SHOOTS FROM LA ALPUJARRA

Hi friends, we visited the beautiful villages of the Alpujarra area, situated on the south side on the Sierra Nevada mountains. We where not very lucky with the weather, cloudy, even foggy when we reached the 1400 meters, and it was cold. There are a lot of small villages most with less than 500 inhabitants, before living of the agriculture, but now most live of the turism. We visited the most known Pampaneira, where many of the moors retired when they had to leave Granada, Capileira the last village on the road going over to Granada though Sierra Nevada, now closed for motor traffic, but with many hiking routs, even up to the Mulhacen peak, at 3482meters.
Trevelez, the origen of the Serrano Ham, here called Jamon de Trevelez, there are many possibilities to visit the bodegas where the hams are hanging to dry in the fresh mountain air. Try the chorizos as well, you can buy all their products, you can even get it sent home.
Tha gastronomy is mostly pork products, trouts from the rivers, their local vine, and the typical bread and moorish recipes of sweets.
Dry figs, and sweets made of figs, almonds and local honey, you must try them, and the famous Soplillos, see the recipe on my blog.
There are many posibilities to stay a night or two, have a look at these sites :                                      Turismo Pampaneira     
Turismo Capileira   
                                                                                                                                                          Hotels, Casas Rurales, Apartments and I can recomend a very nice hotel we stayed in, Hotel La Alcazaba de Busquistar ( their web site is under construction) Tel.958 858 687 , very nice staff, fine food, indoor pool and spa, good value for the money. 

I hope you liked my small photo book of this special Spanish place.

Have a good week, lots of love;

Hilde

HOMEMADE HAMBURGER WITH CARAMELISED ONION

This morning we went for a more than 2 hours walk in the Natural Park of Sierra Nevada,

the edge of the park is quite near our house,  and we have a lot of posibilities for walking around here.
The countryside is very dry at the moment, we need some rain,  the rosemary already has flowers, I think even mother nature is a bit confused, the seasons are changing so much, nothing , even the weather is like it used to be.

Anyway, my lavender has nice flowers, so I picked some for the kitchen, my favorite place to be, specially in the spring and summer when the doors always are open to the garden.

We have been eating veggies the whole week, and my man deserves ome meat,  my butcher minced some veal, for theese fantastic hamburgers, wich  we love, all of us.

Shopping list
600 gr carne de ternera picada.         ( minced meat of veal)
1 huevo.                                            ( egg)
3 cucharadas de pan integral rallado   ( breadcrumbs of whole grain bread)
1 cucharada de salsa soja.                  ( tablespoon soy sauce)
1 cucharada de perejil.                        ( tablespoon parsley)
Pizca de sal de ajo, sal de Himalaya y pimienta.  ( pinch og garlic salt, pepper and Himalaya Salt)
AOVE.                                                ( extra virgen olive oil)
4 pan de hamburguesa.                        ( hamburger bread)

4 cebollas.                                            ( onions)
8 granos de pimienta negra.                  ( whole black peppers)
AOVE.                                                 (Extra virgen olive oil)
1 cucharada de azucar morena.              ( tablespoon of brown sugar)
Pizca de sal del Himalaya.                      (Pinch of Himalaya salt)

Start dividing the onions in two, and chopping them in thin slices, put 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a skillet, heat and put the onion slices in with a little salt and the black pepper corns, let fry on medium/high temperature until the onions are transparent.

 While the onions are frying mix the egg, breadcrumbs,garlic salt, soy sauce, parsley( fresh or dry, both ok ) salt and pepper into the minced meat, and mix wery well, and save

.Then  add enough water to cover the half of the onions, mix, add the sugar and mix again. In a couple of min. the water has evaporated, and the onions start to have a brown colour, it's important now to stir all the time, it must caramelise but not burn. When it's dark brown, strain the oil away, and save in a serving bowl.

Prepare the skillet just covering the bottom with olive oil, prepare 4 high burgers, with wet hands it's easier, and cook on middle fire, they should be done but a little raw inside, toast the burger breads just slightly, and translate the bread and hamburger to a plate. I also use to put individual glass bowls of ketchup and mustard, dijon type is great, and the carameliced onions and some pickled cucumbers in small bowls beside, everyone can make their own personalized burger. 

I will make a post of vegan burger in my new, Spanish written blog in a cpuple of days,link here;

www.recetasdehilde.blogspot.com

My Best Burger

.

Here everybody likes the burgers with a beer, I seldom drink beer, but somtimes I make myself a gift, water from Voss in Norway, you can find it in the Gourmet section at El Corte Ingles, the taste  of water water.

The rosemary from the countryside smells so different from the one we have in the garden.

I hope theese will be your favorite burgers now,  when I make tapas for a crowd of people, I make a mini version,  and the try is always emptied.

Love
Hilde

VEGAN CHOCOLATE MUSSE, AND SOME OF GRANADAS CHARMING SPOTS

Hope you all had a good weekend, and enjoyed the unusual good wheater we have at this time of the year, fall is coming slowly, wonderful sunny days, but nights are getting slowly colder, and  the leaves on the trees along my preferent walking track along the Rio Dilar are yellowing. This weekend we have stayed home, but with the nice visit of my uncle and aunt( my motehers youngest sister ) from Norway.
It's always so nice to have the family around, with some nice meals, glasses of  wine, a walk in the coutry side , in the old town of Granada, and for me to chat in Norwegian,wich I don't have many occations to do.

