You wouldn’t normally associate dill with anything else but fish but yesterday I came across a lamb stew that used up handfuls of the stuff.

It came from a book on Persian Cookery by Margaret Shaida. It also gave me an opportunity to finish off the turmeric root left over from a few weeks ago.

Onions and garlic (fresh from the garden) were cooked until golden in olive oil. I then grated the turmeric into the pan yellowing my fingers in the process. A pound and half of lamb pieces were then tipped in and stirred around until they took on some colour. It was flavoured with salt and pepper and and then topped off with water and brought to a simmer.

I put on the lid and left it for an hour until the lamb had cooked. An handful of broad beans was then stirred in along with the finely chopped dill.

I then left it for another half hour before eating it with boiled rice.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Listening to Heartworn Highways and the burnt dry eyed Americana of Guy Clark and Townes van Zandt.

Go to the opening page of this blog where I set out a few words about The Sheep’s Head Food Company and you will see that one of the instigators for all that is on here was the vague idea that one day there would be an opportunity to import from West Cork to Birkenhead some of the fine cheeses, sausages, bacon and other good food we have every summer sat up from the beach in Ahakista.

It seems that one more nail has been driven into that particular coffin with the vote last week that we should leave the EU. Yet another good reason to heap all possible opprobrium on the head of Boris Johnson.

It seems as if the answer maybe to spend more time on the Rightmove website looking up suitable properties in Cork to move into.

In the meantime this evening I cooked up a pan of pasta in mushroom sauce for two.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

An onion and some garlic was sweated in oil. As it took on colour chopped mushrooms were heaped in and put on a high heat until they started to wilt. In the meantime I had ground up some porcini mushroom pieces in salt and soaked them in water. They were added to the pan along with some chilli flakes, a couple of sage leaves and some thyme, tomato paste and a pinch of flour. Some more water was added from the pan in which the pasta was cooking until I had a thick sauce. It was then stirred into the drained pasta.

We found ourselves walking out of Lime Street Station yesterday and then across the road into St George’s Hall. There was an arts & crafts fair going on and so we looked at the arts & crafts but I found myself spending more time looking over the building and its internal splendour.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

And then we walked back outside through the great columns that stand opposite the old station hotel. There were chairs and a table had been set up from where you could buy coffee but I couldn’t help thinking that here was an opportunity lost.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Afterwards we admired the ginger cat in 69A on Renshaw Street and then went for lunch in Maray. Is it now the best place to eat in Liverpool?

I got told off the evening for boiling my potatoes.

The Spanish tortilla had been cooked and was on the side in the kitchen resting for a few minutes before being eaten.

As it sat there it was briefly admired by a friend but I was told that I should not have boiled the potatoes.

She was right of course. If I had been doing it properly I should have cooked the potatoes in hot olive oil before adding the onions and egg. But I was being lazy and truth be told I was more worried about whether the egg would stick to the bottom of the non-non-stick pan.

In the event it seems that the pan has managed to pick up sufficient seasoning over the last couple of years and it is now more or less non-stick and I was able to get the tortilla to slide out without too much mess.

I still cheated by using the grill to cook the top rather than go down the route of tipping it out onto a plate and then tipping it back in upside down.

Rather to my surprise we finished it all.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA