Cocktails and canapes.

As you can probably tell by now I always enjoy finding new recipes on the internet and loads of great ideas often appear on my Facebook news feed. I do love a cocktail and the other day there was a link to "10 easy prosecco cocktails that everyone should master" and when I had my cousin round for a girly night last Friday we gave a couple of them a try. There were some quite spectacular recipes including a "Paddington" with marmalade, honey and whisky which I didn't try - more because I don't like honey than anything else!  One of the ones I DID try was the "Green Ginger Fizz", 25ml ginger syrup from a jar of stem ginger, 25ml freshly squeezed lime juice, topped up with prosecco and topped with a slice of lime. You could also use the Kings Ginger, the ginger liqueur I've mentioned in some of my previous posts, instead of the syrup.

The other one was my favourite, the English Garden. 20ml elderflower cordial, 20ml gin and topped up with prosecco, and a mint sprig to finish. Very girly and sophisticated, and most refreshing.  You might remember the cranberry gin fizz from my Christmas post, this was a variation on that. I had a sloesecco once too, when I went out for dinner and decided on a cocktail rather than a pudding, as I was rather full. Sloe gin with prosecco. Here it is:

And here is my English Garden:

I did love the mint, and speaking of which you've got to love a Mojito, there was another post recently that gave a recipe for lots of summer cocktails including a blackberry Mojito which I really want to try, watch this space. I like to run a bit of lemon or lime around the edge of the glass too, for a little bit of extra zing, like I do with my gin and tonics. Of course a classic margarita has salt around the rim, to cut down on the bite of the alcohol, and tequila drinkers (especially when it was cheap tequila) licked salt off the back of their hand before drinking it and then sucked on a lime afterwards - to stop the burning!  I used to drink tequila slammers in days gone by with my sister - we'd do the salt licking, then mix tequila and cava, bash it on the table three times before downing it! My tastes are a bit more refined now and boringly sensible drinking has taken over...

Of course if you're really pushing the boat out, you can use champagne instead of prosecco or cava, or if you don't drink alcohol you can use sparkling grape juice.  I've been to a bar that does the most amazing non-alcoholic "mocktails" such as the beautiful "summer sunset".  

I also love the creamy cocktails such as the Brandy Alexander: brandy and creme de cacao with cream.  It has an interesting Wikipedia entry if you're curious.

Anyway, this talk of cocktails is all very well, but what about some nibbles to go with?

One of my favourite and more unusual nibbles is frozen soya beans (or fresh if you can get them) roasted in olive oil and sprinkled with salt; also chorizo fried in red wine, and garlic prawns; but I do love a canape!

Here is an example - I had a leftover lobster in the freezer to use up and some reduced price smoked salmon.  You might be forgiven for thinking "what kind of a woman has leftover lobster in her freezer?" but hey, they were on special offer at Christmas and I had bought two but hadn't got round to using the second one.  So I cheated with some ryvita thins spread with cream cheese, added the lobster meat and smoked salmon, some salmon caviar and a grind of pepper and served on a bed of leaves with a squeeze of lemon. You can use bread toasted in the oven instead of bought crackers, also rye bread and once I even made parmesan shortbread for the bases.

Another good idea is to use those bags of mini poppadoms as they make great edible bite size plates - fill with prawns either marinated with chilli or in a yogurt, lemon and coriander dressing.  

Examples of other canapes I've tried are: dates filled with a slice of jarlsberg cheese and wrapped  in parma ham - mini Caesar salads consisting of a blob of yogurt flavoured with lemon zest and black pepper, with an anchovy fillet, parmesan cheese shavings and a deluxe crouton served in a lettuce leaf. Also parma ham wrapped goats cheese and rocket things that were meant to look like trees but were a complete disaster presentation wise though they did taste lovely!  A favourite recipe that my sister used to make that I've adopted is small thin slices of lamb steak spread with English mustard and sprinkled with brown sugar and served warm from the oven with cocktail sticks.  Sounds strange but tastes wonderful.

Time to find something to celebrate then.  Happy Bank holiday Monday! Please drink responsibly.

Thank you for reading, Caroline x

Easter treats!

Whether or not you are religious, Easter is a great time for getting together with the family and sharing something delicious. A roast of spring lamb or a whole salmon with some spring vegetables, followed by something chocolatey for dessert is a great boost to the spirit and really signals the end of winter as well as the end of lent.  Especially if there is a bunch of daffodils on the table.

