One Very Divine Salad - a perfect starter

This yummy salad of Fresh Figs, Cabrales Blue Cheese, Walnuts & Bacon, fried and then pan de-glazed with PX Sherry, was the first thing I served to guests on a recent course. When at the end of the course we were discussing favourite dishes of the week - guests kept refering back to this spectacular salad.

For years I’ve been assembling a salad combo of Avocado, Bacon, Mango & Walnut with Roquefort. Not because I don’t want to use a Spanish blue cheese, it’s just that the much sought after blue cheese of Spain’s dairy herds in Asturias, Cabrales, has been impossible to find here. That was until recently when Palomita (the best deli in town) started stocking it. It was one of those real jump up & down for joy moments when I saw it winking at me from Mari-Paz’s deli counter. In the past I’ve mixed brevas with Roquefort and even had the opportunity to use mango with Cabrales, but – WOW – Brevas with Cabrales!! It was incredible. I’m not one for keeping left over salad because lettuce looks really unappealing when it’s been ‘cooked’ by vinegar but the salad combo was so delicious that the tiny bit leftover was popped into the fridge and the following day - the flavours were still sensational.

This is what you need - one salad bowl and the following ingredients assembled to make this scrummy salad of total divineness.

Fresh Green Fig Salad with Cabrales Blue Cheese, Toasted Walnuts and Fried Bacon de-glazed with PX Sherry - serves 4

• 8 x large Brevas or fresh figs, peeled & quartered
• 1 x pkt of chopped bacon bits (approx 120gms)
• 100mls PX Sherry to de glaze
• Huge handful of peeled Walnuts, toasted lightly in dry fry pan
• 100gms of Cabrales or Roquefort or Stilton – crumbled
• The best sweet lettuce you can find – Romaine, lettuce hearts etc

Instructions

1. Begin by washing and drying the lettuce and put in bowl.
2. Toast walnuts in dry fry pan and decant onto a plate after toasting.
3. Wipe fry pan clean of any walnut skins with a dry cloth and return pan to a high heat.
4. Cut figs into quarter, peel & scatter over lettuce along with crumbled Cabrales and walnuts.
5. Grind some Black Pepper on top.
6. Add bacon to burning hot fry pan then patiently leave to sizzle and brown for maybe a minute before you start to toss/stir. When browned you may want to wipe away excess fat with paper towel.
7. Turn the heat down and add PX.
8. Bubble until slightly reduced.
9. Scatter over salad with a good slug of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and a generous splash of Sherry Vinegar.
10. Toss gently.

Buen Provecho!

Another glowing report - blush, blush. Thank you Margot!

Annie B's Spanish Kitchen: by Margot & Alice, mother & daughter from Auckland, New Zealand.November 2010

This is the most fun you will ever have in class. What a great decision it was to book a couple of days in Annie's Spanish Kitchen. From the first contact Annie was so helpful and informative - and patient with all my questions as I tried to work out how to get to Vejer from Seville by public transport! It is much easier to hire a car but it is possible to catch a bus at San Fernando which drops you in the village. We arrived in appalling weather, checked into the Hotel El Calif and were soon collected by Annie for the short walk up to her home. By then the rain had stopped and the evening was beautifully clear as we walked along the ancient cobbled streets of the village.

The 'Anniepov' (vodka/pomegranate) welcome cocktail soon obliterated any memory of our wet journey while we chatted to our fellow cooks and watched Annie finish the slow-roasted Spanish pork that was to be our dinner. It was melt-in-the-mouth delicious and accompanied by fabulous sherries and wines.

The next morning our cooking classes began at 10am with preparation of a Moroccan inspired lunch of marinated chicken, pomegranate couscous (incredible luscious pomegranates had just come into season) and our own designer vegetable stacks. The orange and almond cake complemented the chicken dish perfectly. We sat around the pool laughing, drinking fine sherries and wines and eating a sumptuous lunch - congratulating ourselves on the design of each vegetable stack. Annie teaches in her own home which is a delightful village house of many levels furnished with beautiful Spanish touches. The rooftop has glorious views all the way to the coast. In the evening we went bar-hopping in the old town with Annie guiding us in tastings of the finest Iberico hams, shellfish and sherries.

