New year Food

As a result of a discussion with a friend, I decided to stay in this New Year’s Eve and cook. I was sharing the cooking with a number of people and the theme was to be Tapas. Now we have all had tapas and if you haven’t then please read this blog before you buy it in a restaurant.

I am by no means an expert in food and certainly not Tapas. However I did sample some delicious food in Galicia in the summer of 2014 and used this to inspire some of the dishes I cooked. With Galician cooking, the focus is simplicity and freshness. I could manage the simplicity, it being a huge part of my life and general being. The freshness I couldn’t quite deal with. Fresh scallops in Leeds? A luxury just above my price band.  I did cook little Queen scallops but tried to do it in the Galician way, minus the freshness. Some will say that that isn’t Galician at all. Oh well.

Firstly I chopped a lot of garlic. I mean a lot. I think I chopped a whole bulb of garlic. IU also acquired a lot of olive oil. Probably half a pint for not a lot of seafood. I then proceeded to gently heat some of the oil and some of the garlic in a pan then add the rest of the garlic then the prawns. I added pimento towards the end, a quick stir and served with lemon. I did pretty much the same with the scallops but cooked them a little longer.

Food is a great unifier. When thinking about the great historical moments of our times and the times of those gone long before us, food is not too far away. New Years Eve, normally a drag for me, “It’s just another day isn’t it?!” was transformed into a stupendous food-gasm with a veritable smorgasbord of treats and delights. Again, along the garlic theme, two guests brought home made aioli and mini chorizo sausages tightly packed with flavour. I created albondigas in a rich tomato sauce with a lot of sherry and, unsurprisingly, garlic.

But what is the point of me telling you this long and, frankly, boring account? Because even though there was simplicity in the making, the eating was a delight. Served with fresh crusty bread and fresh lemon, this food was delicious. The almost psychosis-inducing intensity of the garlic took me back to sitting outside the fag-end in Pontevedra with Colin and Dwight and it was a joy. (Note, dear readers, that this is not a comment on the company, which, to be honest, was a darn sight better on NYE.)

A belated happy new year to you all.

Life is like Empanada

You never know what you're going to get. Well, not entirely. But after visiting a number of tapas bars in Pontevedra it is evident that the recipe, or more specifically, the main filling of empanada (a flat pastry with a filling) varies from place to place. Some bars buy theirs from the local bakery. Most people buy from the bakery. Indeed, what some consider late but around here seems to be early (11.30am) people can be seen carrying armfuls of fresh bread from the local bakers. It is wonderful that there are a multitude of independent bakers all seemingly managing to keep hold of business after Spain´s economic problems of late. The fillings of the empanada can be something as simple as tuna or corn (maize) or scallops, mussels or similar shell fish, octopus or beef. Very seldom do you find a vegetable filling and hardly ever will you find cheese here. Bang goes my suggestion of ricotta and spinach with broccoli then.

In El Pais yesterday there was an article about the lifted ban on Romero and his path to Beatification (Sainthood). They included the picture of his assassination which I thought was thought provoking. The UK media would never include that. There was also a picture of a dead woman on the front page. My host remarked ¨The Spanish like blood¨ and it took me back to seeing the statues of Christ in agony covered in droplets of blood in the various churches i have visited so far.

I read this morning that the John Lewis group have withdrawn their free coffee and cake for their customers. Instead they will give free refreshments to those based on their shopping habits and the frequency that they visit said stores. A part of me thought they were completely correct in this. The fact that they have given this away for so long is a huge feat. It is slightly similar in Spanish bars. When you order a drink you get a small tapas dish. This could be an anchovy on bread or some pieces of cheese or even a little dish of soup. I like this, and, whilst they are not giving it away totally free of charge, it is a sweet custom that really makes this country endearing.

And finally, my students received their GCSE results today. I achieved an above average overall of 81% A*-C and 37% A*-A. Not as good as last year´s however still making an impact and very deserved results on the whole for that particular year group. I have learnt some lessons from this set of results that shall inform my teaching and general attitude next year.

