Category: Chit Chat

Oven Roasted Vegetables with Cod Fillet

Chica Andaluza62 Comments

In Spain when we want to enjoy cod, we buy it dried and salted, Bacalao. And very good it is too once it has been desalted and cooked with love. Nowadays fresh cod is starting to make its way into the Spanish markets too, but in the UK, fresh is what is available – at a price.

In our temporary adopted home of Bexhill on Sea, we have an amazing fish and chip shop very close to home, and we do indulge ourselves from time to time. However, fried food like this is a rare treat and we bought some delicious fresh cod fillets to enjoy at home, cooked in a healthier way.

Ingredients (per person)

  • One fresh fillet of cod
  • One medium potato, peeled and cut into large cubes
  • A quarter of a red pepper, cut into large chunks or strips
  • A large carrot, peeled and cut into chunks or thick strips
  • Half an onion, cut into about 6 pieces
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • Approx 6 cherry tomatoes or one or two small tomatoes cut into halves or quarters
  • About 6 spears of asparagus cut into 4 pieces
  • About 6 green beans cut into 4 pieces
  • Olive oil
  • Salt & pepper
  • Lemon

Do feel free to mix up the vegetables, depending on what you have available. Make sure to cut the root vegetables into chunks approximately the same size as these will start to cook first.

In a large oven tray lined with foil, put the potatoes and carrots, pour over a little oil and salt and mix in, ensuring all the vegetables have a light coating of oil. Bake on medium/high for about 25 minutes then add the rest of the vegetables, add a little more oil and season with salt and pepper. When the vegetables start to turn brown at the edges and the potatoes and carrots are soft enough to insert the point of a knife, reduce the heat to medium.

Place the cod fillets on top of the vegetables (this would also work well with any other firm fish such as salmon) season and cover with foil. Cook for about 15 minutes more. Check that the fish is cooked through by inserting a fork gently into the fish and looking to see that the fish is no longer transparent in the centre.

Serve the cod on top of the vegetables with a drizzle of oil and a squeeze of lemon juice.

And now for a gratuitous shot of the work in progress. The kitchen´s still not looking like a kitchen, but it´s taking shape…at least it no longer has a bathroom in it!

Popping Home Pimentón Pork Pot

Chica Andaluza60 Comments

Yes, I mentioned the “H” word. Home! Big Man and I arrived back Up our beloved Mountain in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Only for a week mind you. This weekend is our village fiesta, and it was time to touch base with family and friends and to pick up some warmer clothes for the English autumn weather.

Our last night in very rainy Bexhill was spent pulling staples out of floorboards, hammering in nails and preparing the floor downstairs in House Number One to be sanded and varnished in our absence. Well, it was easier than trying to varnish around two excited pups (who are staying with my parents this week and creating havoc in their home). We had also spent time at House Number Two knocking down an outside loo, dealing with most of the kitchen ceiling falling in and leaving things ready for the plasterer to do his stuff while we are in Spain. Hectic times.

Before the ceiling fell in…

To get us in the mood for being home again I cooked a delicious one pot (what else) pork dish, reminiscent of Spain with the flavours of smoky pimentón, olives and peppers. I made sure to make double so that when we get back, tired and hungry (as we inevitably are after a day of travelling) we´ll have dinner sorted.

Ingredients (to serve 4)

  • 500g of cubed pork shoulder
  • 1 heaped teaspoon of smoked pimentón/paprika
  • 1 red pepper, thinly sliced
  • 1 large onion, thinly sliced
  • 2 fat cloves of garlic, crushed
  • Approx 150g olives (I used anchovy stuffed olives) sliced or halved
  • 1 ½ cups of your favourite or home made tomato sauce (yes, I made it!)
  • 1 tablespoon of tomato purée
  • A glass of red wine (optional, but of course I added!)
  • Water
  • Olive oil for shallow frying
  • Salt and pepper

Start by frying the pork until browned and remove from the pan. Then add the onions, garlic and pepper and cook gently until softened. Add the pork back into the pan and sprinkle over the pimentón. Now stir in the olives, the tomato sauce, the purée and the wine and season lightly. Bring to a simmer, cover (or half cover) with a lid and cook gently for about 45 minutes while you continue to pull staples out of floorboards (the stapling bit is optional).

