Garrucha market

12 Nov

It’s Friday morning and it is the most beautiful day.  I need to get a few things, including a new harness for Digby, our jack russell cross, who has decided to eat his present one.  As it is so glorious I decide to go down to Garrucha as it is market day and there is a pet shop on the way.  The market at Garrucha is probably my favourite because it is right on the street behind the seafront and I love mooching about, buying my fruit and vegetables and flowers, and then meandering down to one of the cafe’s overlooking the sea.

Spices at Garrucha market

The market here is fantastic, and has all kinds of things in the food line – dried cod (bacalao) and smoked mackerel, stalls with dozens of spices, nuts, dried fruit, pulses, gigantic sacks of snacks which you purchase by the kilo and then wonderful fresh, seasonal fruit and vegetables.  I always just buy what looks good and then look up a recipe when I get home.  I bought a whole bag of red and yellow peppers today for a euro which usually means they need to be eaten within a couple of days.  No problem as I will make stuffed peppers with the red ones, and then use the yellow to put in some carrot and coriander soup.  I also bought some beautiful little vine tomatoes which I will roast tonight to go with a lovely rib eye steak and some paprika roasted potatoes.

Fish stall at Garrucha market

Everyone looks like they are enjoying themselves in the warm autumn sunshine, although actually it is more like a perfect English summer’s day to tell the truth.  Those of us who live here have our jeans on though-you can spot visitors a mile off as they are amazed that they can wear shorts and T-shirts in the middle of November – and why shouldn’t they?  We are acclimatized and with the sweltering summer gone, 23 degrees feels cool enough for trousers and long sleeved T-shirts!  Shopping done, off I go down towards the port for a well earned break and a cup of coffee!

 

 

 

Chocolate Cornflake Crispies

10 Nov

We are hosting our 5 year old half Spanish godson’s birthday party here this afternoon.  He has invited all his little Spanish mates – twelve of them – Yikes!

We thought we would provide half English and half Spanish fare – just to show how integrated we are!

 

In the past I have found it tricky to find the perfect Crispy recipe – they are either rock hard or too sticky – anyway, I found some time ago a Nigel Slater one – they give you the perfect balance of both and Mick has been testing them out since yesterday afternoon so I have had to make another batch!

 

For a rainy afternoon indoors with the kids, you will need:-

 

15 Paper Fairy Cake Cases

 

50g butter

4 Tablespoons of golden syrup (or very slightly less)

100g good quality dark chocolate

75g Cornflakes or Rice Crispies

 

Very gently melt the butter, syrup and cornflakes in a smallish heavy pan. Stir in the cornflakes.  Place spoonfuls of the mixture in the paper cases and refrigerate for a couple of hours if you can wait that long!  Absolutely sensational.

 

Watermelon and Mint Sorbet

2 Nov

I absolutely hate wasting food, and even though I love watermelon, I am sorry, who can eat a whole one unless you have hoards of children or are in the army!

So a few weeks ago, at the height of the watermelon season here, I was given two.  There aren’t really that many things you can do with them either so we ate as much as we could and then I decided to adapt a sorbet recipe for the rest.  The result is fantastic and you can adapt the recipe to whatever fruit is in season.  Even though we are on the edge of autumn here, I think after a hefty warming main course, this is lovely with some fresh pineapple and mango to follow without making you feel like hibernating.

 

You will need

 

Half a water melon (or just use your judgement with whatever fruit you are using –obviously the higher the fruit content the tastier it will be)

Half pint of water

6 oz sugar

A good handful of fresh mint

 

Dissolve the sugar in the water over a gentle heat, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes.  Whiz up the watermelon and mint together until it is all slushy.  Then combine with the syrup and put into a plastic container and freeze.  If you can, take out every half an hour and give it a good stir, do this about 3 or 4 times if possible.

When eating, take out of the freezer 20 minutes beforehand otherwise it is difficult to serve without the use of a chisel!

 

Tito’s Beach Bar, Mojacar Playa

1 Nov

Sunday afternoon and we have planned to go down to Mojacar Beach to meet up with some friends at Tito’s one of the beach bars there.  This is the last Sunday opening until the spring and it is packed with regulars and visitors.  Today they have some live music and a belly dancer (gorgeous looking, bet she can’t cook!) for our entertainment.  It is lively and buzzy and everyone is out to enjoy themselves.  The weather is still very mild, and was blustery when we left home, but not here on the beach.  The sea is calm and there are a few fluffy white clouds in the sky – we aren’t wearing jackets yet and some of us are in T shirts still.

