Category Archives: Main Courses

New Years Eve Dinner

09 Wednesday Jan 2013

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THE MENU

Salad of mangetoute peas, chima di rapa and yellow plum tomatoes with poached egg and smoked fish dressing.

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Ragu of Turkey and Wild Mushrooms

Steamed New Potatoes with Chives

Braised Beetroot with Garlic

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Orange Semi-Freddo

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Cheeseboard

 

When planning a celebratory dinner like that for New Years Eve I generally start jotting down menus several days before the dinner so that I have time to really think through how the meal will be put together on the day. I look through the cupboards, vegetable garden and the freezer to see what I have already that could do with being included. Then I think about how rich or light I want the whole affair to be. After the excesses of Christmas I felt a meal on the lighter side was called for on this occasion.

My first draft menu was a starter of Foie Gras with a salad as above but without the tomatoes and with some of the gorgeous figs that I dried this summer, and a ginger dressing. Ginger with Foie Gras is a favourite flavour combination of mine. This I was thinking maybe of following with a fish dish, either salmon or swordfish steaks.

I wrote in a previous post of an eleven kilo  free range turkey that had come my way which was cut into portions and frozen. I thought I ought to consider turkey for the main course. There were two very good sized legs. Do I bone, stuff and roast them, or will they be too tough prepared like that? A casserole would suit the meat, but is it smart enough for a celebration dinner? I am assured by one of my guests that a Ragu would be perfectly smart enough and welcome change from the richness of the previous days. I have some dried wild mushrooms brought back from a trip to Italy, a perfect accompaniment to the gamey flavour of the turkey.

But then brown ragu preceded by brown foie gras would not do. I want to stick with a salad for several reasons, it is a healthy, light and colourful way to start a meal and I have in the garden some tip top ingredients for one, and most of the preparation can be done in advance which means I don’t have to abandon my guests for too long while I serve it up.

I have some fresh free range eggs that have come from my neighbour Marias happy chickens, a salad topped with a poached egg would be both colourful and the soft yoke mixed with a tangy dressing would make the salad interesting to the palate. For the dressing I used a tin of smoked fish roe in oil that I pureed and thinned with lemon juice and more olive oil.

Having had another look in the garden there are enough baby yellow plum tomatoes to make salads for seven, they are sweet and acidic at the same time and the colour will set off the yellow yolk of the egg.

So I recap in my mind the plan. Crispy mixed salad leaves, the baby yellow tomatoes cut into halves, lightly steamed mangetoute peas and cima di rapa which will still be warm when served, topped with a warm poached egg dressed with a thick dressing of smoked fish roe. Some pickled sprigs of capers to garnish. I am happy with that.IMG_3601

The ragu for the main course I will serve with steamed new potatoes tossed with chives and butter, and for a vegetable beetroot braised with garlic.

I have a good cheese board to end the meal which means that the dessert that I thought I wanted to make will not fit. I make mincemeat each year to sell in the farm shop, and there are a couple of jars left. Having a lime farm the mincemeat is lime and quince, which is wonderfully tangy. I had been thinking to make a cheesecake based on the Yorkshire Curd Tart of a previous post, but in place of the currants and raisins use the mincemeat. I still plan to try it at some point but for this meal it is too rich and cheesecake followed by cheese…..no.

How about a little ice cream?  Small, light, tasty, perfect.  An orange semi-freddo will fit the bill.IMG_3608

I will write a whole post on Semi-freddos in the future, but today I will give you the recipe for the Turkey Ragu which was really good.

TURKEY AND WILD MUSHROOM RAGUIMG_3606

As with all stews it is a good idea to cook it the day before needed to let the flavours mature. As you know there is something about the time and the cooling and reheating that really improves the flavour of any stew.

2.5 Kilos turkey meat from the legs cut into chunks roughly three centimetres square

1 bulb of garlic

2 large onions

400 grams streaky bacon/ pancetta cut  into lardons

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1litre stock made from the turkey bones

75 grams  dried mixed wild mushrooms

Good fat for frying, either beef dripping, bacon fat or duck

2 heaped tablespoons flour

Break the garlic into cloves and peel and chop them finely.