If it starts to dry out too much, add a little water, depending on how saucy you like your dish.

When the sauce is rich and thick, and the pork tender and delicious, taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary. Serve with rice or boiled potatoes or simply crusty bread. Pour yourself a glass of wine from that bottle you opened, pull the staple out that has embedded itself in your knee and relax.

And what did we do with our first day back? Take it easy? Heck no!

We dealt with the last tomatoes in our Huerto.

We met up with a cousin of Big Man´s to pick plums.

Then we went to a wine tasting last night.

Today we planned to attack our very overgrown garden and enjoy some sunshine, but it´s not to be. The weather here is as cold and rainy as Bexhill on Sea.

Time to dig out the winter woolies I think.

Pan Fried Fillets of Sea Bream with Cauliflower and Samphire

Chica Andaluza59 Comments

Living temporarily on the south coast of England gives us access to super fresh fish, and to varieties which are not always available to us in Spain. The local fishmonger had beautiful Sea Bream the other day, we usually eat Sea Bass. The flavour is very similar but the bream is a softer, creamier fish.

Unlike Fish Man, who delivers fish to us out of the back of his refrigerated van, this is sold in a shop with all the facilities to clean and prepare the fish for its customers, so I took advantage of this and head the two bream I bought scaled, gutted, de boned and butterflied. What luxury! Also in stock was Samphire, which I had only ever eaten before in a restaurant, so I was curious to try it at home.

I came across a few recipes and discovered that it pretty much only needs warming through and can be replaced by fine asparagus (which would need to be blanched first). The taste was also reminiscent of wild asparagus with the salty tang of the sea. Very nice indeed.

Ingredients (for 2-4 depending on the size of your fish)

  • 2 cleaned sea bream (or any other white fish)
  • About half a small cauliflower, cooked to your liking and then cut into small florets
  • About half a cup of samphire (I removed the “leaves” from the tougher middle stalk) or use a small bunch of fine asparagus cut into small pieces and blanched for a few minutes
  • Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
  • Lemon
  • Olive oil and butter for shallow frying (I used a mixture of the two)

Start by heating the oil (but don´t let it smoke), sprinkle a little salt over your fish and fry the flesh side of the fillets first. When they are nicely browned (a couple of minutes), turn them over to cook the other side. Remove to a warmed plate when ready and turn the heat up high. Quickly sauté the cauliflower for a minute or two until the edges start to turn brown, add the samphire and stir fry for another minute.

Serve the vegetables with the fish and plenty of lemon juice squeezed over. A fresh, light taste of the sea made quickly and simply.

Internet Update – I have my modem and have been promised my line will be connected before midnight. Fingers still crossed that tomorrow I´ll be surfing like before!

Making progress…Making Food

Chica Andaluza62 Comments

It´s been a while, I´ve missed you all. Lots of news to update you with though.

Work has been going well, the kitchen has now moved on from this…

To this…

Just the final touches to the units (handles, skirting boards), then the wall units to follow. There´s still wall tiling to go but … pah…easy peasy compared to some of the things we´ve been doing.

Of course, when you have a hob and an oven (as of yesterday) you can COOK!! Oh what joy to have a relatively dust free area to prepare meals that are not sandwiches filled with cement or fried eggs lightly dusted with sawdust.

Supper was a simple meal of grilled lamb chops sprinkled with Malvern sea salt and a squeeze of lemon juice, with rice mixed with garlic mushrooms. It was nothing complicated but with a good glass of wine it tasted like the food of the gods.

Lunch today was a sharing platter (we have a lot of those as it means less washing up, very important when you´ve had to wash up with cold water in a bucket!). Good old tortilla, a leftover corn cob and some salami from home with a little salad made with sweet juicy local tomatoes.