I like to start with champagne and nibbles, and maybe home made canapes (in our family we always make the most of an excuse to drink champagne, it's my second favourite drink, the first being a cup of tea).  These are mini filo tarts with brie, cranberry and rocket, served warm. I feel a blog post devoted to canapes both sweet and savoury coming on soon.

This year we had a small haunch of venison for the main course, with roast potatoes and vegetables -  but not carrots as my parents seem to have a lot of carrots in the dining room at the retirement community where they live and Mum had requested that we didn't have them! In previous years we have had lamb with Janssen's temptation - a very unhealthy but delicious potato gratin with anchovies and cream in.

I do have to admit though, that there is no getting away from the fact that Easter is really ALL about chocolate treats.  And the dessert is my favourite part of Easter Sunday/Monday lunch.  I've discovered that when it comes to Cadbury's mini eggs and creme eggs,the possibilities are endless. Two years ago I made an Easter themed trifle with hot cross buns in the bottom soaked  in vanilla liqueur, raspberries, grapes, peaches, three kinds of jelly (lemon, raspberry and lime), halved mini creme eggs, vanilla custard and topped with whipped cream, silver shimmer spray, chocolate hearts and mini eggs!

This year I made a creme egg cheesecake, with chopped creme eggs in the cheesecake mixture and topped with more creme eggs drizzled with milk and white chocolate, plus white chocolate coloured yellow with food colouring paste to look like the egg yolk. It was made in a 9 inch tin so was the tallest cheesecake I've ever made.  In fact I made two, one for the family and the other as an Easter present for my department at work.

I havealso made an Easter themed chocolate cake, this had maltesers in it and on it, and the mixture had a touch of Horlicks in it to give a malteser-y flavour:

It really is better to not even think about calories in the case of the above. It's usually one of those days in the year when you don't really want anything else to eat for the whole day, but if you do there is always a hot cross bun or an Easter nest cupcake:

The hot cross buns were made for an Easter bake off at the hospital where I work, and they didn't even get placed, but I was still pleased with how they turned out, I love the sticky glaze.  My cousin once accidentally made some with cumin instead of cinnamon, I suggested trying them with cheese. Many of the best discoveries are made by accident!

I hope all my readers had a Happy Easter, and have many more happy ones in years to come.

Thank you for reading,

Caroline :-)

 

Afternoon tea (one lump or two?)

Afternoon tea is one of the great joys of life.  There's a Chinese proverb that says "Better to go without food for three days than tea for one" and while I firmly agree with that, and have decided that tea would definitely be my luxury item to take to a desert island, tea AND cake are a marriage made in heaven, and even better when preceded by dainty crustless sandwiches and a glass of champagne.

A bit of history for you.  Tea was introduced to England in 1662 by Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess; but the custom of having afternoon tea in homes, hotels and elegant cafes didn't become popular until the 19th century. The tradition continued until the 1970s,when cafes became more downmarket and self service as working practices changed, but then resurged in the 1990 when more quality leaf teas became available, and these days it is now seen more as a treat for special occasions rather than an everyday thing.

Here are some photographs of a wonderful afternoon tea I had for a friend's fortieth birthday at a local country house hotel and spa - and very delicious it was too. We went back to the same establishment where I had previously enjoyed the same for my fortieth birthday, and the standard was still as high. The weather was fine, so we had an outdoor table in a beautiful courtyard, and we ate and drank listening to music played by a real pianist floating out from the open doors to the house. The sandwiches used interesting breads and fillings, and the cakes were amazing.  We thought we'd finished when another plateful was served!

Of course, I am equally keen on creating my own afternoon teas as I am on going out to eat them, and have got a great book called "The Perfect Afternoon Tea Recipe Book" by Anthony Wild and Carol Pastor, with all manner of mouth watering ideas to try.

I made afternoon tea for my mother in law last Mothering Sunday, this was a simple affair with cucumber sandwiches, smoked salmon sandwiches and prosecco, followed by tea and vanilla chiffon cupcakes, pictured below:

 .

And of course, it's an ideal opportunity to serve macaroons. Other suitable recipes I've made include tea breads (pistachio, cardamom and marmalade is a recent favourite), mini meringue "kisses" sandwiched together with flavoured cream, mini lemon drizzle cakes, chocolate eclairs or profiteroles (which can be made in a smaller and more dainty way) ,little slices of walnut tart - and not forgetting scones, with the obligatory jam and cream..

