I've Bean Away....

Well no I haven't, I've just bean lazy, and a bit busy.  It's over two weeks since I last blogged, so let me update you with some of my most recent culinary escapades.

A mooch in Waitrose, where everything is packaged so alluringly, and lit so beautifully, inspired me to purchase a bag of mixed dried beans, just because they were so pretty.  Look at that, ten kinds of bean in a bag, like shiny pebbles.

 The obvious choice was a bean chili, a decidedly non vegetarian one, given the addition of organic beef stock. 

This behemoth of a con carne encompassed 3 different types of chili, one grown by my own fair hand.  Totally tasty, the one issue was cooking so many beans in one go, with all the soaking and boiling that entails, meant that the biggest beans remained a bit tough.  Still gorge though, perfick Autumnal grub. 

From Autumn to winter and the dark evenings are already getting seriously depressing.  Earlier in the week I felt the need for some pure escapism, an edible vacation.  I often browse the aisles in Lidl, I like it for a number of reasons:
1. It is the closest supermarket to work, allowing me to pop there in my lunch hour and avoid miserable after work shopping.
2. It stocks lots of German things which I like and it makes me nostalgic for Deutschland.
3.  It has the cheapest and best veg around and often stocks unusual things.
I struck gold and found bags of fresh Padron peppers, which I waxed lyrical about in my Escabeche blog.  Basically Spain on a plate.  I also found Serrano ham on special offer, at the bargain price of £1.49.  Low price doesn't equate to low quality here, like budget supermarket "value" ranges.  Around Christmas you'll find dirt cheap Stilton cheese, with the name of some implausible sounding dairy emblazoned across the packaging.  Check the small print though, and you'll find it's from the Long Clawson dairy.

Anyway, I digress about cheese (often).  Obviously it was going to be Tapas:

A delectable nibble of cornichons (that should be the collective noun), afore mentioned ham and Manchego cheese, sourced dirt cheap from the brill cheese stall in the Eagle Centre market.

Padron peppers and crisp, cold lager.  Heaven, I am in Spain.

 Fiery Gambas Pil Pil, using fresh raw prawns and gallons of olive oil, garlic and chili.

That's better, for a while :-)

I've had some Confit du Canard (duck legs preserved in duck fat in a tin roughly the size of a Quality Street tin) since last Christmas, and I have been waiting for the nights to draw in again before using them to full effect.  I'm planning a proper Cassoulet in the next couple of weeks, and I promise to include an actual recipe.  This is gonna be BIG. A table, tout le monde.