My Murcian Kitchen

This recipe is so simple I can hardly describe it. A typical tapa from Murcia as the name implies, and also it is a wet salad, as it should be. Namely because the word mojete means soak or wet. Here’s how you make it.

• 1 tin of whole tomatoes,
• 2 hardboiled eggs
• 1 tin of good tuna in olive oil
• 2 tbs caperberries
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 tin of black olives, roughly chopped
• Smoked good paprika powder and pepper from the pepper mill and olive oil.

Toss all the ingredients in a bowl, except from the eggs, and dust the paprika powder along with a few rounds from the pepper mill.  Last but not least, gently fold in the roughly chopped eggs making sure it doesn’t get too mushy. Let it rest for a while in the fridge before you serve it to allow all the flavours to set. However, make sure to put it in room temperature 15 minutes before serving, otherwise it will be quite tasteless.

Dig in with warm, freshly baked bread and a glass of cold beer. Mmm…mojete.

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This is a delicious surf-turf dish in Spanish. The Spanish serrano ham is in its crispy, salty contrast a perfect match to the buttery Jerusalem artichoke mousse. A festive dish for a festive occasion. I served some  quality bubbly mineral water but a light red and young rioja will accompany this sunny dish perfectly. For 4 servings you will need:

• 1 net of fresh mussels, ca 1 kg
• 800 gram fillet of halibut
• 1 onion
• 3 shallots
• 2 carrots
• 4 garlic cloves
• Finely chopped dill and parsley
• A small pinch of mild curry
• 1-2 glasses of dry white wine
• 3 dl double cream
• 150 gr unsalted butter
• 150 gr Spanish cured ham
• 5 potatoes,peeled and diced
• 5 peeled Jerusalem artichokes
• A handfull of green beans, julienned
• Black pepper corns
• A glass of beer

1. Rinse the mussels in cold water and discard the ones that won’t close. Boil the mussels for 15 minutes along with th peppercorns, whole carrots,  half of the onion, and a glass of beer. You may want to add some good chicken stock if you have it. Let the cloves of garlic join in, don’t peel them, they will come out soft to the texture and mild to the taste. When all the mussels have opened, pour the bouillon through a sieve, throw away any mussels that have not opened. Set aside and choose some of the prettiest mussels still in their shells for garnish and pick out the rest to be added to your sauce later.
2. Finely chop the rest of the onion together with equally finely chopped shallots, add the dill and the parsley. Chop the carrots from the mussel boil too. Lightly fry it all in a nice knob of butter on a gentle heat, together with the cooked cloves of garlic.Add the mussel stock together with the white wine and let simmer for about ten minutes. Meanwhile cook the tatties and the Jerusalem artichokes for 15 minutes or until tender.
3. Fry the Spanish ham until crispy in olive oil and let it drain on kitchen paper. Gently dust the fillets with flour and add ground pepper from the mill. Be careful when adding salt to this dish since the ham provides the saltiness needed.
4. Let the base for the sauce reduce and mix it even in your blender. Add the beurre manié (maizena flour and butter), add the mussel stock and more wine if needed. A small pinch of mild curry and add the cream. Let it simmer for another couple of minutes, stirring and whisking to make sure no lumps will appear. When the potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes are tender, discard the water and add butter. Gently mash them with a fork and add some cream. The texture should be light and fluffy, be careful not to mash too long and hard or it will become glutinous and less fluffy. Keep warm.
5. Panfry the halibut in olive oil and butter in a hot iron pan. Quickly stir some green beans with finely chopped garlic as a garnish. Add the mussels to the sauce except for the ones set aside for garnish. Sprinkle generously with the crispy ham and add the Jerusalem mash-mousse. The instant verdict from my husband came straight from the heart: “Truly delicious”. And it was, actually, I am proud to say.

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I just happened to enjoy the most delicious quail eggs on my last sejour in the lovely Scandinavian capital of Stockholm. They were served with Kalix roe, a twist from the pepper mill, sour cream and dill. Pure and simple. So now I am on a  mission for new inspiring quail eggs recipes.

You find them here too, of course. I usually buy them at Mercadona or Carrefour, fry them quickly  in a frying pan and serve them as a montadito (on a small piece of grilled bread spread with olive oil) with grilled asparagus tips and  dust them lightly with smoked paprika powder. For a glutenfree alternative, serve them on a buckwheat flower blini. A niblet upon guests arriving for your dinner party, quite simple, quite elegant. Drink in hand, quail niblets in mouth.

So be prepared for the festive season coming up. I will continue on my quail egg mission and you will soon be enjoying a fair share of Scan-Span inspiration. Skål!

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Unfortunately, no, I am not being sponsored by Carrefour to promote them. But they did give me a voucher, Cheque Ahorro, and this is what it did for me, a loyal customer. I decided to pamper myself with some goodies for the weekend so amongst all the food they gave me, it included two nice entrecôtes for the barbeque, a whole free range chicken, three bottles of good Rioja, one bottle of cava, veggies, some nice cheese, a couple of bottles of virgin olive oil and one good bottle of whisky for Toby.

