Yummy Almeria

On Saturday we have been invited to some friends on Vera Beach to celebrate Australia Day which was on Wednesday.  I was in Australia for the bicentennial in 1988 – and 26th January is always a public holiday there.  Graham, who is from Australia, and David used to own a restaurant in Sydney called the Yellow Book which I visited in the 80’s and just by chance we met them here again all these years later when they had their fantastic restaurant Cortijo Listonera up in Sierra Cabrera.  They are now enjoying some seriously deserved leisure time and are fantastic hosts and chefs.  I like to take a little something if I go to anyone’s house and so am making Baklava for them – for those of you who haven’t had it before, it is a very very sweet pastry but divine to have with an espresso or even a glass of dessert wine.  It is associated with many different cultures, each adding some spice or other, but I suppose now mostly with Greece or Turkey.   Our gorgeous friends James and Vera, bring us platters of sweets, all different, very similar to this when they visit us.  Vera is originally from Armenia and is a mean cook so it is really thanks to her that I am happy making this.

So do have a go if you feel like baking something different – I promise that it is much easier and less fiddly than it looks and certainly easier than making a Victoria sponge.

Anyhow, what you will need is:

200 g of nuts – I used a mixture of walnuts, almonds and pistachios.  You can’t always find unsalted, unshelled pistachios here, and if that is the case I just get the salted kind and shell them myself.  It doesn’t take long to shell a couple of small handfuls and the small amount of salt of course just enhances the taste!  You can just use one type of nut if that is all you have in the cupboard, it will still be delicious.

100g golden sugar

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon orange blossom water (this always makes me laugh as it is about the only thing I use this for so lasts for about 2 years!)

1 tablespoon of rose water

A piece of unsalted butter to grease a square baking dish (I find a cake tin type dish is the best as you will be using filo pastry)

12 sheets filo

75 g unsalted butter, melted

Sugar syrup (recipe below)

Pre-heat the oven (but after you have shelled the nuts!!!) to 200c

Grind the nuts in a food processor until they are in crumb form but not uniform or fine.

Put in a mixing bowl with the sugar, cinnamon, and rose and orange water and mix together well.

Grease your cake tin (it needs to be at least an inch deep and around 15-18cms square or oblong) I use a square spring form cake tin as it is then very easy to transfer to a pretty plate in one piece if you use a fish slice and are careful), but this is not essential.

Put one of the sheets of filo to cover the bottom and brush with melted butter – and repeat this with a further five sheets, brushing each layer with butter (yes I know but you don’t have to eat the whole thing!).  Be careful with the filo though, it really dries out so each time you take a layer; cover the rest with a damp tea towel to keep it nice and malleable so it doesn’t break.

Spread the mixture over this base and gently press down into the corners and then repeat layering up with filo brushed with butter with a further 6 layers.

Cut into diamonds in a criss cross pattern and put in the oven for around 20 minutes.

Remove when golden and leave for a couple of minutes.  Then pour over the cooled sugar syrup which you can make while baking.

175g white granulated sugar

75 ml water

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon each of rose and orange blossom water

Place the water, sugar and lemon juice in a small pan, gently heat and stir from time to time.  Bring to the boil for a couple of minutes. Ad the rose and orange blossom water and boil for a couple of seconds.  Remove and cool.  Pour over the Baklava when completely cool.  When you transfer onto a plate, just cut through the diamond shapes and serve in small pieces.

It may look like a bit of a faff – it really isn’t and is quite special – serve with coffee after dinner or just for elevenses.

It’s Thursday and we are having friends over tonight to watch a movie – it’s a lovely way to spend an evening on a chilly January day – Anyhow, dinner and a movie takes a bit too long on a working day so I just make some snacks to have with some Cava and a quick gossip before having to shut up for a couple of hours.  I won’t say tapas, as my offerings are not Spanish – hummus with crudités, some goats cheese, spring onion and red pepper on some ready made thin rounds of Brick pastry – I nicked it from Delia’s TV ad – it’s a bit like filo but you don’t have to do anything to it – just top it like you would a pizza but a bit more delicately.  I made some with Jamon and gruyere as well. I found it in a supermarket in Almeria amazingly but I know Waitrose sell it.   I thought I should make at least one thing from scratch and I love tiny little pancakes that you can just pop in your mouth – you can put pretty much anything you like on them, but smoked salmon and thick Greek yoghurt goes very well – I forgot the salmon egg to finish with, but they were still pretty good.  These freeze brilliantly too so make them when you have time and just take them out an hour in advance to defrost slightly, put them on a baking tray and put in an oven at 190 for 5 minutes to make them crisp again.  Cool on a rack and top half an hour before serving.

For about 20 you will need

100 g buckwheat flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg, separated

100 ml milk

To top

Smoked salmon

Sour cream or Greek yoghurt

Salmon eggs or chives

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl and make a well.  Beat the egg yolk and milk and then add to the flour.  Mix together to form a batter.  Whisk up the egg white to form peaks and fold into your batter.  Heat a medium sized non stick frying pan and brush with a little olive oil.  This is the fun bit.  Drop teaspoons of the batter into the pan – have a bit of a practice as you want them to be small and not too thick, but of course they don’t need to be uniform – people will know they are home made!

Cook for a couple of minutes and then flip over – I find a round ended knife is perfect for this – a fish slice is too big – cook for another minute or two and slide batches of 5 or 6 onto a wire rack, brush on a little more oil and continue until you have used all the batter.  I make double the amount normally and freeze half for the next time I want canapés.

