“Spain is big, really big. If you think going down the High Street to the Chemist is a long way, you should see Spain! Listen….” (Misquote from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Sorry).
The point is this is mainly about the South East. The food of Northern Spain is completely different because of the land, the weather, trade, history, and partly because the south of Spain was Moorish (Moroccan) for hundreds of years which obviously affected the food.Like large chunks of Southern Europe where cattle are difficult to raise, pork is really important and seafood goes without saying – the Atlantic is on the westerns side and the Mediterannean Sea is . . . well . . . a sea . . . where fish live.
The province and city of Valencia are near the middle of this part of the coast and just inland is a region perfect for growing rice which is why paella is a big deal there. Paella is just named after the pan but is similar thing to risotto (short grain rice cooked in stock) but is cooked in a simpler way – the Italian faffing with ladles is out and dumping stock in in 2 batches and leaving it alone is in! You’ve got to love them Spaniards!
Fish on toast is the best thing in the world
Well, you know...but this is fabulous!
My grandson’s favourite thing in the world!
Heads and tails, heads and tails…
Tomayto-Tomarto
I’ve written about Sofrito before, but I didn’t realise that both the Italians and Spanish use the same word. Well, actually I did know that, but didn’t realise it was for slightly different things.
Crazy, mixed-up squid
Yep, you normally cook squid for a short amount of time and when you go over it's like an inner-tube. Squid is like a lot of other ingredients; lots of people don't like it but that's because a lot of people including restaurants don't know how to cook it.
Not that yellow stuff, this is much, much better
Don't get me wrong, I love standard paella; the yellow one with seafood, saffron, chorizo and tomatoes. It tastes of sun, sangria and sex
It's not exactly cooking
Well, this is predominantly a food site, even if I am using it to blog about spending a couple of months in Spain.
Ahem, sorry about that
Having listened to this two part report from the food programme, we’ve been eating a lot more beans at home.