I had some dishes prepared when they arrived on friday, and they where so amused aboat the Vegan chocolate musse, so I share the recipe with all of you.

Shopping list

1 calabaza mediana.                      ( medium size  butternut squash)
6 cucharadas de cacao en polvo.    ( cocoa)
1 taza de almendras.                      ( almonds)
6 cucharadas de sirope de agave.    ( agave surup)
3 cucharadas de leche de coco.        ( coconut milk)
3-4 cucharadas de almendra laminada ( laminated almonds)

Start peeling the almonds, I use to put some water into yhe cup and let it micro wave for 2 min. Then it's so easy to peel, put on a kitchen towel or paper to dry.
Then peel and cut the butternut in big slices as I show on the photo, then wrap in   Aluminio. , and cook in the owen for 45 min. ( pinch with a knife to see if its soft all through.. Then leave to cool a little, I have done this for a couple of times before, but this last time it was quite humid, so I had to press the liquid out pressing it in a strainer  with a wooden  spoon.

Put the almonds in the food processor, start on medium , and slowly go up yo fast speed, it should be like flour, then add the butternut sqash, the agave sypup,the cocoa, and the coconut milk, and let the food processor run for a couple of min. , until its really smooth. Taste if you want it sweeter or more chocolate taste then add more cocoa or syrup.

Put into small serving glasses, and leave in the fridge for 3-4 hours, can just as well be prepeared the day before, and take out of the fridge 30 min. before serving, toss some laminated almondas to decorate, I buy it ready laminated in the super.

Raday to enjoy, hope it tastes.


Photos of some of the most charming spots of Granada.

New urban lightning in Gran Via.

Paseo de Los Tristes.

The Monastry of La Concepcion has a museum you can visit in the mornings.

Plaza Nueva, Justice Palace.

Santa Ana Church at Plaza Nueva.

Roof tops seen from Albayzin

Narrow street in the Albayzin.

PEÑISCOLA, LAST STOP BEFORE HOME

Hi, I'm back again to post our stay in Peñiscola, when we left Juen les Pins, the distance to Granada was 1800 km, so we started , thinking  it could be busy on the motorway, but it was ok. We reached the border at 4 pm, and started to discuss where we could  stay for the night, we know the Valencia area quite good, so I started to look at a map in my Iphone, and saw the name of Peñiscola, coast town with a little more than 8000 inhabitants, and thought, we don't know this place, lets try, and started to look on the net for a Hotel.

It was quite fully booked by the beach, but then suddenly I saw a place with a very strange name "Dios Esta Bien", but it was valued by 9,3 points , it's always interesting to see what other travellers mean about a Hotel, so I booked it for the night at a very reasonable price. Situated on the rock of Peñiscolas old town, we had a little surprise, the local fiesta was celebrated, and no cars could go up to the castle, we had to park in the port, My Good, the steep hill, crowded with people, my man and I suit cases in hand, to find this place.

It's more a Casa Rural, than a beach Hotel, but the couple who runs it , Leonor and Guido,( he is from Holland)  makes your stay a great experience, she told us all about the small town, what to see, where to have dinner, and of course that we must have breakfast in their house. 

They are both coffe lovers, toast their own coffe, and make you the best of any coffe you can wish, Cafelatte, Capucchino, Expresso, whatever way you like it. Guido is really in love with Leonor, see that in his eyes, but I don't know if he might love his coffee machines a little more. Funny couple, running this Hotel, since 8 years ago, but they also told us that it took 3 years from the day they bought 3 small houses, Two for the Hotel and one for their own residence, 18 months to get the permissions to renovate the building, and then the construcction, leaving the old stone walls visible, small, but nice rooms, a roof terrace where you can watch the stars, and the coffe bar, where both Leonor and Guido makes the atmosphere.

Ermita de la Virgen de la Ermitana, the ptotectoress of Peñiscola.

From the Castle You can see the beach and the modern part of Peñiscola.

"Navajas" a kind of mollusc, here grilled.

The paella we had at Casa Chicki.

Sea Food Paella.

Funny street decoration .

Light House of Peñiscola.

View from the Light House.

Narrow streets and houses , the balconies decorated for the "Fiestas".

From the Castle, modern part of town, and beach.

Coffe Shop at  Dios Esta Bien.

The best Capucchino.

Breakfast at Dios Esta Bien.

Guidos coffe desk, woooooooow.

The coffe is for sale in their Coffe Shop , or on the net.

Sea view from the old town.

Typical houses and the road up to the Castle.

View rom our balcony at the Hotel, not a single soul in the street, this little town wakes up late, all the photos where taken before breakfst.

Leaving Peñiscola with my suitcase.

My man and his suitcase, still no people around.

The lovers leave their  padlocks, their initials engraved , for the eternal love.

We liked it here, and I want to thank Leonor and Guido for their friendliness.

Here is the link if you want to book, or simply buy their wonderful coffe.

www.diosestabien.com
diosestabien@live.nl
www.cafe-cafe.es

And now we can enjoy Guidos coffe at home, have a good week end all of you, and thenk you so much for dropping in on my life.