Coca de calabaza, Pumpkin coca —and fiestas de Moros y Cristianos in Onteniente
While searching on my blog, I realized that I don’t have any post about the most important festival in Onteniente, my hometown, las Fiestas de Moros y Cristianos, the Moors and Christians Festival! Many recipes can be related to this post, so it was hard to choose, but I decided on coca de calabaza, pumpkin coca, a sweet torta popular in my region, la Vall d’Albaida and la Sierra de Mariola.
Coca de calabaza is a pretty simple coca, it includes only a few ingredients. It is eaten by itself, like a morning snack or an afternoon merienda, but I also like to eat it as a light lunch —never mind the sugar in it, the pumpkin (more…)
If you’ve been following Mama Ía blog for a while you know (and have heard me say more than once) that the recipes I post are quite simple. Spanish cuisine is not complicated and it doesn’t use a ton of ingredients, relying more on excellent ones cooked without many adornments.
Today’s recipe, Alcoy meat cakes, while not hard to make, is a bit more elaborate, so I have to warn you. It also requires the dough to sit in the fridge overnight, so it’s a recipe that you need 
On this Holy Week, a very appropriate dish, coca de pimiento, atún y tomate, bell pepper, tuna and tomato torta, a dish that is so idiosyncratic of my hometown that I am surprised I haven’t posted the recipe before.
Coca de llanda is one of the most popular after-school snacks in the region of Valencia homes, what we call “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 
Rice stuffed red peppers, pimientos de arroz, is one of the dishes of my childhood and young adulthood (or the period prior to my moving to North America after I married). Medium grain Valencian rice, seasoned and cooked in a tomato based thick broth, bakes to perfection inside sweet red peppers that roast until almost caramelized.
I know, I know, two posts in a row with recipes for fish. Not only fish, but mollusks, so popular where I come from, Spain’s Mediterranean coast, but not so where I live, Indiana. There’s an explanation, I’m still on detoxification mode from sweets after Christmas, and hard on the Mediterranean diet, the tried and true. But don’t fret: Valentines is around the corner, then a number of family birthdays, and soon after, Easter. Lots and lots of opportunities for sweets. So tag along with me, follow the Mediterranean diet, and your heart (and your waist) will thank you.
Monjavina is a sweet of arab origin, typical of the region of 
I don’t know in which category exactly to place esgarraet, salads or appetizers/tapas. Esgarraet is a dish typical of the Valencian community, and very often it is served as a