Gazpacho

Being the end of August, my vegetable garden is overgrown and running out of steam. However I have no shortage of home-grown tomatoes and thought I'd take advantage to make my very first gazpacho. It's a traditional Spanish cold tomato soup. Which I know makes you think of V8 but seriously it is delicious and a fantastic way to get in your raw vegetable servings everyday during the summer. Make a more watery version and you can drink it like a shake. Make a thicker version and add vegetable chunks and eat it like a soup.


Just wash, peel, chop and de-seed tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, onion and garlic.

Blend and add olive oil, vinegar and salt.

Add and blend in day-old French bread (optional).

Two kinds of Torrijas

Every Easter every good Spanish housewife makes enough torrijas to feed an army. And they disappear in minutes, seconds, moments. And as beloved as they are, as much as each Spaniard thinks of them over the year... it seems my generation and the ones that have followed have no clue or desire to learn to make them for themselves. Mother's torrijas are the holiest thing about this week.

The closest thing to a torrija is French toast. Except it's sometimes soaked in brandy and it's always fried in oil and bathed in sugar. The unhealthiest thing in the world.

So in efforts to wing my boyfriend from his mommy dependency, we ventured to make our own.

Two kinds. One soaked in hot milk, cinnamon and lemon peel. The other soaked in melted sugar and brandy.

Both were bathed in eggs, fried in oil.

And then bathed in a sugar/cinnamon mix.

Platos de cuchara

So the traditional Spanish diet is in essence the Mediterranean diet. Lots of ham, lots of seafood, olive oil, garlic and parsley. In a nut shell.

So the other day my boyfriend prepared a traditional dish that falls into the category of platos de cuchara because they are all eaten with a spoon. They are all basically stews prepared by throwing into a pressure cooker: pork parts & bones, dried beans, vegetables and olive oil. They're easy to make, super healthy and quite cheap.

This is the lentil stew he made:

Lentils (since they cook so quickly, we just do this in a regular pot) with water

Potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic (halved) and bay leaves

Chorizo (which is nothing like it's Mexican counter-part; it's actually more like pepperoni)

Throw it all in together with salt and olive oil

And enjoy! (Usually with a piece of bread in one hand to mop up the broth)

I know I didn't include any measurements, but Spaniards tend to measure everything in "handfuls" or "pinches" and I don't know how to translate that into the English system ;)