And then a lot of “boring” things were included too, staple goods that always come in handy. So, in these times of austerity measures I guess “every little helps”… And maybe it is Carrefour thinking “because I’m worth it”…

Today it’s a classic French style Steak Frites and Béarnaise sauce. Neither Murcian nor Spanish at all you might think,  but sometimes I think we all need to clear our palates with something “foreign”! It so reminds me of those escapades Toby and I used to do when we lived and worked in Brussels. Friday afternoon we would jump into our car and drive over the French border, stay at a small romantic hotel in the small town of Givet, and have a grilled-to-perfection  Steak Frites at the Brasserie-Grill de l’Hôtel de ville. Bon weekend!

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At last my outdoor kitchen is mise en place!

It has been long anticipated and I can’t quite come to terms with why it has taken me so long. Anyway, I am so happy I can now enjoy it outdoors. I prepared a new set of spices ready to be used in my outdoor kitchenette.  The saffron, the paprika powder, the cumin, the turmeric, the chilli flakes and the oregano to name a few, are in new jars, neatly and orderly. I already have fresh rosemary, parsley, dill and basil, ready to be picked on my patio.

Unfortunately, for some reason of which I don’t understand,  the coriander and the rocket leaves disappointed me this year. My next addition will be saffron bulbs and planting a small bay leaf tree. I will keep you posted on any success with them!

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This coffee drink is something you just can’t miss when in and around Cartagena. It is called Asiatico and has nothing to do with Asia at all. It was in fact invented by a bar owner in a small village called El Albujón. Mind you it is only available in the Cartagena area, so if you order an Asiatico in Murcia capital the risk is that they won’t understand what you are asking for. Over the years we have had a few of these sweet coffees after a luncheon and it is a bit like a dessert really.

When you are at the point when you are so full that you feel like Mr Creosote in the famous Monty Python sketch, you know when the Maître D’ delivers the famous line: But it’s wafer thin, sir. Then sometimes a keen restaurateur will gladly offer you an Asiatico instead of a flan or any other traditional dessert.

A good friend of ours, Domingo, took us many years ago to his native village of Estrecho de San Ginés. There at the Bar Patiño the bar owner made the best Asiatico we have ever had. Since then this particular bar goes under the name of La Academia de los Asiaticos. Why you wonder? Well, almost all our friends and family who visit us here are made to take the crash course of how to make a real Asiatico and we always take them to this Bar Patiño. If you go there, ask the bar owner to show you how it is properly done and say hello from La Marquesa de Los Camachos and you are in for a treat. However, if you want a driver friendly and alcohol free version, go to the original bar in El Albujón . So here’s how you make it:

Take some good strong coffee, some condensed milk, Licor 43, some brandy de jerez Soberano or any other kind you fancy, some fudge concentrate. Then add a coffee bean and lemon zest and voilà, there you have it. For some reason we seldom make an Asiatico at home, they just taste better in a bar or a restaurant, watching people pass by and ponder about how good life can be.

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At last! Hopefully this foodie blog will enlighten and inspire you all out there. Maybe you have been here on holiday with family and friends, or you are curious of the culinary treats to be had here.

Either or, this is the place to meet again if you have been here at the Costa Cálida in southeast Spain and hence enjoyed all the delicacies from the orchard of Europe.

Everything grows here in abundance, figs, wild asparagus and caper stems, pomegranates, oranges and lemons of course. The thyme and rosemary clad hills and the mountains offer their fare share of the plate and as to your palate: we have three D.O. wine districts here: Jumilla, Bullas and Yecla. Fine price winning wines where Monastrell and Petit Verdot play important roles in the red wines from our mountains. From the largest lagoon in Europe, the Mar Menor as well as the Med we can humbly enjoy the excellent seafood. Some of the prawns are endemic and are probably one of the most expensive kind in Europe, langostinos del Mar Menor. The fields that grow so many vegetables to be served in all the dishes here… What else can we wish for? Some good food, some decadence, some funny anecdotes from people, restos and travels I have met and done over the years. Welcome to enjoy, I think you are in for a treat!

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We are going inland to the mountains.
Video coming soon.

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Beach life is nice and all, but not much beat being able to take your boat out for a spin. And having the sea fishing license enables you to fish in the Murcian seas. Getting the actual license was not hard at all, in fact much easier than anticipated. We headed for La Consejería de Agricultura y Agua at Calle Campos near Plaza San Francisco in Cartagena. Went straight upstairs to the first floor and asked one of the three people in that small office for licencia de pesca maritima de recreo y embarcación. As usual we had to show id and NIE number as you are always asked to do, along with two recently taken photos. The lady behind the desk gave us a ticket and we went downstairs to pay the fee at the Caja Murcia, an insignificant cost, then went upstairs again to show that this fee had been duly paid and she handed us the license right there and then. It is valid for five years. In less than 15 minutes we had our fishing license. Dead simple.

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My Murcian kitchen, the trailer for the blog.
The trailer for the Murcian gastronomy, cookery and wine blog.

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