Finely chop the onions.

Melt some of the fat in a large heat proof casserole. When hot add the onions and garlic. Fry for five minutes or so until transparent.

Add the bacon and continue frying stirring from time to time for another ten minutes.

Add the turkey pieces. Continue frying and turning the pieces until they are sealed all over. Season well with the sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Add just enough stock to cover the meat. Bring to a slow simmer and cover. Leave to cook for half an hour.

Add the mushrooms and stir in. Continue cooking on a very slow simmer until the turkey is cooked. I thought that the turkey I had, being very large and having run around free would have needed a couple of hours cooking as a minimum, but it only needed about three quarters of an hour more cooking at this point. I would recommend to start checking for doneness after half an hour.

Bear in mind as well that with such a large volume of ragu it will retain heat and the meat will continue to cook for quite some time after the heat is turned off.

To thicken the stew, melt some of the fat in a frying pan and add to it the two tablespoons of flour. If it is dry in the pan add more fat. Fry slowly stirring all the time until the flour starts to caramelise and turn a fudge brown.  Add a ladleful of the stock from the stew and stir into the flour. It will fizz and thicken. Continue adding the stock a ladleful at a time until the sauce is thinner and moveable.

Return this to the pan with the meat and stir gently to mix in.

Reheat the ragu and serve.

Eggs, Ham & French Beans

11 Tuesday Dec 2012

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This light, fresh tasting lunch or supper dish is simplicity itself and prefect for when you are cooking for yourself alone. This morning I left the Spanish sun to visit the thickly snow covered French Alps, and brought with me the left over vegetables that I had picked for the farm shop yesterday. I am a bit weary after the long journey so want to eat something that is quick to prepare, but fresh and nourishing. I stopped off in the valley before coming up the mountain to get some basics in, butter, eggs, ham and bread. 2012-12-09 19.25.47

The beans from the veg garden are young and tender, so I fry them in olive oil for a few minutes, then I add some ham cut into small pieces. Continue frying for a few more minutes until the beans are cooked but still have some crunch. Turn the heat low and then add a couple of free range eggs that you have beaten a little to mix the whites and yolks, and seasoned. Stir the eggs around the pan and only let cook to a very soft set. Turn onto a warm plate and enjoy your Revuelto de Judias Verdes with crunchy fresh bread.2012-12-09 19.28.29

Revuelto translates as  –  turned over – referring of course to the turning over of the eggs in the pan. The soft scrambled eggs are regularly found on menus in Spain with combinations of vegetables and either ham or prawns. Asparagus and Prawns, Broad Beans or Sweet Peas and Ham, Spring Garlic and Ham, Mushrooms, or Morcilla the Spanish black pudding. In the Basque Country it is made with slow stewed Red Peppers and called Piperrada. Or try your own combinations………

Spicy Pork Kebabs – Malaga Style

30 Friday Nov 2012

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In Andalucía there are many culinary legacies of the times when Moorish princes lived in the palaces of Granada and Seville. Just the names of some ingredients show their Arabic origins – berenjena, zanahoria, albahaca, and azafran for example, which translate as aubergine, carrot, basil, and saffron.

These kebabs are part of this legacy with their seasoning of spices and the drizzle of the bitter sweet sugar cane syrup at the end. When I was first served these as a tapa, the cubes of meat were alternated with dates for an even sweeter taste. The spices are dominated by the flavour of the allspice and cloves which complement so well the pork. I know you are wondering what pork is doing in a dish with arab origins, but that is Andalucía for you. I had a student on my recent tapas cookery class who didn’t eat pork, so I used some nicely gamey free range turkey, which was very good too.

