Month: January 2012

Squid with Garlic, Lemon and Parsley and a “How To”

Chica Andaluza57 Comments

We´re very lucky Up The Mountain to be able to get hold of fresh fish, even though we live 45km from the coast.  Having said that, I do keep fish in my freezer and cleaned squid is one of those things that keeps well and seems to suffer no ill effects from freezing. We don´t get a visit from Fish Man on Mondays, becuase there is no fishing on Sundays, but this morning he drove up, and this is what we bought.

One of the effects of little Alfi´s run in (literally) with Fish Man´s van is that when he hears him approaching and bipping his horn, he runs and hides under the nearest table, shaking and looking very sorry for himself.  Whilst I don´t like to see him frightened, at least I know he has learned a very important lesson as far as cars and dogs go.

Today I´m going to give you a super easy way of cooking squid, which I know can be quite scary looking. I´m also going to tell you how to clean them if you ever do get lucky enough to get hold of fresh squid for either cooking that day or freezing for another day.

Feeling brave?  Come on then, get those kitchen gloves on and let´s get cracking.

First of all you need to grab hold of that squid like you mean business.

Now pull the legs and anything that comes with them out and put to one side for the moment.

Now pull out the spine which looks like a sliver of clear plastic. Sorry this is a bit blurred – Big Man was in charge of photos and was excited about eating squid!

Rinse the body (including the inside) and go back to the legs which you will pull or snip away from any mucky bits in the middle just below the “eyes”. Still blurry, still excited!

From the centre of the legs (which are really tentacles!) pull out the hard centre core (or beak).

Rinse the legs and contemplate your bowl of lovely clean squid. Well done!

Now you can either cut the squid up or leave it whole.  For battered squid rings (covered in flour and deep fried)  “A La Romana”, you´ll need to slice. Today we´re just going to keep it very simple.

Sprinkle with salt and olive oil and put onto a hot griddle or into a frying pan (no oil needed as you have already put some on the squid). Keep the heat high, they´ll need a couple of minutes on each side depending on their size.  When the flesh is no longer opaque but a good white colour, turn and continue to cook.

Remove from the heat when done and either drizzle with salsa verde and lemon juice, or add some finely chopped parsley, garlic and lemon juice.  Serve with plenty of delicious crusty bread to mop up those amazing juices.

And if you can´t get hold of fresh squid, oriental stores often sell packets of squid tubes frozen which are very good!

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Is the party over yet?

Chica Andaluza60 Comments

So, 5th January, the night before our celebration of Los Reyes or The Three Kings. Big Man and I sit quietly contemplating the last few celebrations that lie ahead over the weekend.

A family get together at our house the next day. Yes, we´re ready for that. Saturday a lunch with 10 friends in a nearby restaurant. Oh yes, we´re definitely ready for that. No cooking, no clearing up, and hopefully a lift there and back so we can kick back and relax.  And then Sunday, a meal with 10 other friends in one of their Cortijos in the Campo.  Cooking a celebratory goat.  It should be fun, the host is a butcher and a grower of grapes and producer of wines.  A recipe for a thoroughly good lunch.

Big Man gives our butcher pal a call to finalise the arrangements for Sunday and I can tell by his face and the conversation that something is amiss.  He gets off the phone and says “you know we thought we were going to Rafael´s Cortijo…” Mmm, yes I think, where is this going?  “Well, it seems everyone thinks they´re coming here”.

Oh dear. Oh well. Here we go again. Big Man does a mad dash on Saturday morning for the extras we need, I crank up the oven and get baking, and it all turned out fine in the end.

No recipes today, more of those in a later post, but I thought you might like to share a little in the celebration…and our exhaustion today.

We enjoyed a lovely ham and cheese board with Spanish curado and semi curado cheeses, tetilla (do click on the link if you share my childish sense of humour), a gorgeous stinky stilton my parents bought over, and an amazing hard cheese (rather like a fresh parmesan) which is rolled in rosemary.

We ate home cured olives which the Spaniards were most impressed with. They thought Big Man had made them as they didn´t think a “guiri” or foreigner could make them taste so good…huh!

A chicory (or endive) salad with walnuts and blue cheese dressing lightened things up a bit.

Our butcher pal, Rafael, got to work in the garden doing his job. He looks fierce, but he´s really a gentle giant.

Look at the size of his hands – he couldn´t have been anything BUT a butcher!

Jointing the meat.

Working on the ribs.

Another pal took charge of frying the goat pieces in olive oil, bay leaves, chillies, peppercorns, garlic and white wine.

We tucked into a plate of Rafael´s “embutidos” – chorizos and morcilla.

Of course we ate desserts too, but more of those another day as I´m feeling full up again just thinking about what we ate.

And drank.  A very messy but happy table by the end of the day.

Ok, I think I need another lie down now.

Chunky Pumpkin and Vegetable Soup

Chica Andaluza47 Comments

Not so much a recipe as a prescription.  After the excesses of Christmas coupled with a bad stomach virus, it was time for a cleansing soup.

