I´m not a very sweet toothed person, but as soon as I decide to try and eat sensibly for a while to shift a couple of kilos, I find myself craving things I wouldn´t normally eat. Like cookies.
I came across a lovely recipe over at IamSimplyTia which I thought we be a perfect, not so naughty treat. Of course, as soon as I set about making the cookies, I needed to adapt as I was short of some of the ingredients.
Here´s my adapted version for a guilt free but flavour packed snack.
Ingredients (makes 18 large cookies)
2 mashed ripe bananas
¼ cup of natural yogurt
½ teaspoon of almond essence
¾ cup of white sugar
2 tablespoons of maple syrup
½ teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Put all of the above ingredients into a large bowl and beat until well blended.
Now add
¾ cup of self raising flour
1 ½ cups of oats
½ cup of raisins
¼ cup of almond slices
the grated rind of half a large orange
Mix well with a wooden spoon and place the mixture in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile heat the oven to 180ºC and line 2 baking trays with ovenproof or silicon paper.
Place heaped tablespoons of the mixture on the baking trays and bake for about 25 minutes until lightly browned on top. Leave to cool for fruity, nutty, crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside cookies. Thanks for the inspiration Tia!
Becuase of the changes I made these are best eaten within 48 hours – but I don´t think that will be a problem, will it?!
One of my very dearest friends, Donna came to stay in the summer, and she´s a chick who enjoys cooking and eating, even though she´s a tiny little thing who looks like she eats like a sparrow! On her first night I wanted to prepare something special for us all and one of the first questions she asked as I picked her up at the airport was “What are we eating tonight?”. When I told her I was making a fish soup I could see her little face fall, she looked so disappointed. I don´t know what she was expecting, but when I served a similar version to this recipe, she brightened up considerably and then gave me a good telling off for giving such a delicious meal such a dull name.
So that´s why it now has a “proper” name, and I have to agree, it does sound so much nicer than “Fish Soup”. Mind you, a lot of things sound so much more exciting when you say them in French.
For two hungry people as a main course I used a mixture of mussels (500g), prawns (250g), clams (250g) and a large squid cleaned and chopped into bite sized chunks.
You´ll also need an orange, half a bulb of fennel (however I used wild fennel), a pinch of saffron stamens or turmeric, a cup of chopped tomato, four fat cloves of garlic peeled and thinly sliced, a medium onion peeled, halved and thinly sliced, the juice and zest of a medium orange, a bay leaf, a dried chili (optional), a glass of white wine (also optional but if you prefer to cook without it you may need a little extra liquid) and some olive oil for frying.
Of course, this is not an authentic version of the Provençal fish stew which is served with a rouille, but my adaptation.
Start by peeling the prawns and covering the shells with about 600 ml of water. Then add the bay leaf and bringing to a boil. Turn down to a simmer for about 10 minutes and then strain, reserving the stock.
Clean your mussels well and rinse the clams two or three times to remove any grit.
Now lightly fry the onion and garlic in some olive oil until soft and transparent, and add the finely sliced fennel and cook for a few minutes more. Add the tomato and allow it to cook down for a few minutes. Now add the chili if using, season with a little salt and and few good grinds of fresh black pepper and the juice of the orange plus the grated orange zest, the fish stock and finally the wine. Simmer for a further 5 minutes then begin to add the seafood and shellfish. Start with the thickest first (in my case it was the squid) then after about 2 minutes when the squid had turned white I added the clams and mussels and covered with a lid. When they had opened I added the peeled prawns which were quick to cook, just a minute or two.
Finally, remove from the heat, taste and adjust seasoning and serve garnished with fennel tops, some grated orange zest and with plenty of crusty bread for those lovely juices.
For another, slightly different version with vegetables and fideo, take a look at this recipe.
Finally we have had a small drop in temperatures and it looks as though rain may well be a real possibility in the next few days. Me, a Chica who hates the cold and damp, breathing a sigh of relief at the thought of rain which is so badly needed for the olives, the fruit trees, the rivers. What a long way I have come on my Andalucían journey!