Hopefully soon I´ll be able to get a little more adventurous in the kitchen, and we´re not talking about power tools here.  So…a little more news which may leave some of you wondering if we both need to get our heads examined. Things have gone so well, and we have learned so much…we´re going to do it all over again when we´ve finished this house. Yes, you heard right. Just around the corner from this house was another one crying out for some love and attention. It has a very similar scary carpet but we´ve learnt not to fear the shag pile.

It´s been more recently modernized…we´re talking some time during the late 1970s as opposed to the early 1960s in the current house, so a little less work. But not much.

No…your eyes do not deceive you…that´s a downstairs bathroom coming off the “oh so modern” kitchen.

We´re getting the internet installed though, so cross your fingers, toes and eyes for us and hopefully in about a week I´ll be chatting away to you all in my usual fashion and hopefully doing a bit more talking about cooking and a little less about house renovating. But I´m not making any rash promises!

Fingers Crossed

Chica Andaluza70 Comments

Fingers Crossed…

So, I am typing away in the dusty, and as yet untouched, sitting room of our Victorian House in Bexhill. I´ve missed you all and I´m sorry I can´t comment on your blogs. Internet access here is via a dongle and after about 5 days I was told that I had “exceeded my data allowance”. Oh dear, naughty Chica. This may mean that I won´t be able to download some photos I want to show you of what we have been doing.

The kitchen was ripped out.

A damp proof course was put in, the floor was leveled and a quick coat of paint followed, although it will eventually be tiled.

Then Big Man put down some oak flooring. It was meant to be a cheaper floor, but it was a bargain and we couldn´t resist.

Next up is fitting the kitchen, the appliances and tiling. But hopefully more of that next week.

And the dogs? Of course, they still manage to find a quiet spot amid the chaos and are enjoying long walks on the beach when the working day is over.

I´ll stop now as I don´t want the internet police hauling me in for further “excesses”, but I do send you all the best from a wet, grey and rainy Bexhill on Sea (well, it is a Bank Holiday Weekend here in the UK, so it´s to be expected!) and cross your fingers that this works!

Cooking Under Fire – Minced Beef Pasty/Empanada Thingies

Chica Andaluza77 Comments

When your bathroom looks like this…

And your dogs are moved from pillar to post in a bed that gets dustier by the day…

You buy minced beef. Well, of course you do.  For a start it´s hard to buy in Andalucía, and then the beef tastes soooo good in England it would be a crime not to. I have discovered a lovely “proper” butcher in Bexhill, and have already made friends with him. He has free range eggs too which are nearly as good as ours. But not quite.

I bought half a kilo (or a pound as my new butcher friend said…he can´t forget those imperial measurements) and turned it into two “cook ahead” meals for us. First up, a simple pasty (but it´s not a Cornish Pasty as it contains carrot and no potato) or empanada (but not really) which I made ahead then warmed up for lunch. I also made another dish for supper later in the week, but more of that later.

Apologies for the photos, my “good” camera is sitting safely in its little rucksack as it doesn´t much like the huge quantities of dust we are currently dealing with on a daily basis.

Ingredients for 2 large thingies

  • 250g short crust pastry (I confess, I bought it)
  • 1 large carrot peeled and finely chopped
  • 1 medium onion finely chopped
  • 3 fat cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 1 medium leek, halved and finely sliced
  • ½ red pepper finely chopped
  • ½ teaspoon of smoked paprika
  • ½ teaspoon of ground cumin
  • ½ wine glass of beef stock (I used a cube…I´m Cooking Under Fire you know!)
  • ½ wine glass of red wine (please make sure to drink the other half if you are using wine)
  • Salt and Pepper
  • 500g of minced beef (you will only use about 200g of it, so use less if you don´t want to make another dish, or you could make 4 thingies instead)
  • Olive oil
  • One beaten egg

Start by slowly frying the onions, garlic and leek until softened then add the carrots and peppers. Cover the pan with a lid and continue cooking gently until the vegetables are all softened. Add the minced (ground) beef, the paprika and cumin and cook on a medium heat until the mince is cooked. Add the beef stock and wine, reduce the heat and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated, taste and season.

