Cooking fresh Spanish food under lockdown

Very Spanish ingredients

Especially now during lockdown, I only go to the supermarket once every 10 days or so.  And unlike most of my friends, I buy what looks nice or different or particularly fresh, rather than planning out all our meals 10 days in advance.

Those lovely pimientos …

Many years ago, Hilary bought me a cook book as a Christmas present, with a different recipe for every day of the year, and a weekly shopping list to buy all the ingredients needed.  Needless to say, with my approach to cooking this cook book has never been used!  It just didn’t allow for any creativity or that lovely feeling of spontaneity and surprise that comes with combining different ingredients and making something very tasty from what you happen to have in the fridge.

And here in Spain, I’ve been cooking with lots of different ingredients – my particular favourites are capers, olives, chickpeas, pimiento peppers, Swiss chard, mushrooms, spinach, onion and almonds (and pecan & walnuts) and lots of different types of fish.  Roast dinners are definitely something of the past!

Nuts about nuts

A special mention: olive oil and lemons

Everything I cook is with olive oil – made from our own olive trees and harvested by our neighbour as part of his olive harvest.  It’s a rich and strong flavour, and quite thick, almost syrupy in consistency.  I use it for frying, and also for making pastry, or roasting vegetables.  I’ve even been known to bake a cake with it!  And every year, we get a big five-litre container from our neighbour, which is more than enough for the two of us for a year. 

Fab olive oil, fresh from the press

My other ingredient of choice is lemons.  I’d never have thought that lemons could taste so great in so many dishes.  I use them most days, and they are beautiful to look at.  I’ve preserved lemons and used them in Moroccan style chicken dishes, and there’s nothing like fresh home-made lemonade with lots of mint and ice on a hot summer’s day. Or lemon drizzle cake, my favourite!

• Preserved lemons
• Home-made lemonade

Most people round here have lemons trees and they grow in abundance with beautifully scented flowers and fruit most of the year.   We bought some small trees last year, and are looking forward to having our own lemons maybe as early as next year.  In the meantime, generous neighbours provide us with a healthy supply.

Lemons from our neighbours

An abundance of fruit

The fruit here is fabulous, and available all year round.  The winter time is for citrus fruit – the satsumas and oranges are juicy, sweet and utterly delicious.   We have freshly pressed orange juice every morning for breakfast – what a start to the day!  And currently it’s strawberry time, soon to be followed by cherries, nectarines, peaches and apricots.  We’ve also discovered some fruits that we’ve never had before called nispero.  An interesting mix of apple, lemon and apricot taste, very juicy.

And our neighbours have just started to sow Piel de Sapo melons (super sweet!) in two fields nearby.  They told us they had 18,000 seeds, each seed growing on average three melons of three kilos each.  That’s a lot of melons to be harvested by the end of the summer.  September is also the time for figs, and we’ve discovered a very big fig tree not far from our house, so lots to look forward to.

A bowl of ripe figs to make into jam

Salad days

Many years ago when we used to come to Spain on holiday, we loved the taste of the tomatoes and the crunchiness of the lettuces.  But no more….  It’s a challenge to find tomatoes that taste of anything – not dissimilar to most UK supermarkets.  And the lettuces are all pre-packed, instead of that lovely crunchy fresh lettuce straight from the soil with bits of earth (and sometimes worms or other insects) still sticking to it.  Maybe I need to venture out and find a proper greengrocer’s to re-find this taste of the past. 

Salad, made tastier with home-grown capers

UK (and Dutch) food in Spanish supermarkets

If you shop around, it is possible to find food stuffs that remind you of home.  Dutch cheese (Old Amsterdam – tastes great!) is readily available in the supermarket, as is Cheddar cheese.  We even spotted baked beans and peanut butter on the shelves of the local Mercadona.  And if all else fails (and once lockdown has been lifted) a drive to the coast will give access to a British and Dutch supermarket with all those goodies that take you back to your roots.

But I’ve discovered I can make my own chutney, and that I can live without Bisto gravy.  And it’s possible to have UK food delivered by the British Cornershop or Appie Hein for Dutch goodies. Although with all that’s available locally, I won’t feel the need for a Dutch or British online shop for some time to come.