Spanish trip - Monday

Monday October 29th 2007


Cortijo el Castano, Nr Orgiva, Andalucia, Spain


We spent much of this morning in Orgiva having a good look round all the shops, tapas bars and restaurants. Last night we had eaten at one of the places we thought Nigel had drawn on his map but it turned out we were in the wrong place. Moreover, the one he had recommended closed last night for the next month, so we've missed out on that one. We are still pondering on whether it might be possible to have a meal out with everybody at least once during each week. If we can find somewhere good enough, that could be a really nice thing to do.

We did manage to find one of Orgiva's health food shops and bought some frozen berries for tonight's meal with Nigel and Zoe, and took a good note of all the things they stock there that we might use next year. We are also testing out the bakeries. At least one opens really early and we would be able to buy pastries for breakfast. There are quite a number of interesting cakes that we could also try out on people. The Spanish are not great dessert eaters apparently, either having fruit or various tarts.

Then we had a drive down to the coast calling in at the large supermarket for another check on what we can and cannot buy there. Today's main challenges turned out to be flaked almonds and cream, both of which took us ages to find. On my travels round the supermarket I did discover that local kitchen equipment is really cheap. We had been planning to buy a basic kit at home and carry it down in the Land Rover but instead we'll probably buy it all down here instead. For instance, large paella pans are about £6, compared to more than £20 in the UK.

So we finally settled on our meal plan and were then able to have the afternoon back at the villa. Linda is working for her next Pilates exam whereas I spent the time mainly reading the 50th anniversary edition of Jack Kerouac's On the Road, a book I haven't read for nearly 30 years! I had forgotten whole sections of it - for instance the really beautiful section about the Mexican girl, Terry.

Orange trees in full fruit by the pool - these will apparently be still available in the spring next year

So after a couple of hours of this we were set to start doing the meal for Zoe and Nigel. We had selected a somewhat ambitious menu of marinated mushrooms, prawns with chilli and an orange and avocado salad for starters, followed by peppered chicken, mojete and patatas bravas for main course, then forest berries with chocolate, honey and cream sauce for dessert. A couple of these we had never done before, but some are among our favourites back home.

We thought the evening went very well and we got the all-important thumbs up from Nigel - a committed foody. Just about everything was eaten, which is always a good sign. Once change from previous times was that we cooked the mojete for much longer - well over two hours - and that seemed to really make a big difference.

We stayed up talking till well after midnight and we now have even more ideas to think about for next year. Nigel and Zoe even offered us their house if we sell out our main bookings!

Zoe and Nigel hopefully enjoying their meal with us.