Winter weather means warming winter food. After having friends over recently, I was left with half a kilo of chopped goat which had not been cooked so I froze it for a rainy day. That rainy day came round and to make a change from the simple local way of cooking it with garlic, chilli, bay leaves, peppercorns and white wine I decided to make a stove top casserole.
We are still being supplied with squash by Big Man´s cousin and I wanted to use some of this too. I also felt that if I “disguised” the squash slightly with lots of warming flavours, I might be able to persuade Big Man to enjoy it as much as me. I think it worked, he ate it with gusto and even had seconds. No leftovers for the dogs or to serve as tapas the next day with this dish!
Ingredients (to serve 2 if the meat has bones, 4 if it is boneless)
500g chopped lamb or goat (use a cheap cut like neck which is full of flavour)
500 squash or pumpkin, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
About 5 fat cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
1 medium onion thinly sliced
½ litre of lamb stock or use chicken stock plus a teaspoon of marmite or a beef stock cube
2 glasses of red wine (or replace with stock if you prefer not to cook with alcohol)
2 tsp of tomato purée
Salt and pepper
A sprig of rosemary, leaves removed and finely chopped
Olive oil for frying
About half a cup of flour
1 teaspoon of mustard powder
1 dried red chili crumbled (optional)
Mix the mustard powder with the flour and season and toss the cubs of meat in it. Fry the meat until slightly browned and remove from pan.
Add more oil if necessary and gently fry the onions, garlic and squash until the onion is soft and transparent.
Add the meat to the pan, pour over the stock and wine, and add the tomato purée, rosemary and chili (if using). Let it bubble for about 5 minutes then reduce the heat and cover. Cook gently for about an hour and half until the meat is tender and the sauce thickened. Taste and adjust seasoning.
We ate this with some fried polenta, but it would also be great with rice or mashed potato and a glass of that lovely red wine you opened to put into the cooking sauce.
Some dishes, to me, are so typically English and bring back memories of food from my past. Gammon is cured (usually wet cured in a salt brine) pork, from the leg. It can be bought smoked, as an entire joint or as steaks. It just can´t be bought in Spain, so I will have to work on a way to make my own.
Meanwhile, I picked up a few small joints of gammon on a pre Christmas shopping trip to the strange place that is Gibraltar. A couple of hours´ drive from Malaga, it is a British Overseas Territory on the southern Iberian Peninsula. I have to confess it´s not my favourite place as it seems to contain all that is bad about Britain packed into a very small area…but I don´t wish to offend and I am sure there is much more to it than I have ever seen on two brief shopping trips.
A trip to Gib, as it´s known to the Brits, allows us ex pats to stock up on things (particularly food) that we miss and either can´t get hold of or can´t be transported over easily by our visitors. So, amongst many other food goodies, gammon it was. I thought that Big Man would enjoy it as he loves pork and ham, but I knew it would be a new and interesting taste for him.
Gammon can be roasted or boiled and served hot or cold. I decided to do a hot dish, boiled gammon with parsley sauce, which is a typical dish of comfort food from my homeland.
Ingredients (serves 4)
One small brined gammon (about 750g)
About 6 carrots peeled and chopped into large pieces
2 medium onions peeled and halved
2 bay leaves
4 cloves
Water to cover
6-8 medium potatoes boiled in their skins and peeled and halved to serve
For the parsely sauce you will need half a litre of home made béchamel sauce (infuse the parsley stalks in your milk before making it) and two tablespoons of parsley stirred in at the end. For extra flavour, use half milk and half stock (from boiling your gammon).
Simply put the gammon, onion, carrots, bay leaves and cloves into a deep saucepan and cover with water. Don´t use salt – it will be fairly salty from the brine. Bring to the boil, skim off any scum that rises to the surface, cover and simmer gently for about an hour until the gammon is tender.
When the gammon is cooked, leave it to sit in the hot stock while you cook your potatoes and make the parsley sauce. I used one cup each of milk and stock (which should both be cooled) , 2 tablespoons of plain flour, 1 tablespoon of oil and whisked everything together over a low heat until it started to boil and thicken. This is my cheat´s way of making white sauce. Finally I stirred in my chopped parsley and let it sit for a few minutes.
