Paz, a former university professor, was not at home that day. She was at the holiday market in Oviedo to show the wool and textiles that are part of her work to preserve the local textile arts. Xandru gave us a quick overview of a few textile making artifacts that looked to me like they were pulled right out of a fairytale.

Xandru is a cook and gardener, so we always have plenty to talk about. On this visit we quickly touched on spelt cultivation, how he grows the grain and transforms it into bread all right here on the property.

Walking around the property is like walking through time. It’s magical. And just like magic, we quickly found ourselves in the cider cellar. The smell of fermenting cider permeated the room on that December morning.

We tried cider right from the barrel. Not ready yet, he said. To me it tasted just like the cider my uncle Zoilo used to make. We would always drink it before it was “ready.” This is the taste of early winter from my childhood. Xandru also opened a bottle of finished cider for us to try.

This cider was a treasure to be shared: he sent me off with a couple of bottles that we enjoyed during our stay in Asturias. I hope you will soon have a chance to try Asturian cider, or failing that, a local cider brewed in your own community. If you have a favorite cider house, let me know about it so that we can compare notes.

Buen provecho!

One experiment that has become a favorite is an olive oil bread made in a cast iron pan. For this, I coat the fermentation container with extra olive oil. The cast iron pan heats up in a 450° F oven for at least 30 minutes. Then I drizzle more olive oil over the dough. This is not just for flavor and texture–it also makes it easier to get the dough out of the container and onto the cast-iron with one hand without sticking.

I sprinkle the dough with herbs or black seed and let it bake for twenty minutes. Makes a great bread for a tapas style meal.

You can see in the photos what a difference these changes make to the final product.

Buen provecho!

These are one of the easiest pre-meal cocktails you can make. Chilled vermouth. Some add ice. Lemon or orange wedge, maybe a few olives. Perfect summer drink to drink while you’re getting dinner ready. Salud!

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Dorene Pasekoff is another friend who shares my obsession with seeds and special heirlooms.  She grows them to order for chefs and veggie lovers at Hill Creek Farm in Pottstown, PA. As we talked about a few different peppers and other garden crops we were planning to grow this year, Dorene mentioned Truelove Seeds.

Truelove Seeds is Owen Taylor’s seed keeping project. I knew Owen from the Philadelphia seed exchange but I wasn’t familiar with the work he was doing at Truelove Seeds. He has made a huge effort to reconnect many people to foods of their childhood or ethnic foods that for one reason or another have disappeared from their lives. They collect and care for all these seeds to make sure they are available to you next time you’re ready to grow them. That’s true love. Even if you’re not in Pennsylvania, check them out. You might find the seed that will inspire you to make a dish from your childhood or create new, delicious food memories.

Buen provecho!

Maria cookies–“Galletas Maria”–are well known all over the Spanish speaking world. In Spain, they are found in every home. They are so iconic that you only have to ask for a “galleta” and you will get one of these cookies. (Now, if you’ve been bad and your mom says, “I’m going to give you a galleta!” that’s different–in that case, she is offering a spanking.) We use Maria cookies for breakfast and snacks, and also as an ingredient in desserts.

Here in the United States people don’t seem as familiar with them. There are usually at least a few golden foil sleeves of Goya brand Maria cookies in the “ethnic foods” aisle of most grocery stores in the Pittsburgh area. But on this shopping trip, there were a couple special varieties of Maria cookie that I haven’t seen for a long while. Why is a rural grocery stocking three different varieties of Maria cookie? Who knows! I bought one of each kind for my daughters to try.

The classic Maria cookie is a little like a graham cracker, but has a finer texture. These were the ones that were always in our pantry. The “Maria Supreme” is a little more buttery, a little fancier than a regular Maria cookie, and also appeared in our pantry from time to time. The third kind, Campechanas, are imprinted with a spiral to remind you of a palmier pastry. They taste more like a cracker, a lighter, sweet version of a Ritz cracker. That might sound odd, but they are great with your afternoon espresso.

If you find any kind of Maria cookie, get a package to try. We will get through these days of isolation one galleta at a time.

Buen provecho!

Violets are an edible flower that have long been a part of my culinary and pastry work, but they also have a number of medicinal uses and health benefits. This spring, violets have captured my family’s interest in the form of violet jelly. If you have kids to help you, it’s easy to fill a quart bag with blooms. Don’t worry if there are a couple of centimeters of stem here and there among the flowers. They are edible, and it doesn’t seem to affect the jelly.