Live music by the sea at Tito's

The menu at Tito’s is reliably good with some really delicious dishes on offer.  Fresh mussels and sardines are the order of the day to start together with a huge salad for all of us.  I choose lamb kebabs for my main course, other choices are chicken tempura (massive), mushroom risotto (just with as much gloop as it should have) and Dorada (see bream) grilled until the skin is just slightly blackened and crispy.  I am not driving today (Mick drew the short straw!) and so I glug some fresh, white wine down very happily.  We take a look at the dessert menu, which I have no intention of ordering……. Until I see chocolate brownie with ice cream which I immediately order and share with Mick.  It is divine.  We order coffees and more wine with the entertainment, a couple of really good guitarists and the beautiful belly dancer.

Bring on the belly dancer

It is Halloween and all the kids are out in costume scaring everyone and having fun – the clocks have gone back and so I suddenly realise is getting dark and is now gone 7 o’clock!  We have to go and check on the mutts as we don’t like leaving them for too long by themselves.

What a fantastic last day of summer we have had – and it is November on Monday!

If any of you reading this come next spring, go to Tito’s for a drink at night or a Sunday lunch – you will always have a good time.

Tito’s Beach Bar telephone number: 950 615 030

Pickled red cabbage

31 Oct

As it is Halloween and I am feeling all autumnal and we awoke to a blustery old day, Mick took Kevin and Digby (the mutts) out early for a walk whilst I made coffee to take back to bed with some cook books as we had the extra hour.  I suddenly realised after looking through a couple of my books that if I didn’t get a move on, I would be too late to pickle the red cabbage for Christmas!  I am joking of course, but pickles do need time to absorb the spices so you need to make them at least a month before you want to eat them.  Mick always groans as November approaches because he knows, even though we live in Spain, I will start nagging him to sort out my Christmas playlist on the ipod!  I just can’t help it once the intense heat of the summer is gone I start planning for the festive season (of course we don’t have Guy Fawkes night to break it up!).  Well, I digress, but since it is the right time in the UK to start pickling and preserving, I thought you might like to know how to make some of the stuff I have at Christmas.  Also, if you start early, by the week before Christmas, you can put your feet up and enjoy watching everyone else rush around like lunatics!

You will need:

Pickling Spice (see below)

2 pints vinegar – recipes usually specify Malt, but I think it is quite strong so in my opinion you can use whatever vinegar you have, red or white wine, cider, even sherry.  In this recipe I have used cider vinegar.

Red Cabbage shredded

1 level tablespoon of coriander seeds

If you want to make life very easy, you can just buy the sachets of pickling spice from the shops, but if you like, you can just see what you have in the cupboard (coriander seeds, yellow mustard seeds, dried red chillies (about 5-10), allspice powder, ginger, black peppercorns and bay leaves (1-2).  Just put a tablespoon of the seeds, a teaspoon of the powders and for the chillies, just use what I suggested above depending how spicy you want the cabbage), and the two bay leaves, into a saucepan.

Bring to a simmer very slowly (about 10 mins) and then remove from the heat and leave to cool and infuse for a few hours.

Strain the vinegar into a bowl reserving the spices, stir in the red cabbage (about half a cabbage makes two medium sized kilner jars) and add the coriander seeds.  I used the beautiful little jar of them that my sister painstakingly bottled for stocking fillers at Christmas time last year from the plants at her allotment, and am so happy to make use of lots of them!  She is so clever and creative and all the things she makes are so much nicer than stuff you buy and look like they have come from Fortnums – she has been on a jam and chutney fest in the last few weeks – can’t wait for mine!

Ok, back to the cabbage.  Spoon it into your kilner jars, or old pickle jars and cover completely in the vinegar – there should be enough but if not just top up with the kind you used.  Then put a few of the chillies from the strained spices in – be warned though if you use too many the cabbage will be really really hot!

Seal and store in a cupboard for at least a month, preferably two.

La Brasa Restaurant and bar, Vera

28 Oct

Last night, having got back from London late the day before, I didn’t really have the energy to cook as I had been catching up on a week’s chores and sorting all the rooms out now that the season has quietened down!  Mick said he would take me a local place between Vera and Antas that he had discovered whilst I was in London.  Anything cooked on a brasa usually means wood burning grill and is likely to be very meaty although usually a menu del dia will have something fishy on too.

