We used to collect samphire when I was a boy on holiday in North Norfolk, it’s a kind of seaweed (I think) that grows in the sand when the tide goes out and it has a very special salty taste.

Anyway I came across some at the fishmongers yesterday and cooked it as follows with some fresh shrimps:
– fry an onion (chopped) in a wok
– boil the washed and trimmed samphire in boiling water for 5 minutes
– add some home made curry paste to the fried onions (I ground up some dried coriander seeds, cardomon, chillie pepper and cinammon then addes a garlic clove and some fresh ginger to make a paste)
– add shelled shrimps
– stir fry for a few minutes
– added two diced tomatoes and some sour cream made from fromage blanc, fresh cream and lemon juice
– add the cooked samphire and continue until everything is cooked through (if the wok is as hot as it should be this is just a minute or two)

As promised in a previous post here are some pizzas from our new local take-away. Goats cheese and honey, peppers and anchovies, coppa and cheese. Mmmmmm……..

– steam some broccoli heads for just a few minutes
– fry an onion (chopped) in a wok
– add some very finely chopped fillet steak and brown
– add parboiled broccili
– add some chili pepper, ginger and ground coriander seeds
– add some soy sauce and oyster sauce and continue until everything is cooked through (if the wok is as hot as it should be this is just a minute or two)

Meanwhile it’s hot down here, 5 days of village party starting tomorrow terminating in the middle of next week with a horse race where we can actually place bets, activity which funnily enough is becoming rather a hobby of mine, so far I am ahead of the game financially but how long will it last?

Back on the subject of cooking, the local pizza shop installed a real pizza oven from Italy, they even drove all the way here from Italy to install it. The marinated ostrich meat and foie gras pizza is especially memorable, but more of pizzas in a future post (passionate topic close to my heart).