You can find a number of recipes on the internet for violet jelly. The recipe from The Nerdy Farmwife was a good resource because it minimizes the proportion of sugar, yet will still set firm and turn into jelly.

The purple color of the jelly is the main attraction; the flavor is only faintly floral. What could be done to intensify this flavor? Adding a little crème de violette boosts the flavor, and it’s a nice liqueur to have in your collection because it’s an ingredient in fancy springtime cocktails like the Blue Moon, Aviation, and Water Lily. The Rothman and Winter brand of liqueur is especially nice for the jelly because the flavor is just violet unblended with citrus, vanilla, or other flavor. Rothman and Winter doesn’t seem to have a website (?!) but plenty of product information and recipes for Rothman and Winter Crème de Violette are available from retailers online.

The fresher your violet harvest, the better, of course, but if you can’t gather 2-3 cups of violet flowers all at once, not to worry–they seem to keep just fine in the refrigerator.

Violet jelly

• 2 to 3 cups loosely packed violet blooms
• 2 1/2 cups boiling water
• 1 tablespoon crème de violette
• A smidgen (1/32 teaspoon) of sour salt or some lemon juice
  The only purpose of the acidic ingredient is to alter the color of the jelly from an inky violet black to a lighter purple.
• 1 package (1.75 oz) of Sure-Jell pectin
• 3 1/2 cups sugar

1. Rinse the violets in a colander to clean them.
2. Pour 2 ½ C. boiling water over 2 ½ C. violet blooms. Stir to make sure all the blooms are covered.
3. Steep for 3-5 minutes, until you feel like the water has gotten as dark as it’s going to get. It will be an inky purple.
4. Pour the water and blooms through a strainer into a clear glass container so that you can see the color your jelly will be. Squeeze every drop of colored water out of the violets, and then discard or compost them.
5. Add 1 smidgen of sour salt. If you don’t have sour salt, add lemon juice a drop at a time until you like the color.
6. Put the Sure-Jell powder into a saucepan with the hot violet water. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly, and boil for 1 minute.
7. Add the sugar — keep stirring constantly — and bring back to a boil for another minute.
8. Remove the pan from heat, skim off any foam, and stir in 2-4 tablespoons of Crème de Violette.
9. Ladle the jelly into containers and let it cool before using. If you want to store the jelly at room temperature, use sterilized canning jars and process them in a water bath for 5 minutes (see more canning how-tos). Otherwise, store in the refrigerator.

If you try this recipe, or find another that you like, let me know! We’ll compare notes.

More information on the health benefits of violets, botanical information, another recipe, and one more recipe.

Buen provecho!

Most of the fig tree leaves have fallen, revealing small green small figs that will not ripen in this weather. An old-fashioned Mediterranean way to use these doomed figs is to candy them. They become something similar to the candied fruits that you would use in holiday desserts.

Of course, no preparation can match the tasty ripe fig, but candied figs are better than none.

This is a simple recipe. The only thing you have to worry about is removing all of the milky white sap. This white stuff is latex! Don’t worry, it’s easy to remove the sap from your unripe figs. Boil them, wash them, and drain them a couple of times to be sure that the sap is gone.

candied unripe figs

This recipe makes the best of falling temperatures by using the end-of-season figs that won’t have time to ripen before the warm weather ends.

• 2 pounds unripe figs
• 2 pounds sugar
• 5 1/2 cups water
• 1 lemon
• 4 cloves

Wash the figs and cut of the woody stems.

Unripe figs have a milky sap which must be removed by boiling them twice, changing the water each time.

Cover the figs with with water, bring to a boil, and keep at a low boil for about 10 minutes. Discard the hot water and let the figs cool.

When the figs are cool enough to touch, squeeze the water out of them and repeat the boiling process: cover them with fresh water, boil for 10 minutes, discard the water, let the figs cool, and then squeeze the water out of them.

In a small saucepan, bring 5½ cups of water, 4 cloves, and 2 pounds of sugar to a boil. Add the figs. You will see that the figs return to their original shape as they boil in this syrup. Boil until the liquid reduces by half. This should take about 25 minutes. Finally, add the juice of one lemon and boil for 5 minutes more.

When cool, you can put the figs in a jar, filling the jar to the top with the syrup. This can be refrigerated or kept at room temperature in a dry and dark place.

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