When we travelled to the distant north of Spain, we bought back some foodie memories with us. Well, a little more than memories, we bought back beans and smoked meats to make the famous Fabada.
It´s one of those dishes which needs the authentic smoked blood sausage (morcilla), chorizo and pork to achieve the “real” taste, but it also lends itself to “making do” depending on the ingredients you have to hand.
The ingredients given below can be interpreted fairly loosely to make a lovely bean, ham and sausage stew if you can´t get hold of the Asturian versions. I also like to be lighter with the meat than some people, so feel free to add more. This recipe will serve six as a main course, but it does keep well for about 5 days in the fridge.
You´ll need
1kg of Fabes (or any large dried white beans)
1 small blood sausage
1 or 2 chorizo (depending on the size)
About 100g piece of smoked or unsmoked or salted pancetta or pork belly (or use chunky lardons)
½ teaspoon of saffron or add a teaspoon of sweet smoked paprika or pimentón instead
2 bay leaves
This dish really improves by making it the day before you want to eat it, although it´s not essential, and if you have an earthenware bowl to cook it in, even better! The day before making the dish put your beans into soak in plenty of water. In a separate bowl of water soak any smoked or salted meats.
Using the water you soaked the beans in, put them in your cooking pot with about a depth of 3cm of water above them. Bring to the boil then skim off the froth which will appear. Dissolve the saffron in a little water and add to the beans (or add your pimentón or paprika directly to the water). Now add the pork belly or pancetta, bring to the boil and skim and then repeat with the chorizo and morcilla.
Add the bay leaves, make sure all the meat is pushed to the bottom and then cook very slowly for about 2 or 3 hours. Try not to stir as this will break the beans, shake the pot if necessary and top up with boiling water if needed.
You should be left with thick creamy beans which still hold their shape. I like to thinly slice the meats and sausages so they can easily be eaten with a spoon. This is a “plato de cuchara” or a “spoon dish” as they call it here.
Serve with a good robust red wine, plenty of bread and I like a tomato and garlic salad on the side. ¡Buen Provecho!
I believe there is a saying which goes something like “To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive” – well I have to say that I can´t quite agree with Robert Louis Stevenson. But I expect he wasn´t heading to London for eight days to visit my family and friends, so I´ll just have to excuse him.
I arrived home late last night to be met by my wonderful Big Man bearing flowers. Lilies…my favourite. It´s been a while since he bought me flowers, (impossible to get where we live) so the surprise romantic gesture was very much appreciated.
Being a canny packer of cases, I always go right to the limit on my baggage allowances. 20kg in the suitcase, 10kg in the hand luggage and the biggest hand bag possible. No, I most definitely don´t travel light! I went out loaded with Christmas presents (can´t tell you much about them though, as I don´t want to give any surprises away). The case was also packed with packs of chorizo and morcilla to make Fabada Asturiana, plastic lid things to “flip” your tortilla, chillies from my garden, wine glass/tumblers, gifts from my recent holiday, chocolates for my niece and nephew, books to entertain young children on a long flight to the States to see their grandmother, Spanish fans for a friend´s mum, olives, biscuits….well, I think you get the picture.
The advantage of this is that once you´ve unpacked and “shared the love”, you have an almost empty suitcase waiting to be filled with gorgeous things to take back home with you. Of course, I wasn´t about to go home empty handed.
I carefully packed some lovely pictures done by the wonderful children I got to spend time with. A very flattering portrait of me done by my 10 year old niece, Lara. Look at that fabulous waist and bust…if only! A lovely thank you card from 4 year old William and his 2 year old brother Matthew.
Chocolate. And then some more chocolate. If you haven´t tried Quality Street, track it down! Lots of lovely chocolate toffee and caramel sweets in a tin. They just take me back to childhood Christmases when these were a very special treat. And then you get to use the tin to put your cakes in!
I had a bit of a mad fabric buying spree. I´m laying some of the blame for this on my new blogging pal Evie, over at Pendle Stitches. I was the very lucky winner of this beautiful shawl that she had made, and it was waiting for me at my parents´ house. Very handy actually, as it was a little nippy last week in London. Anwyay, Evie suggested some wonderful fabric shops for me to look at in London. The fabrics were amazing.
"Weigh" too much fabric!
