(NOTE: As has happened previously the formatting of this blog has a mysterious life of its own, with colours and fonts changing randomly - no idea why. Sorry.)
Dancing in the street as the white smoke is spotted arising from the offices of Ortega Inmoboliara, the cry goes up ....... HABEMUS CASAM ........... well, almost ..........
He took me on a tour, very nicely done, the houses are lovely. He said well of course your house is bigger than these and has many possibilities, blah, blah, blah and he said it would be perfectly possible to work with me and do things bit by bit and slowly (of course the Spanish only have two speeds: slow or stop) we are going to talk again once I have the house. (Mid August?)
I will need a professional (him) to do the difficult stuff but I want to do as much as I can myself. And apart from having a bathroom/wet room installed upstairs (no problem!) I want to retain as many original features as possible. He also said there would be no problem in putting a rear window into the upstairs for extra light.
A rabbit of approximately 1kg
1 kg of potatoes
A head of garlic
A cup of vinegar
Olive oil
Salt.
Important:
Those skilled in this field agree that the most important thing in this dish is the slaughtering of the rabbit as it is "the blood of the rabbit," as they say, is what gives this particular flavour of meat (very low in calories, by the way). If we can get someone you trust to raise them and kill them, great, if not, we buy the rabbit ready jointed in a reputable store.
Step One: Cut the potatoes and fry
Peel and cut the potatoes into thick slices to prevent them from breaking when added together with the rabbit. Season and fry them in plenty of olive oil (some prefer to fry potatoes in sunflower oil to make it lighter) until golden. Then remove and reserve.
Presentation and accompanying table
Today we will enjoy a surprising dish despite its simplicity, but in our region we love going to a restaurant on a Sunday in the countryside and eat this Conejo al ajo cabañil, because it is a taste that for which we yearn.
All that would accompany it is a plate of sausage in the area and good country bread slices for soaking-up that surplus olive oil which kindly gives the delicacy ... all washed down with the stock of Murcia (wine).
Once served at the table we eat because it is best to take it warm.
Other similar recipes ; you can replace the rabbit with port, lamb or goat. BUT “Our grandmothers remind us that to the majao you add a slice of day old bread fried in olive oil, to give a little more consistency and body.”
Dancing in the street as the white smoke is spotted arising from the offices of Ortega Inmoboliara, the cry goes up ....... HABEMUS CASAM ........... well, almost ..........
6:50pm on Monday
during my "aperitif time" I get an email from the Agent saying can I make a meeting later that
evening, given that the working hours after the siesta are more or less 5:30 –
9:00pm I suggest 8pm. I duly arrive and
meet Don Jose who is acting on behalf of the five members of the Fernandez
family who have inheritance rights to the house.
The purpose
of the meeting is to draw up the “Contrato de Gestion de Compra” – A contract
to manage the sale – and for me to pay the €1000 deposit.
The house
was last sold in 1965 and Don Jose has with him the sale documents from that
time. Basically the contract states that he is entitled to sell the house and I
am entitled to buy it, for so much, payable in such a form and following due
process. With both sides being
represented buy the agent who is qualified to do the conveyancing.
A nice
touch is that Don Jose and I agree and affirm that we consider each other to be
have the legal and mental (?) capacity to carry out the transaction. Anyways 30
minutes later and having signed three copies of the contract and handed over
the money I am on my way to being a house-owner after a gap of some 20+ years.
Now I have
to get my NIE (like a National Insurance Number) so that I can open a bank
account and then the necessary documents can be drawn up and amended to pass
the ownership of the house to me. The
registration documents reside with the Municipality and the process is in
reality quite simple. But of course the agent suffers from the universal
malaise of estate agents and solicitors (and of course it is the summer and it
is hot) so I have a choice of their two speeds of slow or stop.
The document states that the footprint of the house is 54.72 square
metres and names who the owners are on either side (or were in 1965) and also
behind it states that it is the Hill of the Conception.
On
Wednesday, serendipitously, whilst on my evening walk going past “the house” - just making
sure it hasn't melted away - outside was a typical small, white,
"fiat" van - beloved of all small traders (of an age) here in Spain
- CONSTRUCCIONES JAFRASA - with the owner enjoying a cigarillo - I banged
on the window and asked if he undertook small works and that I was in the process of buying the
house number 17. He told me that he had done the restorations of
numbers 15 and 13 (owned by the municipality and done-up with lashings of EU
money) which are rental houses for tourists.
 |
| Restored houses in smart red and mine is almost as large as them both. :-) and will be as smart. |
He took me on a tour, very nicely done, the houses are lovely. He said well of course your house is bigger than these and has many possibilities, blah, blah, blah and he said it would be perfectly possible to work with me and do things bit by bit and slowly (of course the Spanish only have two speeds: slow or stop) we are going to talk again once I have the house. (Mid August?)
When the time is right I will disabuse him of
the €€€ signs I could see flashing in his eyes as he realises that my budget and
that of the EU are not one and the same thing!
