Category Archives: Recipes

Jan19

Food parcel & friends.

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‘What can I do with these langostinos I have ?’ – My dear friend Kate asked,

Where would I start ?, with a myriad of marvelous mouthwatering dishes out there, from every type of cuisine in the world. Something simple, tasty & healthy I thought.

‘Oh I have some spinach too‘ she messaged – This was beginning to be like ‘Ready, steady cook’ on-line.

‘Oh also did I tell you, I don’t know how to prepare fresh langostinos ? ‘ She quietly advised.

‘O.K – I’ll bring food parcel & wine, you provide the kitchen & expertise ‘ She announced.

DEAL DONE.

So Kate duly arrived the following day, with hamper in tow.

We set about preparing the deliciously fresh langostinos, heads & tails off, a glass of wine at hand to ease the squeamish task for Kate of de-veining , ready for our chosen dish.

So what did we choose ???

 Moorish Spiced, Prawns & Spinach. – Delicate in flavour with a hint of warming spice.

INGREDIENTS

Serves 4

1 large onion – Sliced finely

1 fat clove of garlic – crushed

1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

1 heaped tsp of Cumin seeds

2 large handfuls of fresh shelled prawns.

1 tsp of harrisa paste

½ tsp of cinnamon

1 bag of spinach

Salt & Pepper.

  • Gently saute onions in olive oil, until softened but not brown.
  • Add garlic and fry for 1 min.
  • Add cumin seeds and fry for 1 min.
  • Add toms & harissa paste.
  • Simmer gently for 5 mins for flavours to infuse.
  • Add the spinach, and allow to wilt in sauce for 5 mins.
  • Stir in prawns and allow to cook gently in the simmering sauce for 5 mins or until opaque & pink.
  • Season with s & p.

Once all cooked, serve in rustic bowls, with a folded flat-bread a wedge of lemon and chopped coriander and a dusting of cinnamon.

 Any more friends out there with food parcels welcome, La Rosilla awaits 😉

 

 

Dec2

When the going gets tough …

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Like many people I’m sure at this time of year, there doesn’t seem enough hours in the day, or enough pennies in the pot – Life sometimes just piles more onto your plate than you can chew …

Well when the going get’s tough I go cooking …..

So I’ve stirred up my Christmas pud, and probably made just one too many wishes…

I’ve baked 6 Christmas fruit cakes, following my old Nan’s super easy recipe, and am feeding them daily with their tot of brandy – 1 for them 1 for me 😉

I’ve made my quince jam to add a sharp & sweet addition to my Christmas ham.

Sherry & Tapas Tasting

and I’ve cooked with my dear friend Lisa aka @familyinspain who joined me on a La Rosilla Cookery & Culture Day, to sample my fayre , join me in sampling sherry & tapas, discover the local countryside, go embutido (Cured meat) shopping and click away at her heart’s content taking some lovely shots of the day.

Embutidos Colmenar

So with the advent doors being opened, oranges studded with cloves and my mulled wine pot on the stove ready for its first fill, the festive aromas fill my senses & add a little cheer.

So as I look ahead to a month full to bursting, with much work and I hope much more play, I wish you all a happy and calm countdown…..

and let’s remember it’s just 1 Day !

Oct24

Girl Guide Motto – Be Prepared ;)

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I always thought my early years as a Brownie and later as a Girl guide, would bode me well in the future.

Be prepared and all that !!!

But every winter or start of, I think my brain fuddled from the heat of the summer, forgets my past and all it’s promises to  do my best.

We know its coming, the first rains that is, one things for sure in Spain, the expat in us still likes to think of the weather first and foremost, so it’s our daily morning ritual to check the forecast.  But complacent we are , with our high temperatures & clear skies, we think the rains are a  novelty, ‘Oh the land needs it’ we say, ‘No rain for 4 months, it’ll be a refreshing change’.  We live in denial of the coming winter  months, thinking they’ll never arrive, but they do, oh do they…

and guess what we’re never prepared.

Where has my view gone ?

