Taramasalata

I'm so incredibly lucky to live in London. I got really drunk a couple of day ago and apparently kept telling the boyfriend that "all I want is just to have everything I want, whenever I want it, that's all". Drunken tautology aside, in London I can pretty much step out of my front door, wonder around for a bit, and come back with everything I was looking for (*wink wink*). When I was growing up, you know, behind the ole' iron curtain, you got what you were given in a very Oliver-esque way. My first banana when I was about 8 was a really big deal, my brother and I were really into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but had no idea what pizza was, that sort of thing. Until a few years ago I had quite narrow horizons, I didn't really care what went into the food I ate, I was only interested in the taste. On our first date I quite arbitrarily told the boyfriend that I didn't like pork because it was smelly (despite being a proud Spaniard he took it quite well), I had a similarly good reason for disliking all Greek food, it was too herby. I used to delight in telling people that mushrooms were gross because they were really like something that grew on someone's foot. Ginger tasted like soap and black bean sauce was washing up liquid. Mangoes taste like onions. Blah. Now that I eat almost everything I tend to get quite short when someone comes out with a stupid comment like any of those. The boyfriend won't eat freshwater fish because of the earthy, dirty taste - moron.

Anyway, when I saw a pot of smoked roe in the Greek Cypriot supermarket down the road from me I got very excited. I love taramasalata and even finding out that it's made out of fish eggs, raw onion and stale bread doesn't put me off. The recipe is from Vefa's Kitchen but it's pretty simple and also quite flexible - basically you put the ingredients into the blender one by one. Apart from the stuff pictured you can also add almonds into the mix but I didn't have any.
Result:

No, not really, but close. I'm not really sure why it came as a surprise to me that the total yield was going to be a bucket, and the appearance would be 'Primrose Garden' from the Dulux catalog. Mmmmmm
I didn't put enough bread in the mix so this is saltier and sharper than the stuff you would get in the shop, but hey, at least there's a lot of it, right? Apparently there are a two types of roe you can get, the acrid orange stuff I used and a delicate white variety which has a nicer, milder taste. Most people use a mix of both. Fancy bastards, I suppose these are the same people who don't have to pick up their blender mid-blend and give it a shake to speed things along.
Oh, but the good news is that this stuff will last 17 years in your fridge!