Monday 30 November 2020

At Home

At home, once again.  Once again I ask, where else would I be?



These are a couple of my pickled walnuts before I chucked them.  One of the problems of making unfamiliar recipes is that you don't know how they are supposed to taste.  These tasted terrible, to me.  Not very pickle-y and not salty nor tasty and definitely not delectable.  The contents of the jar went onto the compost.



Tahini.  We have always had a good selection of tahini in our supermarkets. Now we can buy tahini mixed with honey and  another with kakao, cocoa.

 Tahini is something that the greeks always ate and continue to do so, especially during orthodox fasting days of which there are many.  Anyone who might fast is fasting now, for 40 days before Christ-mas.  Our sometime neighbour, an elderly woman and very pious would fast on every day designated by the church.  During the fast she ate no eggs, meat, dairy products and fish only on days allowed.  Wednesdays and Fridays are strict fasting days, no oil permitted either and she would often tell us that she was preparing tahini soup, tahinosoupa,  to eat.  I never asked her, god bless her soul, how she prepared it though often wondered.  So I just did a google.

It looks as though the base of the soup is rice or pasta which is boiled.   The rice is boiled in lots of water so the mixture is sloppy like soup.  Tahini is mixed with lemon juice and added to the rice at the end of its cooking.  You can also add tomato paste but I bet she didn't. 

'Enjoy' with a handful of olives but no olive oil.



 



Not everyone is fasting. We make use of our wood stove which has an oven over the fire.  K cooks 'traditional' pork chops with lemon potatoes.

There's enough there for a couple of days. He always cooks quantities. 

'You never know who might drop by'

Even now










18 comments:

  1. Ummm pickled walnuts I have bought are always black all the way through and generally taste of vinegar, and the texture is, well, mushy; sort of. They might be an acquired taste, I never acquired it. Tahini - great stuff, not so sure about the cocoa one though(that has been sitting in the cupboard for a while, we are more peanut better folk here). And you fireplace looks fantastic - is it a Greek model (made locally)? Tigger said to tell you he is only interested in the fireplace by the way.

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    1. I should have couriered you the jar to try. However I think, after reading yours and Cros remarks that I picked them first of all at the wrong time and the pickle maybe wasn't as it should have been.
      We bought our fireplace from the people that make them in Tripoli (Greece). It really heats our house well. Tigger would love it, from a distance. I'm the only one who can stand the heat close up

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    2. This Tigger likes to sear his eyeballs. His fur gets too hot for humans to touch when he lies in front of a fire.

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  2. I first read about pickled nuts here on Cro's blog. I've never heard of it before. Tahini - This is an everyday dish here. Inside the salad, with lemon and garlic, there are tehini cookies and of course tehini with jam, this is the most delicious thing.

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    1. K eats bread with tahini every morning. It's only recently that we get it with honey or cocoa. Usually it is plain. I bet it's darn nice with jam. I'll tell him .
      And your salad dressing is a great time idea. I'll make that Torrie for the cabbage salad

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  3. Your Walnuts look a bit young still, as Tigger said, they should be black all the way through. They are very much an acquired taste. Did you put enough sugar in with them? The one's I'm eating today are from June/July 2018.

    I like your woodburner; such a sensible idea. We can put a casserole on the top of ours, but there's no oven.

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    1. I did put sugar with the vinegar and I left them for almost 4 months. Maybe I'll try again next year and I'll put them at the back of a cupboard and forget them for a year or two

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  4. That wood stove oven looks like a good way to cook chops. I bet they get a lovely chargrilled finish to them. Yum.

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  5. I even bake bread in that oven. Pizza is great. If the fire is hot though the food can burn very quickly. I have to keep a sharp eye on it. If I can smell it then it's usually too darn late

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  6. I should have bought some pickled walnuts for Christmas. Love them.

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    1. I wish I could buy a jar just so I could taste the real thing

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  7. I've only eaten pickled walnuts once, after we were given a jar of home-produced ones. They were hideously awful so I have avoided trying any others.
    I'd not heard of lemon potatoes before so looked them up and they sound delicious :)

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    1. Lemon potatoes are a Greek thing. K loves to overload on the lemon and it can make them bitter. I prefer some zest. You get the lemon tang without the sourness

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  8. I love your wood stove and oven.
    I’d use that everyday in the winter
    I’ve never had picked walnuts, they don’t look very appealing
    Maybe the good ones look better. At least they will do some good in the compost

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    1. Our compost eats lots of strange things lol I don't think I made these properly. At least I have pickled onions

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  9. Replies
    1. A wood stove with a difference. K made sure it had an oven as well so he could cook in the evenings

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  10. Interesting to read about the fasting days. That meal K cooked looks wonderful.

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