Then there is the tea of course, and leaf tea really does taste better than bags in my opinion, although there are teabags AND teabags! My husband went to Harrogate once and visited the celebrated Betty's tea room.  He brought me back the Rolls Royce of Earl Grey teabags, made of special biodegradable mesh. To quote from their website:

The shape and material of these special tea bags allow you to enjoy all the benefits of leaf teas, but with the convenience of a tea bag.

This tea is a blend of fine black China tea, which has been subtly fragranced with natural bergamot oil. A scattering of cornflower and marigold petals add floral overtones and make them rather pretty too.

They are about £6 for 20, but worth it!

Earl Grey is my favourite tea, but there are all kinds of others to try, Darjeeling and Formosa Oolong are other favourites, and Earl Grey with rose petals.  I know people who get tea delivered by post from specialist shops, and I've even been sent leaf tea as a present all the way from Australia!

I don't have sugar in tea, but if you do, at afternoon tea sugar should be served as lumps in a bowl with tongs, it's all part of the experience.  Should the milk go in before or after?  This is still open to debate. Read more here: 

http://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2014/oct/03/how-to-make-tea-science-milk-first 

http://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-1400,00.html

I don't know why, but somehow to me tea tastes better out of a cup and saucer, it's probably a psychological thing. At home I do normally use bags and a mug, but if I want to treat myself the cups and saucers come out.  I was given these fabulous macaroon cups and saucers as a birthday present once, they came from France. I also have a glass tea infuser rather than a pot, and a handmade tea cosy made by my Mum.

So why not treat yourself to afternoon tea soon?  You're worth it!

More soon, thank you for reading,

Caroline :-)

Edible gold and cranberry syrup.

I've already written a post all about Christmas dinner when I had a house-full in 2012, but I wanted to share this year's menu too.  It wasn't as complicated as two years ago, we just had my parents for dinner so there were only six of us, but I was still pretty excited and inspired weeks in advance by the festive editions of the food magazines, especially Feel Good Food which is a favourite at present. It was the cover of this magazine which featured a red velvet roulade that caught my eye and I was immediately on ebay ordering edible 24 carat gold at a very reasonable £2.49!  More of this later, here's a rundown:

Champagne / Cranberry Gin Fizz / Fruit juices

Sausage rolls (made by my Mum)

Iberico ham and melon on sticks

Crisps

-

Beetroot & vodka cured salmon

Pickled cucumber salad

-

Roast Turkey with sausage, sage & onion stuffing

Pigs in blankets

Apple & Bourbon roast smoked gammon (served cold)

Deluxe roast potatoes & parsnips

Glazed sprouts & carrots with nutmeg

Bread sauce, cranberry sauce, gravy

-

Red velvet roulade with white chocolate and gold leaf

served with Bailey’s cream

-

Cheese and biscuits, grapes, port

-

Coffee / tea, chocolate mint leaves

The cranberry gin fizz was an idea in the Lidl Christmas magazine.  Frozen cranberries were cooked with sugar and water to make a syrup when mashed with a potato masher and sieved.  One part of the cooled syrup was mixed with one part of gin and topped up with prosecco, and frozen cranberries added instead of ice cubes.  I has one as a little cook's treat while cooking the veg.

The Iberico ham and melon on sticks was a memory of our Spanish holiday this summer (see earlier post), Lidl had some Iberico ham in and it went beautifully with the drinks. I used the little wooden sticks that come with my graze boxes which was a nice touch, a little less boring than plain old cocktail sticks.

The salmon was cured on the Sunday before Christmas, giving it four days in the fridge. This was also from the Feel Good Food magazine. I'd cured salmon with beetroot before but this was a slightly different twist, using vodka, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, black peppercorns, salt, sugar, lemon zest and grated raw beetroot with dill. It was served with a simple salad of ribboned cucumber dressed with white wine vinegar, sugar and more chopped dill.

The turkey was simply cooked, as was most of the main course, and I haven't got photos of it, but above is one of the gammon.  It was boiled in apple juice and spices, then roasted with a glaze of apple sauce and bourbon whisky.  We did find it a bit dry, and I think in future I'll always roast gammon instead of boiling as somehow it does turn out to be more juicy that way.  It was still nice though, and has all been eaten!

Here's the aforementioned roulade. I made the red velvet swiss roll on Christmas Eve, using up all the rest of my "Christmas red" food colouring paste. After it had cooled and been spread with the cream cheese icing, I cut the ends off and left it in the fridge overnight to set before decorating.  Eating the ends on Christmas Eve I was a bit worried the sponge wasn't actually all that tasty but it got better by the morning.  My daughter had made white chocolate decorations with a kit of templates and a silicone mat given to me by a friend for my birthday, so I added those plus gold edible glitter and the edible gold leaf which was a bit tricky to handle but not too bad once you got the hang of manipulating it with a table knife.

