Galette des rois is not, as the name implies, a Spanish treat but a French one. Usually made and enjoyed on the feast of the Epiphany, I thought this was a good moment to make it.
The feast of the Epiphany, celebrated on January 6, commemorates the visit of the Three Kings, the Three Wise Men, to baby Jesus in Bethlehem. In Spain, the feast is widely celebrated, marking (more…)
The preparations, the excitement, the arrival of loved ones to spend the holidays together. I want to help you out by offering a recipe that looks and tastes extra special but that it’s easy to make and will not break the bank: spice and rosemary pork roast with onions.
The weeks leading from Thanksgiving to Christmas are some of the busiest of the year and yet, when Advent starts, they should become some of the most still and serene. Easy to say but hard to achieve, right? And if you’re (more…)
Christmas is just around the corner, and nothing says Christmas more than Christmas cookies! This is at least the case in this part of the world where I live, where cookie exchange parties are common—and where shortbread sandwich cookies will be on our menu this year. Of course, they will share the dessert trays with chunks of turrón, polvorones in their silky wrappers, cute mazapanes, marzipan figurines, and the always present homemade nanaimo bar. Our three nationalities are always represented at our Christmas table.
Our exhibit table at IFLTA 2023 in Indianapolis
Thanksgiving weekend was the start of it all. After the yearly longed for and always warm gathering with our friends and family around the table, the long weekend allowed us to get started on the Christmas spirit. In a series of (more…)
In my aim to make the most of my time, I love it when I can make two different dishes out of one. Wild garlicky mushrooms with sherry that I made as a side dish for an entrée, become today one of the main ingredients in revuelto de setas, scrambled eggs with wild mushrooms.
Today’s recipe for scrambled eggs with wild mushrooms is simple, because it uses the previous post’s recipe. This is one of those comfort food, rustic dishes that are made all over Spain, but are specially popular in central Spain, in the Castiles.
Last summer, I had the chance to taste some of those dishes during my trip to the cities of Salamanca, Avila and Segovia in the region (more…)
This is in a way a continuation of the last post, where I talked about the centers of knowledge in the Spanish city of Salamanca, the University of Salamanca and the Pontifical University of Salamanca (you can check this post here). The recipe I’m sharing with it, setas al ajillo con jerez, wild garlicky mushrooms with sherry, seems to go very well with it, not only because we are in the season of fall (and it finally feels and looks like it) but because they are somewhat color complimentary (I will explain).
Apart from its universities, Salamanca has an extraordinary collection of historical buildings that not only makes it a popular destination for visitors, but also granted it to be (more…)
I never imagined when I planted two small eggplant plants in my vegetable garden that they would grow to give such generous production for our family. I get 2 to 4 eggplants every couple of weeks, just enough to supply us with produce to make some of the dishes we are familiar with, like pisto, (check the recipe here) or fried eggplant sticks. Soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside, they are so addictive that you will not be able to stop at just a few!
I leave you with a few photos of the eggplants in the garden, used to prepare today’s recipe, fried eggplant sticks. But I wanted to add some more to this post. Today is National Teaching Spanish Day, and I couldn’t help talking about it. Why? Because (more…)
It’s only fitting that today’s post be a follow-up to the last one, Cooking a la Plancha, Seafood the Spanish Way!, given that that’s a customary cookout when we are in Spain. It’s common with meats too! On this long, Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of summer and a popular weekend for cooking outdoors, try meat barbacoa, parrillada!
Only the temperatures outdoors indicate that summer is still here, because the Fall routines started a few weeks ago with the start of school. Granted, not very many (more…)
I’ve been wanting to write a post about cooking a la plancha for the longest time. In fact, I started it a couple of years ago, only to shelve it and pull it out again the following year, with new photos of our family gathering for a la plancha cooking in Spain in the summer. Then I put it aside once more, and here we are, the summer of 2023, with new photos but the same gathering —same people, just a little bit older. Because no matter how many years go by, a la plancha cooking is a given and a favorite in our summer gatherings.
A la plancha is a type of cooking that is light, flavorful, intense and generally regarded as healthy. The secret is la plancha, which loosely translates to “the griddle.” Unlike the stainless (more…)
The word “senyoret” means gentleman in the Valencian language. Arroz del senyoret (where the consonants ny combined are pronounced as a Spanish ñ in the Valencian language) is a seafood paella where all the seafood shells have been peeled off and therefore the person eating it will not have to bother removing the shells from the shrimp or the mussels —hence “del senyoret”, for the gentleman.
El Parador de Ifach, hoy: una torre de apartamentos y una zona común de recreo a imagen del antiguo parador
The story of this dish is peculiar and very familiar to me and my family, as it started out at the restaurant where we enjoyed many meals during my childhood. I’m talking (more…)
Coca de llanda is one of the most popular after-school snacks in the region of Valencia homes, what we call “la merienda”.
A walk in the neighborhood after la merienda
La merienda —merendar— is that mid afternoon “tentenpié”, a bite to eat between lunch and dinner, sometimes sweet, sometimes savory, a simple but (more…)