So today as I sit typing away , jeans on for the first time in months, hearing lashing rains on my roof, and seeing pouring rains running under my doors..no we don’t have gutters or weather strips, just lovely rustic wooden doors ;), with electricity on & off, no satellite signal .  With winds gusting, so I feel like I’m in Oz, and branches crashing all about .  I sit and think ‘Is this living the dream’ …you bet it is …how dull life would be if it were all the same.

There’s just one thing it calls for on a day like this, comfort food, so with our supper bubbling on the stove, filling the house with aromas and warmth.  It’s homework time by candle light….

I would share the recipe, but sorry got fallen trees to move….next time x

Now where are my Hunters & Barbour……………………..

Oct14

The jewel of Autumn.

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Who can but desire the luscious juiciness, of the ruby red seeds from a Pomegranate – Like Gemstones, glistening, awaiting to adorn dishes, with the jewel like presence.

Pomegranates (Granadas) I believe are the jewel of autumn, just as some of us take to hibernation, the beautiful pomegranate hangs from it’s tree, tempting us with its ripeness, with hues of colour from peach to scarlet.

In Ancient Greece it was thought of a symbol of prosperity and ambition . The Moors renamed the wonderful ancient city of Granada after the precious fruit, and Spanish colonists introduced the fruit to the Caribbean and Latin America.

On our mountain as the first fruits appear to ripen, my children scramble over the shrub-land, to be the first to bagsy their autumn treasure. Their favourite way to indulge, just tear open, and pick the seeds (arils) out one by one – Natures ‘Sweet’ shop :), My daughters have always thought of them as flower fairies crown jewels.

I remember my Mother telling me a story, when she was young and after her first week at work as a florist, she walked through the ‘Bullring’ market in the centre of Birmingham, and on a stall she saw the unusual fruit, and the ruby seeds. She spent her first pay packet on a Pomegranate for her mother, my Nan, who sat with a pin and enjoyed this new tropical fruit.

There are so many uses for pomegranates here are a few of my favourites ;

Pomegranate Raita –

A cooling yoghurt salsa to go with a spicy curry.

A pot of Greek yoghurt thinned with a little milk.

Seeds of a pomegranate

½ a cucumber chopped

a pinch of salt

a small handful of fresh mint leaves – chopped finely

a small handful of coriander – chopped finely

  •  Mix all together – Simple.

Jeweled Cous-Cous

To be enjoyed with rich Moroccan dishes.

Serves 4

250 grammes of Cous Cous

Veg Stock made with 250 ml Boiling water

Seeds of a pomegranate

Handful of pinenuts lightly toasted in a dry pan

Bag of spinach

Squeeze of lemon

  • Prepare the cous cous, with the veg stock, and let stand for 5 mins, then fluff up with a fork.
  • Wilt the spinach, in a pan with a little water, once wilted drain and squeeze out etc moisture, chop up.
  • Add to cous-cous.
  • Add pinenuts, and pomegranate.
  • Stir to mix.

Decant into a pretty bowl, and squeeze the juice of a lemon over.

Or for a decadent tipple, try a

Pom Royale

  •  Juice a pomegranate and put a teaspoon into the bottom of a Champagne fruit, with a few seeds too.
  •  Top with Cava, Prosecco or Champagne.

Salut !

So if you suffer from ‘S.A.D’ or the winter blues are upon you, break open a pomegranate, and let its health giving properties benefit your body & its ruby richness, put a smile on your face.

Oct5

My Paella Pan !

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This is my guest post as featured on the Cooking Outdoors blog .  So much fun sharing recipes & experiences around the world.  You can follow The Outdoor Cook on Twitter here @cookingoutdoors.

Paella or Arroces, have become part of my families’ new life, since emigrating from the U.K to Andalucia Spain 7 years ago.

Paella is a dish prepared with love and gusto, to be shared with family, friends & neighbours. It is a dish offered in most Ferias of Spain throughout the year, and comes in many guises depending on the area of Spain you live in. From the traditional Paella Valenciana, with meat & seafood, to modern-day arroces (rices) & paellas adjusted to use what it is in season, or to suit the diners.