Eventually I bought a huge variety of fabrics in Tooting Broadway, my old neighbourhood in South London, plus an amazing discovery of some vintage fabrics, still neatly folded and never taken out of storage since about 1950. They almost tipped me over the baggage allowance, but as there were only 31 people on the flight home (I felt like I was on my own private jet), the check in girl turned a very kind blind eye to my extra kilo…20 metres of cotton, linen, silk, jersey, viyella, crepe and who knows what else do weigh rather a lot. I also bought a new magazine to inspire me.
I´ll make that one day.....
And finally, to food. My mother stocked me up with all sorts of odd and bizarre things I find hard or expensive to buy out here.
All spice berries, Golden Syrup, Maldon Salt.
Sugar and spice and all things nice
Loaf tin liners and vanilla for my baking.
My mum made me a wonderful beef curry with lots of vegetable curries to accompany it.
Best friend Ria made a fantastic chicken and cannellini bean casserole (recipe another day) even though she was feeling poorly last week.
And talking of food, guess what? I got to meet one of my new blogging pals face to face. It was Mad Dog, who was not in the least bit mad and not remotely dog like! We spent a happy and all too short hour in Bar Italia, in the heart of London´s Soho, drinking coffee and chatting about food, Spain, food, photography, food, ourselves. What a great guy he is, and he gave me a fantastic gift of the film Tampopo, a comedy featuring…yes you´ve guessed…food!
So, now I´m home again and looking forward to getting back into my kitchen. Big Man has already started stocking up on autumn fruits and vegetables.
A neighbour gave us a crate of Membrillo, or quince, so we´ll be making quince jelly this weekend.
Another neighbour gave us some enormous pomegranates (or Granadas) from his tree. I may just have to eat them as is, as I adore them served simply.
I also have a couple of kilos of broad beans, but I think you already know many of my recipes for this gorgeous little vegetable.
So, time to unpack, wash, cook and sew. Sounds odd, but I can´t wait!
PS. Am looking forward to a few days of blog catching up – really looking forward to seeing what you have all been up to.
Some of you may have noticed how quiet I´ve been for the last week. Very unusual for me, and I can be quite loud and noisy “in the flesh” too! We´ve been on another little break, all very last minute and enormous fun.
The village often organises trips through the Government of Andalucia for the older folk, or some of the Associations (or clubs) and one had been offered to our fellow villagers to stay in a holiday complex near Marbella on the Costa del Sol (also known as the Costa Del Golf or the Costa Del Crime because of some of the dodgy characters who make their life there in luxury penthouse pads!).
Marbella Old Town
There were extra spaces, so Big Man and I were invited to join in, and we´re so glad we did. We were probably amongst the youngest in the group, but my goodness – have these Spanish retired folk got energy! Dancing, walking, sports, swimming, golf, marathon card sessions and going to the beach were all part of a “relaxing” day for this group.
We had a ball, and got back today happy, relaxed, and having swum daily in the Mediterranean. There was, unfortunately, no internet, so “normal blogging service” will be resumed soon, with possibly another break as I head off to London next Wednesday to see my family for 8 days.
Ok, am off to catch my breath, unpack and get ready to repack. In the meantime, enjoy the view from our terrace every evening and a few of the places we went to visit while I catch up with all your lovely posts.
Looking back over our photos of our recent holiday in Galicia and Asturias, I found it hard to pick just a few photos to share with you. So….even though I left most of them back on my PC, I still have plenty of beautiful sights to tell you about.
We drove the 400km or so from our hotel in Galicias to our base in Asturias over the course of a day. First we stopped in the beautiful seaside village of Cudillero for lunch where we ate our amazing Fabes con Almejas. The village houses appear to be built on top of each other, clinging onto the cliffs, and painted in beautiful colours.
Our hotel ended up being a one bedroom apartment, which was great as we were there for 4 nights, right in the centre of a seaside town called Ribadesella (which translates as the bank of the River Sella).
We had a fantastic view of an old Hermitage from our bedroom window.
And to the right of it there was an amazing house, with the sea right behind it.
The next day we put on our walking boots and packed a picnic to head up into the mountains. The weather didn´t bode well, but we pressed on to Covadonga to see the Basilica.
The clouds started to get lower, all very beautiful and atmospheric, but not really what we had hoped for.
We started the long, slow, drive up the twisting road to the lakes, and the fog came down.
Gorgeous View!
When we reached the lakes this is what we could see!
Time to get back in the car...
Walks were forbidden, there was no visibility so we made our way back down the mountain and through a village called Cangas de Onis where there is a Roman bridge. Because of the weather, it seemed everyone else had had the same idea and we couldn´t park, so we took a quick photo from the car window instead.