P

PINCHO MORUNO ESTILIO MALAGUENA

For 4 as a main course, for tapas halve all the amounts

700 gms lean pork cut into cubes

10 ml allspice berries or Pimienta de Jamaica

5 ml whole cloves

5 ml Cumin seeds

5 ml coriander seeds

5 ml ground cinnamon

2.5 ml chilli powder or the equivalent in fresh red chilli

2.5 ml pimenton or paprika

2.5 ml Salt

2-4 cloves of garlic

15 ml olive oil

Sugar cane syrup to serve

In a heavy based frying pan put the allspice berries, cloves, cumin seeds and coriander seeds and heat over a low heat. Shake the pan from time to time until the spices are warm and exuding their fragrances.

Put in a mortar together with the salt and grind down to a powder.

Peel and roughly chop the garlic and add to the spices together with the chilli and pimento. Grind to a paste adding the olive oil.

In a bowl mix the marinade with the pork cubes to coat the cubes on all sides. Cover and leave in the fridge for the spices to penetrate for at least an hour.

Thread the pork cubes onto skewers and cook either on a griddle, or grill on the cooker or barbeque.

To serve drizzle with sugar cane syrup.

I have also used this same marinade very successfully to season a joint of pork prior to roasting it.

Thanksgiving

24 Saturday Nov 2012

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ThanksgivingRecently an eleven kilo turkey entered my life. I haven’t got to the bottom of why two large turkeys urgently needed to be dispatched and given freezer room to, but I am certainly not complaining at receiving this unexpected gift, especially as they were happy, free range birds. Eternal thanks to Terry for doing the dispatching and plucking, and to Jane for sending the second turkey in my direction.

Eleven kilos is a lot of turkey, so butchering it prior to freezing was my first task. I took the breasts off and sliced them into the thinnest escalopes that I could. These were frozen each in their own bag for easy defrosting. The legs, each of which will make a joint big enough to feed four, were bagged up and frozen. I will probably bone these when I come to use them, and then stuff them before roasting them. The carcase was trimmed of all its usable meat which was cut into bite sized pieces and then bagged up in small portions to be frozen. I have plans for turkey and wild mushroom ragu to go with fresh pasta at some point in the future amongst other dishes. The carcase itself was cut up ( I have a very useful large cleaver) and boiled up with carrots, onions, garlic and herbs for a good supply of stock. Once the stock had been strained off and frozen in portions, the bones went into a very appreciative dog and four cats. Absolutely nothing wasted.

The above then is a very roundabout explanation of why I volunteered to cook the main course for Thanksgiving this year. My friend Doris, who is from Pittsburgh, is the usual hostess for this feast, and I did detect a slight trepidation on her part to entrust the preparation of this meal to someone who was not only not an American, but was wanting to do something off the norm with the turkey. I reassured her that cranberry sauce and candied sweet potatoes would be present, but for the rest she would have to put her trust in me. I think that she was pleased with the result.Turkey_rolls_cranberry_sauce

The idea for these rolls came from my recent trip to Sicily where we were served beef fillet rolls moistened by olive oil soaked breadcrumbs. Do not be tempted to cut down on the amount of oil in the stuffing as this is what gives the dish its moist tenderness.

TURKEY ROLLS     For six

large turkey escalopes – 6

fresh bread crumbs – from six slices of white bread

clove of garlic – 1

dried cranberries – 3 tablespoons

fresh parsley, chopped – 2 tablespoons

olive oil – 50 ml

salt and freshly ground black pepper

dried breadcrumbs for coating the kebabs

bacon or duck fat for cooking the rolls

Make the breadcrumb stuffing. Put the garlic and cranberries in the food processor and whizz to cut up. Add the breadcrumbs, parsley and olive oil. Pulse to mix. Season and then pulse again.

Lay one of the escalopes out on a board and flatten out with a meat tenderising mallet or a rolling pin. turkey_rolls

Spread a layer of stuffing over the turkey slice.turkey_rolls

Roll up as tightly as you can.

Cut into lengths of about two and a half centimetres and thread onto wooden skewers allowing one skewer per person. Do the same with all the escalopes.  When all the skewers are threaded with their rolls, put them into a plastic box and store them in the fridge until needed. The preparation up to this point can be done several hours in advance.

In the meantime, prepare a cranberry sauce.