Paelleras (paella pans) range in size from a 4 portions to massive pans measuring meters across, to feed a whole town.  This giant paella is a spectacular cooking outdoor event, when people gather from far around, to watch and taste the local dish.  Cooked above a wood fire, these experts tend their giant pans of rice, meat & stock, until the dish is ready, rested and waiting to be devoured.  Often taking hours to prepare & cook, eaten in moments.

I like to cook my Paella on a warm summer evenings just as the sun is setting over the mountains.  I usually cook a 15 portion Paella, as leftovers are delicious.  I use a large pan and special Paella gas burner, which make it very portable, and I can cook anywhere, beach, camping & picnics.

Paella 228x300 Have Paella Pan Will travel Guest postIt is a very social affair, often friends gather around the ring whilst cooking, many times offering their suggestions or preferences and expertise for the perfect Paella.

A favorite with my Family is Chicken, chorizo, asparagus and wild mushroom.

Based on 15 servings:

 The secret is to have all ingredients ready prepared, so you are ready to cook.

Ingredients

Olive oil

1kg of chicken pieces / skin off – Bone-in fine

1 large chorizo sausage, skinned and cut into 1 cm slices.

1 glass of white wine.

1 onion – diced

1 head of garlic, peeled and sliced

1 green pepper – diced

1 red pepper – diced

Handful of fresh thyme

1 dried ‘Nora’ pepper

1.5 kg paella rice ‘calasparra’

1 large tin of tomatoes

Saffron

2 sachets of Paella seasoning or ½ tsp each of Paprika, turmeric, fenugreek.

2 litres chicken stock

1 hand of Asparagus, trimmed.

500 g mixed fresh wild mushroom or preserved in brine

Lemon to decorate

Preparation

Prepare the chicken by marinating in olive oil, thyme, slat and pepper.

Make up stock and add saffron to infuse.

Put a layer of Olive oil in your Paella Pan to cover the bottom.

Heat gently, add your whole Nora pepper,  then chicken and thyme.

Brown the meat nicely, then stir and fry 10 mins.

Remove the Nora pepper

Add onion, garlic and peppers – Fry for 5 mins until soft.

Add chopped mushrooms and Chorizo – fry for 2/3 mins

Add tinned toms, and break up in pan, add white wine & stir & bubble.

Season with Salt & pepper

Stir in seasoning / spices.

Add handfuls of rice around the pan, to let rice absorb some of the juices, stir.

Pour in stock and saffron, stir so rice is distributed evenly.

Simmer for 5 – 6 mins then reduce heat to medium low.

DO NOT STIR ANYMORE cook for 20/25 mins until all liquid absorb, you may need to add a little more – you want you rice to be ‘al dente’.

5 mins before end of cooking, lay the Asparagus on the top in a circle, it will cook in the steam.

Turn off heat, and cover with a clean cloth, foil or as sometimes in Spain newspaper, to rest and flavor infuse.

Decorate the edge of the pan with lemon wedges, and sprinkle on some more fresh thyme.

 107 0247 225x300 Have Paella Pan Will travel Guest post

Buen Provecho x

Sep30

Getting back into routine !

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Food is always high on my agenda, sharing, creating & of course eating. I’m always finding new recipes to try, scouring magazines for inspiration, aswell as being asked by friends and family for mine.

I’ve collated on scraps of paper,  favourite recipes over the summer from visitors . I’ve also been fortunate enough to meet clients from far flung places, happy to indulge my passion and whet my appetite with their superb dishes too.

Over the summer, with full on bookings for Classes, luxury food deliveries & my ‘Supperclub” on the terrace, posting recipes seem to have been put on my back burner !

Well hopefully now, as routine slowly gets back into shape, now children are back at school, all birthdays are finished, well In our family anyway and my last visitors leave on Monday I can start once again to do all the ‘foodie’ things I enjoy.