Like all the best soups it was made from whatever the fridge had available.  Having said that, we had some beautiful stock made from the carcass of one of our home bred chickens, a cabbage given to us by one of Big Man´s family and the star of the show, a beautiful Green Striped Cushaw Squash grown by Big Man´s lovely cousin Raphael.

Now, I´m not usually so knowledgeable about Squash (or should that be Squashes?) as I have even called it a pumpkin in the recipe title. It just so happened that Claire over at Promenade Plantings posted a gorgeous Winter Panzanella Salad recipe recently, and there showing off in a fabulous photo was MY pumpkin. Or squash.

I used about 400g of chopped squash, 2 medium potatoes peeled and cubed, 3 large carrots peeled and diced, an onion peeled and sliced, half a red pepper cut into chunks, 2 cloves of garlic peeled and thinly sliced and four large savoy cabbage leaves which I shredded finely. Along with the broth I also added a cup of tomato conserva. For a vegetarian version, use water or vegetable stock.

I sautéed the squash, carrots, pepper, onions and garlic for a few minutes in a little olive oil then seasoned with salt and pepper  and poured stock and tomato over to cover.  I bought it all to the boil and then reduced the heat to a simmer.  After about 10 minutes I added the potatoes and when the vegetables were all tender, I added the cabbage which I only cooked for a few minutes.

Instead of cheese or croutons, we served it with freshly squeezed lemon juice which gave it all a lovely lift.  Filling but comforting.  Perfect for a post Christmas detox. With a glass of wine of course!

For another gorgeous pumpkin soup recipe, check out Raymund at Ang Sarap who inspired me with his Chunky Beef and Pumpkin Soup.

Roscón de Reyes – The Cake of Kings

Chica Andaluza82 Comments

A final post on Festive Food from me here.  The Twelve Days of Christmas come to an end on Twelfth Night, the evening of 5th January.  Traditionally in Spain this was the night to bake your Roscón de Reyes to be eaten the next day, Epiphany, which celebrates the arrival of The Three Kings.

For the children of Spain this means polishing their shoes to be put outside, awaiting the arrival of the Kings to fill them with gifts.  I guess little gifts were the norm way back, although that has changed over time.  Naughty children were left Carbón, or coal….so get polishing and I hope you´ve all been good.

The Roscón is a light, brioche like sweet bread which is filled and covered with candied fruits and often split and filled with whipped cream or sweet custard.  Additionally it is traditional to bake or put into the cake a small trinket (it used to be a figure of the Christ child) and a dried bean.  The finder of the trinket in their slice was King for the day, and the finder of the bean had to pay for the cake!

This is the first year I´ve attempted to make a Roscón, but I was pretty pleased with the results.  I hope my neighbour is too as I am taking this over to her this afternoon as a little thank you in return for a huge basket of Persimmons she gave me.  Happy Epiphany to you all on 6th January!

Ingredients

  • 200g approx of sultanas, glacé cherries and candied peel, soaked in alcohol if desired (see my Boozy Fruits recipe)
  • 500g plain flour
  • 1 sachet of quick/easy blend yeast
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 150 ml milk
  • 100g softened butter
  • 100g caster sugar
  • Grated zest of one orange and one lemon
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 3 large eggs, beaten
  • To decorate – about 6 roughly crushed sugar cubes or 6 heaped teaspoons of sugar dampened with a few drops of water and thick slices of candied peel (see this excellent post on how to make your own over at Rufus´ Food and Spirits Guide) and some glacé cherries.  You will also need one beaten egg and 2 tablespoons of apricot jam diluted with a little water to glaze when the cake is baked.

Mix the flour, yeast and salt together. In a separate bowl beat the sugar, zests and butter until fluffy then gradually add the beaten egg, vanilla essence and milk.  It doesn´t matter if it curdles.  Now add the flour and knead to form a dough – if it is too dry, add a splash of milk.

Now add the fruits and knead for 5 minutes on a well floured surface with plenty of flour for your hands – things could get messy!  Put the dough into a bowl, cover and leave to double in size (about 2 hours).

Now knead again briefly and push a hole into the centre of the dough so that you can start to form a ring.  Imagine you are making a pizza doughnut with a hole in the middle.  When it is about the size of a large dinner plate, put it onto a lined baking sheet.  You can tuck the trinket/bean wrapped in foil under the cake now or put it into the cooled cake later if you are using. Note, next time I make one, I´ll make the hole in the middle larger as the dough rises quite a lot during baking.

Leave for about an hour until it has doubled in size and brush with beaten egg before pressing the candied fruit in around the top and sprinkling the sugar over.

Bake at 180º for about 45 minutes (check after 30 mins) and brush with the jam when it has cooled a little.  Leave to cool completely.  You can now serve it as it is or split it though the middle and fill with whipped cream or confectioner´s custard. Warning – this is a HUGE Roscón and will serve about 10-12 people.  It does keep for a few days, and if unfilled is also good sliced and toasted.

Adapted from a BBC Good Food Recipe.

Solomillo De Cerdo con Uvas Pasas y Pedro Ximénez – Pork Fillet with Raisins and Sweet Wine

Chica Andaluza45 Comments

A popular dish for special occasions is fillet of pork cooked in a sauce.  We are lucky that it´s not too expensive, so pork fillet is eaten fairly regularly in our house, but usually it´s just plain grilled and served with a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice.