I also used the edible gold on this trifle, made a few days later for a Christmas get together with my husband's family. Chocolate cake and white chocolate chunks soaked in blueberry liqueur, lemon jelly with blackberries and blackcurrants, custard, cream with crushed meringues,lemon zest and decorations (plus non edible holly from my tree).

The family gathering featured a gingerbread nativity competition.  We didn't win,but here's our entry, complete with jelly baby Jesus:

Finally, here's a fun idea that I found on Facebook, my children and I made two with my nieces when they came to stay recently.  A Terry's chocolate orange in the middle, with maltesers stuck to it, white chocolate and icing holly on the top.

All in all, there was much feasting, and as January beckons, I'm thinking about abstinence and healthy eating!

Thank you for reading,

Caroline :-) 

Ostriches and samphire.

Welcome to my first blog post in a while. It was meant to be written in August when I got back from a trip with my children to visit my Uncle, however the return journey from said trip involved a serious car crash (not my fault) that resulted in all of us being hospitalised, normal life going out of the window for quite a while and the laptop that I write my blogs on being broken beyond repair. I'm happy to report that we have all healed well and made a full recovery AND I have a replacement laptop, and can finally get back to blogging.

On one of our days out while visiting the above-mentioned Uncle, who is a confirmed carnivore, we went to an unusual type of farm shop.  It was at an ostrich farm, which sold the meat and eggs from their ostriches, as well as other unusual meats including crocodile, wild boar, kangaroo and zebra. They also sold venison, and camel and llama when in season.

Now, although I eat meat I do like to know that the animal or bird in question has had a good life, so it was good to see the ostriches living a happy free-range existence at the farm before having a "mixed grill" - only in a frying pan - that evening. We were assured that the other speciality meats that we tried had been either culled due to overpopulation or farmed naturally on wide open pastures. A major selling point was also the fact that the meats are a low fat option.  We liked them all, the crocodile was a bit like chicken, and I liked the kangaroo best, it was very tender and flavoursome.

Read more about the farm at www.oslinc.co.uk.

That afternoon, we drove further on, to the coast, and found a beach with more samphire than I had ever seen before.  I had picked and eaten samphire from Wells-next-the -sea harbour before but this was something else!  

I'm not saying where it was as I was a bit worried about the entire beach being decimated. We saw a group of people pulling it up by the roots and taking it away by the sackful!  They claimed it was for their own personal use but that seemed a bit unlikely to me.  I thought perhaps they had a pub or restaurant and it was going to feature on the current weeks specials board or something...  they did give me cooking tips though.

We picked a sandwich box full and not by the roots, enabling the plants to re-establish and grow again.

Apparently picking it by the roots enables you to prepare it by holding it by the roots, swishing it in some clean water to wash, then stripping off the good bits.  I just floated ours in a bowl of water and let the dirt fall to the bottom, then wrapped it in a tea towel and whirled it around my head while standing in the garden. I simply boiled it, then added butter and black pepper.  Salt isn't required as it's naturally salty from growing in sea water.

It's good with a poached egg on top, with seafood risotto, or as an accompaniment to fish dishes.  I've seen it used quite a bit on masterchef this year. See www.bbc.co.uk/food/samphire for more ideas.

 
Today is the last day of the year, so I've totalled up by new recipes for 2014 - and there were 87, including 13 meat free main courses. Since January 2008 the running total is 821.
May there be many more in 2015!  It's the first time the annual total has dropped below 100, but that was due to the car crash rather than lack of inspiration...

Thank you for reading.  I'm hoping to write another post about this year's Christmas menu today too and I've got lots of ideas for future posts, so I'm firmly back in the blogging community.

More soon,

Caroline x

For the love of chocolate.

I have always loved chocolate.  I've been a member of the Chocolate Tasting Club for twelve years, and always have tea and chocolate first thing in the morning on a day when I'm not going to work.  Until recently, I had a brown sofa and rug, bedclothes and towels, so that the chocolate stains didn't show!  When a friend discovered a relatively new chocolatier in Leicester called Cocoa Amore, offering chocolate making workshops - we decided to book a workshop for two - as our birthdays are a fortnight apart it would be our birthday presents to each other.

