Spain

Above Montejaque

I love to cook when I'm abroad and non more so than at my friends flat in the fantastic mountain village of Montejaque, near Ronda in Andulacia. A copy of 'Floyd on Spain' cookbook resides there in the kitchen waiting for me to return. The kitchen window overlooks the street and locals passing below look up as they smell what I'm enjoying cooking.

First thing some mornings you can hear the rattle of an old engine and (we call him Toni Meloni) his booming voice calling out:- 'tomates, pimientos, melon, cebolla, calabaza'

Anyway as Floyd said, 'It tastes so good because it's cooked with happy vegetables' and he's right my little gastronauts, you slice into a pepper and juice runs out, the same with a cucumber - unheard of in the UK, here I try and cook flavour into stuff - there it's already there! Favourites include 'Montejaque beans' made with those white beans that are in jars, and morcella (a Spanish black pudding) some chorizo. Another a kind of Gypsy stew with pear, chickpeas and pumpkin. And chicken with red peppers. Oh and chickpeas with spinach and stuffed aubergines the recipe is so good it's called 'The Priest Fainted'.

In the evening at the bar El Rincon you can enjoy a sort of sausage in red wine tapas, a few beers and a Pacharán, just wonderful.