SALTY CAKE

This is a very simple salty cake that you can adapt as you wish.

You need:

250 gr flour

one teaspoon baking powder

150 ml sunflower oil

4 eggs

150 ml buttlemilk ( or 100 ml milk with 4 spoonfuls of yogurt)

150 cubes of butternut squash (you can get rid of this if your children do not like it but it makes it is about the only healthy bit of this cake)

150 gr of cubes bacon

75 gr grated cheese

salt

(you can also add peppers, paprika, or any other spice you like)

Preheat the oven at 185 degrees and grease and line the cake tin ( we used a loaf cake one but you can use any shape you wish). Mix all the dry ingredients. Then mix separately all the wet ingredients (i.e. eggs, buttermilk or milk and yogurt, and oil). Last, mix dry and wet ingredients together. Put in all into the cake mould and bake for 40 minutes. 

HAM AND CHEESE ROLL

This seems more difficult than it is. You need:

- 80 gr self raising flour
- 80 gr sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tub of philadelphia cheese
- 250 gr of ham

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.  Beat well the eggs and sugar until the mixture gets foamy. Then fold in the flour trying not to loose too much air. Pour the mixture on a swiss roll tray ( we use a silicon tray, but if you use a normal one then grease it and line it). Bake for 9 minutes. As soon as you take it out of the oven turn it onto a wet kitchen towel and roll it. Let it cool down (rolled with the wet towel) for 15 minutes more or less.

When it has cooled down unroll it, spread Philadelphia cheese on top and then put the ham slices on top of the cheese. Roll it again pressing it firmly so that you get rid of any air pockets inside. Cover the cylinder with cling film or foil and let it chill in the fridge until you eat it.

 

'BOLITAS' SOUP

This soup is heaven. The smell when you are cooking it will make anybody go hungry. We call it 'bolitas' soup because in Spain it is normally prepared with pasta shaped as tiny balls, a bit like cous-cous. It is my children's favourite soup. We cannot find the little balls in the shops o we do it with pasta shaped like 'little stars' which is great too.

You need:
- the left overs from a roast chicken (or a chicken thigh and leg)
- 200 gr 'serrano' ham (it is not worth spending a lot on this so just ask for any left overs of a ham in the supermarket  - the bone is actually very good for this)
- one onion
- one leak
- one carrot
- 6 green beans (you can miss this if you wish)
- one bay leave
- one handful of chickpeas
- one quarter of a pepper ( preferably green, but red is fine too)
- a little bit of parsley (half a teaspoon)
- salt
- water (1.5 l)
- pasta shaped like starts.

Put all the ingredients but the pasta into a pan with the water. Bring it all to the boil and then lower the heat to its lowest setting and let it all simmer for 2 hours (if you do this with a pressure cooker one hour will be enough).

Get the soup though a colander and dismiss all the solid bits (if you have used proper chicken rather than left overs you can use it in a chicken salad) This liquid keeps for a week or so in the fridge.

Whenever you want to use it, bring the liquid back to the boil (if you find the taste too strong you can solute it with water), add the pasta (a handful for two persons) and let it boil for 8-10 minutes until the pasta is soft.

MUSSELS

You need:
- two tablespoons of olive oil,
- 500 gr of mussels
- one large onion cut into small cubes
- one table spoon of chopped parsley
- one bay leaf
- 1 glass of white wine
-1 glass of water
- salt

Clean the mussels.

Heat the olive oil in a pan. Fry the onion under low heat until it becomes translucent. Add half of the parsley. Increase the heat and add the wine and the bay leaf. Let it bubble for a couple of minutes and then add the water. Throw the muscles in, cover the pan with a lead and wait for 3-4 minutes until the mussels open up. Take them off the heat, add the remaining parsley and eat them (with crusty bread) as soon as possible.

This sauce is a winer with the children. They were not sure about the mussels themselves but once they tasted one they were fine eating the rest and using the empty shell as tongues to eat the other mussels.

Only thing with this recipe is that you need to wash the mussels very carefully. Don't take any risks and discard any muscles that remain closed after you cook them.

MARMALADE

Don't be tempted to make this recipe: it takes forever, the kitchen becomes a mess and the kids get bored well before half-way though it. After many hours chopping, boiling, stirring, waiting, sterilising and testing the setting point it turns out that actually the children do not like the taste of marmalade. Honestly, if you are into it, any supermarket marmalade is just fine.

Since we (I!) did the whole thing  we (I!) decided to include this in the blog nevertheless.

We followed a recipe from Delia Smith which technically works well despite the comments above.

You need:

- 900 gr seville oranges

- 1 lemon

-1.8 kg of sugar

-2.25 l of water

Squeeze the juice out of the oranges and lemon. Add it to the water. 

Cut the orange peel (without the pith) in tiny pieces (...I know, it does take much longer than you think...) add them to the juice and water pan.

Put the pith and pips in a muslin cloth or bag. Put them also into the pan.

Bring it all to boil and then simmer for two (two!) hours.

After than let it cool down. Squeeze all the liquid out of the muslin bag. This is the pectin and you will need to squeeze for a while as there is more in there than you think ( ... and yes your hands will smell of orange for a good few hours...) 

Increase the heat to high and let it boil for 15-ish minutes. This is when you can start testing the jam with cold saucers and any of the other methods that you can easily find  in the internet. If you have a candy thermometer boil it until it reaches jam temperature.

Then get rid of the scum with a spoon. You can add a bit of butter to help you (but it does not get rid of it all, so back to the spoon...).

Let it all settle for 20 minutes.

By this point you should have had time to sterilise the jars (in the dishwasher, oven or microwave).

Put the jam into the jars (this is actually more difficult that it seems unless you have a jam funnel) bringing it as close as possible to the top.

Cover with a wax disk ( they sell them in Lakeland and they are cheap)

...finally, close the lids.

The good news is: there is no need to do this ever again in your whole life.

ORANGES WITH OLIVE OIL

This is a way to eat oranges that is typical from Jaen, one of the best known olive oil producing areas in Spain. All you need to do is to slice an orange, sprinkle sugar on top and then drizzle some (good) olive oil.   It is an unusual taste but it works well. The children liked it though they prefer the oranges with just sugar on top or on their own.

If you like the taste of olive oil you can also toast some bread, drizzle it with olive oil and sprinkle sugar on top. This (with a strong coffee) is the breakfast of many people in the South of Spain.

PEPPERS WITH TUNA

You need:

- 10 'piquillo' peppers (they sell them in most supermarkets)
- one tin of tuna (preferably in spring water)
- 1 small onion
- 2  tablespoons of plain flour
- olive oil (3 tablespoons)
- 700 ml of milk
- salt

Fry the onions in two spoons of olive oil until they become translucent. Then add the tuna and let it all fry for 4-5- minutes ( you can add some parsley too if you wish).

Separately prepare a thin béchamel sauce: heat the remaining olive oil. Add the flour and let it fry over very low heat for 3 minutes (it should not become dark). Then add the milk and keep steering it all with a wooden spoon until the milk boils and the mixture thickens. If you get lumps of flour, just get the mixture into a blender and which for a few seconds. Mix half of the sauce with the tuna and reserve the other half.

Take the peppers out of the tin. Put the tuna mixture inside the peppers. Arrange the peppers on a baking tray, cover them with the remaining béchamel sauce and put them under the grill for a few minutes until the béchamel gets golden (you can add little bits of butter before you put the tray under the grill to make the dish look prettier if you wish)

Children seem to enjoy filling in the peppers, but you will need to wait for a while unit the béchamel sauce cools down.