A fine morning pick-me-up

This morning dawned bright and sunny but a little chilly by Spanish standards. Mind you, that means the temperature was about what would be described as “lovely” at the height of a British summer.

We went to our local Intermarche supermarket to get a few bits and pieces and then enjoyed a coffee con leche each. The bakery café featured an intriguing display of special pastries and biscuits that are mainly seen at Christmas time. Key ingredients are angel-hair sugar, which is made from pumpkins, almonds, olive oil and wine. We chose suspiros de coc, which are coconut macaroons, borrachelos scattered with white sugar and angel-hair sugar inside, and murcianitos, which were little pastries filled with more angel-hair. They were delicious, although, not surprisingly, very sweet.

A regular leaned against the counter and ordered his 11am pick-me-up. This consisted of a glass into which a layer of condensed milk was poured, on top of this went a double shot of black coffee, then a healthy free-hand pour of brandy, then an equally generous pour of Bailey’s, then a topping of frothy cappuccino milk with a scattering of cinnamon. A packet of sugar was added and everything stirred together. The man who was enjoying this treat highly recommended it when we spoke to him as an essential and healthy restorative.

If you are suffering from the winter mid-morning blahs, then a couple of these should set you up for the rest of the day. Or, at least, keep you going until your first glass of wine with lunch.

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©Phillip Bruce 2009

Beautiful baked bananas

Recently our friends Mike and Sue visited the Campo from Puerto de Mazarrón and they gave Sharon a wonderful old book of Scots recipes.

This is Lady Maclean´s Cookbook, not surprisingly, by Lady Maclean, wife of Sir Fitzroy Maclean. He notes in the introduction: “When I married, I weighed ten stone. Now I weigh fifteen. Need I say more?”

The book has no publication details but probably appeared in the 1950s or 1960s and it is crammed with recipes for delicious real food without any of the nonsense of modern fashion. You won´t find purple lettuces and mascarpone in these recipes.

The Macleans lived at Strachur House, Argyll, and many of the recipes are from there, or from her ladyship´s friends who obviously moved in elevated social circles. But great tribute is made to the cooks of their households. Lady Maclean says her grandmother was a member of the Tennant family and “like most of her generation could not boil an egg herself.” But she was crazy about food: “How that garrulous family ever stopped talking long enough to eat, I often wonder.”

Here is a recipe for Baked Bananas Creole which will serve four or five people and which came from Hamsell Manor, near Tunbridge Wells. Sharon is a banana fiend. “I remember we used to grow them in our back garden in Africa and I have always loved bananas. I went to college in Tunbridge Wells and lived there for a year. So this is the perfect dish for me.”

“Baked Bananas Creole

Lay half a dozen peeled, ripe bananas in a shallow fireproof dish and sprinkle over them:

Three tablespoons of brown sugar
The juice of one lemon
Three tablespoons of water

Bake in a slow oven until the bananas are brown, adding, half-way through the cooking one sherry glassful of rum. Served with whipped cream handed separately.”

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Sunshine time for Sam

November is a beautiful time of the year to be in Spain, the fierce and blazing heat of summer is long gone and the chills of winter have not yet taken hold.

At the weekend strong winds from the north swept across the Campo, shaking the house and stripping all the fragrant jasmine blossom from the swags that hang over the fence of Sharon´s garden. Never mind, now the buds that were unopened are in full flower the wind has gone and the heady scent is back again. Open the window in the front door and the jasmine fragrance fills the house.

The skies are blue and clear and the mid-day sun is warm but not baking. One enthusiast for this time of year is our old Golden Labrador, Sam. He´s getting on a bit now and the joints creak and ache with arthritis. As he certainly knows, there is no better way of dealing with these than lying in the sun for an hour or two.

He flops into his favourite bed and soaks up the rays while watching such life as passes along the track. A horse and carriage jingling past saw him sit up for a better view this morning and then he just went back to sunbathing.

Who can beat a bit of sun when you are not as young as you used to be?

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©Phillip Bruce 2009

Liz´s lovely lemon drizzle cake

Sharon´s friend Liz has sent her the recipe for a delicious lemon drizzle cake.

Liz writes: “I thought you might like my recipe for lemon drizzle cake which I´ve made a few times with 100 per cent success (at least we think so as there is never much left once we start to eat it!)”

Ingredients

8oz or 225g of unsalted butter.
8oz or 225g of caster sugar
four large eggs
8oz or 225g of self-raising flour
finely grated zest of one lemon

For the drizzle
Juice of one or two lemons
3oz of caster sugar.

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy and then add the eggs one at a time. Sift in the flour and add the lemon zest. Mix well and pour into a greaseproof lined loaf tin. Bake in the oven at 180/160C for 45 to 50 minutes.

When the cake has cooled but is still just warm combine the drizzle ingredients and pour over.

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Shellfish and blue cheese

Why is it that some of the strangest-looking food delicacies are also the most expensive?

Wandering along the fascinating fish and shellfish counter in the supermarket at the El Corte Ingles department store in Cartagena we spotted a tray that was priced at 68.95 euros a kilo. What a fantastic price, but one that makes it unlikely that we will every find out what this shellfish tastes like. The name in Spanish is Percebe Gordo, which translates as Fat Barnacles. See the picture.

Much cheaper were good old winkles, ideal for anyone who fancies a traditional British snack after a session at the pub. In the past, the winkle stall was a common site outside the pubs of London and winkles are still a popular dish in the East End, with the slimy contents being winkled out with a pin. At El Corte Ingles, look out for Biguros Gordo, priced at a very reasonable 9.95 euros a kilo.

Meanwhile at the cheese counter in the delicatessen, Club Del Gourmet, near to the supermarket, there was an interesting selection of blue cheeses. A triangle of suitably mouldy looking Queso Azul La Perla, from Asturias, was selected. Sharon won´t touch this.

However, more mature palettes found the Asturian blue cheese to be rich and creamy with an aroma that is less powerful than other blue and green cheeses. Highly recommended.

“How could you fancy anything that smells so disgusting?” said the uneducated palette.

With Christmas coming up, attention was drawn to the bottle of Macallan 1951 whisky, the ideal festive treat at 3,600 euros.

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©Phillip Bruce 2009.

More like a cake

Another Sharon´s boozy cheer-up cake was baked at the weekend. See the earlier article for the recipe.

This time the amount of dried fruit soaked in sherry was halved and replaced by Whitworth´s dried fruit soaked in rum, which is fairly dry. The result has the consistency of a cake rather than of a bread pudding.

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The creature from the deep

After taking our golden Labrador Sam to the vet this morning for routine jabs we called in at a local café for some tapas.

We enjoyed seafood salad, boquerones (slightly pickled anchovies), tender York ham and a Murcian salad made with sliced onion, tinned tomatoes, tuna and quarters of boiled egg. With lots of fresh crusty bread, olives and frothy café con leche as well, of course.

On the counter was a special treat, all ready to be cut up. This was a big octopus measuring about two feet across and nicely roasted and brown. This is known in Spanish as “pulpo” and is greatly appreciated. When you order, the waiter takes a big pair of scissors and cuts off a piece of leg which he then further cuts into thin slices, each with suckers attached.

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©Phillip Bruce 2009