Best Friends and Favourite Foods

I am truly blessed when it comes to friends. I have some extra special best girlfriends who have been there for me through the good and the bad, the happy and the sad, the youth and the wrinkles. Ria and I met at school, a wonderful convent in South London, and have been best friends ever since.

We laughed through our school days, she sent me stamps to write to her when I went to University as I was poor and she was earning. She also gave me a sewing box as a going away gift and still, to this day, gets me to adjust her clothes and sew on buttons. We even worked at the same company for a few years and mopped up the tears through tough endings to relationships in later years.

She invited me to a weekend with friends in Scotland without telling me we would be walking part of the West Highland Way. She knew I would have refused, but we had fun and I forgave her, eventually.  Then I told her she was doing a run to raise money for Charity and she didn´t complain once.

Hot, sweaty but very happy with what we achieved!

We know and love each other´s families like our own, and also know our way around each other´s kitchens. Very important indeed.

When we both hit 40 within a month of each other (not soooo long ago), we threw a massive party then went off on a Round the World Trip.  I have a lovely photo of us on our last day before we headed back to London. It was taken in Hong Kong on the Kowloon ferry. We don´t look glamorous, or made up. In fact we look exhausted, a little chilly, but happy. We had spent about 3 months in each other´s company 24/7 and not a cross word or row, just fun, laughter and quite a few adventures.

I moved to Spain permanently six years ago, and we had to find a new way to make things work across the miles.  E-mails, phone calls and of course, visits.

So, when your best buddy comes to visit you don´t want to spend too much time in the kitchen as there is talking, laughing, dog walking and wine drinking to be done.

We barbecued squid which we enjoyed in the sunshine.

We ate what we jokingly called a “deconstructed chicken salad sharing platter for friends” – cold cooked chicken, spiced cauliflower, a platter full of delicious vegetables and topped with blanched then grilled asparagus with a lemon dressing and mayonnaise. Perfect for sharing.

And of course, my best friend knows how much I adore curry, so several happy hours were spent in the kitchen cooking up a storm, or the “Cortijo Curry” as we called it. Goat curry, tarka dhal, spinach and tomato curry, poppadums and roti.

I´ll share the recipes with you soon, but now I´m tired, happy and sad, and rather full up, so I´ll leave you with a photo of the perfect dessert for friends who don´t have time to make dessert.

San Isidro and a little walk around the village

The 15^th May is the Feast of San Isidro Labrador, the Patron Saint of Farmers. He´s also the Patron Saint of Madrid, do pop over to BlueJellyBean´s blog and check out her beautiful recipe in celebration of this feast day.

One of the three village bars (and there are only about 250 inhabitants!)

Summer has arrived like an explosion. No gentle easing into gradually warmer days. It turned overnight from Spring to Summer and temperatures in the 30s just a few days ago.

View from the village

The celebration of San Isidro is one of the first big summer celebrations, and is particularly important in villages like ours.  Most of the inhabitants rely on the land to employ and feed them to some degree or another. Things are tough in Spain right now and work is scarce. Today is symbolic for many of these land workers and planting today hopefully carries a blessing from San Isidro for a good crop. Tonight we finished planting the last of our vegetables garden…well, we´ll take help where we can get it!

Main Street!

The statue of the Saint was blessed in the little village church and processed down through the village to our little sports centre which has a large building used for village gatherings.

It´s a Pueblo Blanco, a white village. Perhaps not the quaintest or prettiest, but it has a certain charm. The streets were quiet today as most people were in the church when we arrived.

Obligatory Old Boys sitting on a bench in the square

Although our village celebrations were scaled down from previous years, there was still time to enjoy a plate of rice together and have a few drinks.

The cooks did a great job!

Oh, and a little dance of course.

Little Dancing Queens!

Boiled Gammon and Parsley Sauce

Some dishes, to me, are so typically English and bring back memories of food from my past.  Gammon is cured (usually wet cured in a salt brine) pork, from the leg.  It can be bought smoked, as an entire joint or as steaks.  It just can´t be bought in Spain, so I will have to work on a way to make my own.

Meanwhile, I picked up a few small joints of gammon on a pre Christmas shopping trip to the strange place that is Gibraltar.  A couple of hours´ drive from Malaga, it is a British Overseas Territory on the southern Iberian Peninsula.  I have to confess it´s not my favourite place as it seems to contain all that is bad about Britain packed into a very small area…but I don´t wish to offend and I am sure there is much more to it than I have ever seen on two brief shopping trips.