CRANBERRY SAUCE

turkey stock – 500 ml

dried cranberries – 3 tablespoons

any leftover breadcrumb stuffing

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Boil the turkey stock to reduce it by half to concentrate the flavour. Add the cranberries and simmer for about ten minutes until the fruit are soft.

Thicken the sauce with leftover breadcrumb stuffing. Add these bit by bit until the sauce is slightly thicken but still pourable. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed.

Again you can prepare this sauce in advance and reheat it when ready to serve the turkey.turkey_rolls

To cook the rolls, dust with the dried breadcrumbs and cook in either duck or bacon fat on a griddle or in a frying pan. Cook for four or five minutes on each of the four sides, turn off the heat and leave the rolls to rest covered for another five minutes.

Serve with a little of the warmed sauce poured over, sweet potatoes roast with maple syrup and a green vegetable.

PS – if you think that I had my paintbrushes out to do the picture at the top of the post, let me tell you that it is a photograph. It is my Thanksgiving table decoration.

 

Roast Rabbit & Summer Vegetables

13 Tuesday Nov 2012

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I have just returned from a stay in the UK to be greeted by the same cool and wet weather that I thought I had left behind there. With all the rain the vegetable garden is bursting with produce – and plenty of weeds – but is too wet to get into right now,  and of course it is Sunday, so no shopping possiblities. Thankfully there are some squashes, onions and potatoes in the cold store, rabbit in the freezer and a couple of now slightly wrinkly red peppers in the fridge from before I went away. I decide to prepare a favourite roast for lunch, Rabbit with Summer Vegetables, this dish having the extra benefit of needing the wood burning oven, which will nicely warm the kitchen.

Normally for this dish I buy a whole rabbit and chop it into small portions leaving the bones in, but on this occasion I only have a boned saddle available, so that will have to do. Chicken can be substituted for the rabbit if you prefer. The cooking times will be the same, but use tarragon or sage in place of the thyme.rabbit_roast_summer_veg

For the vegetables I always use potatoes and garlic, but then the rest vary depending on what is available in the garden or larder. Red peppers are great for colour and flavour, so those if I can, then any three or four others from the list below.

ROAST RABBIT WITH SUMMER VEGETABLES – For 4

1 Rabbit

400 grams potatoes

2 heads of garlic

several sprigs of fresh thyme

olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

selection of vegetables –

2 large red peppers cut into quarters or sixths

2 medium courgettes cut into big chunks

2 medium aubergines cut into chunks

4-6 sweet onions peeled and halved

4 large carrots peeled and cut into chunks

butternut squash and or pumpkin peeled and cut into chunks

Put the oven on to warm up to 190 C.

Once the oven is up to temperature, put in a large roasting tray containing a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.

After five minutes or so when this is hot add to it the potatoes which are in evenly sized chunks. Sprinkle with salt and roast for ten minutes.

Season the rabbit with salt, freshly ground black pepper and fresh thyme. Break the garlic into cloves but don’t peel them. Cut the cloves accross their fattest bit only cutting half way through the clove. Leaving the skin on protects the garlic from burning while it is roasting, while the cut accross the middle enables the garlic to swell without bursting out of its skin.

Add the rabbit and garlic to the potatoes and cook for another ten minutes.

After this time add the rest of the vegetables to the pan. They need to be in one layer to cook properly, so if they don’t fit in one tray use two, dividing the meat, garlic and potatoes between the two. If the vegetables are too crowded they tend to steam rather than roast and end up soggy. Drizzle over more olive oil and seasoning.

Roast for another half an hour or until the vegetables are tender and browned at the edges.

If you are wondering why I have included the photo at the top of this post, look carefully at the wire and you will see a flock of starlings neatly and evenly sitting all the way along it. It is almost as though they have measured the distance between each other.

One Ham – Two Meals

23 Tuesday Oct 2012

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We are having typical autumn weather for this corner of spain, quite cold evenings when you want the wood oven in the kitchen lit for some cosy and warming kitchen suppers, while during the day the sun warms so well that lunch on the terrace is the thing and you want to eat something light that reminds you of summer. With one ham I recently managed to create a meal of each type. Warm thick slices of the ham served with a mustard sauce and lentils for a snug supper, and then a couple of days later the same ham cold and cut into thin slices for a carpaccio with mustard viniagrette. Both dishes went down very well with my guests.

