PRAWN 'LITTLE SALAD' - ENSALADILLA DE GAMBAS

This is a version of the 'Ensaladilla Rusa/Little Russian Salad'  (see our recipe) that is typical from the South of Spain (from San Lucar de Barrameda, by the beautiful natural park of Donana in Cadiz, to Huelva).  They have  some of the best prawns in the world there. My children prefer this to the Little Russian salad that you can find all over Spain -  probably because it has more potatoes and less vegetables. You can do a summery lighter variation of this with white melon and prawns - it sounds like an odd combination but it is delicious.  You need:
- 500 gr potatoes
- 350 gr prawns (un-shelled)
- mayonnaise (1 egg, 200 ml sunflower oil, salt, juice of half a lemon)
- water
- salt

Fill a pan with lots of salty boiling water. Put the unshelled prawns into the pan, lower the heat and let them simmer for 2-3 minutes (the prawns should be pink - but do not over boil them or they will become dry). Take the prawns out of the water, but keep the water. Un-shell the prawns (don't get impatient because it just takes 3-4 minutes and the kids can help on this) cut them into mouthful chunks, and put the shells (including the heads of the prawns) back into the pan. Add the diced potatoes to the water and boil for 7-8 minutes until they are tender (the exact amount of time depends on the kind of potato that you may use). Take the potatoes our of the water and drain them well but keep half a glass of the liquid. Mix the potatoes  with the prawns. Prepare a mayonnaise (see our '2 minutes mayonnaise' recipe) with the egg, sunflower oil, salt and lemon. Mix half a glass of the boiling water with the mayonnaise and finally mix the mayonnaise with the potatoes and prawns. Put it all into the fridge as it should be served cold.

Add some crusty bread and a green salad and that is lunch done.

BIRTHDAY CHOCOLATE CAKE

It was the birthday of my youngest this week and we celebrated with a chocolate cake (after one of those 'crazy-mum moments' when you find yourself baking a cake at 23.30 and icing it at 6.30 the following morning). I took the recipe from the BBC website (which is still running, despite all the political hysteria against the BBC earlier this year).

You need:
- 225 plain flour
- 350 sugar
- 2 eggs
- 85 g cocoa powder (I did not have any so ended up using drinking chocolate powder and it worked very well)
- 2 tablespoons vanilla essence
- 1.5 teaspoons baking soda
- 1.5 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
- 250 ml milk
- 125 ml sunflower oil
- 250 ml boiling water

For the icing I changed a bit the recipe and used 300 ml double cream and 230 ml dark chocolate.

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees. Grease and line 2 round cake tins. Mix all the ingredients except for the boiling water with a wooden spoon. Add the boiling water in little bits and mix well (the mixture is very liquid but don't worry). Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake for 35 minutes. Once they are baked wait until they are completely cold and take them off the tin.

heat the cream and dark chocolate (cut into pieces). Once the chocolate has melted let the mixture get cold for around an hour. Ice the cake (the first layer, top and sides)

It was far too late at night for the children to help - but they loved the cake.

OUR BOOK 'MADE IN SPAIN" AND BISCOTTI

Have been for a week in Italy (what a gorgeous country) and came back to the news that the publication of our book 'Made in Spain' by Hodder has been announced  - how is that for a nice return?! … (it almost compensated for the dismay of seeing the government incompetently all over the place on the EU…oooppss!)

This is the first time I deal with publishers (though probably not the last as I am also writing a book on politics in Spain). I have 'devoured' books over the years but it is only after this experience that I realise how much work goes behind each one of them - I am truly humbled by all the efforts Hooder is putting into the book.

This is a recipe for biscotti from Italy, to be enjoyed with a cup of strong coffee and a nice book (the one in the picture is 'Ex Libris' from Anne Fadiman, a truly delicious book)
For the recipe you need:
Preheat the oven at 175 degrees
- 3 eggs
- 275 gr sugar
- 285 gr plain flour
- a teaspoon of baking powder
- a couple of handfuls of pistachios and another couple of handfuls of  almonds (you can replace this by whatever you want: any other nuts - hazelnuts being particularly good - raising, cherries, chocolate chips, zest of orange or lemon, aniseeds…)

Mix the eggs and sugar until they double their volume. Add the flower and baking powder and mix well. Make 6 cylinder rolls (wet your hands first or you will end up with dough everywhere). Put the rolls on a baking tray lined with baking parchment, flatten a bit the rolls and bake for 20 minutes. Then take them rolls out, lower the oven temperature to 150 degrees,  wait for 10 minutes and cut each roll diagonally into the biscotti. Put the biscotti back on the tray and bake for another 8-10 minutes.

This is a really simple recipe for children. Make sure the wet their hands well before touching the dough as it is really sticky. They also like cutting the biscotti as the nuts (which are warm by that point) cut into two really nicely and they make pretty patterns. One of my children does not like nuts, so we did not put many on them. In any case, as you may have guessed, they all prefer to make the biscotti with chocolate chips (and orange peel) rather than nuts.

