Andy the bar manager at Movida explains this classic cold soup as "The beach cricket of Spain - it screams summer." For me it's a celebration of the tomato. Real tomatoes. Sweet, tangy tomatoes at their vine ripened best. Home gardeners with a surplus of late summer tomatoes and a loaf of stale bread will find this a pleasing solution to their oversupply. A word of caution however. Follow the ingredients and method meticulously as deviations may cause an imbalance of flavours. This is also a soup from my family's home in Cordoba - another reason to treat this dish with great respect.
Serves 4
Ingredients1kg vine ripened, soft tomatoes1 garlic clove250 g stale heavy white bread (pasta dura) 100 ml extra virgin olive oil plus a little extra 1 heaped teaspoon salt200ml chilled water3 hard boiled eggs / diced80 g jamón / dicedaged sherry vinegarMethod
Puree tomatoes and garlic and in a food processor. Strain this tomato mixture through a chinois. Disacrd the skin and seeds. Break the bread up into golf ball-sized pieces and place in a large stainless steel bowl. Pour the strained tomato mixture, olive oil and salt over the bread. You'll need this amount of salt as it is a cold soup and anything served cold needs extra seasoning. Using your hands squish the tomato mixture into the bread, really working the liquid through. Allow it to stand for 15 minutes allowing the bread to soak in the liquid. Puree the entire mixture again in a food processor, adding water until the soup is the consistency of thick cream and a pleasing salmon pink colour. Chill.
Serve in bowls finished with egg, jamón a generous drizzle of good olive oil and a small dash of aged sherry vinegar.
Shred the parsley finely, cut the cauliflower into florettes the same size as the farro and retain raw. Blanch, skin and de-seed the tomatoes, then dice into the same size as the cauliflower. Cook the lentils and the farro according to the directions and cool. In a bowl combine the grains and dress heavily, do so as to avoid too much of the lemon juice having contact with the leaves. Then add the rest of the ingredients and season accordingly.
nb: We serve it as a cleanser for the meal but given a slightly lighter hand with the lemon juice it is also good as a salad. It is also important to use curly parsley as I find it has a more fibrous texture that handles the acid.
Recipe kindly supplied by Frank Camora of Movida Bar de Tapas www.movida.com.au
Rosquillos are the best and easiest doughnuts to make in the world. You can make a batch of these in the time that it takes to line up Krispy Kream. When I make them with my mum she laughs and says my hands are too big to form them properly. She has a wonderful knack of rolling out the dough in one perfect, gentle movement. The dough itself is a one step process and is shortened with olive oil and flavoured with lemon rind to make the shortest, lightest tastiest doughnuts. The temptation is to dust them with icing sugar and eat them straight away. Don't. Wait until they cool down. They are so much better when cool. Makes 20
Ingredients
2 eggs250 ml cream250 ml freshly squeezed orange juicerind of one lemon, finely chopped 125 ml olive oil 120 g caster sugar 850 g self raising flouroil to deep fryExtra180 g caster sugar2 tablespoons ground cinnamonMethod
Place all ingredients into a bowl except the flour. Mix well. Add the flour until a soft dough is formed. Knead for 1 minute. It should be the consistency of loose bread dough. In the palms of your hands roll the dough into balls the size of golf balls. Then on a cold lightly floured bench roll into a cylinder 15cm long. Pinch the ends together to make little doughnut shaped rings. Heat the oil to 180°. Deep fry the rosquillos for two minutes turn and deep fry for a further 2 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool completely then coat with cinnamon sugar.
Rosquillos are best eaten that day but they will keep for a couple of days when they will best suited to dunking in morning coffee.
This is a tasty simple bung together dish where all the magic happens in the oven. Deliciously warming on cold wintry nights
600gms of large dice boned lamb shoulder 1large brown onions sliced in half moons 2 leeks cut into 3cm round chunks 4 cloves garlic 1 fresh bayleaf 4 medium carrots organic if possible peeled and chopped in large chunks 4 waxypotatoes peeled and sliced in half cm slices 50gms butter 60 mls extra virgin oil 140gms of Mount Zero farro3 large sprigs of rosemary 5 sprigs of thyme 2 vegtable stock cubes waterPlace a caste iron type pot with a wide base and lid, over high heat. Add the oil and half the butter and brown the meat chunks well. Season then remove the meat, add the onion and the sliced garlic and soften with a little butter and add the rest of the butter and the carrots, leeks and the herbs and stir and cook for 3 mins the then add the potatoes and stir through the farro. Crumple over the stock cubes, add the lamb and cover with water. Bring to the boil and and top with the lid and slip into a pre heated oven at 170 c for 1 hour 50mins and cook until tender and the potato has broken down with lots of juices.