The Asturian Adventure #1

I spoke of, in passing, an attempted trip to Asturia some time last winter, foiled by two flat tyres which resulted in us spending the night in León and returning to Madrid the following day once our friends car had finally been sorted out. Her family own a little place up in the small coastal city of Gijón, which we eventually visited in after our exams in June, putting to rest the demons from the previous trip, and we were greeted with the smell of eucalyptus on crossing the Cantabrian Mountains, the regions natural border with Castilla y León, due to the cultivation of those trees in the region.

Even aside from David Villa (illa illa illa!), The Asturians have another reason to be proud of their home. The Moors, which ruled much of the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages, never made it to the northernmost parts of Spain, with the formation of The Kingdom of Asturias being where the reconquista was born. This fact gave rise to the following popular saying, 'Asturias es España y el resto es tierra conquistada' -- Only Asturias is Spain, the rest is reconquered territory.

The Asturias is renowned for the cider produced in the region, and unlike the rest of the country, it's the drink of choice when out at a bar instead of getting a caña (A small glass of beer, they don't serve it in pints like in England), where the ritual of drinking it is a ritual in itself. Spanish cider, unlike the English variant, is not fizzy at all, and hence the bottle of cider will be held up very high when being poured so the drink aerates itself in the process, and each serving is to be drunk very quickly  in one, though with a small amount left at the end which is to be poured out onto the floor. I can tell you that most of the of cider we ordered on our first night in Gijón ended up on the pavement outside the bar where we were, though we became better escanciadores (The Spanish word used to describe someone pouring cider in that way) as the trip went on. Often, if one would prefer however, a waiter will serve the group if the place isn't too busy.

Sidra Escanciado: The traditional Asturian way of pouring cider. And yes, they do usually look this nonchalant whilst pouring it for some reason.

Cider also forms a large part of Asturian cuisine, with chorizo a la sidra (chorizo cooked in cider) a popular tapa found in most bars in the region, and to some extent in the rest of country, and it's also a fairly simple dish to prepare, you slice the chorizo and brown it lightly in some oil, before adding enough cider to cover it, a bay leaf (optional) and leaving it to cook for ten minutes before serving with its delicious juices. You'll definitely want some bread on hand to mop up after working through the meat.

Next to come in my Asturian Adventure, one of my favourite Spanish dishes, Fabada, recipe included, and some chat about cheese. That's all for now though

Dissecting the Regions: Intro

People of all nations are subject to regionalism. It's something that can't be avoided and forms a part of every countries culture, whether we're talking about how I'm a "Southern Fairy" in the eyes of my friends from oop North; how Scotland being a nation of aggressive alcoholics is as fundamental to our existence as gravity, or how the less we hear about what goes on in the sheep farms of Wales, the better. Such a phenomena, as you'd imagine, also exists in Spain, but is also amplified by the existence of regional languages. Most people are aware that the Basques and Catalans have their own tongues, though there comes a point where, having set off to Gijón (pronounced Khi-Khon) or Oviedo, the road signs indicate your arrival in Xixón (Pronounced Shi-Shon) and Uviéu. Heading further west, crossing the Ribadeo bridge into Galicia, one could be forgiven for thinking they'd wandered across the Portuguese border having spoken with some of the locals.

Though there are many elements of culinary style and culture common to all parts of the country, this regionalism is definitely prevalent in Spanish cuisine, with each area home to it's own distinct gastronomic idiosyncracies. Each province, for example, has their own special puchero or cocido, a bean pot usually based around either chicken or a different cut of pork, whilst also producing different varieties of cheese and wine, amongst other specialties. Paella, the most well known 'Spanish' dish outside the country, is first and foremost a Valencian dish for example. In fact, in the eyes of the proud traditionalist, the same dish not made by a Valencian male in the open air before midday isn't a paella, rather an arroz, a rice dish.

With this in mind, over the next few weeks I'll be dedicating a couple of posts to each of the parts of the country I've visited, going into detail about the food and drink I love the most from each of them, in addition to various recipes along the way as I reminisce about my time there. I hope you enjoy! I'll also be keeping this post as an index, and updating it as I go along.

#1: Asturias pt. 1

Whoops.

I have to say, considering I was doing better than one post a week in 2010 and that this is my first post of 2011 -- I definitely dropped the ballon this. Oops.

The good news, however, is that the lack of blogging was definitely not due to a lack of cooking. Not at all. I've still not managed to get through the whole of Ms. Luard's book but have managed my fair share of cooking adventures which I hope to fill you all in on, alongside what I'll be getting upto in the kitchen in the near future.

Nothing else to say at the moment, apart from hello to my one Google Follower! How are you?

Merry Christmas one and all!

Gingerbread cake

Because bow-ties are cool. Definitely cooler than the nappy I gave one of the other ones.

(Fullsize pic)

More to come later on the cake, and an overdue blogging on my Xmas Dinner Party. Right now though, it's still Christmastime!

You have got to be taking the piss, BAA.

I doubt you've forgotten how much I was looking forward to going back to England for Christmas, I only mentioned it in the previous post. Here I'm sat, however, 3am on the day of my flight with this for comfort.