Top with the smoked salmon and sour cream, or cream cheese and salmon eggs or whatever you fancy. It is worth the effort.

It’s a chilly grey old day today, unusual for here, but expected on some days in January (last week was boiling!).  Lots of us in January are tightening our belts but this doesn’t mean that food has to be less delicious – I am notoriously extravagant where food is concerned but obviously there are fantastic inexpensive ingredients where taste is not compromised.  One of my favourites and really good at any time of year is Potato Tortilla.  In the winter eat it hot with sausage or a pork chop, in summer just with a delicious salad.  Anyhow, when you come in from work on a cold night and want something quick but comforting, try this – you will make it again and again – it is so easy – children love it too and you can add peas, sweetcorn or shrimp, or anything you like really.  If you have a mandolin for slicing the potatoes so much the better as it takes no time at all and if you don’t just enlist some help for slicing onions and potatoes!  You find Tortilla absolutely everywhere in Spain in tapas bars but no-one I know apart from my friend Sonya, who used to live in Spain, makes it at home in the UK.

You will need

A medium sized saucepan filled a third with olive oil

4 large potatoes peeled and sliced as thinly as you can – about

a eighth of an inch

1 large onion, Spanish of course

Maldon sea salt and black pepper

4 large eggs

Heat the olive oil gently and add your slices of potato and onion alternating the two.  You don’t want the oil really hot, rather you want the vegetables to “boil” rather than fry. Just keep an eye on them and lift and turn them over from time to time – you just want them tender, not coloured.  Prod with a cocktail stick to make sure there is no crunch left in the potatoes!  Drain in a colander, reserving a few tablespoons of the oil and put to one side.  You can use the left over oil to cook something savoury in as it has a wonderful onion flavour.

Take a good omelette pan – not too large as you are going to be turning over the hot potato cake several times so it needs to be manageable.  It needs to be a decent depth though – at least an inch and a half.

Separately, in a large mixing bowl beat the eggs until they are a little foamy. Season with salt and pepper.  Add the potato and onions and leave for 10 minutes.  Heat a tablespoon of oil and let it get really hot and then add your potatoes, onion and egg, spreading it quickly so it fills the pan.  Lower the heat and just gently shake the pan so that it doesn’t stick.  When it looks like the eggs are starting to set on the top, place a slightly larger plate over the pan and quickly turn over.  Add a little more oil to the pan and slide the tortilla back in to brown on the other side.  The second turning will be easier – repeat a few times just gently shaking the pan, that way you get a lovely round, golden tortilla.  Each time you make this, you will get better at it.  Just keep the heat lowish and that way it will cook through without burning the outside.

As said, add things to it if you wish – sometimes I slice up chorizo and put half the egg mixture in the pan, put the slices of chorizo on top and then cover again with potato – it is fantastic.  You can just eat it on its own with vegetables or salad, as you have the protein of the eggs with the carbs of the spuds, so really you don’t need much else.  And it is cheap as chips!

This is the most fantastic and simple dessert – I particularly had my super slim sister in mind when I tried it because she just isn’t a pudding person and just likes unmessed about with food and likes things like fresh watermelon to finish a meal.  This is one of Nigel Slater’s simple supper recipes which I saw on television before Christmas, and had made a mental not to make it for her (and then forgot) – wonderful for us because I still have an abundance of oranges left from the end of November.

They keep beautifully in an airy basket in a cool corner of my kitchen and so I just squeeze them when I want them, or make a bit more marmalade or just put a slice in a Campari and soda.  Anyhow, this recipe calls for a litre of orange and grapefruit juice plus the juice of one lemon.  I used 2 ruby grapefruits to make up the litre.  It gives you enough for 4 decent sized puds, but simply double it if you are having a larger bash. It takes no time at all if you have an electric juicer, but if you have an extractor, make sure all the pulp goes into the pan too.  In fact, if you are making it for a dinner party, why not make it the day before, put it in the fridge and forget about it, as you don’t want to risk not leaving enough time for it to set.  It is very very zingy, hence why it is for grown-ups – but it is also good for slimmers too as it just contains a bit of sugar, and no fat whatsoever if you leave the cream alone!

You will need

Juice of oranges, grapefruits and a lemon to make up a litre

5-6 sheets of gelatine (I used 5 for a more wobbly jelly but I think I might try 6 next time for a slightly firmer set)

2-3 tablespoons of sugar (or to taste)

10 crushed cardamom seeds crushed

6 decent slices of orange peel from the juiced oranges

Put the juice, peel and cardamom seeds into a pan and bring to a simmer.

Add the sugar to taste and simmer for a few minutes

Remove from the heat and add the gelatine and dissolve.

Strain into glass dishes – single ones are so much more elegant and then easier to serve too.  The amount I have used would stretch to six medium portions – I used 4 huge stemmed glass dishes!

Refrigerate for at least a day.

For the finishing touch…..

Take more slices of orange peel and slice very finely

Put in a small pan and add some granulated sugar – a couple of heaped tablespoons

When the sugar is melting and turning golden, add a tablespoon of water – careful as it will splutter

Empty the contents on some baking parchment and leave to harden

When you are ready to serve, break into pieces and place on top of the jellies.

This is just so divine it stands up on its own, but of course you may like to serve with a little bowl of whipped cream on the table.  I just know I will make lots of this during august as it is so refreshing and light.  But it is brilliant at this time of year too, when you have eaten a big roast dinner, or a steak and kidney pie!   I urge you to try it.