Pontevedra 2 and other musings

So I see that the Pope has ´lifted the ban´on Oscar Romero becoming a Saint. Perhaps we can expect Romero to feature in the PRs from Rome very shortly. No doubt all those priests and lay people who supported the previous Pope´s decision as Head of the CDF will now be rejoicing in this new Pope´s action. I ask you! This has been long awaited. Romero´s (and those who came before and after him) actions in El Salvador during the troubled times should have been recognised by the hierarchy of the Church a long time ago.

Anyway, back to the beautiful surroundings of Pontevedra. I visited the church of A Virxe de Peregrina which was built in 1778 and forms part of the Portugese Camino to Santiago. The church is beautiful both inside and out. You rise the 30 or so steep steps into a very long dark interior. But the array of side chapels transforms the interior. All the statues of Jesus on the cross show him in absolute agony, bloody dribbling from his forehead. It is certainly an image.

Yesterday we took a trip to the Pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela. The story around how the remains of St James got to Santiago is almost farcical. My favourite is that the remains arrived in a concrete boat up the river and dumped them on the banks of the river. The main church itself is beautiful, if plagued by scaffolding. There is an image of St James killing Muslims in one of the side chapels but the murdered Muslims are now hidden by flowers.

And finally we had dinner in a bar yesterday for lunch. We had the meal of the day-rice with peppers, chicken and octopus followed by fillet of veal and fried potatoes. It again was a showcase of simple

Simplicity is genius

as a course facilitator once remarked during a particularly confusing presentation. It turned out that he was right. The trouble came in trying to convince my colleagues of the same.

Now, as i sit in a sitting room overlooking the town of Pontevedra in Galicia i am pondering the food that I have been privileged to eat since Friday afternoon. So far I have only had Tapas in the town. The most complex meals have been cooked by my host. Well, if you can call curry complex. The Galiceans clearly do if the lack of curry houses around here is anything to go by.

The tapas has so far focussed on the fruits of the sea, mainly octopus and calamari. I have had the battered mini octopus and the larger version. When something is battered here it is seasoned with a little salt and pepper and then lemon juice is squeezed over the top. That is it. There isn´t the need (or want!) to do anything more with it. Simple cooking at its finest. If Jamie Oliver has taught us anything in the last ten years from his TV shows, it is that the quality of the ingredients (source etc) really does matter. Indeed, this is especially pertinent given that last summer (or perhaps the summer before) we were dealing with the horse meat scandal in the UK. Hopefully food is in a far more stable condition now.

I have just finished reading ´Life´by Keith Richards. In it, in the final chapter he gives his recipe for Bangers n Mash. The first process is ´find a butcher who makes his sausages fresh.´Again, regardless of the flavour, he focusses on the need to know the origin of the sausages and ensure that they are fresh. I was tasting calamari on my first night, it was about 8.45pm and I lapped it up. My host remarked ´no, this isn´t as fresh as it could be...we should have been here at 8.15.´

We ordered chorizo this lunchtime. It arrived, cooked in the creole style which for the people round here meant less pimenton and more chilli...basically. Again, very simple way of cooking food.

Tonight is the last evening of the fiesta season (if I have got that wrong then please let me know.) and will be marked with lots of fireworks going off around midnight, probably announcing to the town that it is now party time (!). There were fireworks on Friday evening, marking the end of the Feast of the Assumption. It has been nice to catch some of the events of the fiesta, even if this is the end and I have only just arrived in town. However I did spot a colleague of mine from Leeds in the street this afternoon. He was on a road trip of Spain and was in Pontevedra for one night only. The luck! Last night we had a walk around the stalls. Think Ilson fair but 4 times bigger, warmer and friendlier. There was a stall doing A4 framed sheets with your name on and all the nice things that it represents. I´ve had ones in the past ranging from ´born leader´to ´family man.´ But you never see the negative aspects of a name. ´Jack: utter bastard, serial adulterer, trust at your peril.´If you have anything else to add then let me know. I would be more than happy to return the favour.

A food post

Friends will be aware of my developing love of food. I suppose to look at me you would think I enjoy my food-you would be correct! But in the past 3 years or so I have really begun to hone my skills and  reflect on  my food philosophy. For me, cooking from scratch is essential, and I look for new techniques and ingredients to use, as well as picking up ideas from the plethora of food programmes on the TV.