High speed photography
Finally we turned off the main road to find a perfect picnic spot from where we chomped away on our Empanadas and Bollos Preñaos, looked at the cows and watched the kayakers.
Back at our hotel, we were determined to take at least a little walk as we were still all dressed up in our proper boots, so we took a stroll on our little beach, battling with the wind as we went on our way.
Finally, a hot shower and a walk into the centre of Ribadesella.
Followed by a well deserved drink and dinner at Casa Juanito in the main square.
We spent a wonderful day with some of Big Man´s huge family, stopping first to pick up his aunt and uncle in a town called Salinas. It has an amazing sea front walk with an outdoor museum of anchors from all over the world. The walk ends with a spectacular view out to sea.
One of the family has an Hórreo in their garden – these are ancient storage areas (now preserved and highly valued) made of stone or wood and on raised legs. Couldn´t resist taking some snaps, even though the lady of the house was embarrassed about her washing hanging up to dry underneath!
So….still more to come from our last day in Asturias and our stop in Salamanca on the way home. Enough for today though, we´ve covered quite a few miles together already.
Our recent trip took us first to Galicia for three nights. Our journey was a long one and took about 12 hours of driving, but with plenty of stops for refreshments and a little sightseeing along the way.
Because we live in the province of Malaga in southern Spain, we went west and then up through Portugal. We made a sightseeing stop in Porto to stretch our legs and to see the Dom Luis I iron bridge which was designed by a partner of the famous Eiffel.
I loved this shot of the bridge (below), although it´s not the best in the world, as you can see boats under it, cars on it, people walking across, the metro rail above it and a helicopter flying over it.
Our hotel near Portonovo was called Hotel Peregrina. This is a word used for a female pilgrim, but also for scallops, which are the symbol of the Camino de Santiago, the famous pilgrims walk which has many footpaths and trails across Spain and from beyond. On our travels we saw plenty of scallops.
The first day we went to visit an Island called La Toja which juts out into one of the Rias Baixas.
It has a chapel covered with scallop shells.
And of course, the boat trips to see where their famous shellfish is grown. We saw mussels, and ate plenty too.
Naturally, they were proud of their scallops.
Later we headed off to a nearby city, Pontevedra, the capital of the province. The city built up over time from the middle ages as a trading port.
The next day we drove northwards to Santiago de Compostela to see the beautiful cathedral, reputedly the burial place of St James (Sant Iago) and built between 1075 and 1122 – no mean feat when you see it!
It´s famous for it´s “Botafumeiro” (do look it up if you´re interested) which is swung via a pulley and is filled with incense. One tradition says that it was used to mask the stench of the many unwashed pilgrims – which did make me giggle. Sorry about the photo quality.
It´s a pretty city too, there´s plenty more to see apart from the cathedral.
We travelled back from Santiago on our last afternoon in Galicia on a quiet coastal road and stopped off in a beautiful fishing village called Carril, when the sun finally came out for us. I briefly felt like Angela Lansbury in Murder She Wrote here as it had a “Cabot Cove” feel to it!
It´s famous for its clams, and we peeked into the storage area to see the boxes and boxes of clams waiting to be sent off to restaurants, shops and all over Spain.
A final stop in “our” town of Portonovo, and the sun was still shining, so we took a walk along the beautiful sandy beach front. People was still bathing and enjoying the sunny evening, but accustomed as we are to the heat of Andalucía, we didn´t brave the water.
And then it was our last night in Galicia. We ate a superb dinner of rice and lobster, and it was time the next morning to start the next part of trip to Asturias. But more of that another time. Do hope you enjoyed sharing our journey with us!
We´re back from an incredible 8 day, 3500km trip to the north of Spain. We drove west from Malaga then north through Portugal, stopping off briefly in Porto then to our first base of Sanxenxo in the Rias Baixas in Galicia. After three days in Galicia we headed east and based ourselves for four days in Ribadesella in Asturias and then finally headed back south, stopping off in León and then staying the night in beautiful Salamanca. Our final leg of the journey home allowed for two quick stops in Caseres and Mérida….phew, what a trip!
I thought I´d do a few posts on this trip over the next few weeks, and share some of the experiences we had…food, drink, sights. I do hope you enjoy them.
Galicia is very famous for its Pulpo a la Gallega, so we enjoyed this several times. A particularly good one was eaten in the beautiful town of O Grove.
Pulpo a la Gallega - in Galicia
We took a boat trip, which was fun despite the rain, to look at the Rias (which are estuaries) and to see where the oysters, mussels and scallops are cultivated. We were fed freshly caught mussels, steamed open and served with a young, local white wine. Perfect.