Although New Year´s Eve was not the culinary delight we had hoped for, we had all rallied a little by the next morning, and my mum and I made this dish.  It´s actually quite simple to put together and requires no last minute fiddling, so a good dinner party dish if you have guests.

Ingredients (to serve 2)

  • One pork fillet
  • 1 large onion peeled, halved and thinly sliced into half moons
  • 2 tablespoons of raisins soaked in half a cup of sweet wine (bring the wine and raisins up to a simmer and leave for an hour or so or even overnight to plump up)
  • 1-2 cups of chicken broth
  • 1 teaspoon of cornflour dissolved in water
  • Seasoning
  • Olive oil

Start by seasoning your pork fillet all over and fry in a tablespoon or two of oil to seal and colour the outside then put the meat to one side.

Pour the wine into the pan in which you sealed the meat and warm it through, scraping up any meat juices as you go.

In a separate frying pan, slowly fry the onions until soft and transparent in some olive oil.  You can put a lid on to help them “poach”. When they are soft, put the pork fillet into the pan, pour over the wine and meat juices and a cup of broth.  Simmer gently for about 20-30 minutes until the meat is cooked through. You may want to add a little more stock as it is cooking.

When the meat is done, remove from the sauce and add a little blended cornflour to thicken the sauce slightly. This is optional, it´s up to you how liquid you like your sauce.

The fillet can either be served whole or sliced thickly with the sauce poured over. If you don´t drink alcohol, this is still a lovely dish made without the dessert wine, just plump up the raisins in extra stock.  With the wine the sauce is slightly sweet but tangy and savoury from the seasoning and stock.  Delicious served with boulangere or puréed potatoes or rice.

For another lovely version of this popular dish, check out Michi´s version here.

Many Reasons to Give Thanks

Chica Andaluza50 Comments

Well, what an end to the year we´ve had here Up The Mountain.

First of all, young Master Alfi, shaggy pup extraordinaire, runs under the wheels of Fish Man´s Van, but you´ve heard all about that already.

This was followed by a wonderful couple of days over Christmas with my parents, Big Man´s family, and way too much food and drink.

Then the first little disaster struck in the form of a terrible stomach virus which we are all still struggling to recover from today.  Hey ho, at least we didn´t put on weight and I still have a larder full of goodies to see us through a few weeks.

The most dramatic turn came on New Year´s Eve when my dad got taken into hospital suffering from a lung infection.  It was all rather scary for everyone, but after an entire day on drips and antibiotics he brightened up immensely and was allowed out, but only under condition that he took things quietly.  Supper was boiled rice and broth for him, and we officially declared 2012 at about 10pm when we ate our grapes, banged a saucepan with a wooden spoon and tucked him and my exhausted mum up in bed. Am giving huge thanks that it was quickly sorted and he is now on the mend.

 

At midnight, Big Man and I quietly celebrated again, so hopefully we´re due a double dose of good luck this year as we each ate 24 grapes that night!

Master Alfi then took a little turn for the worse, but now seems to have perked up.  Phew…not a few days I am likely to forget in a hurry.

All the drama-ramas aside, we did have a lovely time together and had plenty of fun too.

And awards….well, I was stunned and grateful to be given so many lovely awards over the Christmas period.  Time now to “say thank you nicely” as my mum taught me to do.

First off The Versatile Blogger Award.  Sandra and Kathy, two friends separated by many miles awarded me this, thanks ladies! Do check out their blog – I know you´ll love it.  The lovely Antoinette, otherwise known as Spree also awarded me the VBA – what an honour!  I´m still a fairly new reader of her blog, so join me in discovering all her wonderful posts. And this where I now have to make an embarrassing confession.  I was also given this award by 2 or 3 other blogging pals.  Sensibly I wrote the names of my kind awarders down on a piece of paper.  You know where I am going with this don´t you?  In a fit of Christmas helpfulness, lots of wrapping paper got thrown on the fire.  I can only think that this was the destiny of my list.  I am very ashamed that I can´t say a personal thank you to the very kind folk who nominated me…but to each and every one of you, I am humbled and grateful.  Thank you.

As I think I am already dumping a load of information on you, check out my previous answers here.

Now we come to the Reader Appreciation Award, passed on to me by ChgoJohn, surely a long lost Italian cousin.  Thank you John…you know I love your blog and am dying to pop on over one day and sit down with you and Zia and tuck into a plate of pasta and have a game of cards over a bottle of wine!

The “rules” of this award are posted here, but I am going to break them! I can´t pick out 6 people – far too few!  But I have updated my Blogroll finally and say that each and every one of you on there is deserving of this award in my (not so) humble opinion.  Yay – let´s party and celebrate!

I wanted to end with a chuckle, so as we haven´t yet got to the Christmas celebration of the 3 Kings on 6th January, have a little read of this story which relates the adventures of my very first Christmas out here with Big Man.  Thankfully, it was a little less full of drama…

My love and good wishes to you all, because without my readers and commenters I´d just be talking to myself… and that´s not always a good thing!