It isn’t possible to buy an uncooked joint of ham in this part of Spain, so we have to cure our own. I have some salts that were a gift from some lovely butchers in Ireland which I mix with brown sugar and black peppercorns to get a spicy joint of ham.

So the ham has been curing for five days and friends are coming for dinner this evening. This will be the first hearty type meal of the season and is very easy as it is all cooked in the one pot except for finishing the sauce at the end.

Ham with Mustard Sauce and Lentils –  For 4

Joint of raw ham

200 grams lentils – either puy or pardina

4 carrots

1 large or 2 small onions

Olive oil for frying

500 ml light stock

2 tablespoons whole grain mustard

2 tablespoons cream

Peel and slice the onions. Peel the carrots and cut them into cubes.

Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry the carrots and onions for ten minutes.

Put the ham joint into a pan into which it fits quite snugly. Add the fried vegetables. Put some of the stock in the frying pan to take up the brownings in the pan and add this to the ham. Put more stock in the pan to just cover the meat.

Bring slowly to the boil. Add the lentils and cook very slowly for one and a half hours.

Once cooked remove the joint of ham to a carving board and keep warm. Strain the stock from the lentils and vegetables, but not until they are very dry, they still want some moisture in them. Put the vegetables in a warm serving dish and keep warm while you make the sauce and carve the meat.

To make the sauce, put some of the stock that the ham and vegetables have cooked in into a saucepan. When I made this last it was about half the stock or about 200ml. Add a tablespoon of whole grain mustard and a tablespoon of double cream. Mix in well. Slowly bring to a simmer. The mustard and cream should be enough to thicken the sauce to a creamy but pouring consistency. if it is a bit thin, then add more of the mustard and cream.

Serve the sliced ham with the sauce poured over.

Ham Carpacccio with Mustard Dressingcooked_ham_carpaccio

Left over cold ham cut into thin as you can slices. Arrange these on dinner plates covering the whole plate as one does for carpaccio.

Left over mustard sauce to which you add 2 tablespoons of good extra virgin olive oil and a tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice. Mix all together well and then spoon/drizzle over the ham.

Parmesan cheese which you shave over the plates of ham.

An Autumn Salad

12 Friday Oct 2012

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rainbow_saintYesterday I looked really hard for the pot of gold as I could clearly see the end of this rainbow in my neighbours orange grove, but alas, it eluded me. I didn’t let on to him how close he had been to being rich beyond his wildest dreams!

The rain was extremely welcome as I can’t order any irrigation water at the moment. In the recent storms and floods 14 kilometers of pipework that deliver water to all of us in the cooperative were washed away.

All this rain interspersed with warm sunny days has meant that the salads that can’t grow in the blistering heat of the summer here are green and tender and tasty. The asparagus is throwing up its autumn shoots and the herb bed hasn’t looked so healthy for quite a while. Here is a salad that glorifies these autumn offerings. grilled_beef_salad_mint_dressing

Grilled Beef and Goat Cheese Salad with Mint and Balsamic Dressing

Per person –

100 grams tender beef sliced very thinly

50 grams cheese – I used a fresh Goat cheese that I sell in the farm shop, but ricotta or mozarella work for this salad

6-8 spears of asparagus

Mixed salad leaves – mine were green and red lettuce, mizuna, pak choi, mustard greens, chives, basil and fennel fronds.

A handful of fresh mint

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon lemon juice

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Spread the beef out onto a board and season with the salt and pepper. If you are not sure of its tenderness, then give it some hits with a meat tenderising mallet.

Heat a hotplate or heavy based griddle pan.

Lightly oil the asparagus and put to cook on the griddle. Turn from time to time as it is cooking.

Wash the salad and arrange on a plate.

Cut up the cheese and arrange on the salad.

