Ordinary Food

The bestest Sherry

OK so its Monday night and rather sadly I've hit the sherry bottle. But I've done it in style with the most fabulous sherry on the market. It's super dry, feathery light and has an ever so slight salty edge. It comes from the coastal town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda. The town is set between the sea and the river and the marshlands to the north, which creates an especially humid and constant microclimate. Now here comes the science bit. According to the producer, these conditions allow a special growth of yeast, known as the 'flor', to grow on the surface of the maturing wine all your round thus protecting it from the detrimental effects of oxygen. Elsewhere in the Sherry district, the flor dies off in the summer and winter months to form the Fino sherry instead. Due to the uniqueness of this wine Manzanilla has its own 'Denominación de Origen' Manzanilla -Sanlúcar de Barrameda, set within the Sherry Denomination. Its a great little story, and this is a great sherry. So I'm going to have another glass with some rather morish unsalted pistashios.

The best Houmous!

At Sainsbury's and no doubt other fine retailers you can find Yarden 'Houmous EXTRA'. Its a bit more pricey than the standard stuff but worth the effort. The Houmous is much smoother and richer, which is the way the Turks prefer it, and it has whole chickpeas, pinenuts and olive oil swirled into it, making it worthy of the 'extra' tag. I love eating this with pitta, chargrilled aubergine and courgette or lamb.

Mango!

Did you know that mangos grow on evergreen trees up to 60 foot tall! I’ve often found mangos can be a bit hit and miss in the UK- no doubt said fruit having to travel refrigerated all the way from Asia to here. But the last three I’ve had from Sainsbury’s have been juicy, silky and gorgeous, after leaving them a few days to fully ripen. Now you can do all sorts of thing with a mango… make it into a salsa, a salad, a drink or do that hedgehog thing if you really must. I prefer to let the fruit be itself. I peel and slice it, then sprinkle the flesh with a little lemon juice, a grind of black pepper and some torn basil. The lemon juice accentuates the mango sweetness, the rough pepper its smoothness and the basil its tang and fragrance. Now I must go and buy another mango…

Yummy Olives at a Reasonable Price!

Karyatis Kalamata Olives, which I buy from Sainsburys are delicious. Here’s why- they are stone in, they come in extra virgin olive oil and are seasoned with sea salt and oregano. The bottle looks like this (sorry for it being empty but they never last long!) and once you’ve eaten all the olives the oregano infused oil is fantastic for dipping with bread, or adding depth to a pasta dish or for tapenade- take a look at my recipe for speedy tapenade. By the way, Kalamata is a town in Greece- I once went there- it is not the most exciting of places as it suffered from an earthquake at the turn of the century and has since been rebuilt, but their olives are reputed to be the best in the world.