These kind of places are very Spanish, no frills and frequented by local people.  You can have tapas from the bar or you can order a la carte, in which case they will put a tablecloth on one of the tables for you!   I was really hungry and so ordered from the menu del dia – 3 courses for 14 euros, including a couple of glasses of decent wine and coffee which didn’t seem to appear on the bill and so I guess were included.  I had a massive salad and an entremeses, a plate of salami, chorizo, cheese and ham, followed by the most delicious lamb chops with fried potatoes – not very healthy but just fantastic.  Mick just shared the salad, which came at the beginning for both us, and then had a really decent, well-cooked sirloin steak for about 15 quid!  They are continually putting meat on the embers of the fire in a wire rack so that they just cook through slowly (no burnt meat here!).  The result is just the most delicious, smoky, well-seasoned fare – if you are a carnivore, you could not do better in any top restaurant.  Then I ordered something for pudding which I didn’t understand – Mick said it translated something like “Bacon in heaven” but he may have been teasing me – anyway, it was a kind of bread puddingy thing with whipped cream which we managed to plough through with no problem.  The diet starts today!

The total bill for the two of us was 32 Euros.  Years ago I would have walked out of a place like this because they look like workman’s cafes (in fact usually, hidden in the back is also a much more formal dining room where christening receptions take place!) – now I know better!  Local people don’t put up with bad food or being ripped off.  And being about 7 minutes drive away is just a bonus!

La Brasa telephone number: 950 390 753

 


Terraza Carmona Restaurant and bar, Vera

24 Oct

On Saturday’s we often go to the market at Vera, a large town 10 minutes away.  After the hustle and bustle of shopping and lugging all our goodies back to the car, we pop into Terraza Carmona for a drink and a tapa – it is a hotel but with a fantastic restaurant and bar.  The bar is miles long with lots of tapas to choose from along with a fabulous choice of fresh prawns and all kinds of fish and seafood.  Cheap it ain’t if you want to eat in the restaurant but fabulous it is.  If you are just snacking and having the house wine or beer, it is a bargain though and you can stay for a couple of hours with no problem at all.

Terraza Carmona tapas bar

They also have the famous jamon from acorn fed piggies which as far as I am concerned is one of the most delicious things you can eat in the world.  A plate enough for four of you is around 20 quid so well worth ordering along with some bread and manchego cheese.  It is very very Spanish and over the weekends the bar is always busy – we always do the non Spanish thing and go reasonably early (around 8 o’clock) if we are going in the evening as otherwise it is hard to get a table if there are more than two of you.  It is lively and mostly frequented by well to do Spaniards, along with hoards of children who are always welcome at all hours of the evening.

Terraza Carmona restaurant

The restaurant is very much more sedate and very classy.  The menu is extensive and varied and also very funnily written – you kind of need to see it to know what I mean!  The kid is absolutely delicious so long as you manage not to picture what it once looked like, as are all the meat dishes.  There are lots of fish choices too – always order a salad as Spanish people obviously think “what is the point of having vegetables, we get those at the market”.  And so you may well get a tablespoon of frozen veg on your plate, along with good potatoes or chips though.  It is something I will never get used to but they seem unwilling to change in this region.   (This isn’t true in most cities in Spain).

Carmona is an absolute must for any visitor – just go for drinks and tapas if you are on a budget or treat yourself to a big fat Sunday lunch – you are guaranteed to enjoy either.

Terraza Carmona telephone number: 950 390 760

El Mar La Mar Restaurant and bar, Villaricos

23 Oct

El Mar La Mar The sea, the sea – what an evocative name.  It is a restaurant and one of our favourites and is indeed on the sea at a small fishing village near us.  We go there often, sometimes just the two of us (it’s very romantic!) but more often with friends (it is good fun!).  The owner and chef used to be a big cheese in the kitchen at Desert Springs golf club, but has owned his own restaurant for some years now.  It does very well, thanks to the delicious food, the great front of house staff, the location, and so important in this economic climate, the value for money.

El Mar la Mar dining room

 

Very cleverly, Richard (Shepherd) introduced a “Friends of Mar de Mar” menu a couple of autumns ago when the hoards of holiday makers were no longer around and so this was very much aimed at us locals, both Spanish and English.  If you order before 8 pm you are treated to a two course dinner with wine for 30 euros per couple – brilliant.  Even if you don’t eat from this menu, prices are good and the menu choices go on forever.  It is very much an international menu, with some Spanish specialities too, and always interesting and tempting.

