June 21 – 27 Mañana Mañana

A good friend of mine (Marco) commented on taking up a senior position with a telecoms company here that the things that annoyed him most was his Spanish staff who had  turned the idea of Mañana, Mañana into an art form.

This is the mantra of my estate agent, nice guy and very personable, but I think still on the cloud caused by his marriage, all this week we were to meet to sort out the deposit on the house. Eventually on Friday I get a message to meet him at 12:30 in his office, I get there and he is in his car outside and tells me that he has had so much difficulty in contacting the 4 family members who are jointly selling the house in order to sign the agreement for the sale, anyways he took a picture of my passport and promised that something would happen by Monday (Mañana, Mañana) or maybe Tuesday.  I sent him additional details so he has no excuse that he didn’t have all my details and I await developments.

Actually, so long as I know that things are progressing and that I am not going to be gazumped etc. I am happy to wait, just so long as I know what is happening. As he is on a 3% commission the sale of a house for €13,000 against the sale of a house for €150,000 where both entail exactly the same amount of documentation means that my little piece of historical Cehegín is maybe not his number one priority.

It has been a lazy week, my tendon and calf muscle continue to heal and I am just trying to reduce the pea sized knot in my calf (down from a walnut sized knot) and can walk to the Mercadona without pain.  But no running or jogging.  I plan to start shorter walks from this coming Monday.

We “Cehegíneros” are just starting a heat wave. Last week temperatures climbed from 29 to around 33, blazing sun 15 hours a day; this next week we start today with 37 (real feel around 40) and it stay pretty much in the range 33 – 36 for the rest of the week.  So any planned walks must be done before 10am or after 7pm.  It is way too hot to go on the terrace, so I sit inside the relative cool of the living room with its single tiny window and read.

This weeks reading list:

Sebastian Faulkes:  A week in December

Joanne Harris (she of Chocolate):  Blackberry Wine

David Leavitt: While England Sleeps

Knowmadic cooking!

I think that whilst I wait for things to move on the house front and the blog will be DIY, DIY, DIY this blog is going to focus even more on cooking and food; now there’s a surprize!

For 1€  I purchased a mint condition copy of “Delicioso!”  The Cooking of Regional Spain by Penelope Casas  it’s an American book all cups, cups, cups …..  but she travelled around ( or so she says) and recorded the recipes as she went.  

Simple salad, lettuce, cucumber,
tomatoes, chorizo, eggs and cheese

Along with Delicioso, my 1080 recipes and my Spanish cooking bible and the wonderful Murcian Cooking website (in Spanish only) put out by the tourist board (EU money) and given that I have a steady stream of guests over the next few months I am embarking on a “regional (Murcian) cooking fest” so that I can entertain my guest with authentic cuisine and wines. It’s going to be a terrible job, but hey, somebodies got to do it!

Well, I plan a mixture of classic Spanish and Murcian regional as I need to explore the cuisine in all its many fascinating guises.

This week:

Mussels in a spicy tomato, wine and caper sauce.

This dish utilizes local produce, the Mussels here sell for around €1.75 a kilo and are big and succulent.

Basically I made a tomato sauce from onions and garlic with tomato paste, tomatoes and red pepper, pimentón (picante) and stock, which I reduced down.  [You can’t even start to cook Spanish food without good smoked Pimentón in both picante (spicy) and dulce (sweet) varieties – availbel form the speciality food section of Messrs. Sainsbury and Waitrose.] 

Then I added chopped parsley, a generous glass of white rioja wine, juice of a lemon and a heaped teaspoonful of capers once this was all bubbling I added the cleaned Mussels and steamed the lot for 3-4 minutes.  Enjoy with more lemon and a hunk of rustic bread, plus more white rioja.  Delicioso!

Add the mussels - big and succulent and fresh.

As I am only cooking for myself I am finding that I have enough main ingredient to try two dishes, so the Mussels in Tomato Sauce was followed up the next day with Mussels in a classic garlic, parsley and white wine sauce.

This next week, I am planning to make two Murcian dishes using rabbit (conejo).  Both simple and rustic.  I have never been a great cook on presentation that is all “faffy” I have always gone in the direction of strong flavours, rustic tradition cooking and allowing the taste to be more important than overly “arty-farty” presentation.  These two Rabbit dishes are just that, both cooked in a single pan and both using only a handful of good quality local ingredients.  Pictures and recipes will follow.

Also with Rustic cooking quantities seem to be very flexible and I like this, you just use intuition, taste and smell as your guides. 

The coast is 70 minutes drive away so the fish is fresh, fresh, fresh. All the old houses had a loft used for raising chickens, rabbits and pidgeons all destined for the pot! (My little house was the same, before the upper floor was turned into bedrooms)

I think I am going to splash out on a paella pan and a good deep sauté pan this week AND most importantly a big ceramic "pestle and mortar".

On the desert front, I am for the moment being very good and my  twice weekly desert of preference is a basic plain cheesecake with fresh fruit all set against a glass of Pedro Ximénez.  

 I am resisting the more calorific “postres” for when I have guests, with such an abundance of lovely peaches, apricots, plums, etc. who needs double cream!

My big indulgence is two lovely pastries with Coffee on a Sunday.  It how I know it is Sunday (along with the fact all the shops are shut (and have been since 2pm Saturday).

Following much interest in the CHICKPEA dish from two weeks ago, here is the recipe:

Chickpeas with Tomato, Almonds and Spinach

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan and add 2 chopped onions and 2 chopped cloves of garlic and cook over medium flame for 15 – 20 minutes until golden and slightly caramelized. Add  1 can (400g) of chopped tomatoes and simmer for 15 minutes to make a thickened sauce.

Add 250 ml stock, a few strands of saffron (optional), 1 teaspoon of hot paprika, half a cup of ground almonds, 1  can (400g) of chickpeas and cook for 15 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Stir in 2 cups of chopped fresh spinach and cook until the leaves wilt.  Season to taste and serve either hot or at room temperature.   Good with rice or crusty bread.

Finally, a very nice little "Tapa"

Gently fry a sliced Itallian Tomato in Olive Oil along with a quatity of capers until soft.  Put on plate and leave to cool to room temperature, serve of freshly toasted rustic bread.  Generously use the lovely juices over the bread. Yummy!

Sunday also means nice biscuits and Earl Grey tea!

Have a good week.  There is of course an open invitation to my dear friends to come and sample life here in Cehegín.