On the second day we visited the fish market in the neighbouring town. It was fascinating to see the varieties of fish, vegetables and fruit, many of which we had never seen before. We were intrigued to discover how many parts of a rooster can be used in cooking - and what's more there is a vacuum pack specifically designed for every part of that rooster's anatomy! Annie bought several varieties of fish and a large bag of fresh Anchovies.......specially for us to learn the finer points of filleting an anchovy. Easier than it sounds thank goodness - rip the head off, pull out the guts, gently open it out and the backbone lifts out miraculously to leave you with a (nearly) perfect flattened anchovy ready for marinating and eating. The flavour is nothing like the canned salted ones we are accustomed to. It is delicate and very more-ish. Lunch that day was whole fish baked in salt creating the most delicious moist fish. In the evening we returned for our final meal which was a paella cooked by Annie's lovely Spanish assistant with instructions from Annie as we went.

The two days whizzed by - we learned a lot of dishes and handy cooking hints (like how to deseed a pomegranate and how to make a veggie stack) but most of the time we were just having fun. Annie has the perfect touch as a hostess. She is warm, charming, generous, friendly and lots of fun as well as being an incredible cook and teacher. I cannot recommend her kitchen classes highly enough. We were sad to leave this lovely village and Annie's great company.

Andalucía as a Rising Foodie Destination

Earlier this week, my friend Jane Gregg, who runs www.epicurianways.com , a travel company offering food and wine routes in Spain, mentioned that she didn't have as much demand for Andalucía as she did for Barcelona, Cataluña and The Basque country. This was my response to her.

‘’People don’t seem to think of Andalucía as a foodie mecca. Andalucía is bursting with history as well as being an oasis of fabulous ingredients that don’t need to be fussed over – especially on Costa de la Luz. Ask any student who comes here. A simple pickled Boquerón, a succulent fish baked in salt with a glistening salsa Verde, spectacular Atun del Almadraba – especially as presented at El Campero in Barbate – it just can’t get any better than that. And then there’s the hint of the flavours of Morocco running through so many dishes here (possibly more so in my kitchen than on the streets!). Pomegranates, pears and plums just now. Carrots when cooked in their skins – wow.

Angel Leon, who has a restaurant called Apoinente in El Puerto de Santa Maria, received his first Michelin star recently. Have you read much about what he does with fish? Dani Garcia in Marbella got his second Michelin star. Have you seen Jon Clarke’s book ‘ the dining secrets of Andalucía´? There is nowhere in Spain I’d rather be to enjoy the fruits of the sea and the land – boom, boom!!

And then of course, the magical Sherry. And now more red wines are being made in the Arcos de la Frontera area as well as around Ronda. Right here in Vejer we even have a boutique vineyard called Etu. Just nurturing their 3rd vintage, they are producing some red wines that will make their mark before too long.

There’s always something delicious to discover, friends offering some new delicacy to share. Sometimes my friends and neighbours think that what they cook is just not worthy of sharing because they think it not special enough. More often than not their recipes haven’t changed for generations. I find that special. The root of the cuisine here has to be less is more. Scratching the skin of a freshly picked simple lemon can send one into the realms of competing in Masterchef! Andalucía is not yet on the gourmet map, but it will be. Trust me.’’

Chocolate & Almond Cake with PX Sherry

For years, possibly decades, many articles have been written about matching chocolate with wine. It's now really exciting to read articles about matching chocolate with Sherry. Not just any Sherry but Pedro Ximenez Sherry. Chocolate and PX is indeed a marriage made in heaven.

PX (Pedro Ximenez) is the sweetest of the Sherries and produces the most fabulous, sweetly intense and divinely delicious glistening dark nectar imaginable. It´s amazing to think that PX is actually a white grape.

In class last week, we made a delicious Chocolate & Almond Cake. It´s a one bowl wonder! Prepared using only the Magimix - but don´t let the simplicity of the preparation effort fool you. This cake is truly a gift of the Gods. The Sherry Gods.

We consumed it with gusto, garnished with PX soaked seedless Moscatel raisins (I´ve yet to find PX raisins). With a fork in one hand and a glass of perfectly chilled PX in the other we extolled this perfect food and wine match.

In the Master fridge of Annie B´s Spanish Kitchen you´ll always find a huge kilner jar of glistening raisins bathed in this epic wine of Jerez . It´s a necessity for an instant pudding. Pop a couple of scoops of preferably chocolate, even vanilla or nut ice cream, into a pretty glass and spoon these little dark devils on top. Anything chocolatey made here needs no excuse....... Deeply yumlicious.

Legend has it that the Pedro Ximenez grape was introduced to Spain from Germany in the 15th century by a fellow by the name of Peter Siemens.

Gracias Pedro.