Chica Andaluza

Sad Thoughts, Happy Thoughts

July 24, 2013July 24, 2013 Chica Andaluza34 Comments

Sometimes life throws you something unexpected, unwanted even. This last week has been like that. We were hit with sad news this week, news without too much hope regarding a beloved member of Big Man’s family.

We cancelled our holiday, family comes first, and where there is life there is hope. I am sure you understand, most of us have been touched by ill-health and all that it brings within our circle of loved ones.

Luckily we know that we have a big and loving family unit to help each other through these very difficult days. Through the darker days still to come. There is always light at the end of the tunnel. It has been a good time for us though to reflect on what we have, what is good in our lives. Time to breath deeply of the mountain air and appreciate the good health that we have, to take a moment to remember not to take it for granted.

Let’s move away from these sad thoughts for a while, join us on a walk close to our nearest village as the sun is setting, it’s about 9pm, the heat of the day is a close memory, and the fresh night air is still a promise to be fulfilled.

The sun sets on the little chain of mountains known here as “Los Pirineos del Sur” – the Pyrenees of the South. A little ambitious and grandiose, but we’re proud of our little mountains.

We walk by the river bed which is dry now, but will be flowing with cold clear water in the winter months.

We walk across the old bridge which is no longer used by carts or donkeys, but is so much prettier than the new tarmac one.

A little look at the village before heading back to the car, and home. Bad days can also be good days. And every day brings the promise of a better one tomorrow.

(Please excuse the washed out quality of the photos – I took them on my little camera and the light was fading. And apologies for not visiting you and commenting as much as usual, I hope you will understand).

Pasta with Cabbage, Sage and Breadcrumbs

July 16, 2013July 16, 2013 Chica Andaluza49 Comments

Well, anchovy and garlic too, plus a little parmesan at the end but it’s not such a snappy title that way. Big Man came home from one of his little excursions with a beautiful cabbage. I think in England they are called Spring cabbages, the lighter green ones with very tight leaves.

We enjoy it simply shredded and cooked for a few moments until wilted and then served cold with vinaigrette. But this was a whole lot of cabbage and I needed to find other ways to use it. I remembered a lovely Italian pasta dish made with Cavolo Nero (Tuscan Kale) and decided to make something similar.

If you prepare everything before you start cooking it’s quick to pull together, you just need to work methodically and in the time it takes for your pasta to cook (well, dried pasta at least) you’ll have a beautiful meal ready to take to the table.

Ingredients (per person, just multiply per number of diners but don’t worry about being too exact)

3 tablespoons of olive oil
6 fresh sage leaves
About 100g finely shredded cabbage
About 50g fresh white breadcrumbs
2 fat cloves of garlic, crushed
2-4 tinned anchovies (omit for a vegetarian version)
Parmesan Cheese
Your choice of pasta

Start by putting the water for the pasta on to boil and then blanching the shredded cabbage until it wilts. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon and drain, add your pasta to the water and, as long as you have your other ingredients prepared, you can get on with pulling the rest of the dish together.

Heat two thirds of the oil and when it is very hot drop the sage leaves in and cook for about 30 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Now add your fresh breadcrumbs and with the oil still on high, move them around in the pan (it helps to use a deep frying pan or wok for this dish) until they start to turn golden. Remove from the pan and put them onto a flat dish to cool slightly and crisp up.

Add the remaining oil to the pan and turn the heat down slightly before adding the garlic and anchovies. When the anchovies have “melted” (this won’t take long at all, a minute or so) add the cabbage and turn the heat back up to high. Stir fry for a couple of minutes (you can allow the edges to brown a little if you like) then add most of the breadcrumbs, reserving some to sprinkle over the top of the dish.

Drain the pasta and mix it in with the cabbage. It helps to add a tablespoon or two of the cooking liquid, but don’t overdo it.

Sprinkle over the remaining breadcrumbs and crispy sage leaves and serve with plenty of parmesan. Buon appetito!

Big Man and I are heading west on Saturday with the pups for a week in Portugal, the Eastern Algarve to be precise. I’ll try to post once more before we head off but it’s turning into one of those weeks. I know we won’t have internet coverage where we’re staying, but fingers crossed that I’ll be able to get online at some point. So…if I go quiet for a while it’s because I’m eating seafood or bacalao and sipping Portuguese wines whilst watching the sea. I’m sure you’ll understand!