A trip to Gib, as it´s known to the Brits, allows us ex pats to stock up on things (particularly food) that we miss and either can´t get hold of or can´t be transported over easily by our visitors.  So, amongst many other food goodies, gammon it was.  I thought that Big Man would enjoy it as he loves pork and ham, but I knew it would be a new and interesting taste for him.

Gammon can be roasted or boiled and served hot or cold.  I decided to do a hot dish, boiled gammon with parsley sauce, which is a typical dish of comfort food from my homeland.

Ingredients (serves 4)

• One small brined gammon (about 750g)
• About 6 carrots peeled and chopped into large pieces
• 2 medium onions peeled and halved
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 cloves
• Water to cover
• 6-8 medium potatoes boiled in their skins and peeled and halved to serve

For the parsely sauce you will need half a litre of home made béchamel sauce (infuse the parsley stalks in your milk before making it) and two tablespoons of parsley stirred in at the end. For extra flavour, use half milk and half stock (from boiling your gammon).

Simply put the gammon, onion, carrots, bay leaves and cloves into a deep saucepan and cover with water.  Don´t use salt – it will be fairly salty from the brine. Bring to the boil, skim off any scum that rises to the surface, cover and simmer gently for about an hour until the gammon is tender.

When the gammon is cooked, leave it to sit in the hot stock while you cook your potatoes and make the parsley sauce.  I used one cup each of milk and stock (which should both be cooled) , 2 tablespoons of plain flour, 1 tablespoon of oil and whisked everything together over a low heat until it started to boil and thicken.  This is my cheat´s way of making white sauce.  Finally I stirred in my chopped parsley and let it sit for a few minutes.

Remove the gammon from the stock and slice or chop (it will not slice easily when it´s warm, but I don´t mind chunks!).  I put some runner beans into the stock with the carrots and onions, bought them up to the boil and then strained the vegetables, reserving the stock for soup. Serve with the boiled, peeled potatoes and vegetables and enjoy the lovely steamy smells of gammon and parsley that will float up and fill you with a sense of comfort.

Red Shoes and Ruins

The best things in life are free, so they say.  On the whole I´m inclined to agree.  Love, friendship, laughter…oh, and blog awards.  They are all marvellous aren´t they?  Linda from Savoring Every Bite very kindly passed The (Red) Educational Shoe award onto me.

I can fully understand why she was awarded it in the first place, do pop on over to learn so much about Italian family, culture, food and generally about making every little moment in life into a special memory. When Linda passed the award on, she mentioned some of the “travels” she had been on via my blog, so today we´re going travelling. To just outside the beautiful City of Cordoba to be precise.  But before you pack your toothbrush I want to do the time honoured thing and pass this award on to a new blogging find.

JPWaldron has a fantastic blog which he calls “A free guide to foraging for all”.  See, I told you the best things in life are free.  If you live in the country, or aspire to or even just dream about it, I promise you´ll love what you find over there. And you´ll certainly learn a lot.  I´m sure he won´t mind being sent a red high heeled shoe…I think it´s a metaphorical shoe after all!

So, Cordoba.  I have a very soft spot for this beautiful city as Big Man and I had our first “date” there way back in September 2005.  Can you date when you´re a grown up? I like to think so.  Anyway, we go back there as often as we can and spent a fantastic weekend there at the end of January to celebrate my birthday.  I´ll show you some photos of this amazing city another day.

Today we´re heading about 10km out of town to an amazing archaeological site, The Medina Alzahara or Madinat al-Zahra.  We´ve visited before, some 5 years ago and since our first visit an amazing vistor´s centre has been built and much more of this amazing abandoned city uncovered and restored.  Unbelievably, it´s free to go in, if you are ever lucky enough to be in the area, make it a priority.  It´s an incredible experience that you´ll always remember.

The city is considered to be one of the most important mediaeval archaeological sites in Spain. It covers 112 hectares and was the political and administrative capital of Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) for a large part of the 10^th Century.

There is something very special about this place, it never feels crowded and it´s easy to imagine the Caliph and his city doing business, receiving guests from around the world, and the thousands of servants keeping the city running.

There were several mosques, one of which can be seen clearly.

Stunning archways, this one they believe was the Prime Minister´s house.

Beautiful gardens…you can almost hear the trickle of water which flowed around the city.