As it turned out, our visit was even better than anticipated.  The team (two very friendly blokes) welcomed us and and shop was beautifully appointed and smelled lovely!

Our host immediately put the kettle on and we sat down with a little cast iron cup of special and delicious cocoa tea, together with a glass of water to cleanse our palate between tastings.  On the stainless steel worktop in front of us was a map of the world's cocoa growing regions, which are 10-20 degrees north and south of the equator, and dotted all over the map were little tubs with samples of chocolate from each area for us to taste.  It was very similar to a wine tasting, the growing conditions, area and variety make a big difference in the taste of the chocolate. We were first given an introduction to the cocoa plant and how it is grown, and how the beans are harvested and treated in order to produce the various products.  

I found this website which gives you an idea: 

http://www.icco.org/about-cocoa/growing-cocoa.html

Then came a fascinating combined history and geography lesson all about how chocolate has developed through history, the different sorts of modern day chocolate and the ingredients therein (Hershey's tastes weird as it uses soured milk powder!). There was a lovely story about The Grenada Chocolate Company which must be the eco-friendly chocolate company ever, but had a sad ending as the mastermind behind it all sadly died when he was electrocuted while mending some machinery.  Read more about the company at www.grenadachocolate.com.

As we travelled the cocoa-producing world from the comfort of our stools, we tried the chocolate as we went along, experiencing some surprises along the way - such as white chocolate which contained a higher % of cocoa than some milk chocolate - and a spectacular dark chocolate that gave my friend goose bumps!  We also tried 100% cocoa chocolate, which while very, very intense was not as bitter as you might expect.

After that, it was time to get messy and do some proper hands on chocolate making.  First we made chocolate shells, which would be chilled and later filled.  The chocolate was already melted and tempered in a special machine and as soon as we had polished our moulds with cotton wool (yes, really!) to make sure the finished chocolates looked shiny and professional, the chocolate was ladled into the moulds and the surface scraped, then we knocked the side of the mould - for a long time - to bring air bubbles to the surface, tipped the mould upside down, more knocking and scraping which was quite fiddly, and the shells were ready for chilling -  well once they had been "tidied up" by the pro...

While the shells chilled we made truffles, from ganache which was 70% chocolate to 30% cream, rolled into balls and coated with chocolate before being finished with cocoa powder. The coating was fun, instead of delicate dipping we scooped up a handful of melted chocolate (wearing gloves) and rolled the truffles in it in our hands.

After that, we made the filling for the shells, using a softer 50/50 ganache.  We chose our flavoured oils - I chose raspberry and mint, my friend chose orange and cinnamon.  We carefully mixed the flavourings in, tasting to get the balance right, then piped the filling into the shells.  I think I impressed them with my piping skills!!

The filled shells were then given a top coat of chocolate to seal in the filling and were put to chill in the fridge while we chilled with a very special hot chocolate and a choice of one of their very special chocolates.  I chose green tea and sesame hot chocolate and my friend birds eye chilli. It came on a special tray, as a glass of hot milk with a bar of chocolate separately to mix in as much or as little as you liked - you could eat some of it as it was if you wanted - with a special stirrer to mix it with.  And the chocolate I picked - well - no prizes for guessing it was the peanut butter cup!

The photo above shows what I came home with, including the rest of the piping bag of filling. We asked what to do with it and the recommendations were either to pipe into espresso cups and serve as a dessert (which I did) or to drizzle over pancakes or waffles. Yum.

I think the results look great - I was praised for my polishing of the mould, making the chocolates very shiny!

The leftovers.

I would highly recommend this day to anyone who loves chocolate, I also had to buy a selection of their other creations to try, and will be returning.  They make all sorts of gorgeous things, even chocolate dipped potato crisps!  See their facebook page for more information.

Thank you for reading,

Caroline :-)

Olives for breakfast.

I've just come back from a fabulous and very hot few days in Spain - my first visit.  My husband and I enjoyed a few child free days in the sun while they were having their own holiday in France with their Scout Group. I was looking forward to enjoying the food and it seemed the ideal opportunity for a blog post as I haven't written one for ages.

