at ours, DS2 is not too keen on seafood paella so when there's a few of us I make two, the seafood one for those keen on it and the chorizo, chicken version or sometimes pork pieces or even ribs. Everyone catered for

In the Rioja region of Spain(my DF was from there) it is made with chorizo and meat. Can be lamb (which is a specialty of the region as is their chorizo) pork or chicken.Coooked outside using vine cuttings and accompanied by the great veggies they have in the region and of course their great vino.
Very popular to the region is the very simple Patatas con Chorizo, a simple but very tasty potato and chorizo stew.

Burguer buns is something I've been wanting to do. I make my burguers from scratch even mincing my own meat but the supermarket buns spoil it for me. Hope yours turn out good and no need for mad rush to the shops

How interesting numberseven and I happen to be a big fan of Rioja wine too!

Well despite my screw up - which will now be incorporated into the method, because it's much more straightforward, my Brioche buns came out really well.
Dcs came home from school and scoffed 2 massive rolls already - it's apparently as good as Waitrose brioche but in a burger bun shape and dead easy because I made it in my Panasonic Bread machine. I usually mince my own meat too, but today it's going to be standard mince going into the burger, I feel like I'm letting my amazing buns down....there's always the next time!

baldhedgehog I love dauphinoise but I am alone, the rest of the family would rather have potatoes any other way. Let us know how you get on though.

Any chance of the brioche recipe, Shimmy?

Brioche recipe for Panasonic

Added in order

1tsp yeast - I use doves farm orange pack
250g strong white flour
1/2tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar - I used soft brown, original recipe suggested caster.
75g butter, softened - almost liquid
3 lg eggs beaten

Program dough - takes 2hr 20min

When done, knead on a lightly floured surface, the longer you knead the smoother it will be, don't add more flour, it shouldn't stick too much after a bit of kneading. Then form into rolls as you'd normally do, I made 6 - large enough for a proper burger, put on a baking tray and cover with oiled cling film and leave till at least doubled in size - I left mine for about 2 hours at room temp.
Brush with a mixture of 1 egg yolk & 1tbsp water.

Bake for 10min at 200C check with a skewer to see if done - they will be deep brown and are really soft, so it's hard to tell.

Remove from baking tray place on a cooling tray and wrap with a clean Tea towel till cool.