Remove the gammon from the stock and slice or chop (it will not slice easily when it´s warm, but I don´t mind chunks!). I put some runner beans into the stock with the carrots and onions, bought them up to the boil and then strained the vegetables, reserving the stock for soup. Serve with the boiled, peeled potatoes and vegetables and enjoy the lovely steamy smells of gammon and parsley that will float up and fill you with a sense of comfort.
The best things in life are free, so they say. On the whole I´m inclined to agree. Love, friendship, laughter…oh, and blog awards. They are all marvellous aren´t they? Linda from Savoring Every Bite very kindly passed The (Red) Educational Shoe award onto me.
I can fully understand why she was awarded it in the first place, do pop on over to learn so much about Italian family, culture, food and generally about making every little moment in life into a special memory. When Linda passed the award on, she mentioned some of the “travels” she had been on via my blog, so today we´re going travelling. To just outside the beautiful City of Cordoba to be precise. But before you pack your toothbrush I want to do the time honoured thing and pass this award on to a new blogging find.
JPWaldron has a fantastic blog which he calls “A free guide to foraging for all”. See, I told you the best things in life are free. If you live in the country, or aspire to or even just dream about it, I promise you´ll love what you find over there. And you´ll certainly learn a lot. I´m sure he won´t mind being sent a red high heeled shoe…I think it´s a metaphorical shoe after all!
So, Cordoba. I have a very soft spot for this beautiful city as Big Man and I had our first “date” there way back in September 2005. Can you date when you´re a grown up? I like to think so. Anyway, we go back there as often as we can and spent a fantastic weekend there at the end of January to celebrate my birthday. I´ll show you some photos of this amazing city another day.
Today we´re heading about 10km out of town to an amazing archaeological site, The Medina Azahara or Madinat al-Zahra. We´ve visited before, some 5 years ago and since our first visit an amazing vistor´s centre has been built and much more of this amazing abandoned city uncovered and restored. Unbelievably, it´s free to go in, if you are ever lucky enough to be in the area, make it a priority. It´s an incredible experience that you´ll always remember.
The city is considered to be one of the most important mediaeval archaeological sites in Spain. It covers 112 hectares and was the political and administrative capital of Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) for a large part of the 10th Century.
There is something very special about this place, it never feels crowded and it´s easy to imagine the Caliph and his city doing business, receiving guests from around the world, and the thousands of servants keeping the city running.
There were several mosques, one of which can be seen clearly.
Stunning archways, this one they believe was the Prime Minister´s house.
Beautiful gardens…you can almost hear the trickle of water which flowed around the city.
So, do linger a while and soak up the peaceful atmosphere, and before you leave, take a final look back over the site and the city of Cordoba in the distance.
Winter and soups go together. As do winter and colds and I´ve got one right now. Fortunately it´s not too bad, as I´m still cooking and enjoying my food. Shame really, as a day or two of fasting is probably no bad thing for me.
I fancied soup this morning but didn´t want to wait for hours for stock to simmer. Now that I´ve realised I can buy split yellow peas in our supermarket, I don´t even have to wait overnight for other legumes to soak before cooking. They´re also super healthy, packed with protein and fibre and low in fat. This means they fill you up without filling you out.
As my sense of taste and smell is a little dulled at the moment due to my cold, I decided to make a warming spicy soup to try and wake those senses up a little.
To serve 4 as a main course
1 cup of split yellow peas (or you could use lentils) rinsed
5 cups of water
3 medium carrots, peeled and finely diced
1 cup of minced tomatoes or conserva
1 heaped tablespoon of tomato purée
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
½ teaspoon of chili powder
1 piece of fresh ginger (about the size of your thumb) peeled and grated or use a teaspoon of dried ginger
3 cloves of crushed garlic
Salt to taste (but do not add until the soup is cooked)
Put all the ingredients into a large saucepan, bring to the boil then cover and reduce to a simmer for about 30 minutes until the split peas and carrots are cooked. Season to taste and either eat as is or purée with an immersion stick blender or in your regular blender. It´s good with a dollop of creamy natural yogurt but I prefer a drizzle of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of extra cumin. Serve piping hot, sitting by the fire.