CAULIFLOWER SOUP

This is one of my favourite soups for winter. Very easy to make. Good for lunch and also a nice starter for dinner parties. You need:
- one cauliflower (around 1-1.2 kg)
- 1.5 onions ( diced)
-750 ml water
- 700 ml milk (we always use semi-skimmed but you can use any other kind)
- salt
- 100 gr of serrano or parma ham (cut it into thin short stripes) - needless to say that this is better if the ham is iberico...
- 50 gr of hazelnuts (chopped)
- olive oil (4 tablespoons)

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees. Clean the cauliflower, cut it into florets, mix it well with 2.5 tablespoons of olive oil and salt and put it into a roasting tin (it has become fashionable to coat vegetables in oil by putting them into a plastic sealable bag - but coating them with your hands takes no time at all, so why bother with the bag?). Roast the cauliflower for 20-25 minutes until the edges are brown.  When this is done fry the onion in the remaining olive oil for 8-9 minutes, add the roasted cauliflower and wait for a couple of minutes. Then add the water and milk, a bit more salt and let it all simmer ( without boiling)  for 10 minutes. If it boils you may get some curds, but do not worry because the taste will be still great. Blend it all with a hand held blender (we like this soup rather thick but if you prefer it thin then add a bit more water with milk).

Before you are going to serve the soup heat the ham on a frying pan (do not add any oil) for a minute or so. Then put the hazelnuts on the pan until they get golden (one minute to a minute and a half). Sprinkle the ham and hazelnuts over the soup before you serve it and add a drizzle of olive oil if you wish (not needed for taste, but it looks prettier) .

Children can help easily with it all. Mine like this for lunch, except for the hazelnuts - but regardless of my children's taste, hazelnuts, ham and cauliflower are a superb combination.

CHICKEN LIVER PATE

This is the only way to get my children to eat chicken liver and the only way I eat it myself. They refuse to help me cooking it, which I totally understand as touching raw liver is definitely not nice. I get plenty of 'uagghhs' before I cook this and 'yumm' after it is cooked.

You need:
-400 gr chicken liver
- 2 onions (sliced thinly)
- one clove of garlic (minced)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- three quarters of a glass of sherry
- 2 tablespoons of creme fraiche
- salt
- 200 gr butter

First melt the butter and let it get cold. Separate the yellow liquid from the white bits at the bottom (the milk proteins) and discard the latter.

Heat the oil in a pan, add the onions and garlic and fry them (over low heat) for 7-8- minutes until they are very soft. Put them in a food processor. Then in the same pan add the livers and fry them for two and a half minutes on one side and two on the other side. Then add the sherry and let it all bubble for a minute and a half  to two minutes (if you over-heat the livers they will get grainy which is not nice, but you really should not feed raw liver to children, so better safe than sorry). Add the livers to the food processor. Increase the heat and reduce the sherry liquid by half (this will take around a minute and a half)  and add it to the pan. Finally add the creme fraiche and a bit of salt and process it all until you get a creamy consistency. I sift it through a strain (I use a chinois one but any strainer would do) so that you get a really smooth paste. Put the paste into the bowl or ramekin where you will serve it. Pour the butter on top. Let the butter get completely cold and keep it in the fridge.

RAZOR CLAMS

Razor clams are not very popular in the UK, but in Spain they are a delicatessen. The best way to eat them is grilled. You need:
- a couple of razor clams per person
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
-2 cloves of garlic
- parsley
- half a lemon
- salt

Fill a bowl with cold water. Add a generous amount of salt (a couple of spoonfuls), put the clams into the bowl and let them rest for a couple of hours. That way you will ensure there is no sand inside the clams as the sand miraculously gets out win you add the salty water (without you having to clean the clams one by one)

Then blend the oil and garlic in a blender or just by mincing the garlic and adding it to the oil (I usually blend half a glass of oil with garlic in the weekends and keep it in a glass jar. It lasts for a week and you can use it for grilling and also for roasting vegetables)

Heat a grilling pan, add the oil and garlic, immediately afterwards add the clams and wait for a minute (a minute and a half at the most) Put the clams on the serving plate and sprinkle them with parsley and lemon juice. I think they do not need salt, but if you disagree, then add some.

The shape of these clams is interesting for kids, because they look like knives. In fact in Spain they are called 'navajas', i.e. pen-knives.

DRIED APPLE CAKE

This is one of those cakes that you leave on the kitchen table and it disappears in no time at all. It is done with dried apples, which I have recently discovered for cakes, and they make the cake rich and dense. You need:

- 150 gr dried apple chunks
- a glass of water
- 175 gr sugar
- 175 gr plain flower
- a teaspoon of baking soda
- 85 gr sunflower oil
- 2 eggs
- zest of one lemon
- butter to grease the loaf mould

Preheat the over at 185 degrees. Grease the loaf mould and then cover it with baking paper.

Put the dried apples with the glass of water in a microwave dish and microwave for 4 minutes at the highest setting. Then drain the apple chunks to get rid of the water.

Mix all the ingredients but the apple. When they are mixed well add the apple chunks and mix again (you may feel there is too much apple for the cake butter, but just keep mixing until all the apple chunks are coated). Put it all into the mould and bake for 55 minutes.

Children like helping with this cake and also eating it. Be careful so that they do not get hurt when you take the apple chunks out of the microwave as the water will be very hot.