Percy Moo as Einstein

Percy Moo as Einstein
Dog=Einstein2

Saturday 22 March 2014

A Goodly Pan of Scran

Or Scouse.

Last weekend, expecting visitors, I made a huge pan of Scouse - cheap cuts of beef and/or lamb, loads of onions & carrots and piles of taters. 

Scouse: ambrosia from the Pool of Life.
My recipe:
Fry in olive oil the chopped onions & carrots in an open pressure cooker until they're soft .
Remove the veggies.
Brown the meat in the oil with a dobble or two of salt.
When browned, chuck in a bit of white wine to help soften the meat & reduce.
Add in the taters. When cutting them, don't cut all the way through; cut halfway through and then lever the piece off. this will make the sauce thicker.

Chuck in the veggies & pour in water. This should not cover the ingredients, as the taters will release their own water.

Pressure cook for 25-30 min.s and then leave to cool. 

When you want to serve it, reheat the part needed in an open pan and serve.

Scoff with crusty bread and heart-clogging salty butter, sauces of your choice and a nice strong cup of tea.

You'll probably have a lot left over. Don't worry! It's even better the second and third times around. 
When it has finally reduced to a paste, you can even make scouse butties or scouse on toast. I've been eating it all week and my inner man is well pleased.

Scouse, just brilliant!

Sunday 16 March 2014

STRANGERS ON THE SHORE

Perhaps a  quick listen to this will set the mood for reading what follows.

Here in southern Spain Spring does indeed spring - one day it just jumps out at you from behind a cloud and all of a sudden it's beach time.

Sanlúcar Beach with Doñana in the
background.

So on Saturday we left home, ambled 300 yards down the road and enjoyed a 2-hour stroll along Sanlúcar's strand. As yet the teeming hordes of Summer tourists haven't descended, so it's possible to go for quiet walks and admire the views across the Guadalquivir Estuary towards Doñana, Europe's largest Nature Park.


 Doñana was once the private hunting estate of the Dukes of Alba[1] and it was there that Goya painted his two famous paintings, La Maja Vestida and La Maja Desnuda of the then Duchess of Alba to whom, it was rumoured, he also rendered services of a more intimate nature. Malicious gossips have it that his daubings and dabblings of the Duchess went beyond the merely pictorial


Chipiona Lighthouse
The Spanish house of Alba Fitzstewart has so  many noble titles that the Dukes or Duchesses of Alba are the only humans on the whole of planet Earth of whom protocol doesn't demand that they bow and scrape to a British monarch - there are those of us, however who wouldn't anyway. The House of Alba also has a claim to the British crown – and why not, indeedy? They’d just be another bunch of foreign benefit tourists to add to the present gang of Germans and Greeks swanning around in golden coaches at the taxpayer’s expense.

Anyhow, I digress. After a walk on the beach in Sanlúcar, we went to a beachfront restaurant for a fish supper and were sore disappointed – the particular member of the finny tribe that we wanted was not on the menu. In fact, we felt like Joseph and Mary when they got to Bethlehem. There was no plaice at the inn! (Sorry, I just couldn't resist it.)

Undaunted, we had a long, cool, refreshing drink of rebujito[2]Manzanilla, Seven-up and loads of ice  before toddling home to have dinner there.
Another client enjoying
a "relaxing cup of
café con leche".

Sunday proved to be just as sunny, so we decided to be adventurous and drive to Chipiona, 8km down the road. In summer Chipiona – or Chipi (pron.: shippy) for the initiated – becomes a  sort of Seville-super-Mare and is to be avoided at all costs. At the moment, however, there so few people that you can actually see the sand on the beach, hear yourself think and not have to suffer the unedifying view of middle-aged fat shouty gits in singlets vaunting their armpit hair at close quarters in the bars and restaurants.


At this time of year, Chipi is a haven of tranquillity. We had a relaxing drink at one of the beachfront cocktail bars, soaking up the sea air in the company of other privileged patrons. After refreshing the inner man – and woman – we continued our stroll along the promenade before stopping for an ice-cream and coffee to fortify us for the long trek home which would take us past the market gardens that produce such delicious tomatoes,  on a par with the famous Worthing tom.s  green peppers,  magnificent new potatoes &c.

On the way back to the car.
Could be Greece or Italy, but these crystalline waters
are the Atlantic Ocean.
Conclusion: out of season, Chipiona is a delightful place to visit and as yet is still off the international tourist radar. At this time of year and with the mild weather that we’re having, it is a wonderful town for a weekend visit.
The sun sets behind the 
lighthouse.



[1] One Duke of Alba was in charge of the famous Spanish Armada – and also of the brutal repression of the Low Countries. In fact the Dutch version of our bogeyman is the aforementioned Duke. As far as the Armada was concerned, and luckily for the English, as they had run out of gunpowder and shot: “God blew and they [the Sapnish ships] were scattered”.
[2] A word to the wise: rebujito is both delicious and refreshing – but also extremely intoxicating; more than one long glass and the ground turns into a trampoline.