So, do linger a while and soak up the peaceful atmosphere, and before you leave, take a final look back over the site and the city of Cordoba in the distance.

Hasta luego, come back soon…

Fabada – Asturian Sausage and Beans

When we travelled to the distant north of Spain, we bought back some foodie memories with us. Well, a little more than memories, we bought back beans and smoked meats to make the famous Fabada.

It´s one of those dishes which needs the authentic smoked blood sausage (morcilla), chorizo and pork to achieve the “real” taste, but it also lends itself to “making do” depending on the ingredients you have to hand.

The ingredients given below can be interpreted fairly loosely to make a lovely bean, ham and sausage stew if you can´t get hold of the Asturian versions.  I also like to be lighter with the meat than some people, so feel free to add more. This recipe will serve six as a main course, but it does keep well for about 5 days in the fridge.

You´ll need

• 1kg of Fabes (or any large dried white beans)
• 1 small blood sausage
• 1 or 2 chorizo (depending on the size)
• About 100g piece of smoked or unsmoked or salted pancetta or pork belly (or use chunky lardons)
• ½ teaspoon of saffron or add a teaspoon of sweet smoked paprika or pimentón instead
• 2 bay leaves

This dish really improves by making it the day before you want to eat it, although it´s not essential, and if you have an earthenware bowl to cook it in, even better!  The day before making the dish put your beans into soak in plenty of water.  In a separate bowl of water soak any smoked or salted meats.

Using the water you soaked the beans in, put them in your cooking pot with about a depth of  3cm of water above them.  Bring to the boil then skim off the froth which will appear. Dissolve the saffron in a little water and add to the beans (or add your pimentón or paprika directly to the water).  Now add the pork belly or pancetta, bring to the boil and skim and then repeat with the chorizo and morcilla.

Add the bay leaves, make sure all the meat is pushed to the bottom and then cook very slowly for about 2 or 3 hours.  Try not to stir as this will break the beans, shake the pot if necessary and top up with boiling water if needed.

You should be left with thick creamy beans which still hold their shape.  I like to thinly slice the meats and sausages so they can easily be eaten with a spoon.  This is a “plato de cuchara” or a “spoon dish” as they call it here.

Serve with a good robust red wine, plenty of bread and I like a tomato and garlic salad on the side. ¡Buen Provecho!

Travelling Hopefully

I believe there is a saying which goes something like “To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive” – well I have to say that I can´t quite agree with Robert Louis Stevenson. But I expect he wasn´t heading to London for eight days to visit my family and friends, so I´ll just have to excuse him.

I arrived home late last night to be met by my wonderful Big Man bearing flowers.  Lilies…my favourite. It´s been a while since he bought me flowers, (impossible to get where we live) so the surprise romantic gesture was very much appreciated.

Being a canny packer of cases, I always go right to the limit on my baggage allowances.  20kg in the suitcase, 10kg in the hand luggage and the biggest hand bag possible.  No, I most definitely don´t travel light!  I went out loaded with Christmas presents (can´t tell you much about them though, as I don´t want to give any surprises away).  The case was also packed with packs of chorizo and morcilla to make Fabada Asturiana, plastic lid things to “flip” your tortilla, chillies from my garden, wine glass/tumblers, gifts from my recent holiday, chocolates for my niece and nephew, books to entertain young children on a long flight to the States to see their grandmother, Spanish fans for a friend´s mum, olives, biscuits….well, I think you get the picture.

The advantage of this is that once you´ve unpacked and “shared the love”, you have an almost empty suitcase waiting to be filled with gorgeous things to take back home with you.  Of course, I wasn´t about to go home empty handed.

I carefully packed some lovely pictures done by the wonderful children I got to spend time with.  A very flattering portrait of me done by my 10 year old niece, Lara.  Look at that fabulous waist and bust…if only! A lovely thank you card from 4 year old William and his 2 year old brother Matthew.

Chocolate.  And then some more chocolate.  If you haven´t tried Quality Street, track it down!  Lots of lovely chocolate toffee and caramel sweets in a tin.  They just take me back to childhood Christmases when these were a very special treat.  And then you get to use the tin to put your cakes in!

I had a bit of a mad fabric buying spree.  I´m laying some of the blame for this on my new blogging pal Evie, over at Pendle Stitches.  I was the very lucky winner of this beautiful shawl that she had made, and it was waiting for me at my parents´ house.  Very handy actually, as it was a little nippy last week in London.  Anwyay, Evie suggested some wonderful fabric shops for me to look at in London.  The fabrics were amazing.

