Category Archives: Recipes

Basically I love food and I love cooking so the idea behind the blog was to write down recipes that I had tried and those we’d liked and would want to eat again. As John began producing more and more food on the huerta, I wanted to make keep a record of recipes for certain foods that we could cook again in the years to come.

Cherry Cake

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CHERRY CAKE

Now that the cherries are ripe, it’s a race to get them before the birds finish them off and I’ve been trying out new recipes to use them up. 

Cherry Cake

INGREDIENTS

  • 225g butter, softened
  • 225g white sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 225g self-raising flour
  • 350g cherries, stoned
  • icing sugar

METHOD

  1. Pre-heat oven to 180ºC.
  2. Line a 23cm square tin.
  3. Beat the butter and sugar together.
  4. Beat in the eggs.
  5. Gradually mix in the flour.
  6. Fold in the cherries.
  7. Put in the cake tin and bake for 60 minutes.
  8. Sprinkle the top with icing sugar.

 

Cherry Jam with Powdered Pectin

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cortijoblog cherry jam

CHERRY JAM

I try to use the least amount of sugar for jam-making but it will always depend on the sweetness of the fruit. Sorry about the mixed up measurements, but I liked the simplicity of whole numbers in different systems. 

Cherry Jam

INGREDIENTS

  • 8lb cherries
  • 17 tablespoons powdered pectin
  • 2kg sugar

METHOD

  1. Roughly pulse the cherries in a food processor.
  2. Transfer to a large preserving pan.
  3. Sprinkle over the pectin and mix thoroughly.
  4. Bring to the boil.
  5. Add in the sugar and stir well.
  6. Bring the jam to a rolling boil and boil for 1 minutes (this takes quite a bit of time).
  7. Skim the scum off the surface with a  slotted spoon.
  8. Pour into jars.
  9. Cook the jars in a water bath for 15 minutes.

Gazpacho 2024

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GAZPACHO

Although it is really too early in the tomato-growing season to fully appreciate the flavour of sun-ripened tomatoes, I wanted to make a recipe for 2 people without the addition of any bread. This recipe makes about 1000 ml of gazpacho.

This recipes serves two but it can be easily adapted.

Gazpacho

It only takes a few minutes to prepare this refreshing, cold tomato soup which is perfect for hot, summer days.

 

INGREDIENTS

  • 6 large plum tomatoes (about 725g in total), roughly chopped
  • 1 small Italian green pepper, roughly chopped
  • 15cm cucumber, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 small onion
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • a good glug of extra virgin olive oil
  • a good splash of balsamic vinegar
  • a splash of normal vinegar
  • 1 heaped teaspoon of homemade garlic mayonnaise (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup water

METHOD

  1. Blend the tomatoes in a food blender.
  2. Add the other vegetables and blend for another couple of minutes.
  3. Add the oil, vinegars, salt and water and blend well.
  4. Chill thoroughly before serving.

Patatas a lo Pobre or Patatas Panaderas in the Oven

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PATATAS A LO POBRE

This popular Spanish dish slowly cooks sliced potatoes in olive oil with onions, green peppers and garlic. It is often served in restaurants, particularly in Southern Spain. Patatas panaderas is a similar version where the potatoes are cooked in the oven.

Rather than frying the sliced potatoes on the hob in a frying pan with lots of olive oil, I decided to cook them in the oven. They worked really well but I thought the times and temperatures suggested in the recipe I followed could be changed to cook them for slower and longer. Rather than using a glass dish covered with foil, next time I would use an iron lidded casserole. This recipe has the new times and temperatures.

Patatas a lo pobre


 

INGREDIENTS

  • 150g potato per person, peeled and cut into 4mm slices
  • 1 large onion, cut into thin slices
  • 1 green pepper, cut into thin slices
  • 5 (or as many as you like) cloves garlic, peeled
  • a splash white wine
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper

METHOD

  1. Put the potato, onion, pepper and garlic into a casserole.
  2. Drizzle over some olive oil.
  3. Pour over the wine and season with salt and pepper.
  4. Put the lid on the casserole and place in the oven.
  5. Turn on the oven and heat to 180ºC.
  6. When it has reached its temperature, cook for 1 hour.
  7. Remove the lid and toss the potatoes.
  8. Turn up the heat to 200ºC and cook for another 30 minutes when it has reached the temperature.

Roasted Red Peppers

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ROASTED RED PEPPERS

We’ve just been given the most amazing red peppers by some friends who grow vegetables over in. They are massive and full of flavour so I’ve been experimenting with different methods for roasting them.

Roasting Red Peppers in the Air Fryer

METHOD

  1. Cut the peppers into 1cm thick strips.
  2. Put the strips directly in the air fryer basket and AIR FRY at 200ºC for 20 minutes.
  3. Open the drawer every 10 minutes and drain off the liquid. You can use this in other dishes and is good added to soup.
  4. At the end of the cooking time, drain off any remaining liquid and toss in some oil in a bowl.
  5. Put back in the air fryer and AIR FRY for a further 20 minutes at 200ºC.
  6. After 10 minutes, open the drawer and put the pepper slices back in the bowl with the oil from the drawer. Toss well before returning to the drawer for the rest of the cooking time.
  7. Season with salt and pepper and leave in air fryer with the drawer closed until needed.