Pak Choi in Oyster Sauce

July 13, 2013July 13, 2013 Chica Andaluza49 Comments

Summer is here, the vegetable gardens are starting to deliver all around us and the time has arrived for vegetable swapping. Nothing to do with Wife Swapping in Suburbia, oh no, much more interesting (well, I’m guessing) and enjoyable. This week we’ve been lucky to get a good supply of pak choi (or bok choy).

Staying with the Asian Food theme, I cooked this quick vegetable dish to enjoy with the Ginger Beef.

Ingredients (serves 2-4)

2 tablespoons groundnut oil (I used olive oil)
2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
300g pak choi, washed and cut if necessary to fit in your wok or frying pan
100ml water
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1-2 teaspoons fish sauce

Heat the oil on high and stir fry the garlic for 30 seconds, add the pak choi and continue to stir fry for about 2 minutes (or until it begins to wilt). Add the water, bring to the boil and continue to cook on high for a couple more minutes, turning the vegetable to cook evenly.

Reduce the heat and remove the pak choi to a serving dish, leaving the liquid in the wok. Add the remaining ingredients, stir and turn up to high to reduce a little. Pour the sauce over the vegetables and serve.

Recipe from Gok Cooks Chinese.

Ravioli Making – Fun on a Hot Summer’s Evening

July 11, 2013July 11, 2013 Chica Andaluza54 Comments

Some things are more fun when done with pals. Ravioli making is one of them. Just ask Chgo John. Luckily my lovely neighbour Denise was willing to give up a few hours of her time and we had an evening of ravioli making and eating in the garden.

We made four kinds of fillings.

Potato with caramelised onion and parmesan, mixed mushrooms with spinach and nutmeg, ricotta with lemon zest and coriander and mascarpone with rocket and sun-dried tomatoes.

No quantities except to say we made pasta with 500g of flour and 5 eggs. This made about 70 ravioli (with some leftover dough too), although we didn’t manage to eat them all. We did give it our best shot though!

We were well lubricated with wine as I believe it is actually illegal to make ravioli without a glass or two to hand.

We served some with tomato sauce and others more simply with olive oil and parmesan.

Summer cooking, summer eating. Everything tastes better eaten outdoors on a hot summer’s night don’t you think?!

(I know they’re not the best shots in the world but they were “working” snaps and it got darker and darker as the evening went on – naturally – I hope you enjoy the atmosphere of the evening as much as we did despite this!)

Sewing Sunday – Fifties Franken Frock

July 7, 2013July 7, 2013 Chica Andaluza44 Comments

Morning! Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. Just a quickie from me today, another of my little sewing projects.

This summer dress is made from a beautiful vintage fabric I bought in a second-hand shop in Hastings Old Town over a year ago, when we were house hunting in the UK. The shop sells bric a brac, crockery, books etc and I just happened to ask if there was any fabric tucked away. Luckily for me the owner told me that a man had come in that morning with a suitcase full of fabrics he had found when clearing out his late mother’s effects. He believed the fabric had been purchased in the 1950s and then never used. What a find, I snapped it all up.

I was happy to think that I could turn this beautiful, summery fabric into a Happy Dress, I hope the original purchaser would have approved.

The dress is a bit of a Frankenstein, in that it has been made up from parts of different patterns. The top of my Vogue Going to the Wedding Dress and the skirt (with some added pleats) and pockets of my recently made Tiramisu.

I know I will enjoy wearing this dress the whole summer through.

Stir Fried Beef with Ginger

July 4, 2013July 4, 2013 Chica Andaluza49 Comments

A recent discovery is that our local “Big” supermarket sells packs of thin beef steaks. Ok, it may not be a patch on what we can get in England, but for dishes that require quick cooking, it’s tender and surprisingly tasty.

You may recall I recently made the “acquaintance” of Mr Gok Wan and his cooking and his book travelled back with me to Spain. Sudden temperature highs of around 30 degrees mean it’s time for food that is quickly prepared and cooked.

I served this beautifully fragrant beef dish with pak choi (or bok choy), but more of that another day. If you invest a few minutes (or ten) in getting everything ready, the cooking is quick and ready to serve in just a few minutes. I had to make some adaptations, as ever, and Big Man asked if this was “Cocina Ibero-Chino” (Spanish-Chinese Cooking). I am sure that if had used sesame oil and carrot (which were the things I had to substitute) it would have been even more delicious, but as we didn’t have a scrap left over, I think it was a success!

