Semana Santa in Andalucia is one of the most incredible spectacles anywhere in Europe. Nazarenos (pictured above in Seville) from local church brotherhoods known as Cofradias take to the streets daily in white peaked costumes that date back to the Inquisition, to shoulder vast, ornate wooden floats, or pasos, bearing statues of the Virgin Mary.
Seville is the most famous place to see the traditional processions, but crowds can be a nightmare. Try Arcos de la Frontera for the back-whipping variety and late night fino-drinking, or Cadiz’s crumbling old town for its unique ‘strange goings on at the end of the earth’ atmosphere.
For a wealth of info on Semana Santa in Spanish, click here.
This is a very basic soup called "Pure de Verdurasâ€. It is very easy to cook and it is the most comforting food for when its cold or you are feeling tired.
Ingredients (4 people)
1/2 Zuchinni/Courgette
4 Carrots
1 Onion
3 leeks (or 4 small)
1 big potato or two small ones
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Optional: 1/2 tomato or a stick of celery or a few green beans
For the picatostes (croutons): Bread and olive oil
Preparation
Place all the vegetables and salt in a saucepan and just cover them with water. Let them boil for about 30 minutes or until the vegetabes are soft. Turn the hobb off and add the olive oil, be generous as this will give lots of flavour to the soup. Finally puree it with a hand mixer. If you wish you can add croutons.
Picatostes (croutons) preparation: Cut a slice of bread for each person and then cut it into small cubes. Place 2cm of oil in a frying pan and when the oil starts to smoke add the bread cubes for a couple of minutes or until they are brown. Take them out of the frying pan before they burn and place them in a plate with a piece of kitchen roll to get rid of the excess grease. Finally serve the soup in bowls and add the picatostes to each bowl.
Lubina al Horno (Sea Bass)
This is a delicious white fish. The recipie is very easy and quick to prepare, the secret really lies in the quality of the fish.
Start by preheating the oven to 180ºC (350ºF) for 30 minutes. Then peel and slice both the potatoes and the onions, place them in an oven-proof dish, drizzle some olive oil on top and place the dish in the oven for about 45 minutes or until the potato is cooked.
I ask the fishmonger to open the fish in half, cutting from the bottom of the belly up to the spine, but he also cleans the insides and gets rid of the scales. I prefer to keep the main backbone as it adds taste while the fish is cooking and it can easily be removed afterwards.
While the potato and onion are cooking, place the fish, opened out like a book, on a big plate, then peel and slice the garlic cloves and put them on top of the fish, as well as 3 or 4 lemon slices and a few parsley leaves that have previously been washed and chopped up. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and drizzle on a little more olive oil. When the potatos are ready, transfer the fish to the oven dish by placing it on the top of the potatoes and onions, open side up.
Cook the fish in the oven for only 10 minutes. I know that it might sound like a short time, but if you leave it longer it will get dry, and if the oven was propely preheated it won’t need more time (unless you use a bigger fish).
Tips: Place the fish in the oven when you are more or less ready to eat it, otherwise if you leave it in the oven for a while with the oven off, the fish will get very dry. You can use the same recipie with other fish like hake, gilthead bream or even salmon.
You really know you’re getting into the Spanish culture when you buy your first ‘Padel’ racket, especially when, like me, sport is not usually high on a list of favorite pastimes. Does padel have a life outside Spain? Not in England anyway, as far as I can remember. It’s a kind of half-sized version of tennis, with smaller, polystyrene filled rackets, and you can (try to) play off the walls at the back (a recipe for flailing around like a complete idiot for the first 20 games or so.)
But it’s great fun! Now I know what these Spaniards have been going on about for so long, plus, I’m one step further down the path to Spanishification! So thanks to a fellow local blogger (who isn’t Spanish but knows a lot about Spanish wine) for getting me onto the padel court.
Whatever next? Perhaps I’ll inadvertently develop a taste for squid in it’s own ink, or callos…
Ben and Marina visit El Escorial and fulfill a rather special listener request from the plaza in the picture below (click to enlarge). 3 more photos here.
Update: She said yes! Congratulations Eric and Sara on your engagement, we’re honoured that you thought of us to help you out!
We have decided to merge Cuisine from Spain, Notes in Spanish and Books on Spain back into Notesfromspain.com. Both the Cuisine and the Spanish podcasts will carry on as before, with their own podcast feeds, but all posts, comments etc for these two shows will now be posted here along with the Notes from Spain podcasts.
I know that it was only recently that we seperated these off into their own sites, but we decided that having three or four different sites running was too confusing, and a lot of hard work. It makes much more sense to centralise everything here, into one big wonderful site about Spain, with three different podcasts and loads of exciting news, food and views from Spain.
This ties in with a new look for Notesfromspain.com, designed to liven the site up and make all the different sections more accessible. We hope you like it!
A Basque History of the World (Book): The origins, myths, language, legends – everything you could ever want to know about the Basques, from their prowess as whale hunters and fearless long-distance fishermen, to how to make a perfect Basque Cake. A great read, fascinating on the beginnings and later development of ETA, and in all ways far more than just a history book. Pick up a copy at: Amazon.co.uk (Europe) Amazon.com (USA)<img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=booksonspainc-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0140298517" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;"
You really know you’re getting into the Spanish culture when you buy your first ‘Padel’ racket, especially when, like me, sport is not usually high on a list of favorite pastimes. Does padel have a life outside Spain? Not in England anyway, as far as I can remember. It’s a kind of half-sized version of tennis, with smaller, polystyrene filled rackets, and you can (try to) play off the walls at the back (a recipe for flailing around like a complete idiot for the first 20 games or so.)
Notes from Spain by Ben Curtis 