Make the dressing. Wash and roughly chop the mint, put in a bowl with balsamic vinegar, olive oil and lemon juice and mix thoroughly.

When the asparagus is cooked al dente remove from the griddle and arrange on the salad.

Cook the beef on the griddle. This should only take 2-3 minutes each side. Remove to a board and cut into bite sized slices. Arrange on the salad.

Spoon the dressing onto the salad. Enjoy.

Fried Liver with Tomato Pilav

17 Monday Sep 2012

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liver_with_tomato_pilav

Throughout my teenage years I cooked this dish for the whole family almost every Saturday lunchtime. It was taught to me by my father who is from Sarajevo the capital of Bosnia of the former Jugoslavia. Jugoslavia was for over five hundred years part of the Ottoman empire, and it was not until my sister and I were holidaying in Turkey on a Gulet with some friends that we realise that it is a Turkish dish. Our cook on the boat – Hali – made it for us all one lunch time and our friends loved it and wondered how it was made, to which my sister and I announced in unison that we could make it with our eyes closed!

Quite a lot of English people think that they don’t like liver. And if their only experience of it is the stewed beef liver that was served to us at school, then I can fully understand them having a prejudice against it. But please give liver another chance. Think more those gorgeous liver pates and less the shoe leather of school dinners. Pork liver for me has the best texture and the sweetest flavour of all the livers, and this is what my family use for this dish although the with Turkey being a muslim country, lambs liver is used there.

For 4 people

1 large or two medium onions – finely chopped

1 red pepper – cut into strips – optional

500 grams liver cut into bite sized pieces

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Olive oil for frying

200 grams long grain rice

250 grams peeled plum tomatoes – either freshly peeled or tinned

Fresh flat leaved parsley – roughly chopped

Firstly put the rice on to boil. Use your usual method but you want the rice slightly al dente.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the onions and peppers if you are using them. Fry over a moderate heat until the onions are lightly browned.

Season the liver pieces with salt and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper. Add to the pan with the onions and cook stirring from time to time until the liver is just cooked. This will take about ten minutes. Do not cover. If the pan is covered the liver will steam and go tough.

To see if the liver is cooked enough, take out a piece and cut into it. It should be pink inside. If it is red inside it is not cooked enough and if it is brown you have gone too far.

Remove the liver from the pan leaving behind the onions, pepper if used and the juices. Add the tomatoes to the remains of the pan and stir to mix. Cook over a higher heat until the tomatoes have deepened in colour and cooked.

Drain the rice and add to the tomatoes. Stir well to mix together and cook for a couple of minutes for the flavour of the tomatoes to penetrate the rice.

Add the liver and mix again. Cook a minute or two for the liver to rewarm. Stir in the parsley. Serve with a green salad.

Golden Risotto

14 Friday Sep 2012

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Another busy day, and so another quick lunch, but that does not mean that lunch has to be dull and unexciting. The self sown fig tree is still giving four or five sweet little irresistible black figs every day so I shall have those with some smoked duck breast while a risotto is cooking.

I thought that I was going to make a courgette risotto, but when I went to pick a couple I was diverted by the sight of tiny yellow plum tomatoes and thought that combined with some pumpkin they could make a cheery golden risotto. The hazel nuts added at the end give a crunch that contrasts nicely with the soft risotto.

Per person

1 small onion – finely chopped

120 grams pumpkin – cut into small cubes

120 grams yellow plum tomatoes – halved

40 grams risotto rice

Chicken stock

Oil for frying or half oil and half butter if you prefer the flavour.

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

30 grams grated parmesan cheese

Roasted hazel nuts – 30 grams golden risotto

Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a shallow pan and add the onions. Fry gently until translucent.

Add the pumpkin cubes and stir to mix in. Fry for five minutes stirring from time to time.

Add the rice and stir to coat in the oil and pumpkin juices. Cook until the rice looks slightly translucent.

Add the tomatoes and some stock and stir. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and continue cooking on a gentle heat, adding more stock as necessary until the rice is cooked.

Stir in most of the cheese reserving a small amount to sprinkle on the risotto when you serve it.

