Spaniards have a sweet tooth

Didn´t you know that we love desserts? Well, I guess this is something rather common for human beings in general, but we always find an occasion to eat something sweet, and whenever you go in Spain you will find a wide variety of specialties from the region. It is very common to visit a city or a village and find a nuns convent, where you can find the most delicious and home made sweet specialties. If you ever spot one, don´t hesitate to come in and buy some samples.

Now, I´d like to introduce you to the concept of home made sweet recipes and the best way to do so, is by showing you how to easily prepare a spongy “Bizcocho de la Abuela”, “Grandma´s cake”. It was my grandma who used to cook this yummy cake, and I inherited my grandma and mam´s passion for baking..

So, what do you need to bake this cake?
- 3 eggs
- A big spoon of baking powder
- ½ grated lemon rind
- 1 natural yoghurt
- 1 yoghurt measure of olive oil
- 2 yoghurt measure of sugar
- 2 and ½ yoghurt measure of self raising white flour
- 1 apple cut in small pieces

It will only take you 15 minutes to prepare the cake and put it in the oven, plus then an additional 45 minutes approximately of oven baking. If you are ready to start, first of all you need to pour the eggs, baking powder, lemon and yoghurt into a big bowl and start to whisk them while you add the oil, then the sugar and finally the flour, so that everything gets in a uniform smooth mix. Once the mix is done, you need to prepare the baking tin appropriately so that the cake comes out smoothly when baked, and you can do that by adding some oil to the tin and then some flour. You will also need to have a pre-heated oven at 120 degrees.

Get hold of the apple now, this is the cook touch. Add the mix into the baking tin, and while you do so, you can add the apple pieces so that the cake surprise you and your guests when trying it! They always ask what´s in it, that tastes so nice and smooth ;)

Enjoy!

Adelante – Welcome

Let us make a toast for all of you dear readers, with a special Spanish wine from one of the most important wine regions in Spain, Ribera de Duero. We will introduce you today to this lovely region in the north of Spain, but before that, and to really understand Spain, you need to understand the importance of food for us.

The best way to drink and enjoy wine is by accompanying it with a “tapa”, in this occasion we are accompanying our wine with “Champiñones con Jamon” (Mushroom with ham and foie). If you go to Spain, you will hear people saying “vamos a tapear” meaning that we are going to have some tapas, going from one bar to another having a drink and a tapa. The origin of tapa comes from the old times when in bars they served a wine or a beer with a piece of bread with ham, chorizo, etc on top o the glass, tapa means cover in English.

Would you like to try and prepare these delicious mushrooms? First of all you have to empty the mushrooms, and cut the inside in little pieces. Then you fry them lightly, together with ham and green peppers. Once they are done, you fry the mushrooms with a little bit of olive oil, and stuff them with the mix, adding some foie on the top and a bit of sea salt. They are ready!

Coming back to wine, we´d like to introduce you today to Tinto Roa Crianza, it is a wine from “Vinos de Rauda” winery, founded in 1956 by a group of wine agricultures. Tempranillo is the only grape variety cultivated by this winery , they are irrigated by the Duero river. The color of the wine is cherry red with violet tones, its aroma is sweet, ripe fruit, harmoniously assembled with the pleasant aromas of the aging (balsamic, toasty, aromatic), and the taste is smooth, sweet and wide in the mouth with well-balanced tannins, good body and persistent in the finish.

Ribera de Duero is one of the most prestigious wine regions in Spain, including the provinces of Burgos, Valladolid, Soria and Segovia. The “D.O” origin denomination is hosted in the historic and singular Roa de Duero in Burgos. The village of Roa has a rich history and tradition of viticulture dating to the time of the Roman conquest of Iberia. Around 100 b.c., the Romans, captivated by the rich soil fed by the Duero river, founded Rauda, now known as Roa, where they first planted vines and were pioneers in the elaboration of wine through the latest techniques developed at the time.

But we will talk about this along our blog in coming posts, so be ready to discover with us our wines, and our food, and through it, also the Spanish history.