"Weigh" too much fabric!

Eventually I bought a huge variety of fabrics in Tooting Broadway, my old neighbourhood in South London, plus an amazing discovery of some vintage fabrics, still neatly folded and never taken out of storage since about 1950.  They almost tipped me over the baggage allowance, but as there were only 31 people on the flight home (I felt like I was on my own private jet), the check in girl turned a very kind blind eye to my extra kilo…20 metres of cotton, linen, silk, jersey, viyella, crepe and who knows what else do weigh rather a lot.  I also bought a new magazine to inspire me.

I´ll make that one day.....

And finally, to food.  My mother stocked me up with all sorts of odd and bizarre things I find hard or expensive to buy out here.

All spice berries, Golden Syrup, Maldon Salt.

Sugar and spice and all things nice

Loaf tin liners and vanilla for my baking.

My mum made me a wonderful beef curry with lots of vegetable curries to accompany it.

Best friend Ria made a fantastic chicken and cannellini bean casserole (recipe another day) even though she was feeling poorly last week.

And talking of food, guess what?  I got to meet one of my new blogging pals face to face.  It was Mad Dog, who was not in the least bit mad and not remotely dog like!  We spent a happy and all too short hour in Bar Italia, in the heart of London´s Soho, drinking coffee and chatting about food, Spain, food, photography, food, ourselves.  What a great guy he is, and he gave me a fantastic gift of the film Tampopo, a comedy featuring…yes you´ve guessed…food!

So, now I´m home again and looking forward to getting back into my kitchen. Big Man has already started stocking up on autumn fruits and vegetables.

A neighbour gave us a crate of Membrillo, or quince, so we´ll be making quince jelly this weekend.

Another neighbour gave us some enormous pomegranates (or Granadas) from his tree.  I may just have to eat them as is, as I adore them served simply.

I also have a couple of kilos of broad beans, but I think you already know many of my recipes for this gorgeous little vegetable.

So, time to unpack, wash, cook and sew.  Sounds odd, but I can´t wait!

PS. Am looking forward to a few days of blog catching up – really looking forward to seeing what you have all been up to.

Another Holiday?!

Sunset over Marbella

Some of you may have noticed how quiet I´ve been for the last week.  Very unusual for me, and I can be quite loud and noisy “in the flesh” too!  We´ve been on another little break, all very last minute and enormous fun.

The village often organises trips through the Government of Andalucia for the older folk, or some of the Associations (or clubs) and one had been offered to our fellow villagers to stay in a holiday complex near Marbella on the Costa del Sol (also known as the Costa Del Golf or the Costa Del Crime because of some of the dodgy characters who make their life there in luxury penthouse pads!).

Marbella Old Town

There were extra spaces, so Big Man and I were invited to join in, and we´re so glad we did. We were probably amongst the youngest in the group, but my goodness – have these Spanish retired folk got energy!  Dancing, walking, sports, swimming, golf, marathon card sessions and going to the beach were all part of a “relaxing” day for this group.

We had a ball, and got back today happy, relaxed, and having swum daily in the Mediterranean.  There was, unfortunately, no internet, so “normal blogging service” will be resumed soon, with possibly another break as I head off to London next Wednesday to see my family for 8 days.

Ok, am off to catch my breath, unpack and get ready to repack.  In the meantime, enjoy the view from our terrace every evening and a few of the places we went to visit while I catch up with all your lovely posts.

Amazing Asturias – Part One

Looking back over our photos of our recent holiday in Galicia and Asturias, I found it hard to pick just a few photos to share with you.  So….even though I left most of them back on my PC, I still have plenty of beautiful sights to tell you about.

We drove the 400km or so from our hotel in Galicias to our base in Asturias over the course of a day.  First we stopped in the beautiful seaside village of Cudillero for lunch where we ate our amazing Fabes con Almejas.  The village houses appear to be built on top of each other, clinging onto the cliffs, and painted in beautiful colours.

Our hotel ended up being a one bedroom apartment, which was great as we were there for 4 nights, right in the centre of a seaside town called Ribadesella (which translates as the bank of the River Sella).

We had a fantastic view of an old Hermitage from our bedroom window.

And to the right of it there was an amazing house, with the sea right behind it.