Add the hazel nuts and cook long enough to warm them through.

Serve sprinkled with the remaining cheese.

Tortilla de Acelgas – Chard Omlette

13 Thursday Sep 2012

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There is a lot of work to do on the farm at the moment as the season is changing. We have had the early September rain that signals the end of the summer. The Christmas potatoes needed to be already in the ground ready and waiting before the rain comes. They are just starting to show through now.

The greenhouse contains hundreds of little pots of winter vegetable seedlings that have been hiding from the heat and will need to be planted out quite soon. There are Mange Toute Peas, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Cima Di Rapa, a huge selection of salad greens,chicories and endives, Artichokes,Florence Fennel,Beetroot……..chillies

Then there are the crops that are ready and need picking and/or processing. I have been making Preserved Tomatoes in White Wine and Chilli Jam this week which is one of the most popular products in the farm shop. Fifty Jars of the Chilli Jam and fifteen of the tomatoes, plus ten of Sun Dried Tomato Pesto which is one of my favourite sauces for pasta, or spread on toast and topped with mild cheese for breakfast.

Picking and curing the olives will be next week, closely followed by the quince which are looking swelled and golden yellow since the rain. I don’t have enough olives to send for oil, so they will all be for eating and the quince will be made into jelly and a mustard conserve, which again is popular in the shop. There are only two jars left from last years crop, which looks like perfect planning.

Because of all this activity, quick nutritious lunches are needed that centre on the vegetables from the farm.

The spanish tortilla is a thick savoury cake that is golden brown on the outside and soft and eggy in the centre. Although the best know version is made from just potatoes, any vegetable of solid texture is used in combination with small amounts of meat or fish to make sucessful tortillas. Peas, broad beans with ham, asparagus and prawns, or green garlics and prawns, spinach and bacon, chickpeas, peppers, onions or any combination thereof. There is even one made from dates and ham which I had to try when I saw it on a menu. I have to say that it was not the most successful food combination that I have tasted.

Today I have some lovely dark green chard and some smoked streaky bacon. Spinach or green cabbage can be used for this in place of the chard. The following recipe is for one person.chard_tortilla_ingredients

Warm some olive oil in a large frying pan or wok.

Finely chop a small onion and add to the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes.

Cut the bacon into lardons and add to the pan. Cook for five to ten minutes until lightly browned.

Wash the chard and cut the green leaves only into strips. Add to the bacon and toss. Cover and cook for two to three minutes, then toss again. Keep doing this until the volume of the chard is much reduced and it tastes cooked.

Break two eggs into a bowl and beat enough to mix the yolks with the whites. Add the chard and bacon to the eggs and mix thoroughly. Check if it needs salt. My bacon was quite salty so I didn’t need to add more. Season with freshly ground black pepper.

When you come to cook the tortilla the size of the pan used is very important. It wants to be of a size small enough that when the egg mix is poured in you get quite a thick cake.

Put a good amount of olive oil in the frying pan and heat. When the oil is hot slowly add the egg mix. Cover and let it cook slowly for a few minutes.

With a spatula gently tease the tortilla away from the pan around its perimeter to plump up the edge. Cook a couple more minutes and then check if it is ready to be turned over. The tortilla wants to be just solid enough to hold together as it is turned over onto a plate and then slid back into the pan. If it seems to watery still, cook it a bit longer. I gently tease the spatula under the tortilla all the way round to make sure that it is not stuck in parts. If you shake the pan and the tortilla moves then that is good.

Take a plate that is a good bit larger than the pan and away from the heat place it over the pan and hold it there. Flip the pan over so that the tortilla is on the plate. Put the pan back on the heat and add some more olive oil to it. Give it a couple of minutes to heat up before gently sliding the tortilla sideways into the pan.

With the spatula tease the sides of the tortilla in as before. This side of the tortilla will not need as much cooking as the first side. Lift up a side of it with the spatula to see if it is golden underneath.

Invert onto a plate as before and enjoy. I had mine with a simple salad of tomatoes annointed with good olive oil and salt.chard_omlette-tortilla_de_acelgas