We arrived late at night and the first meal consisted of chilled Cava and olives as that was all there was in the villa - but I wasn't complaining!  In the morning we headed out in our cute little red rental Fiat 500 to the local supermarket - Pepe La Sal.  They had an impressive array of whole cured hams hanging up behind the meat counter and an equally impressive array of cakes and pastries - I wish I had taken  a photo. There was also a big fridge full of ready made microwaveable tapas dishes (discussed later) but we didn't have a microwave. You could get the ham sliced to order or buy it ready sliced in packets.  Similarly the cheeses. There were olives stuffed with all sorts of fillings, we thought we'd try the smoked salmon and the serrano ham ones. We bought ham, cheese, bread, olives, local unsalted butter, Allioli (creamy garlic dip), crisps, and nibbles.  Then we headed back to the villa for assembly of our DIY continental breakfast, and very delicious it was too, as you can see:

On closer inspection, we had bought three sorts of sliced ham, the cheapest was €3.05 for 104g, the next most expensive was €3.59 for 72g and the last one was a mind boggling €8.57 for 72g!!  We had been joyfully throwing goodies in the trolley without noticing the price, after all we were on holiday...  I looked them up and the cheapest was Centro D.O. Teruel - a serrano ham- for more information try the following link: 

http://jamonesairesano.es/en/designation-of-origin-of-teruel/

The mid price one was Iberico a Maquina, which from some googling appears to be an Iberian ham possibly where the pig is fed on acorns. The final one (and it WAS the most delicioso, having a very deep flavour) was Bellota a Maquina. Any readers who can tell me the difference please do because I  haven't been able to find out!

Our breakfasts were so filling, and eaten quite late, so we didn't really bother with lunch other than wine/beer and crisps and the odd Mojito (from a Chinese restaurant where you could sit outside on a sofa looking out to sea, we never had any food there, just enjoyed drinks and the free wifi!!!) and saved ourselves for dinner.  Sometimes I made my own tapas, a little slice of bread with Allioli and tomato/cheese, topped with an olive.  I would have liked to try more tapas dishes in a restaurant, and might next time, but it can work out quite expensive if your're not careful, and also I didn't seem to be hungry at the right moment.  All our evening meals were eaten al fresco, so as not to waste a moment of the wonderful weather, and there seemed to be a theme of orange tablecloths and/or napkins.

The first night my husband had prawns wrapped in bacon followed by lamb chops, and I started with a lobster salad, which truly deserved to have it's photo taken:

followed by slow roast piglet with orange sauce. Both mains came with chips, picked red cabbage served warm and mixed vegetables. All was delicious, especially the orange sauce. We never did have a dessert!

The next morning we popped down to a little convenience store called Deli Merkat (affectionately known as the deli meerkat) for bread, chocolate croissants and a beef tomato which I thought would go well with the rest of the ham and cheese, and it did, being packed with flavour.  The fruit and veg was not a perfect looking as at home, the rest of Europe seem to embrace "inglorious vegetables" rather better than we have.  To learn more see :

http://www.wimp.com/allsupermarkets/

Dinner on day two was at a fish restaurant - I had grilled sardines followed by Sole Menier (Sole Meuniere) and hubby had prawns with garlic followed by rabbit with garlic. Again both mains had the same accompaniments - buttery rice and crushed potatoes with olive oil and a sort of aubergine thing.  All good, though they didn't manage to get our starters out at the same time, and to be fair my husband's glass of pre-prandial gin was so enormous it should really have been served in a bucket!!  There was only a thimbleful of tonic in the huge glass - it was the first time ever he has asked me to "help him out" with an alcoholic beverage!!

On the last night, we found a restaurant that specialised in paella. I had only had this dish once before, and obviously never an authentic Spanish one, and really wanted to try it, but there was a snag.  They would only cook it for a minimum of two people, and my husband really didn't want it, as it's not his type of thing at all, he wanted steak.  So after some discussion, and not having a starter or dessert, I ordered a Paella Marinera for two all to myself!! I really hoped it was going to be good as it was €30!  Eeek!  The waitress gave us some funny looks and I suspected this had never happened to her before but when it arrived, it was delicious and included baby squid and squid rings, mussels, clams, white fish, shell-on prawns and langoustines. Peeling them gave me yellow fingernails! I did have to leave some of the rice, and my husband enjoyed his steak with salad and chips.  The white wine was a bit rough though, we wished we had ordered red instead.

before...

and after!

Speaking of the wine, it was generally very good, we had Cava, Verdejo, Torres de Casta Rosado (the Spanish seem to drink a lot of rose), Campo Viejo white Rioja, and various house whites (variable!)  The Spanish beer - Mahou was lovely too.

I would definitely go back to Spain, I loved the outdoor dining and the whole experience. And they eat more vegetables than the French.

Thank you for reading,

Caroline :-)