Leave to cool slightly while you roll out the pastry. Cut it into two halves and if you´re feeling fancy you can cut out circles. Lay some minced meat filling down the centre of each piece (you´ll probably use less than half of what you have cooked if you used 500g of meat), fold the pastry over to make a parcel and brush with the beaten egg (I had to miss this step out as I had no eggs and I´m Cooking Under Fire you know!) Or have I mentioned that already?

Bake in a medium oven for about 25 minutes until golden brown or as near to golden brown as you can get your pastry without burning it because you didn´t have an egg in the house to brush on top even though you new butcher friend sells them. Phew, lunch (that isn´t a sandwich)…sorted!

Well…things are sort of working….

Chica Andaluza65 Comments

We are already five working days into our refurbishment project and things are moving on quickly. I seem to have spent every day talking to builders and workmen, negotiating prices, booking in days for them to work and translating impossible sounding things from English to Spanish and vice versa. I am learning a lot of new words!

The dogs are behaving beautifully and napping wherever they can.

Little original features are emerging from behind layers of paint.

And yes, that carpet has gone!

Meals are still fairly scratch, no great cooking has been happening, but I hope you understand.

On the downside, the (dingle, dangle) dongle I have bought to connect to the internet allows me to pick up e-mails, go to my blogging home page, post and reply to comments. However, it only lets me go to one or two other blogs and blocks many of them telling me they have adult content. Now, I don´t imagine for one moment that you have all decided en masse to start posting saucy recipes or racy photos, and think I´ll just have to accept that for a while I won´t be able to read all your lovely blogs. I´m sorry, I do miss this, but I hope you´ll understand.

I´ll go and stand in the naughty corner for a while if it would help.

But then I couldn´t finish clearing the garden which is already looking so much better.

A Safe Arrival

Chica Andaluza66 Comments

2300 km later and we´re in the UK. The sun is shining, we almost thought we´d arrived in the wrong country!

A blissfully uneventful journey, Big Man drove all the way (what a star) as I was suffering from a nasty bout of tonsillitis and feeling dreadful (but am on the mend now).

We drove past windmills in Castilla and La Mancha.

Spanish Bulls across the country.

Sunflowers in France.

And then the first drops of rain as we said goodbye to France in Calais.

Finally a big hello to England and the famous White Cliffs of Dover.

After a day of recovery and a look at the house we decided that we´re going to take advantage of my parents´ good will and a nearby holiday place they have and stay in their lovely flat for a little while as the house is a bit of a disaster zone right now.

A typical English Sunday was decided on. A long walk with the dogs to reward them for being so good. This is the beautiful Pevensey Castle.

Some delicious British Sirloin, cooked simply on the griddle.

Then hot apple crumble with creamy, ice-cold vanilla ice cream melting on top.

Ok, the rest is over…time to get to work.

Well, we will be watching kite surfing on the beach nearby and the Olympics too!

Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye….

Chica Andaluza113 Comments

So, this is it (click there if you want to hear a good old wartime song)! All the waiting to sort out legal documents for the house purchase is done. The ferry crossing is booked from Calais in Northern France to Dover on the south Coast of England. The dogs have seen the vet and have more documents than we do. The car is packed with tools, wine, beer and other essentials. The picnic is being made. The passports are in my bag.

Eager to go, the dogs keep trying out their “spot” in the car. They even have doggy seatbelts they have to wear on the trip!

We´re off! The trip to the UK to renovate a little Victorian house in the seaside town of Bexhill on Sea starts tomorrow, very early in the morning. I should point out that this is a Property Development project, our grown up “job” (for now at least). We will be back to Spain and Up Our Mountain as soon as the property is fit to live in and looking nice and hopefully some lovely people will rent it for a year or so and be very happy in it!

We´ll drive across Spain, skirting around Madrid and then up to the border with France at Irun/Bayonne at the edge of the Pyrenees. By tomorrow night we hope we´ll have reached Bordeaux where we´ll stop in a motel for the night. No time for anything glamorous as we´ll be up early the next day and heading up and across to the North coast of France via the edge of Le Mans then skirting east of Paris and finally the Port of Calais.

A long, long drive…

A quick hour and half ferry crossing later and we´ll be spotting the White Cliffs of Dover, then a left turn along the coast to our destination. About 2200 km, or 1300 miles in total in 2 days. Phew.

