MARMITAKO

We have got 20.000 webpage views, so we have decided to celebrate it by posting one of our best-est recipes.  Marmitako is a fish stew from the North of Spain and it is simply 'wonderful proper food'.
You need:
(for 5 people)
- 2 steaks of tuna (there is a lot of controversy over tuna, so when you buy it check that it is responsibly sourced. It is, like all fish, not cheap, but one steak goes down a long way in this dish)
- one large onion cut into thin half moons
- a quarter of a green pepper and half a red pepper cut into thin slices
- flour (3 or 4 spoonfuls)
- salt
- olive oil (4 spoonfuls plus more for frying the potatoes)
- a clove of garlic
- a handful of parsley
- a glass of white wine
- a glass of water
- one bay leave
- half a tomato into small cubes or, even better, 2 spoonfuls of (homemade) tomato sauce.
- a potato per person cut into medium size chunks

Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. While the oil is heating up, cut the tuna steaks into chunks, salt them and dust them with the flour. Fry them for one or two minutes on each side, take them off the pan and reserve them.

In the same oil fry the onion and peppers (and fresh tomato if you are using it) turning the heat down so that they get soft and sweet. When they are ready add the fish back to the pan. Add the bay leave and the tomato sauce if you are using it. Grind the garlic clove with the parsley with a pester and mortar, add the wine to the clove and parsley mixture and add it all to the pan. Add the water, wait until there are bubbles in the sauce and let it simmer over slow heat for  around 10 minutes ( it is really difficult to overcook this dish, so do not worry too much about the precise timing)

Separately fry the potatoes (in olive oil after having salted them). Take them off the frying pan when they are golden but not completely soft (this takes around 4-5- minutes) and put them on kitchen paper to get rid of the oil.

You can keep the fish stew for one day in the fridge and it actually tastes nicer the following day as the flour on the fish thickens the sauce. 15 minutes before you are going to serve the dish heat it up and add the potatoes. Cover with a lid and wait for 8-10 minutes until they get soft and the whole dish mellows. Add some chopped fresh parsley (this is not necessary really, but the dish looks nicer this way).

The children love this dish. As for you, get a glass of very cold Albarino (it is a white wine from Galicia and there are lots of good ones in most British supermarket but Terras Gaudas is best) and just enjoy life.

LIGHT CRAB CAKES

It is a mystery why most of the British crab is exported to Spain. A whole crab (just plonk it in salty boiling water with a bay leaf for 15 minutes and then cover it with a clean cloth for 5 minutes) is a delicacy but it is difficult to find it in supermarkets or even fishmongers - unless you are lucky to be in Dorset or Norfolk of course. These cakes are a much poorer alternative, but the children like them, probably because they eat them with mayonnaise sauce.
You need:
- 200 gr white crab meat (they sell this in packs in supermarkets)
- 3 spring onions cut in small slices
- 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise sauce
- 1 egg
- if you prepare this for adults add also black pepper and chopped coriander

Put all the ingredients into a bowl and mix them. Put the mixture into the fridge for 30 minutes so that it gets to a nice consistency. Grease a pan with a tablespoon of oil (sunflower is best though we use olive oil) and heat it over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, drop spoonfuls of the mixture and fry them for a couple of minutes on each side until the cakes are golden. Serve immediately.

TUNA CAKE

This makes a very easy lunch.

You need:
- three tins of canned tuna (we do this with tinned salmon and it works very nicely too)
- 4 eggs
- 1 tin of evaporated milk
- 2 spoonfuls of tomato sauce (if you do it wit salmon do not add the tomato)
- salt

Preheat the oven at 170 degrees. Mix all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse them briefly so that they mix but the tuna retains some texture. Grease well a loaf tin and pour the mixture in. Then boil some water and pour it onto a big(-er) baking tray. Get the loaf tin inside the tray with the boiling water (this is called a 'bain marie' which is a beautify name; it basically means giving a 'gentle bath' and it evokes all romantic images of rural France) Bake for 40-45 minutes. Once it is cooked wait a little so that it could down before you un-mould it. It is a good idea to run a knife along the sides of the mould before you do so.\

The kids can help with all of it and my youngest enjoys the pulsing, but you should be really careful with the 'bain marie' as it is very easy to get badly burnt with the boiling water and/or the oven.