To serve 2

About 4 tablespoons of cornflour
Salt and pepper (the recipe calls for white, I used black
About 300g steak (the recipe calls for sirloin, I think mine is called “flash fry)
Oil for frying (original recipe says groundnut, I used olive oil)
4cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
3 spring onions, chopped
1 medium carrot peeled and cut into matchsticks (I used a small courgette)
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 teaspoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil (I used olive oil)
1-2 teaspoons rice or cider vinegar

Coat the meat strips in the cornflour and seasoning and fry in a hot wok or frying pan until browned. I did this in batches. Remove and place on kitchen paper.

Wipe the pan and add a little more oil then add the ginger, garlic, spring onions and carrot. Fry on high for a minute or two until the edges of the onions start to brown a little. Add the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, vinegar, a pinch of pepper and about 3 tablespoons of water and cook until the sugar has dissolved. Taste and adjust the flavours to your liking (I added a little more vinegar as I found it quite sweet).

Add the beef into the pan and gently mix into the sauce. Remove from the heat and (optional) garnish with chili flakes.

A beautiful dish, aromatic and quick to prepare.

For another beautiful Chinese Beef dish, check out Mandy’s Shanghai Steak over at The Complete Cookbook.

Chargrilled Squid and Courgette

July 1, 2013June 30, 2013 Chica Andaluza69 Comments

Now that I’m back Up the Mountain I am enjoying catching up with some of my cookery books. A favourite chef/author of mine is Rick Stein, I love the simplicity of most of his recipes and his passion for fish and the sea. In fact, he’s my imaginary chef boyfriend…a man who like to cook fish and used to have a Jack Russell. What more could a girl want?

Ok, enough of my middle aged fantasies and onto a simple recipe inspired by one from his book Fruits of the Sea.

Ingredients (to serve 2 as a main course or 4 as a starter)

4 small squid cleaned but left whole
1 large courgette cut into thick strips
1 small chili finely chopped
2 cloves of crushed garlic
Olive oil
Salad

Marinate the squid in the oil, chili and garlic for about 30 minutes and cook on the barbecue (or in a very hot griddle pan) until slightly charred. While the squid is cooking, brush the courgette with a little olive oil and barbecue alongside it.

Make up a salad with the freshest ingredients and a vinaigrette with lemon juice in place of vinegar and add some grated lemon zest to it.

Cut the squid into bite sized pieces and serve it with the courgette on top of the salad. Pour a glass of wine, put your sunglasses on and pretend that it’s sunny….because here it’s been doing a very good impression of not being summer for the last few weeks.

Chicken with Za’atar and Lemon – and a “Thank You and Welcome”!

June 26, 2013June 26, 2013 Chica Andaluza67 Comments

I’ve been reluctant to embrace Facebook or Twitter. I did set up a Facebook account but can’t figure out how to link it to my WordPress blog and vice versa. People have suggested I do this to increase readership and subscribers to the blog. But despite this, and ever so quietly, over the last few months, so many lovely new folk have been joining us either Down by the Sea or Up the Mountain. It’s been wonderful to see new comments and to hear new “voices” as well as those of old friends on the blog. So I say, thank you to you all for sticking with me and welcome to all our new friends. And any advice on the Facebook button would be gratefully accepted….

So, back to the food today. It’s been a while since my good friend Mr Ottolenghi made an appearance (at least, recipe wise) in my kitchen. A freezer full of chicken breasts (our least favourite part of the bird and what always seems to be left until last from our chicken despatch sessions) needs to be dealt with. “Flavour, flavour and more flavour”, I say and this easy recipe (which I adapted a little due to lack of ingredients) really did the job.

I have given both my version and Mr O’s version below.

Ingredients (to serve 2)

2 chicken breasts cut into bite sized chunks (he uses a whole chicken, jointed)
1 onion, halved and thinly sliced (2 red onions in original recipe)
2 crushed garlic cloves
About 2 tbsp olive oil (4 tbsp in original recipe)
½ tsp all spice (1 ½ tsp in original recipe)
½ tsp ground cinnamon (1 tsp in original recipe)
1 tbsp sumac (I didn’t have this so put ½ tsp of hot pimentón which is not at all similar but worked well – you could use lemon juice or zest for the lemony flavour of sumac)
1 lemon, halved and thinly sliced
200ml chicken stock or water
Pinch salt (1 ½ tsp in original recipe)
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp za’atar (2 tbsp in original)

Mix the chicken with all the ingredients and leave to marinate for a few hours (which I did) or overnight. Bring to room temperature and cook in a hot oven in a dish which allows you to spread everything out. Mine took about 40 minutes to cook, allow longer for a whole chicken.