We have never had a bad experience here and there is something for every taste, even the most fussy child.  The surroundings and atmosphere are really charming too and I never get fed up of going there.  And no, they’re not paying me.

El Mar La Mar telephone number: 950 467 030

Neptuno Beach Club, Mojacar

20 Oct

On Sunday we went off for lunch with my cousin April and her friends who were staying with us, and Sadie, Mick’s mum, who is also staying for a couple of weeks.  Sunday is my day off – no housework is done (guests are forewarned!) and usually no cooking apart from breakfast if they are lucky!  It is a day for lying around our courtyard or by the swimming pool, or, more often than not, lunch or dinner with friends.  We debated sea or mountains for lunch and sea won!  So I booked a table for 7 at 2 p.m. (never before!) at Neptuno – my sister Kim’s favourite restaurant here.

Neptuno outside deck

It is quite Californian in decor – a wooden shack type building smack on the beach and great for lunch or dinner – dinner is very romantic here as you can dine on the terrace and hear the sea gently lapping on the shore a few feet away.  Unsurprisingly, you can order wonderful fish which is done on their barbeque, a beaten up old motor boat (which incidentally used to be a charming old fishing boat!), or there is a vast choice of barbequed meats as well, along with rice dishes.

Sardines from the boat

The staff are friendly and quick to serve you with drinks, fresh bread and alioli to keep you occupied whilst you decide on the food.  My cousin is prone to over order so I warned her about the portions of potatoes and salads and said we could order more if we needed it.  We didn’t of course.  Some of the party had mixed paella, the rest of us had fish and meat on the barbeque, a huge salad and mountains of salty chips.  Heavenly.  You can stuff yourself here for around 20 euros including loads of decent plonk, water and coffees (no pud needed). It is open all year round, so is great for those sometimes blustery winter days when the sea is crashing onto the beach and you are all cosy inside.  The owners let you linger and are never in a hurry to push you out so we rolled out at 5 ish and came back to the cortijo for a siesta.  No supper needed that night!

Neptuno Beach Club telephone no. 616 005 387

Armenian Style Stuffed Tomatoes

18 Oct

As you all know I just love cooking, but am probably guilty of doing what lots of us  do and that is stick with the same recipes because of lack of time and because I know I don’t often have time to leaf through my books for hours when there always seems to be so much else to do here. So I love it when I am given a recipe from another lover of food as I know I don’t have to test it!

 

Mick came back from a London trip, having had dinner at one of his clients (and now very dear friends), James and Vera Harland.  Vera is from Armenia and is the most fantastic cook (actually so is James).  Anyway, as usual when either Mick or both of us go around to their house for dinner, Vera had produced a feast, usually consisting of about a million different courses and one of the dishes was stuffed tomatoes, Armenian style.   Mick came home raving about them, so I asked Vera for the recipe.  Here they are for you – they make a lovely, tasty dish for lunch or supper and although they need a while in the oven, they can just be left cooking away happily while you go and do something else.  Also, if there are any vegetarians in your party, you can still serve tomatoes, but leave out the meat and put aubergines, pine nuts and raisins instead.  In fact this recipe can be adapted to your taste, put a bit of chilli in there if you like

 

For four people for part of a main dish, you will need

 

500 gms beef mince

Half a cup of Arborio rice

8 medium to large beef tomatoes

Olive oil

6 large potatoes peeled and cut into chunks

Dried Mint

3 or 4 large cloves of garlic

Lots of salt and pepper

 

Cut the tops off the tomatoes and scoop out the flesh and put to one side.

Turn the tomatoes upside down to drain as much liquid from them and retain the tops

Wash the rice and place in a bowl with the mince and mix in.

Chop up the tomato flesh in to small pieces.  Add to the mince mixture and add a good glug of olive olive and mix up.  Season with quite a lot of salt and pepper – it does need to be well seasoned.

Fill the tomatoes with the mixture but don’t over fill – pop the tops back on and then keep the liquid from this mixture.

Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a roasting tray and put in the tomatoes and peeled potatoes between them.

Sieve the reserved liquid over the dish pushing as much through as possible with a spoon

Peel and chop the garlic (use as much as you like!) and dot it all over the dish

Throw loads of dried mint over and cover with foil

Put in a moderate oven (gas mark 3/325F or 170C) for 3 hours – it will stay a bit longer if you wish

After 2 hours or so have a taste and re season with salt and pepper – remove foil for the last half an hour before serving on hot plates with lovely crusty bread.

 

 


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