Driving home from an appointment yesterday, everything looked so beautiful We had some amazing views of La Maroma, the highest peak in the province of Malaga. No skiing there, you have to go to the Sierra Nevada for that, but it certainly looks beautiful when it is dusted with snow.
The day was bright and sunny, and luckily I had my camera with me to take a few snaps.
Where we had stopped to take the photos, we had the mountain to our right, and to our left beautiful almond tress in blossom. It´s a funny old winter here.
There are some occasions in life when only cake will do. This weekend was no exception, Big Man´s Granddaughter was celebrating her 7th Birthday, so cake was most definitely needed. No comments please about me being a Step Granny…!
I have seen various versions of rainbow coloured cakes around for a while, from mini cupcakes, to regular sized ones with splodges of different colours, to multi tiered cakes. For a beautifully elegant grown up cake, do pop over to see what Smidge did for her birthday.
Obviously, when you´re 7 years old, you´re not looking for elegance or sophistication (phew!), so I thought that the 7 colours of the rainbow and the 7 tiers of the cake would tie in perfectly.
The cake mix I used is very simple and is not a whipped, butter version. The benefit of this is that as I only have two Victoria sandwich tins (which are 7” or 18cm in diameter and 1” or 2.5cm high), and the mixture makes enough for 3 cakes, it can stand around quite happily while waiting for the first cakes to cook. I had initially only planned on making 6 colours, but I forgot to line the bases of the tins for the first two, and they wouldn´t come out without crumbling into a thousand pieces. Eventually I made a third batch of mixture and ended up with 7 colours.
I have to warn you that there is a little “waste” as I needed to cut the tops off the cakes where they rose and were browned (you don´t need to worry about cutting the sides off) but these crumbs could be used to make cake pops, or just eaten as is….I mean, who throws cake away?!
Apologies for the photos, the cake was assembled late at night and the decorating was undertaken by the Birthday Girl, who had great fun, and these final photos were the snaps we took.
For 3 cakes (make two batches of this mixture)
2 cups of self raising flour, a pinch of salt and a cup and half of sugar mixed together in one bowl
3 large eggs, half a cup of vegetable oil and half a cup of natural yogurt beaten together until well mixed.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well, if the mixture is very stiff, add a tablespoon full of milk.
Divide the mixture into up to 3 bowls and add food colouring to each. You will repeat this with the second batch of mixture.
Pour into your base lined tins and bake at 180º for about 30 minutes or until a skewer poked into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
Remove from tins, when cool slice off the raised top with a bread knife. Eat crumbs with a cup of coffee whilst making the other cakes.
For the cake filling (to sandwich between the layers)
300g cream cheese mixed with 50g of soft butter and a cup of sieved icing sugar. Tablespoon of milk (optional)
Beat well and add a little milk if the mxture is too stiff to spread easily. Put a small dot of the mixture on your serving plate and place the first player of cake on top. Spread the mixture thinly over the top of the cake and continue to repeat with all your layers, but don´t ice the top of the final layer.
For the icing (makes enough to cover a 7 layer cake).
In a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water put 2 egg whites, 350g (12oz) of white sugar, 3 tablespoons of hot water and half a teaspoon of cream of tartar (optional, but it does help to maintain the firmness of the meringue if you make it ahead). Add a few drops of food colouring if required.
Now, with your electric beater (or by hand if you are feeling super energetic), mix for about 5-7 minutes until thick and fairly stiff.
Apply immediately and find a small child to help you with decorations.
PS. I don´t advocate feeding children enormous amounts of food colouring every day, but once a year should be fine. Work off excess energy chasing small dogs round the garden until it is time to go home.
We love our citrus fruit here in Andalucía. Our lemon tree, after 3 years, now keeps us well provided in lemons all year round. We have planted 3 orange trees too, so in a year or two, we´ll be enjoying our own oranges.
In the meantime, we rely on the kindness of friends and neighbours who keep us well supplied in oranges from about November to March, which is when Andalucía is lit up in the colour orange. Fields of orange trees are a delight to the eye, and so too are the city streets lined with the trees of bitter oranges which are destined for England and its world famous Orange Marmalade. But more of marmalade another day.
