So you can work from home, except home is being refurbished, so why not work from Holiday? That’s what my new best friend Harrison is doing. Like Harrison Ford? No, he says, Harrison I’m Four.
Harrison’s family are staying at the Casita for five weeks, maybe more, enjoying pool and sunshine and lots of lovely food while their UK home is being refurbished. So I have time to get to know Harrison and what really makes him happy.
He likes telling jokes, feeding animals, swimming, and lying in the hammock. He really likes watermelon, and avocados, and red peppers, he eats them like the rest of us would eat an apple. He likes guacamole but unfortunately doesn’t say it in Geordie like his dad because that would be funnier, (try Kawasaki, or conjunctivitis, that works too)
What would you like for breakfast Harrison? Avocado. To be fair, he spent his pandemic year in Mexico, this family is wise.
Whats your favorite pasta sauce? Peanut butter. Or watermelon.
Clearly I have a lot to learn from Harrison. So we have been eating lots of the above and I’ve been inspired to add a few things to my repertoire.
Harrison’s watermelon pasta salad comes with feta, mint, red onion and pine nuts. Gazpacho has become watermelon soup and all the children are asking for more.
The red pepper mountain got me thinking of muhammara, a paste of roasted red peppers and breadcrumbs with walnuts, cumin and paprika, from the arabic word ahmar which means ‘red’.
Muhammara
I quarter the peppers and pop them in the air fryer for 20 mins, maybe 4 peppers for the quantity I need which is a lot, but I will do quantities for two peppers here.
Blitz a cup of walnuts, a garlic clove, half a teaspoon of cumin, half of paprika and a slice of stale brown bread in the nutribullet.
add the roasted red peppers, dont bother skinning them, there is no need. If necessary add more bread, more spice, a if you prefer a bag of ground almonds is an easy addition if your peppers are too wet and juicy.
If you want a bit of picante, add some chipolte or better Aleppo pepper, this dish is Syrian.
Serve as a dip the way you would hummus but more useful is to stir it into almost every other dish you can think of.
Watermelon and Lamb.
Heat the grill up on high, then pop in a butterflied leg of lamb, (seasoned quite aggressively) high up almost touching under the hottest setting, it doesn’t take long, maybe 10 minutes one side and 5 on the other, once it is cut up, bits that arent quite cooked get a second chance in a moment.
In my biggest frying pan or wok I fry off a couple of diced aubergines (always olive oil), more aggressive seasoning, then once they are almost done, add a heap teaspoon of paprika, the smokiness will hit you in the back of the throat but the oily aubergines are really good at soaking up the flavour.
Then add the cubed lamb, give it a good stir to warm it through then half a jar of chickpeas, they add a bit of body and texture.
Stir in a generous spoon of muhummara and maybe a cup of water to loosen it up, water is often my secret ingredient. Have a taste and decide whether it needs salt or spice.
Once its looking rich and delicious take it off the heat and stir in little cubes of watermelon, as much as you like, and surplus can be served on the side, with mint, more feta, more pinenuts etc.
We ate it too fast for a photo. Bloody lovely. Now I am adding muhummara to Saturday chorizo, Tuesday montaditos, or just with pitta on a Wednesday night.
And to top it off, Harrison has a temperature and cant fly home, I am skipping for joy. He’s fine this morning of course, but with doctors certificate hot of the printer I get my little buddy for a full six weeks. Anyone else got some decorating planned?