ROAST FISH

This is another very simple fish recipe which is a winer with the kids.

You need (for 2 adults and three kids):
- three potatoes (sliced thickly)
- 2 tomatoes (sliced into thin half moons)
- 1 onion ( chopped or sliced)
- one steak of halibut or any other white fish per person (or one steak for each two persons if they are big)
- 1 lemon
- 3 tablespoons of white wine
- half a glass of water
- salt
- a teaspoon of chopped parsley
- olive oil

Preheat the oven at 220 degrees.

Spread the potato slices on a shallow baking tray. Put the tomatoes and onion on top. Add 4 spoonfuls of olive oil and the salt and mix it all well with your hands. Bake in the over for 30 minutes. By this time the potatoes should be soft and golden.

Salt the fish. Take the potatoes out of the oven and put steaks on top of the potatoes.  Put the lemon juice and white wine on top, sprinkle it with the parsley and add a tiny bit of olive oil on top of each steak. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the fish is opaque (with the children is better to do it for 15 minutes)  Serve it as soon as you get it off the oven.

RAINBOW CAKE

We got this recipe from the BBC website for a birthday celebration. The cake is very spectacular. I suspect though that children actually prefer a simpler cake with lots of icing.

You need three times the following recipe:

- 125 g soft butter
- 225 g plain flour
- 150 g sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- lots of food colouring: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.
- buttercream ( an enormous amount!)
-2 greased and lined round tins

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Mix all the ingredients in a food processor and mix well. Divide the mixture in two and mix each with one of the colours (red and yellow). Put the mixture into the tins and bake for 12 minutes. Repeat this with two more colours (green and blue). And again with the two remaining colours (orange and purple)

Some recipes call for cream cheese icing but we put the cakes together with normal buttercream:150 gr butter, 300 gr icing sugar and 2 tablespoons of milk.

LEMON SOLE

My children love this fish. You can prepare it in minutes.

You need:
- a sole filet per person (it may seem too much for a child, but mine devour it every time; and yes, it is not cheap, but it is after all very good fish. It does not work as well with other white fish, but we tried it once with haddock and it seemed fine)
- butter
- a handful of parsley
- one and a half lemons (for 5 people)
- salt
- flour

Wash the fish and pat dry it with a clean tea towel. Melt two spoonfuls of butter on a large pan. While the butter melts, salt the fish, dust it with the flour and shake it a bit so that you get rid of any excess flour. Fry the fish (skin side down) for 2 or 3 minutes, then turn it around and fry it again for a couple of minutes. Take the fish off the pan. Add 2 table spoons of butter to the pan. Once the butter melts add the parsley, let it fry for 30 seconds and then add the lemon juice. Pour the sauce over the fish.

The parsley splutters a lot, so be careful. If you are scared of spluttering, add the lemon to the butter first and then add the parsley (it will be less crispy but very nice anyway)

Sole is a good fish for children to get used to eat fish with bones as it is very easy to see where the bones are.

HAM AND CHEESE EMPANADA

This is so easy that it hardly qualifies for a recipe, but it makes a nice quick 'comfort food' lunch. You need:
- a roll of puff pastry
- ham (enough slices to cover half of the of pastry, normally 4 or 5)
- cheese (cheddar or edam or alike - again 4 or 5 slices. You can also do this with grated cheese)
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons of creme fraiche or three tablespoons of double cream

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees. Cover a tray with baking paper. Put the puff pastry on top and prickle it with a fork all over the surface. Put ham slices on top of half of the pastry. Then put the cheese slices on top of the ham. Beat the egg with the creme fraiche and pour it on top of the cheese. Fold the uncovered half of the puff pastry over the cheese. Press the borders with a fork (as in the picture) so that the egg and melted cheese does not get out of the pastry. Prickle the top of the pastry with a fork (you can also paint the pastry at this stage with a beaten egg if you want it shinny). Bake for 20 minutes. Eat warm.

The children helped with it all except for handling the trays in and out of the oven.