Hard-nosed Negotiator Cooks Halibut with Asparagus over Lentils and Peas

“Who’s the ‘hard-nosed negotiator’?” I can hear you think.

“Who is the guy who will squeeze blood out of a turnip?”

“Who will walk away from something he loves, if the price is not right?”

“It’s me.” I try to say that in a tough, sleeves rolled up, cigar at the corner of my mouth kind of way. I want you to have the right picture. I’m no sap. I don’t walk into negotiations and accept the opening bid. Every price can and should be negotiated. Screw the bastards before they screw you! That’s how to play the game.

22nd April 2014

Conor Bofin

32 Comments

Home smoked tuna. Get over yourself man!

Sorry about the headline. But there is a bit of a back story. About seven months ago, following on from some home smoking success, I decided to try smoking some tuna. I got my brine ingredients together and also got my hands on some delicious tuna steaks. The photo above is testament to this. “So, what’s the problem?”, I hear you muse.

12th April 2014

Conor Bofin

35 Comments

Boy, were we exotic – “I’ll have the Gambas Pil Pil”

I was 19 years of age and we (the Lads) were on our first Spanish apartment holiday. We were the height of Irish male sophistication, looking like six milk bottles for the first couple of days and like a breed of strange glowing lobsters for the balance of the fortnight. We proudly displayed and contrasted our tans beside the pool. Me a golden bronze (in my head) and the others a more swarthy mahogany (in their heads). Time by the pool would be spent recovering from the previous night’s excess and preparing ourselves for that yet to come. This would involve lying in the Feungirola sun, feeling like death warmed up before being brave enough to have the first bottle of San Miguel.

1st April 2014

Conor Bofin

55 Comments

Salt Cod Fishcakes – About as much fun as keeping goldfish.

Baccala. It seems that the entire Iberian peninsula lives on the stuff. Every Spaniard or Portuguese that I know holds it in very high regard. Graham and Lisa from the fish shop sing its praises too. It looks pretty dire. Dried out salted cod, what could be less inspiring? The truth is that I found myself looking blankly at the array of fresh fish in Georges Fish Shop, without a thought as to what I could prepare from the bounty of the sea. Lisa suggested “Have you ever tried salt cod?” This brought me back to reality. The thought of the cod did nothing for me but, I had to give it a go, if only to be one ahead of most Irish people and able to say that I had cooked the noxious stuff.

18th March 2014

Conor Bofin

60 Comments

Easy oriental part 9 – Prawns with honey, chili and green beans even though you don’t deserve it.

You don’t deserve this one. It’s not that you are a person of dubious virtue. It’s not that you have done any specific thing to offend me and it’s nothing to do with your personal hygiene. This little recipe is just too good to share. It fits the ‘easy oriental’ description like a prawn fits its shell. It looks pretty awesome and it tastes spectacularly good.

18th February 2014

Conor Bofin

83 Comments

Spanish Inspired Monkfish, Chorizo and Bean Stew

Perhaps this should be retitled “We have a decent bottle of Spanish wine and we had better drink it before it goes off.” My only reservation with that is, while true, it might not tell the recipe story. It is the inspiration but not the dish. So, let’s stick with Spanish Inspired Monkfish, Chorizo and Bean Stew as the title and please forgive the mentions of the seventeen year old bottle of Faustino 1 that went with (and in) the food.

4th February 2014

Conor Bofin

55 Comments

Easy oriental part 6 – Mahjong Squid

Many years ago, we used to frequent a Chinese restaurant on Pembroke Road in Dublin. To my shame, often, we would hang in pretty late, having “just one more bottle of wine” before making any decisions about falling into a taxi. As night would inevitably turn into early morning, the staff would put us under pressure to finish up and leave. Repeated visits to the table to see if we wanted the bill would be met with orders for “definitely the last” bottle of house red.

27th December 2013

Conor Bofin

49 Comments

Salt and Pepper Prawns – It’s a mathematical problem.

This is the second in my mini series dedicated to showing some really easy and extremely tasty Chinese inspired dishes. But, before we get into that, I have a bit of a problem. A few years ago, one of the media statisticians in our business was presented with a list of numbers and a simple question; Which is the odd one out?

2

4

9

16

27

28

31

44

Being a bit of a boffin (no relation) he got to thinking about the problem. He opened a spreadsheet and got to work…

7th October 2013

Conor Bofin

66 Comments

Tempura – Fall down seven times, stand up eight.

One of my favourite foods is tempura. It is easy to do as long as one gets the batter right and the oil temperature just so. Easy IT IS NOT! It’s like saying juggling Samurai swords is simple as long as you don’t lose your concentration or your hands.

17th September 2013

Conor Bofin

49 Comments

The best €3 I ever spent – Smoked salmon, goats cheese and chive ravioli.

Any of you enthusiastic cooks or chefs reading this know the feeling. My eldest talked me into driving her to T K Maxx so she could get (I could buy) some clothes. I found myself willingly agreeing. That store always has an eclectic mix of cooking stuff. There are often interesting end-of-line items at a decent price. It’s a great place to find something that will make a difference to the cooking. While eldest daughter worked the rails downstairs, sucking the life out of my current account, I was upstairs, spending the princely sum of €3 on my latest culinary treasure, a ravioli cutter.