In the original recipe, the za’atar is sprinkled over just before cooking and it is served sprinkled with pine nuts fried in butter and chopped parsley.

I served it with rice cooked with pepper and peas and the taste was beautiful, the chicken juicy and very similar in taste to a Spanish “pinchito” or little kebab and the lemon was sweet and caramelised. Definitely a dish to make again!

Griddled Cod with Oven Braised Potatoes

June 23, 2013June 23, 2013 Chica Andaluza51 Comments

I’m surprised I don’t post more cod recipes, considering how much of it we eat. Typically here it’s salt cod, but sometimes we can now get hold of fresh too. Fish Lady surprised me yesterday with some beautiful (and huge) fillets of cod. Perfect for lunch in the garden.

Often cod or bacalao is served over patatas a lo pobre here (slowly braised in olive oil) but it was too hot to stand over a pan of hot oil and my waistline, I knew, would thank me for cooking the potatoes another way. The oven was on as I was baking bread, wisely I was keeping cool outside. I decided to cook the potatoes in the bottom of the hot oven and then to cook the cod in my griddle pan at the last minute.

Ingredients (no measurements here, you know how much you can eat!)

Cod Fillet cut into portion and lightly oiled and salted on both sides
Potatoes cut in half then into thick half circles
A large onion quartered and cut into thick slices
About 2 tablespoons of olive oil
A cup of stock (I used chicken but you can use vegetable or water)
Half a sliced red pepper (or use some slices of tinned roasted peppers)
Seasoning

Mix the potatoes, peppers and onions with the oil and season. Put into a deep ovenproof dish, pour over the stock and cover tightly with foil (or a lid). Cook on high for about 40 minutes and then for 20 minutes with the foil removed.

10 minutes before the potatoes are ready, heat a griddle pan until smoking hot and then cook the cod filler starting with the skin side down. A couple of minutes on each side is probably fine, depending on how thick they are.

Serve the cod on top of the potatoes with some fresh lemon. I also had a bowl of home made tomato sauce which we spooned over the top. Filling but not too heavy, and only a few minutes spent in the hot kitchen….perfect!

Take One Bag of Flour

June 19, 2013June 19, 2013 Chica Andaluza51 Comments

I don’t know who discovered that by grinding grains, flour could be produced. And whoever then went on to figure out that by adding simple ingredients like water and air, you could end up with a delicious loaf of sourdough bread. As for pasta, whoever had that great idea of adding an egg and a pinch of salt to make a beautiful silky dough….well, I raise my glass of wine to them.

Not really much of a recipe today, more an acknowledgement that good food doesn’t need to be complicated or sophisticated. Ingredients, as long as they are fresh and good can produce the most incredible tasting meals with just a little effort and time invested. Oh yes, and love. Good food needs to be made with love.

Lunch the other day was a homage to simple ingredients. Home made pappardelle (thick pasta as opposed to thin as the pasta cutting attachment on my machine has died, so I had to cut by hand) served with a (home grown vegetables) tomato and vegetable sauce with anchovies. Home made bread, dipped in our own olive oil and a glass of not home made wine. I’ll leave that to the experts!

Slow Cooked Vegetable Sauce with Anchovies (serves 2-4)

3 cloves of crushed garlic
Half a courgette (zucchini) coarsely grated
One carrot peeled and coarsely grated
One stick of celery, finely chopped
Half a red pepper thinly sliced
1 heaped tablespoon of tomato purée
1 cup (or can) or chopped tomatoes
Olive oil
Seasoning
Herbs (I used basil)
A small glass of red wine
About 4-6 fillets of salted anchovies

Start by slowly braising the garlic, courgette, celery, carrot and pepper (but don’t brown them) until they start to soften. Add the tomatoes, the purée, the wine and the herbs and bring to a gentle simmer. Season lightly and cook slowly for about an hour (or longer). If the sauce becomes too thick, add a splash of water. When nearly ready, remove the herbs if you have kept them whole and stir in the anchovies (leave these out if you want a vegetarian dish). Check for seasoning (you probably won’t need more salt) and serve.

Home Made Pasta

I use (per person as a main course) 100g strong plain flour, 1 egg, a tiny splash of olive oil and a tiny pinch of salt. Mix together by hand or in a machine and knead for a few minutes until the dough becomes soft and silky. Leave to rest for 30 minutes. Check out Chgo John’s excellent recipe for more tips and help.