Sharmila on Food

Moro love

Maybe it’s the startlingly nice weather (is this England?  Really?), but I’ve found myself turning to my trusty copy of the first Moro cookbook two weekends in a row.  It’s a great book, which wonderfully evokes all of the great things about the cooking of Spain and those regions that veer more towards the Middle East.  Surprisingly though, I don’t actually cook lots out of it.  I’m not sure why, as every time I do, whatever I’m cooking turns out a treat.

I recently had a hankering for salt cod croquetas.  This was further intensified by my stumbling across a pack of pristine pimentos padron at A&C Continental Stores in Brixton (I like this shop).  Salty, potentially hot (1 in 10 is meant to be stupidly hot - I have never found this elusive 10th one, goddamit) peppers, fried, tender morsels of potato and salt fish.  I knew what I was going to eat that weekend.  I turned to Moro straight away to create some salt cod croquetas.

I’m not going to reproduce the recipes here, but I will say it is pretty easy (and for those who haven’t got this book, go get it).  However, it is a bit faffy in the sense there are a few stages to them.  I can also safely say that smushing up and taking the bones out of a load of cooked salt cod is little bit ming.  Well, a lot ming.  My cats were following me around for days.  Oh, and this does involve deep frying.  But still, try them.  They’re great.

My second Moro dish came about when my veg box arrived and included a bunch of lovely looking wild garlic leaves (thanks Riverford!).  This is the second year in a row they have done this, and I thank them for it.  Wild garlic leaves are great.  They offer a slightly milder garlic flavour compared to the cloves, but that garlic flavour is still there, in any dish you add them to.

I had always wanted to cook the garlic soup in Moro - this is effectively a chicken broth with the addition of slow cooked, pureed garlic cloves (a lot of pureed garlic cloves), a bit of fried chorizo, some sweet smoked paprika and a poached egg and toasted bread to round it all off.  The addition of finely chopped wild garlic leaves, along with the slow cooked pureed garlic cloves seemed like a good idea.  And I can safely say it was.  The addition of the chopped wild garlic leaves means you won’t evoke the beautiful picture of the dish in Moro - clear, savoury looking broth, the surface broken by a poached egg and some lovely toasted sourdough.  Instead, your broth will look a bit more, well, murky (see picture for murky evidence).  However, it does taste damn good. 

Next time, I think I might forego the chorizo.  I’m not sure I needed it really.  There’s already enough flavour in here to satisfy any garlicky soup urges.  Just be prepared to smell of garlic.  For quite a while.  No kissing for you after making and eating this soup.