Just a couple of recipes that are easy family favourites that I have cooked and created for guests and clients of La Rosilla, and that I have sent to my ‘Mum’ when she was having a meltdown, as she was having friends to stay for the week-end, and just didn’t know what to cook…

I hope you like them too…

 

Smoked Salmon Pate & Rye

 Serves 4

1 packet of full fat cream cheese

200 gr of Smoked Salmon chopped

Zest of a lemon & juice of ½ a lemon

snipped chives

½ a Red onion finely chopped

1 tbsp of Whole grain mustard

a pinch of salt

 

Packet of Rye bread & Cucumber to serve.

Mix all the above ingredietnst together, for a smooth consitency use a blender.

Put into a pretty serving bowl, and decorate with smoked slamon lemon & chives.

Cut Rye bread into traingles & slice cucumber to decorate plate.

 

Beef in Red wine

 

• 1kg braising beef (cubed)

• Bacon lardons – Or thick cut bacon cut into pieces

• Baby mushrooms left whole

• 1 large onion – Chopped

• 2 carrots chopped

• Shallots / Baby Onions – peeled left whole

• 2 tbspPlain flour

• 1 bottle of red wine

• Small tin of Tomato Puree

• Cranberry Sauce

• 2 tbsp plain flour

• ½ pt Beef stock

• Bay leaf & bouquet garni

Make in large Casserole dish with lid.

• Pan fry the bacon until crispy, remove from pan

• Add olive oil to pan and brown the beef, a little at a time so it browns nicely, not

steams.

• Add onion & carrot and fry

• Sprinkle with plain flour and stir and cook out flour for about 2 mins, will brown.

• Add bacon back in.

• Pour on whole bottle of red stirring to get all the juicy bits off the bottom for flavour.

• Add tomato puree & beef stock

• Pop in a 2 bay leaves & bouquet garni.

• Lots of seasoning.

Cook slowly for 2 hours in the oven with lid on.

Then add baby onions & mushrooms – cook for another hour.

  • It may need extra cooking just check, and when beef is tender it’s done.

A tip, when its finished cooking stir in 2 tbsp of cranberry sauce, it’s yum.

Good luck & Buen Provecho

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sep3

Morcilla Love it or Hate it.

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Morcilla / Love it, hate it …

I was never a black pudding kind of a girl when living in Blighty,  but since living in Spain in our rural location, where embutidos / cured meats are a specialty and handmade, full of flavour and natural ingredients, my taste buds have changed.

We were thrown into the deep in end a few years back, when I was trying to create my ‘Good life’  I always fancied being a Barbara not sure OH was too keen on being Tom ! I decided in my wisdom we needed livestock, pigs, goats and hens.  So livestock we had.

After months of feeding our pigs ‘Prada and Boggis’, that was a mistake. Tip no 1 don’t name your animals you’re going to eat.  They out grew their paddock.  I decided to move them on Christmas Day as their present, to their new larger run. That was a comedy show in itself, me glammed up to the nines, after a few cheeky cava’s and a full to bursting tummy, with a family shouting orders, but not taking part, sipping their digestif and enjoying the obligatory post dinner cigar.

After a few falls, expletives and paper crown dislodged, my Giant pigs Prada and Bogis were safely rehomed in their majestic run.

As the months went on, I knew I had to organize the final deed.  My neighbours set to it and a full Spanish ‘Matanza del Cerdo’ was prepared and executed *excuse the term, for us.  Due to the nature of a Matanza, I’ll let those who want to know more click here.

So for months we had pork of all styles and recipes of pork in every conceivable way.  That evening we were presented with armfuls of Morcila, skillfully handmade by the ladies of the village, delicately spiced, and hung to dry.

So now I had to create new recipes for Morcilla.   I also love to convince visitors and friends, that it is delicious.

This is my favourite.

Morcilla & Apple.

Ingredients

1 x Morcilla, cut into 1cm rings.

2 x Granny Smiths apples or tart eating apple. Chopped into bite size pieces

1 x Red onion, finely chopped

Cane honey

Splash of Sherry.

Fresh Parsley.

Method

Pan fry the onion in a little olive oil, when softened add the apple, fry till golden.

 

Add the Morcilla, and brown each ring on each side.

Add a splash of Sherry, bubble for a few mins.