I was inspired by a stunning recipe from Sawsan over at Chef in Disguise for a beautiful orange and avocado salad. Grilled fish was on the menu for lunch, but sadly I have no idea what it is called in English. As it´s a fairly oily fish, I thought that the tangy flavours of a citrus salad would complement the fish perfectly. I was right!
Ingredients for 2 people
1 large pink grapefruit and 1 large orange peeled and cut into bite sized chunks
1 ripe avocado peeled and cubed
Radish – our radishes here are HUGE so I only used one finely sliced, but use however much you like (or not)
Dressing: any juices that run off the fruit as you peel them plus a teaspoon of lemon juice, the juice of an orange and twice the volume (of the citrus juices) of olive oil, a pinch of sugar if your orange is sour, half a teaspoon of mustard powder, a grind of pepper and a pinch of salt.
Mix up the salad ingredients gently or layer onto a plate. Mix the dressing ingredients in a jar, taste and adjust seasoning if necessary and pour over the salad. Any remaining dressing can be stored in the fridge for use another time.
Now that we seem to have caught up (vegetable-availability-wise) with everyone who was posting squash and pumpkin recipes back in the autumn, I am finally cooking lots of warming winter dishes which include this fantastic ingredient. Having said that, it´s not actually very cold here at the moment, but it is Janaury, so I feel justified in making wintery food.
Although we didn´t put on any extra kilos over Christmas, no one could ever accuse either me or Big Man of being under weight, so recipes which are healthier and packed with vegetables are perfect for us.
A mild flavoured curry was on my list – Big Man doesn´t like them hot, and I can always add a little dried chilli at the end to turn up the heat in my own portion.
Ingredients(to serve 4 as a hearty soup or more as a side dish)
200g split yellow peas (the last of a stash bought over by visitors…so sad)
500g squash peeled and cut into slices
1 cup of tomato conserva or chopped tinned tomatoes
1 onion peeled, halved and cut into thin slices
1 head of garlic (you will be roasting this and only using half)
2-3 cups of vegetable stock or water
3 heaped teaspoons of your favourite curry mix (I usually make mine with ground turmeric, chilli, cumin, dried coriander, black pepper and cardamom seeds and then add a little fresh grated ginger when I cook)
1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
1 dried chilli crumbled (optional)
Oil for frying
Turn the oven onto a high setting and place the squash on a tray lined with foil. Sprinkle with salt and drizzle a little oil over. Roast for about 30 minutes until soft and brown at the edges. Put the garlic in at the same time, wrapped loosely in foil.
Start by dry frying the mustard seeds until they pop. Remove them from the pan. Add a little oil to your pan and fry the onion and garlic until they are soft, then add your curry powder and mustard seeds and fry until the lovely aromas start to come out, then add the split peas (or you could use lentils). Now add the tomato conserva and 2 cups of the stock or water plus the crumbled chilli if using.
Cook gently until the split peas are almost soft (you may need to add more liquid, just keep an eye on them). Remove the squash and garlic from the oven and cut the squash into smaller bite sized chunks. Add these to the split peas. Pop half of the garlic cloves out of their skins and add to the curry. Mash the other half and cover with a little oil, it will keep for at least a week in the fridge and can be used in other dishes or dips.
Add a drop more liquid to the vegetables if necessary, cooking the curry for about 10 more minutes until everything is soft and cooked through. You can mash some of the squash, garlic and split peas with the back of a wooden spoon, leaving some chunky. Add salt, you´ll probably find it can take quite a lot, but the choice is yours. Eat as a thick soup or a side dish and it´s lovely served with rice or naan bread.
Delicious with a squeeze of lime juice and chopped coriander, but I didn´t have either of them so I just used lemon juice. If you like it even milder and more creamy, stir in a couple of big spoonfuls of thick creamy yogurt.
We had some leftovers, so the next day I added some more stock, yogurt and some finely chopped chard (you could use spinach, kale, cabbage) and warmed it through to make a delicious soup – I´m not sure which version I liked best!
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.....
Chica Andaluza 