The next day we put on our walking boots and packed a picnic to head up into the mountains.  The weather didn´t bode well, but we pressed on to Covadonga to see the Basilica.

The clouds started to get lower, all very beautiful and atmospheric, but not really what we had hoped for.

We started the long, slow, drive up the twisting road to the lakes, and the fog came down.

Gorgeous View!

When we reached the lakes this is what we could see!

Time to get back in the car...

Walks were forbidden, there was no visibility so we made our way back down the mountain and through a village called Cangas de Onis where there is a Roman bridge.  Because of the weather, it seemed everyone else had had the same idea and we couldn´t park, so we took a quick photo from the car window instead.

High speed photography

Finally we turned off the main road to find a perfect picnic spot from where we chomped away on our Empanadas and Bollos Preñaos, looked at the cows and watched the kayakers.

Back at our hotel, we were determined to take at least a little walk as we were still all dressed up in our proper boots, so we took a stroll on our little beach, battling with the wind as we went on our way.

Finally, a hot shower and a walk into the centre of Ribadesella.

Followed by a well deserved drink and dinner at Casa Juanito in the main square.

We spent a wonderful day with some of Big Man´s huge family, stopping first to pick up his aunt and uncle in a town called Salinas.  It  has an amazing sea front walk with an outdoor museum of anchors from all over the world.  The walk ends with a spectacular view out to sea.

One of the family has an Hórreo in their garden – these are ancient storage areas (now preserved and highly valued) made of stone or wood and on raised legs.  Couldn´t resist taking some snaps, even though the lady of the house was embarrassed about her washing hanging up to dry underneath!

So….still more to come from our last day in Asturias and our stop in Salamanca on the way home.  Enough for today though, we´ve covered quite a few miles together already.

A Glimpse of Galicia

Our recent trip took us first to Galicia for three nights.  Our journey was a long one and took about 12 hours of driving, but with plenty of stops for refreshments and a little sightseeing along the way.

Because we live in the province of Malaga in southern Spain, we went west and then up through Portugal.  We made a sightseeing stop in Porto to stretch our legs and to see the Dom Luis I iron bridge which was designed by a partner of the famous Eiffel.

I loved this shot of the bridge (below), although it´s not the best in the world, as you can see boats under it, cars on it, people walking across, the metro rail above it and a helicopter flying over it.

Our hotel  near Portonovo was called Hotel Peregrina.  This is a word used for a female pilgrim, but also for scallops, which are the symbol of the Camino de Santiago, the famous pilgrims walk which has many footpaths and trails across Spain and from beyond.  On our travels we saw plenty of scallops.

The first day we went to visit an Island called La Toja which juts out into one of the Rias Baixas.

It has a chapel covered with scallop shells.

And of course, the boat trips to see where their famous shellfish is grown.  We saw mussels, and ate plenty too.

Naturally, they were proud of their scallops.

Later we headed off to a nearby city, Pontevedra, the capital of the province.  The city built up over time from the middle ages as a trading port.

The next day we drove northwards to Santiago de Compostela to see the beautiful cathedral, reputedly the burial place of St James (Sant Iago) and built between 1075 and 1122 – no mean feat when you see it!

It´s famous for it´s “Botafumeiro” (do look it up if you´re interested) which is swung via a pulley and is filled with incense.  One tradition says that it was used to mask the stench of the many unwashed pilgrims – which did make me giggle.  Sorry about the photo quality.

It´s a pretty city too, there´s plenty more to see apart from the cathedral.

We travelled back from Santiago on our last afternoon in Galicia on a quiet coastal road and stopped off in a beautiful fishing village called Carril, when the sun finally came out for us. I briefly felt like Angela Lansbury in Murder She Wrote here as it had a “Cabot Cove” feel to it!

It´s famous for its clams, and we peeked into the storage area to see the boxes and boxes of clams waiting to be sent off to restaurants, shops and all over Spain.

A final stop in “our” town of Portonovo, and the sun was still shining, so we took a walk along the beautiful sandy beach front.  People was still bathing and enjoying the sunny evening, but accustomed as we are to the heat of Andalucía, we didn´t brave the water.

And then it was our last night in Galicia.  We ate a superb dinner of rice and lobster, and it was time the next morning to start the next part of trip to Asturias.  But more of that another time. Do hope you enjoyed sharing our journey with us!

Galicia and Asturias – Where You Could Never Go Hungry!