We ate SO many...the trays full of steamed mussels just kept coming!
In Santiago De Compostela, which is the destination for pilgrims and walkers on the Camino De Santiago (a mediaeval pilgrimage route), we admired the incredible cathedral and enjoyed a slice of their local cake (made with almonds and adorned with the symbol of Santiago – or Saint James – the Patron Saint of Spain).
Delicious with a strong cup of coffee
We also enjoyed several empanadas during our time in Galicia – which are made with both meat and fish. Very tasty snacks indeed.
Hard to resist...so we didn´t!
In a very pretty fishing village called Cudillero, where the houses appear to be stacked one on top of another, we ate our first Fabas. Galicia and Asturias have a great culture of soup type dishes made with their local white beans and served in different ways. Another tradition is to put a huge tureen of the dish on the table and you just keep serving yourself until you can´t eat any more. What a fabulous idea!
Go on..you can manage a few more!
These were served with local clams, which are bigger than the ones we typically see in Andalucía and the dish is called Fabas con Almejas.
HUGE and delicious clams
One day we went to Covadonga, which is a beautiful mountain top Sanctuary and took a picnic to eat further up at the lakes. The weather was so bad that when we got there we could only see fog so we drove back down to the River (the Sella) and enjoyed our Bollos Preñaos (which translates literally as pregnant rolls!) and Empanadas by the river.
Gives a whole new meaning to "a bun in the oven"!
The delicious rolls are made with bread wrapped round chorizo and baked as a ready made snack.
Empanadas with a river view
Dinner one evening was a delicious salad made with mushrooms and bacon and served with a delicious rosé wine.
Messy Mushrooms
Alongside this we tried a variety of local Asturian cheeses. The most famous is Cabrales, a pungent blue cheese which we really enjoyed. Our car was a bit stinky when we got home as we bought some back!
Gorgeous stinky cheeses!
We also ate an amazing rice and lobster dish, Asturian Pote (a vegetable stew with pulses), beautiful beef and ribs….but we were obviously hungry or greedy and never got to take photos of these.
A beautiful mediaeval town in Cantabria is Santillana Del Mar, and we found an amazing bar that did a huge selection of Pinxos (like larger sized tapas).
Decisions, decisions....
We managed to work our way through a few of them with no problems. Well…it was raining and we were waiting for the downpour to stop!
I´ll have one of those, ooh...and one of those...ooh and...
Our final night in Ribadesella we ate a wonderful Hake and Prawn casserole – but only remembered to snap it as we had almost finished.
Sorry...but we were hungry after a busy day of sightseeing
Near Leon we ate another incredible bean dish. This one was made with what they called “Cinnamon Beans” (because of their beautiful colour) and was cooked with smoked pancetta.
Cinnamon coloured beans...so tasty
And finally, our last night in a very lively Salamanca was spent wandering around the city by night looking at the beautiful buildings and enjoying a variety of tapas. These were Callos (tripe with chick peas) and Albóndigas (pork and jamon meatballs).
Tapeando en Salamanca por la noche - Nightime Tapas in Salamanca
So, it´s back to reality for us, but with happy memories, full stomachs and lots of ideas for new recipes in the months to come. Hope you enjoyed sharing a little of our holiday with us. Of course, it wasn´t all eating and drinking….next time I´ll show you some of the beautiful sights. ¡Hasta luego for now!
One of the little extras you get from having visitors is that they often come bearing gifts. Sometimes it´s stuff that you´ve asked for like Wasabi Paste or spices you can´t find in Andalucía and sometimes it´s little surprises.
This summer I have been very lucky to receive two batches of fabric for my dressmaking. One batch came from Singapore and the other from Bali…via the UK and my friends.
These fabrics are very beautiful and unusual but do tend to come in quite strange lengths. Not the usual dressmaking widths. I expect that are probably just the right measurement to make some wonderful typical Balinese or Singaporean outfits, but because I am rather more robustly built than the ladies from these beautiful places, I had to give a little thought as to how I would make the most of the fabrics.
