Good morning everyone and Pete… time for another post which is this crazy idea from one of my fellow scribes …but food fun…this week the letter O…Enjoy!

I have left some easy ones for Pete who sometimes is a little devil I am sure he is thinking up a new challenge for me after this one…So Pete what are your O’s and you can’t have jello, jalapeno, alfredo, avocado or antipasto…

Adobo:

A popular Filipino dish and cooking process in Philippine cuisine that involves meat, seafood, or vegetables marinated in vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, bay leaves, and black peppercorns, which is browned in oil, and simmered in the marinade.

Amaretto:

Originally flavoured from bitter almonds, various modern commercial brands are prepared from a base of apricot stones, peach stones, or almonds, all of which are natural sources of the benzaldehyde that provides the principal almond-like flavour of the liqueur.

Popular for making cocktails if you love the flavour balance of sweet and sour, then you’ll enjoy the classic cocktail, amaretto sour…A favourite of mine…

Bonito:

Seared bonito and sushi are a popular Japanese street food …Bonito flakes are used to make katsuobushi-dashi, the second most favoured type of dashi (Japanese broth) for miso soup. Bonito flakes are also used for onigiri filling and to make ponzu sauce.

Mmmm not for me as I don’t eat raw eggs but a popular Japanese dish.

Chorizo:

One of my favourites I love chorizo sausage just cooked with lots of garlic and dried chillies in good olive oil and served with crusty homemade bread to dip in the delicious oil just beautiful.

In Europe, chorizo is a fermented, cured, smoked sausage, which may be sliced and eaten without cooking, or added as an ingredient to add flavour to other dishes like a paella…Chorizo is something that I think is worth spending a bit more to get the original chorizo well worth the extra cost.

Cioppino:

Is a fish stew originating in San Francisco, California. It is typically a combination of Dungeness crab, clams, shrimp, scallops, squid, mussels and fish, all sourced from salt-water ocean, in this case, the Pacific. The seafood is then combined with fresh tomatoes in a wine sauce. It is an Italian-American dish and is related to various regional fish soups and stews of Italian cuisine.

Dolcetto:

Is a dark-skinned wine grape from the Monferrato hills of Northwestern Italy.

Dolcetto produces soft-styled, fruity wines with colours varying from deep ruby to purple. They are characterized particularly by their low acidity, which is the source of the variety’s name; Dolcetto means “little sweet one”. Some might understandably assume that Dolcetto wines are all sweet, but this is certainly not the case – sweet-styled Dolcetto is something of a rarity.

Espresso:

The difference between coffee and espresso has to do with the method of preparation, starting with the beans themselves. Coffee beans designated for espresso are generally roasted for a longer amount of time than beans meant for drip coffee. Espresso beans are also ground on the finer side, more like sand than gravel.

Espresso Martini is also one of my favourite cocktails…The espresso martini is a cold, coffee-flavoured cocktail made with vodka, espresso coffee, coffee liqueur, and sugar syrup. It is not a true martini as it contains neither gin nor vermouth BUT it is delicious…

Fino:

Fino is a dry, pale white sherry wine.  It is made from the Palomino grape and biologically aged, entirely under a layer of flor…What is flor? It’s something that grows on the surface of wine: a film of yeasts. And it alters the flavour of the wine in interesting ways.

Two wine regions have become famous for flor. The first is Jerez in Spain’s Andalucia region, where the biologically aged sherries Fino and Manzanilla develop under flor. The second is France’s Jura region, where Vin Jaune also develops this way. There are other places with a tradition with flor-aged wines, but they are less well known.

Frappuccino:

Frappuccino is a trademarked brand of the Starbucks Corporation for a line of iced, blended coffee drinks. It consists of coffee or crème base, blended with ice and other various ingredients like flavoured syrups, usually topped with whipped cream and or spices.

Garbanzo:

The Spanish name for the chickpea a wonderful versatile bean…Think hummus and aquafaba…

Habanero:

It a chilli…I bet you wondered how long it would take me to sneak a chilli in…lol. The habanero is a hot variety of the chilli and measures 100,000–350,000 SHU…

Kangaroo:

Kangeroo is gamey tasting meat, very lean, cooked correctly it is tender and tasty. A stronger flavour than beef it is produced in Australia from wild kangaroos and exported worldwide to over 60 countries.

Hunted for their meat by the Indigenous Australians for many generations, kangaroo meat wasn’t legalised for human consumption until 1980 in Southern Australia, followed by other states in 1993.

Manchego:

It’s cheese…Manchego is a cheese made in the La Mancha region of Spain from the milk of sheep of the Manchega breed. It is aged between 60 days and 2 years.

Mondongo:

A soup made from diced tripe slow-cooked with vegetables. like plantains, cassava, bell peppers, capers, limes ..most commonly found in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Philippines.

Oroblanco:

A sweet, seedless citrus hybrid which is similar to a grapefruit…which brings me nicely to Yum Som O  which is one of my favourite Thai salads made with pomelo and prawns…

A light refreshing salad as a main meal or a starter…

Panko:

Breadcrumbs…very popular here in Thailand Panko are made from a crustless white bread that is processed into flakes and then dried. … the result is a drier crispier food…These breadcrumbs have a dryer and flakier consistency than regular breadcrumbs, and as a result, they absorb less oil.

Parmigiano Reggiano:

An Italian hard cheese made from cows milk.

Pho:

A popular Vietnamese street food…a broth with noodles and meat…Vietnams National Dish it is now popular around the world.

Basically,  a bowl of pho consists of a foundation of rice noodles topped with thinly sliced raw beef, which gets cooked when a portion of steaming, spiced beef broth is poured over the top…very similar to Thai noodle soup…

Shishito Peppers:

A wrinkly green mildly spicy pepper…shishito peppers are known for having a high vitamin C content they are also loaded with manganese, potassium, vitamin K, and vitamin B6.

Sujeo:

The name for a Korean set of eating utensils…

Tobiko:

Think sashimi or sushi they are the roe(eggs) of a flying fish which has a natural, vibrant bright red colour…

Uovo in Raviolo:

Is the delicious dish of ravioli which has a runny yolk in the centre…

Xo Sauce:

Made from dried seafood including dried scallops (conpoy), fish, and shrimp, which are cooked with chilli peppers, onions, and garlic.

This popular sauce takes several hours to make which is why it can be quite expensive to buy…it can be found in Chinese food stores and online.

That’s all for today I hope you have found something interesting and unknown…I have left some O’s for you, Pete …x

Stay safe, have fun and laugh a lot as you know what I am going to say it is free and proven to be good for your health…..Laughter aside…My thoughts and prayers are with all the people who have been or will be touched by this Covid-19 virus…the new lockdowns and restrictions..stay safe be aware and social isolate where required and we will beat this thing…xx

Thank you so much for your visit today I hope you have enjoyed the read…Please feel free to leave a comment as you know I love to chat…Love Carol xxx