Oporto - still beautiful in the drizzle

We´re back from an incredible 8 day, 3500km trip to the north of Spain.  We drove west from Malaga then north through Portugal, stopping off briefly in Porto then to our first base of Sanxenxo in the Rias Baixas in Galicia. After three days in Galicia we headed east and based ourselves for four days in Ribadesella in Asturias and then finally headed back south, stopping off in León and then staying the night in beautiful Salamanca.  Our final leg of the journey home allowed for two quick stops in Caseres and Mérida….phew, what a trip!

I thought I´d do a few posts on this trip over the next few weeks, and share some of the experiences we had…food, drink, sights.  I do hope you enjoy them.

Galicia is very famous for its Pulpo a la Gallega, so we enjoyed this several times.  A particularly good one was eaten in the beautiful town of O Grove.

Pulpo a la Gallega - in Galicia

We took a boat trip, which was fun despite the rain, to look at the Rias (which are estuaries) and to see where the oysters, mussels and scallops are cultivated.  We were fed freshly caught mussels, steamed open and served with a young, local white wine.  Perfect.

We ate SO many...the trays full of steamed mussels just kept coming!

In Santiago De Compostela, which is the destination for pilgrims and walkers on the Camino De Santiago (a mediaeval pilgrimage route), we admired the incredible cathedral and enjoyed a slice of their local cake (made with almonds and adorned with the symbol of Santiago – or Saint James – the Patron Saint of Spain).

Delicious with a strong cup of coffee

We also enjoyed several empanadas during our time in Galicia – which are made with both meat and fish.  Very tasty snacks indeed.

Hard to resist...so we didn´t!

In a very pretty fishing village called Cudillero, where the houses appear to be stacked one on top of another, we ate our first Fabas.  Galicia and Asturias have a great culture of soup type dishes made with their local white beans and served in different ways.  Another tradition is to put a huge tureen of the dish on the table and you just keep serving yourself until you can´t eat any more.  What a fabulous idea!

Go on..you can manage a few more!

These were served with local clams, which are bigger than the ones we typically see in Andalucía and the dish is called Fabas con Almejas.

HUGE and delicious clams

One day we went to Covadonga, which is a beautiful mountain top Sanctuary and took a picnic to eat further up at the lakes. The weather was so bad that when we got there we could only see fog so we drove back down to the River (the Sella) and enjoyed our Bollos Preñaos (which translates literally as pregnant rolls!) and Empanadas by the river.

Gives a whole new meaning to "a bun in the oven"!

The delicious rolls are made with bread wrapped round chorizo and baked as a ready made snack.

Empanadas with a river view

Dinner one evening was a delicious salad made with mushrooms and bacon and served with a delicious rosé wine.

Messy Mushrooms

Alongside this we tried a variety of local Asturian cheeses.  The most famous is Cabrales, a pungent blue cheese which we really enjoyed.  Our car was a bit stinky when we got home as we bought some back!

Gorgeous stinky cheeses!

We also ate an amazing rice and lobster dish, Asturian Pote (a vegetable stew with pulses), beautiful beef and ribs….but we were obviously hungry or greedy and never got to take photos of these.

A beautiful mediaeval town in Cantabria is Santillana Del Mar, and we found an amazing bar that did a huge selection of Pinxos (like larger sized tapas).

Decisions, decisions....

We managed to work our way through a few of them with no problems. Well…it was raining and we were waiting for the downpour to stop!

I´ll have one of those, ooh...and one of those...ooh and...

Our final night in Ribadesella we ate a wonderful Hake and Prawn casserole – but only remembered to snap it as we had almost finished.

Sorry...but we were hungry after a busy day of sightseeing

Near Leon we ate another incredible bean dish.  This one was made with what they called “Cinnamon Beans” (because of their beautiful colour) and was cooked with smoked pancetta.

Cinnamon coloured beans...so tasty

And finally, our last night in a very lively Salamanca was spent wandering around the city by night looking at the beautiful buildings and enjoying a variety of tapas.  These were Callos (tripe with chick peas) and Albóndigas (pork and jamon meatballs).

Tapeando en Salamanca por la noche - Nightime Tapas in Salamanca

So, it´s back to reality for us, but with happy memories, full stomachs and lots of ideas for new recipes in the months to come.  Hope you enjoyed sharing a little of our holiday with us.  Of course, it wasn´t all eating and drinking….next time I´ll show you some of the beautiful sights.  ¡Hasta luego for now!