Fabulous Fabrics
I decided to go “off pattern” and just sort of drape them around my dressform, Marilyn the Mannequin. Who incidentally, after forking out a great deal of cash and waiting ages for her to arrive from the UK, is not really all that useful. I was so focused on buying an adjustable dress form that I could “expand” to my curvy chest measurements that I didn´t look at how big her bottom was. Poor old Marilyn has got a much bigger bottom and hips than me, even when she is at her smallest setting. Normally looking at another woman´s bottom and deciding that it was larger than mine would give me some small sense of satisfaction (I know, I´m horrible…but you´ve got to boost your self esteem when you can). In this case, she´s useless for making fitted skirts, dresses or trousers, as they won´t go round her and I have to just pin them to the front!
Anyway, after much pinning, trying on, adjusting, re tacking and finally sewing I made a pencil skirt with a zip and waistband. I use the word pencil loosely as I am probably closer to the shape of a magic marker.
Pencil-ish Skirt
Flushed with the success of this effort I went on to make a simple v-neck top with the rest of the scraps from the same length of material. Please note that I will not be wearing the skirt and top together or I may be mistaken for an escaped Batik Wall Hanging from a museum of ethnic art.
Voluptuous Top Half Needed To Fill This Top
Finally, I made a sort of A-Line skirt with a drawstring waist. Very forgiving on days when I feel like my bottom matches Marilyn´s.
Hurrah for drawstring waists!
And as a little thank you for getting this far into my post if you were expecting a tasty recipe (sorry, not today), and for thinking that the black spots on Marilyn were dirt on the camera lens and not a horrible plague of flies that decided to join me while I was taking photos…..here are a few snaps from when I visited Bali as part of my Round the World Trip in 2005. Far too long ago…
Now, I am very much of the opinion that birthdays are to be celebrated. Whether you´re 4, 24, or 94….life is a wonderful celebration and what better than to mark the start of a new year in your life than with a little something special.
Big Man came from a very large family, and once he and his siblings had gone beyond the age of celebrating with a small cake and a cup of hot chocolate all round, birthday celebrations became a thing of the past. Then he met a crazy English/Italian woman who wanted to live in Spain with him, and who loved to mark an occasion with a bottle of something and a cake. The poor dogs were “christened” so many times that they began to get over excited every time we opened a bottle of Cava.
Yesterday we took a day out for ourselves and went to visit a town I had not previously been to. About 100km away from us (albeit by some very twisty mountain roads) lies the beautiful Baroque town of Priego De Cordoba.
The day was hot and humid. This was unexpected as we had dressed for cooler weather. First we had a wander through the little alleys of the old town. For me, geraniums are the typical flowers of the Mediterranean and the people of the Province of Cordoba are rightly very proud of their patios and displays of flowers.
Geranium Heaven
Peaceful Patio
When the heat became too much we retired to the courtyard of a restaurant in the shadow of the old castle. While we tried to make our minds up over what to eat we dithered over ordering a cold beer or a glass of Gazpacho to quench our thirst. Oh well, “just order both” we thought, and what a great idea that was.
Decisions, Decisions...
Cold glasses of wine followed with an amazing starter which was called “Sephardic Salad” on the menu. It consisted of a selection of vegetables slowly braised in olive oil and garlic and served cold with lots of bread and small local twisted breadsticks to dip and dunk.
"Sephardic" Salad
Main course was Rabo de Toro, or oxtail cooked slowly with pink peppercorns and served with sauté potatoes. Delicious. When I can figure out how to do it I´ll add a link to my recipe for this. Sorry, I´ve tried but can´t seem to work it out!
Rabo De Toro with Pink Peppercorns
We were too full for pudding but ordered strong coffees with a separate glass of ice. You add sugar to your hot coffee if you take it, then pour the coffee over the ice and wait a moment for it to chill your coffee. Perfect.
Spanish Iced Coffee
Suitably refreshed we headed into the castle and I overcame my fear of heights to climb to the top of the tower for some beautiful views of the city.
Feeling wobbly...but it was worth it for the viewA quiet spot outside the Castle walls
Then we headed back through the old streets to what used to be the “Royal Butchers and Slaughterhouse”. Sounds grisly, but it was a beautiful, shady patio with a fountain bubbling away in the centre of a columned courtyard.
Just a perfect day...
We stopped a while and just soaked up the atmosphere. Big Man agreed that birthdays are most definitely for celebrating, it was a very special day.
So in 2016 I turned 50. I was in Italy for my 21st, 30th and 40th. To keep this birthday tradition going I always knew I'd be in Italy for my 50! This blog starts with my 5 week adventure in Puglia but my love affair with Italy continues.....
When we travelled to the distant north of Spain, we bought back some foodie memories with us. Well, a little more than memories, we bought back beans and smoked meats to make the famous Fabada.
Chica Andaluza 