Bread and Coques, Help Yourself!

We are only three days away from the official arrival of spring on the northern hemisphere, March equinox, and I say official because at least in Barcelona we are having a wonderful fair weather since last week. Buds are sprouting from tree branches, people are talking outloud on bar terraces again or getting a tan on the beach. Over the weekend, thousands flee from the city and set to discover towns nearby in many different ways. Some are veteran excursionists and therefore insist on places they consider a favorite or consult with other experienced fellow travelers about secret troves. But the majority of mortals like me are used to dealing with randomness, trial and error methods and surprises whether they are good or bad. Sometimes we organize a trip to a historical site and then try local restaurants completely blindfolded (big mistake here!). Most of the times though, we first decide on what to eat and where and then if possible include the historical place, the celebration or the local market as an extra. In other words, we travel with the stomach. Local food markets are a fantastic wild card. You can kill two birds with a single shot. Say you blew it and couldn't find a comfortable restaurant where they made a good paella or tapas like some tasty chistorras from Navarre and Spanish omelette, for example, no problem. You run to the nearest stall and jump on the kind person behind the counter like Attila the Hun after crossing the Mongolian prairies, taking a good bite at all the sample food they offer for free, drinking from the wine porron on the house and then maybe, just maybe you buy a thing or two at the most. The cherry on top would be that you could bargain but they are not stupid either. Please visit local markets and try local food like these Catalan coques covered with all sorts of ingredients. Notice in the image you also have bread and empanadas (pie).

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Bobbin Lace or Pillow Lace, An Artful Skill

Call it bobbin lace, pillow lace, bone lace or simply lacework, this technique, in which thread, pins and shuttles are dexterously combined, may not compete with sophisticated lace making machines that produce complex designs but definitely it is much more artistic. I mean, you can enter a drawing in some computer program to automatically weave an elaborate piece of lace but you will lose art and tradition in the process.

This is something that is handed down from one generation to another, it is a passion and a hobby. This woman, Isabel, was participating in a local contest of puntaires which is the Catalan word for a person who does needlepoint work

There were women of all ages and even some young boys. They were extremely skillful and it was really amusing to be standing there witnessing the stubborn endurance of this ancient medieval craft that is reluctant to disappear.

See also Bobbin Lace (Encaje de Bolillos), a previous post with a brief explanation of the process and an illustrative video.

Dressed Spanish Olives

Lets talk about food today, about one of the cornerstones of the traditional Mediterranean diet: olives. In Spanish they are called aceitunas derived from aceite which means oil. In Catalan we call it olives too, with the stress on the i, being oli the word used to designate such oleaginous liquid. The scientific name, Olea europaea, speaks for itself about the final product obtained from the fruit and the origin and habitat of this tree. There are different kinds of olives with some peculiar names many times conditioned by the region where they are grown.

Green olives as the name suggests are picked from the tree before they ripen. Black olives are then the ripe ones, to be more precise, those ripened on the tree. There are about 14 varieties classified in Spain: Blanqueta, Callosina, Arbequina, Gordal sevillana, Cornicabra, Manzanilla cacereña, Villalonga, Serrana de Espadán, Morrut, Changlot Real, Canetera, Alfafara, Hojiblanca, Carrasqueño de Córdoba with a whole lot of local synonyms. No need to say that other countries in the Mediterranean like Italy, Greek, Syria, Turkey have their own.

Before serving the olives, some preparation is required to get rid of their normal bitterness. You may buy them canned or bottled but there's the possibility of dressing them on your own. Green olives like the ones you see in the image, acquire that final salty spicy flavor from the extra ingredients people put into the dressing. Don't bother taking those in the bottle to make your own home-made concoction. You need them clean to start with, without previous treatment although it says they are salt free. Once you manage to buy them free of salt, you put them in water to get rid of the bitter taste, change the liquid every 12 hours till the greenest of them tastes sweet. If you don't cut them into halves or squeeze them first the process will take longer. The more you squeeze the shorter the time. The container where you place the olives must not be made of metal nor should you use any metal object or your hands to remove. Once sweet, they are ready to take that dressing. The dressing is applied by layers and shall cover the content. They will acquire maximum flavor in about a week. The ingredients depend on you although there is a certain limitation of course. You may use garlic, thyme, laurel, oregano, paprika, cumin, fennel, orange shells. Remember the basis is water but you can add lemon and/or vinegar. I am not a cook myself and cannot take responsibilities for the right results here but in essence, you may come up with some tasty aceitunas aliñadas in the end.

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