But don´t worry, we won´t starve. We have cool bags packed with ice blocks and plenty to eat. Tortilla, of course.  And an Empanada.  Baked Scotch Eggs are being made later today and tomorrow night when we stop I´ll make an Ensalada Cateta as that´s an easy one and will make a change from picnic food.

We have some lovely chicken wings (they´re huge as they´re from our own chickens) which I rubbed in crushed garlic and smoked paprika then left them in a little bath of chicken stock and white wine for half an hour before seasoning then roasting them for 45 minutes in a medium oven.

Finger Lickin´Good! (sorry, couldn´t resist saying it).

Bacon butties for tomorrow morning and then on Friday I am sure we´ll stop in France to buy some lovely hot coffee and buttery croissants to start our day.

It will take us a few days to get settled, and fingers crossed that the internet I have sorted out will work. Apologies in advance for possibly not being able to keep up and comment as much as usual, but I´ll do my best as I would miss you all too much.

Eek…scary, hairy carpet!

Hopefully I can keep you updated on our progress with some “Cooking Under Fire” thrown in. The kitchen is being pulled out this week and the new one won´t go in for a week or so, but I do have an oven, a sink and a table. Honestly, what more do I need?!

So, wish me well, we´ll drive carefully and I´ll see you all again soon.  Maybe we can all share an extra-large portion of Fish & Chips on the beach?

Runner Bean Salad and Back Home Up the Mountain

Chica Andaluza63 Comments

Another hectic few days in the UK, but more of that in a moment. It was a good trip, and I even got to meet my blogging buddy Claire from Promenade Plantings. We had a wonderful little break sitting on the sea front, drinking rosé wine and getting to know each other better.  And then she gave me a bag of her super delicious peppery radishes. How lucky am I?!

As ever, I came back with some goodies to enjoy here Up the Mountain. A fabulous Ottolenghi cookbook, which is already inspiring me with some amazing recipes. Can´t wait to try them out.

I also bought myself some cooling racks for my baking which I had wanted for ages. Well, I had been balancing an oven rack on top of tin cans which wasn´t ideal. And in the shop, next to the baking racks I spotted some adorable mini loaf tins which just pleaded with me to leap into my suitcase. Of course, I obliged them!  I expect you have also spotted my guilty (not so) secret of Cheese & Onion crisps.

Big Man had kept busy in the veggie garden in my absence and picked tomatoes, courgettes and almost three kilos of runner beans…and I had only been away for four days.

Some of the beans went into a delicious salad at lunchtime today. Thinly sliced raw runner beans, tomatoes, sweet onions and green peppers with chopped basil and a lemon and garlic vinaigrette.  All from our garden, it did make me feel a very happy Chica.

Then, just when I thought my first day home couldn´t get any better, my lovely neighbour came round with a fantastic present for me. Look at this beautiful mixer. She said she had it stored away in her garage and hoped I would make good use of it. You bet I will!

And now for some exciting news. Regular readers may have noticed that I have been making more trips than usual back to the UK in the last few months. Well, they weren´t all back to London to visit my family, but to sort out a project that Big Man and I will soon start working on. We will be heading over to a little seaside town on the south coast of England, called Bexhill on Sea. In just under 3 weeks in fact, so not long to go now. We will pack up the car with tools, supplies, two dogs and almost definitely some Spanish cheese and jamon. We will drive across Spain and France and when we get to the UK we will be setting up base in a little Victorian house which is in need of some love and attention.

Scary carpet…this house needs some love!

Hopefully over the course of about a month we will be able to restore it to a liveable condition (while we live in it ourselves). We will be polishing floorboards, putting in a kitchen and bathroom, unearthing the little garden and breathing life back into it.

I think there´s a pretty little garden hidden in there….

It´s going to be hard work, it´s going to be stressful but it´s going to be fun and a wonderful experience.  While we do this we´ll have to cook and eat and we´ll be sharing our little adventure with you before we head back to Spain once it´s all done. I do hope you join us for the ride, and please be prepared for dust, rain and laughter along the way.