Put into a serving bowl, and drizzle with cane honey, and sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley.

Serve with fresh crusty bread.

My friend Carol Byrne of Further South of Granada blog suggested, pan frying the Morcilla, then topping with blue cheese and bake in the oven until bubbling.  Gracias Carol Nom, Nom x

 

 

 

Sep3

Pipirrana What a lovely name for a salad.

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Pipirrana, what a lovely name for a dish.

When working with my OH at our Golf Academy, many of our members, have heard through the grapevine, or by myself that I’m a little obsessed about food.  Many of the men, are very proud of the culinary skills, and are more than happy to demonstrate to me, and I have no objection, as this results in many delicious lunches prepared for me, in the beautiful alfresco setting at the golf course.

Yesterday was no exception with the lovely ‘Javier’ rustling up his take on ‘Paella’ and the wonderful summer salad.

Pipirrana is a fresh, chopped Spanish salad, and like many Spanish dishes, there are many takes on it.  It basically is ‘Porra” the thick, soupy tomato dip, before it has been blitzed in a blender, with a few personally chosen added ingredients, my favourite being ‘Pulpo’ or crabsticks.

It is a refreshing salad to have on the side of any grilled, barbecued meat or fish dish, or on top of Bruschetta as a canapé.

Pipirrana

Ingredients.

All ingredients should be peeled and finely chopped.

Cucumber

Tomatoes

Onion

Green Pepper

Olive Oil

Balsamic vinegar

Sea salt and Fresh ground black pepper

Toppings

Crabsticks, hard-boiled eggs, pulpo. / Optional

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl; add oil and vinegar to coat and season.

Buen Provecho.

Aug22

Family, frolics, ferias & figs.

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By now at this time of year, I am operating on autopilot. Copious amounts of fun, food, ferias and frolics are starting to pay its toll, not to mention the complete families birthday celebrations to boot. August at La Rosilla is one hectic time.

But just as I think, ‘that’s it no more DETOX please’, another invite, another birthday, another do to plan, pops up.

In between all the revelry, I try and snatch the odd few mins, to take stock, and one of my favourite ways to do this is to indulge in gods on food FIGS straight from the tree. They took their time this year, to be ready and dripping from the tree, or maybe it was just the fact I was waiting, salivating for their ripeness.

Figs matched with some of Andalucia finest other ingredients creates a dish to be proud of, try it I’m sure you’ll agree,

 

Figs, baked with Goats cheese, wrapped in Serrano ham, and drizzled with cana miel.

  •  Take a handful of figs, cut a slit in the top of each, and stuff with a wedge of Goats cheese.
  • Wrap each fig in a slice of Serrano ham.
  • Fit figs snugly in a baking dish.
  • Bake in a hot oven for 15 mins, till oozing and soft.
  • Remove from oven and drizzle with Cane honey.

Savour and enjoy and mop up the juices with crusty bread.

Heaven on a Plate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jul25

Summer roasted peppers.

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Easy Summer dishes, are what I love, using fresh home-grown ingredients where possible .

Here’s a favorite of mine for you, can be enjoyed as a side dish to accompany fish or barbied meat or simply , I like it for lunch, with a hunk of homemade bread, to mop up the Juices and a chilled Fino to sip.

Summer Roasted Peppers

Serves 4

2 Large red peppers, cut in half through the stalk.

4 ripe Tomatoes, cut in quarters.

1 fat clove of garlic

Olive Oil

Fresh herbs ( I use Rosemary or dried oregano that I dry myself)

Anchovy Fillets.

Method

Oil a baking dish, and lay the peppers in it.

Drizzle the inside of the peppers with Oil, season with Salt & pepper, and put in each some slithers of garlic.

Stuff the peppers with the tomatoes.

Drizzle with more oil, S & P, and sprinkle with herbs.

Top with anchovy fillets.

Bake in a hot oven for 25 mins, till tender and oozing.

Other ideas, not too keen on anchovies, top with Goats Cheese, or once out of the oven, shavings of Parmesan..Delish to0.

 

 Buen Provecho.