Now, I happen to think that Rick Stein is a bit over the top. He not only provides you with a recipe but a rolling commentary of the history and context of the area he visits as well as an almost poetic delivery of his thoughts on food and life in general. Whilst I do not always appreciate this (show us the cooking, Rick!) I have really enjoyed his series on Spain from a few years ago. I recall the joy he had in his voice when he explained the process of creating pimenton.

He visited Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain as part of the trip and, as I will be visiting this particular area of Spain shortly, I watched with great interest. You can view the clip here. Pay special attention to how they cook cockles in the market!

This blog is an introduction to a series of posts I intend to complete over the next two or so weeks about the food I shall be tasting and the cooking I shall see.

Can't quite place it...

In April of this year we heard of the news that Levon Helm, the troubadour at the heart of The Band had passed away. I wrote an article on his autobiography This Wheel’s on Fire however I wanted to offer another piece along the same lines, but this time on the revival of folk music in Britain.

For me, the style of American folk which I love (that of place names, historic struggles and battles, ditties about carpenters, fishermen and the sunny side of life) has never managed to come to the fore in British popular music. Apart from listening to Bob Harris’s country broadcast on BBC Radio 2, access to British folk for me has been limited. That is until Mumford and Sons arose a few years ago. For me, Mumford and Sons epitomise that early folk sound of the Band; a rip-roaring cacophony of instruments and harmonic voices creating a spine tingling moment. For a modern Rag Mama Rag check out I Will Wait or Little Lion Man. They may start slow but soon get going.

Lyrics-wise, Mumford are generally emotion-centric, like many artists of the current generation. Personally, I have found the most liberating piece of new folk music to be Two Fingers by Jake Bugg. Biased I may be. I don’t profess to have championed Bugg’s early musical life. To be honest, I only discovered him in the summer but I cannot stop listening to the Nottingham-born boy now.

Jake Bugg refers to Clifton in his Two Fingers. Not referring to a desolate outpost in Mississippi, no. Clifton is a suburb of Nottingham. For someone who re-wrote Dylan’s Oxford Town with lyrics about Ilson Town I find myself optimistic to this public acceptance of English place names. Perhaps Ralph McTell shares this too?

Now I don’t pretend I’m a wordsmith. I received a shit shit shit thesaurus for Christmas. I do know, however, what words sound good, and I know that some place names sound more Romantic than others. For example Memphis, Tennessee sounds nicer than Leeds, West Yorkshire. Folsom Prison feels like a dirtier establishment than Dover Immigration Removal Centre. Rock Island Line has a greater ring to it than Midland Mainline.

The Americans go a further step by using places in their names. I am unsure why this is the case, but perhaps it gave them a greater prominence when trying to market records. The Tennessee Two, Mississippi John Hurt, Bull City Red, Alger Texas Alexander, Louisiana Red, Memphis Slim, Memphis Minnie, St Louis Jimmy Oden, the great Kokomo Arnold and, finally my favourite, Lafayette Thomas. I doubt we will ever see the likes of Nottingham Norris, Camden Chris, Headingley Harry, Richmond Ritchie and the Thames Two but for now, a little mention of a UK town in a song will do for me.

Happy New Year!

Must dash...

So, I have started to grow a beard. Well, ive nearly entered my third week of beard growth. However according to beard.org, I should leave it for at least 4 weeks first before even attempting to shape or style it.

I have certainly experienced the usual comments:

Lost your razor?

Being lazy?

But then after about a week and a half I started to get more interested comments:

Are you growing a beard?

It suits you

Nice whiskers

Now I have bearded colleagues offering me advice and help. The most recent one went along these lines: "I know you probably don't have any of this, but if you do have some conditioner, then you should try that." Well actually, dear reader, I have a Lush facial scrub with lavender oils and sometimes use a conditioner now and again to keep my face soft and soothed. I have had to wash my face mid-way through the day but this is seldom.

So, am I glad that i've decided to keep up with the growth? Definitely. From the articles I have read, a beard is a sign of manliness. It's also a sign of committment and dedication. Yes, it's easy to start to grow a beard. But the constant comments, the itchy face and the subconscious twirling does niggle me but it seems well worth it.

For an interesting selection of sites about beard growth check about the manliness blog and a comprehensive site about everything beard related.