I will need a professional (him) to do the difficult stuff but I want to do as much as I can myself. And apart from having a bathroom/wet room installed upstairs (no problem!) I want to retain as many original features as possible. He also said there would be no problem in putting a rear window into the upstairs for extra light.
Everything can be done under a minor works permission from the municipality.
Simple.
I have given my heel another week to heal and am glad of it as it is
about 90% OK now. In any case it has been too hot to do much exercise and today
we expect a temperature close to 40C with high temperatures continuing through
the week.
On the cooking front this week it is Rabbit (Conejo).
I purchased an authentic ceramic Pestle and Mortar (€2.70) and also an enamel wide "olla" (€7) for the preparation of this dish.
I purchased an authentic ceramic Pestle and Mortar (€2.70) and also an enamel wide "olla" (€7) for the preparation of this dish.
I want to present you with the flavour of the rather
stilted language of this recipe taken from
www.regmurcia.com: so the
translation might seem a little odd but it has it’s own rustic charm.
Conejo al ajo cabañil. (Rabbit in the rustic style with
garlic.)
This is a dish popular throughout Murcia, using the most
widely consumed meat of the region: rabbit, along with garlic and potatoes.
Cabañil comes from
“cabanas” which are wooden cabins, so
this dish is rabbit with garlic as cooked in the kitchen of the wooden cabins,
i.e very basic, simply over an open fire.
And also very economical.
This dish is served on the feast day of the villages
around Cartagena.
So, for 4 – 6 people.
 |
| Rabbit jointed with liver and kidneys |
A rabbit of approximately 1kg
1 kg of potatoes
A head of garlic
A cup of vinegar
Olive oil
Salt.
Important:
Those skilled in this field agree that the most important thing in this dish is the slaughtering of the rabbit as it is "the blood of the rabbit," as they say, is what gives this particular flavour of meat (very low in calories, by the way). If we can get someone you trust to raise them and kill them, great, if not, we buy the rabbit ready jointed in a reputable store.
Step One: Cut the potatoes and fry
Peel and cut the potatoes into thick slices to prevent them from breaking when added together with the rabbit. Season and fry them in plenty of olive oil (some prefer to fry potatoes in sunflower oil to make it lighter) until golden. Then remove and reserve.
Second step: we cut the rabbit and fry
Now we cut the rabbit into small pieces, but also we can buy cut to our taste, season.
In the same pan where we fried potatoes put the rabbit and fry until it is crisp, and golden brown, but not take away.
Now we cut the rabbit into small pieces, but also we can buy cut to our taste, season.
In the same pan where we fried potatoes put the rabbit and fry until it is crisp, and golden brown, but not take away.
Third step: we prepare the majao
This is another important step in the recipe, prepare a
substantia "majao" with its characteristic flavor. (“Majao” is a
dressing normally prepared in a mortar based on crushed garlic) …. So
We put in a mortar Head of garlic and pound it, helping with a pinch of salt to prevent it jumping around, once pounded, add the glass of vinegar and mix.
Step four: mix
Finally we need to mix all the ingredients we have prepared. Return the pan where we have rabbits to the heat, take the “majao” and mix well then incorporate the potatoes and give them a final stir round, being careful not to break them. When all is hot mixed and hot we are ready to eat.
 | ||||
| Authentic Spanish Motar and Pestle, for the majao |
We put in a mortar Head of garlic and pound it, helping with a pinch of salt to prevent it jumping around, once pounded, add the glass of vinegar and mix.
Step four: mix
Finally we need to mix all the ingredients we have prepared. Return the pan where we have rabbits to the heat, take the “majao” and mix well then incorporate the potatoes and give them a final stir round, being careful not to break them. When all is hot mixed and hot we are ready to eat.
Today we will enjoy a surprising dish despite its simplicity, but in our region we love going to a restaurant on a Sunday in the countryside and eat this Conejo al ajo cabañil, because it is a taste that for which we yearn.
All that would accompany it is a plate of sausage in the area and good country bread slices for soaking-up that surplus olive oil which kindly gives the delicacy ... all washed down with the stock of Murcia (wine).
Once served at the table we eat because it is best to take it warm.
Other similar recipes ; you can replace the rabbit with port, lamb or goat. BUT “Our grandmothers remind us that to the majao you add a slice of day old bread fried in olive oil, to give a little more consistency and body.”
A Spanish Abuela (Grandmother) preparing the dish …..
VERDICT:
Wow, this
dish with its pungent “majao” packs a real punch! If you like strong flavours and want a substantial
dish this is it. I actually onlyu used 8 very large cloves of garlic - even I simply dare not use a whole head, as the garlic bulb was large. The way the “majao”
gets absorbed into the potatoes is quite amazing and with a glass of heavy red
wine you are in for a real treat, but I wouldn’t plan on anything other than a
siesta afterwards. Maybe next time I will cook the ingredients to a much deeper gold colour as in the picture above.
Yum, yum, yum even in this heat!
OK. Thats it for this week. Final picture of the moon over the hermitage of the Conception ..
Yum, yum, yum even in this heat!
OK. Thats it for this week. Final picture of the moon over the hermitage of the Conception ..
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