Belen's Spanish Food

Post date: 18-Jun-2015 16:48:41

One of our regular volunteers, Belen, is Spanish and a very talented cook. She has cooked us some fabulous meals in the past, so we invite the lucky few to come and sample her Andalucian cooking for the very first time. Here are some words from her about the menu she has chosen to cook for you on the 4th July:

Cuttlefish for sale in Spain

"If you ask me what is the common factor in the members of my family, I would say: it is food. We love cooking and eating, and even when we are eating we are already thinking about the next meal we are going to prepare.

I learnt to cook being a young teenager by watching my grandmothers, my mother and my uncles and aunties in the kitchen. My father comes from Malaga and my mother from Ceuta, and although I was born and grew up in Tenerife and live in Madrid for many years, the Andalusian table is the one I recognize as my childhood food.

The menu for the 4^th July is the result of asking my parents and uncles: what should I cook for a Spanish dinner at the supper club? It includes some well known Spanish dishes as the tortilla de patatas or the salmorejo cordobes. You will recognise the Andalusian and even Moorish origin of most of the dishes, like the spinach with chickpeas or the almond and saffron sauce that I will use to prepare a chicken stew. I have also included the rabo de toro stew, which is very traditional in Madrid but also in Andalusia, and which it is the only recipe in the menu, together with the Tarta de Santiago, that I have not learnt from my family.

I hope you will enjoy it!"

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Starters (Tapas style):

• Salmorejo Cordobés (v): tomatoes, bread, garlic and olive oil blend in a creamy soup and served chilled. This is, together with the gazpacho, the summer starter in the South of Spain.
• Tortilla de Patatas (v): I could have it for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Warm or Cold. It is always good!
• Pisto Manchego (v): Peppers, tomatoes, courgette and aubergine stew. It is the Spanish answer to the French ratouille.
• Espinacas y Garbanzos (v): spinach and chickpeas in a cumin and paprika stew. At home we eat it as a soup, but I will prepare it here as a dry stew, in the way it is presented in many tapas bar in Sevilla.
• Croquetas: Spanish croquettes, which are prepared with Bechamel sauce and without potatoes. They could be with Chorizo or tuna or mushrooms (to be decided!)

Mains (served with rice in the Spanish style):

• Chocos en Amarillo: Literally, “Cuttlefish in Yellow”. An aromatic cuttlefish and carrots stew.
• Pollo en Salsa de Almendras: Creamy almond and saffron chicken stew.
• Rabo de Toro: Ox tail braised with Sherry wine. You cannot get more Spanish!

Dessert:

• Flan
• Tarta de Santiago: the traditional almond based cake from Santiago de Compostela.

Cost will be £45, of which £35 goes to MSF. Please email us with bookings on info@parkholmesupperclub.co.uk as soon as possible, as we do get booked up quite quickly.