That's right guys -- flight canceled. Wonderful, no? I guess what I'm going to have to do henceforth is get to the airport as early as possible and plead myself on one of the other flights.

I understand children behaving as if they've never seen snow in their lives every December, though obvious that's not the case here -- unless are BAA actually run by six year olds. It would explain a lot, to be honest.

Last Christmas, I baked you a cake; But the very next day, you gave it away...

I Love this movie -- especially the Colin Firth storyline. Definitely not the reason I started learning a European language though. Of course not...

Spend anything unto a few minutes with me right about now, and you'll very quickly realise that I absolutely love Christmas. Any time of year when the world smells of ginger, orange, cinnamon, nutmeg, for example, is obviously bound to be my favourite time of year, additionally being the only period in which a guy can get away with getting over-excited about watching Love Actually and wearing over-the-top christmassy jumpers.

As much as I love living in Spain, however, Christmas in England is second to none as far as I'm concerned. Mince pies, mulled wine, The Doctor Who Xmas Special and at the moment there's a ton of snow which I'm unable to enjoy. Either way, the one thing that I can still appreciate is the following fact.

Christmassy baking is the best kind of baking, even aside from the fact that resulting odour in the kitchen is the perfect physical manifestation of Christmas. This considered, looking through my recipe book for a Spanish Christmas treat to make. That's a lie actually, I found this about two months ago and have been impatiently waiting for this time of year to come around so I could get round to making them.

Mantecados
(Spiced Almond Shortbreads)

 

 Remembered, this time, to take a picture, albeit halfway through eating one of them

Mantecados are a crumbly type of shortbread cookie that, traditionally, Spanish children hope to find in their shoes on Fiesta de los Reyes Magos (Twelfth Night) -- the day Spainairds give and receive their "Christmas Presents," as opposed Christmas Day as is done in England or America.

I'm not going to lie, given that the fat used for this is pork lard, I started off not really enjoying making these. The phrase "creaming the lard" really is as off putting as it sounds considering the smell of it. Then again, I forgot about that pretty quickly as I got into it and added the other ingredients.

After the lard, sugar, egg yolks lemon zest and flour, came the cinnamon and ground almonds, and then a little bit of lemon juice to help work the mixture into a dough which was rolled out and then cut into cookie shapes.

Unfortunately, due to my underestimating the hotness of my oven, the first batch were a little burnt. That said, there was enough mixture for 5 batches which was good, but meant that I finished my night's baking at around 4 in the morning. The ones that weren't burned were wonderfully soft and crumbly, which fit the description of how they should have turned out in the book. I brought some in to Uni one day to give around, and a Spanish friend of mine said they reminded him of the ones his mother used to make. Now that was a wonderful ego boost if there ever was one.

My love for Ruth, Lebkuchen and my failed holiday

Now as I've probably mentioned before, I absolutely loved The Great British Bake-Off this summer. So many wonderful ideas I got from the show and I'm entertaining the idea on my head of applying for a future season, once I get a little better of course. Also that way I'd hopefully get to meet Sue Perkins, who I think is wonderful.

Since he was the one on the show who I felt most similar to -- unfortunately I just mean generally speking as opposed to being anywhere near as good at baking as him, I was rooting for Edd to go all the way from Episode one. That said, I especially loved that other guy who looked a little but like Jason Steatham (That chocolate forest cake!) and also Ruth (Those beautiful mint-ginger mini's and also because she's well fit) due to their attitude to baking and the things they made on the show. Her blog, The Pink Whisk, quickly became my new baking bible on moving here, now that many miles, seas and mountains now separate me from the Rachel Allen book back home. I was absolutely delighted when I checked on the December 1st to see the promise of twelve christmassy recipes, and on that day a great looking one for German gingerbread, Lebkuchen. With my upcoming trip to Austria in mind, I thought it only fitting to go ahead and make some. I did feel a tiny bit guilty doing this, I've a friend in England with whom it's sort of become a tradition for us to get together in the Christmas holidays and make gingerbread. Then again, there was no golden syrup in this, and I only made circles and stars as opposed to men, trees and angels as we normally do, so that was my loophole -- definitely not cheating.

What I loved most about this compared to "English Gingerbread" was the spicy feel to it and the relative strength of the ginger in the cookies, how I could actually feel the fiery kick of it on my tongue. I came to adore that flavour whilst growing up as a result of my grandmother's habit of using it in most things she cooked -- I think it was meant to be good for colds, or something or other. I swear all grandmothers, all around the world, are just on some massive crusade against the common cold in general.

Unfortunately, however, I didn't make it to Austria which infuriated all sorts of shit out of me, especially since I was looking forward to the 20cm of snow my friend there had told me about. There was a sudden air-traffic controllers strike which all but grounded me in Madrid. As a result I ended up joining some other friends on a road-trip of sorts to the North Coast of Spain. I continued to bring my bad luck with me, however, as we punctured two tyres and never got there -- having to spend the night in León and returning the following evening after our car had been sorted out. Everything considered, however, it was still a pretty fun weekend. After all, it's more who you spend it with than where you spend it. Especially if you've got nice sweet things with you to eat.

And sorry, no pictures! Finished before I got round to snapping any