Cardamon flan aka A happy accident

From avoiding sugar (with varying degrees of success) to full blown sugarholic. This is my journey. While everyone is on a healthy eating tip these days, with Helmsley&Helmsley and Deliciously Ella,  I appear to have gone the other way entirely in the last couple of months, whilst experimenting with cake and dessert recipes. Writing a cookbook and being  pregnant has given me the perfect reason (excuse?) to fall off the sugar-free wagon and on to a soft cloud of cream cakes and delicate meringue; bouncy doughnuts (I made these twice in the last fortnight) and an unexpected cardamon flan. The flan was a cream-cake-gone-wrong, a very happy accident indeed. Just like my pregnancy come to think of it. It was a taste I'd had before, somewhere in Spain - was it Andalucia or Barcelcona? I can't put my finger on it.  I've visited both numerous times and I wish I'd recorded more of the meals I'd eaten there, because they were some of the best I've ever had. So in summary, a flan similar to this was once eaten by yours truly sometime in the past in Spain. It was not cardamon though, and this ancient, aromatic spice is what makes my flan really special.

Can you see how soft and squigy it is inside? This is because it's based on a cardamon custard: heat 400ml of the milk, cream and cardamon pods slowly in a saucepan. Whisk the sugar and egg yolks together. Blend the cornflour with the remaining 100ml of milk and add to the eggs and carry on whisking. When the milk has come to the boil, take it off the heat for about 10min. Remove the pods and heat once again. Stir continuously until this mixture thickens, then place the pan in a sink of cold water to cool. Stir occasionally. Once the mixture is completely cold blend it with an electric blender or whisk while adding the butter and flour. Bake at 180 degrees C for about 50min.

Ingredients

500ml milk 

50ml single cream 

5 cardamon pods 

3 tablespoons cornflour 

4 egg yolks 

100g light cane sugar 

200ml butter 

150g flour

Food in Madrid - goose barnacles and cardoons

One of my favourite things about Madrid -  along with the fun people; a "clandestino" night club I found myself in at 8am that Sunday; and a massage here - is the food. Spanish food is everything I love - simple, unpretentious and natural. There were a few things that I ate while in Madrid that I've never eaten before, namely "percebes" and "cardo"

 I believe that this is what's called a "goose barnacle" in English. These are fussy, little sea creatures that only live on rocks where the waves break - because of this they are not easy to obtain and quite expensive. We were lucky enough to try them at the Mercado San Anton, when the clams we ordered were "not very well"

"Cardo" translates into English as "thistle" or "cardoon" and it looks like a massive celery. However, unlike celery, here you only eat the heart. I don't know why this appeals so much to me, but it does. Unai cooked it for me at home, with some other vegetables and I enjoyed it so much that I would like to share the recipe with you - this dish hails from the Basque Country, same as Unai. You can use it with any vegetables you like, especially artichoke - cardoon's relative. Cook the cardoon in water for about 15min. Fry the garlic and onion in oil until they are translucent, then add flour. Mix this while frying until it all turns brown. Now add a bit of water from the cardoon - about a ladle-full - and keep stirring and frying for another 8-10mins. Add the cardoon to the sauce, along with any other vegetables that take your fancy and the boiled eggs. Season and serve like this

Ingredients

Cardoons/other vegetables

Onion

Garlic

1 tablespoon flour

Eggs, hard-boiled

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Authentic Spanish Paella

When it's dark and cold as you get up in the morning, dark and cold as you leave work, and grey for most of the time in between, you need to try and bring some sunshine into your life in any way you can. And this winter, sunshine comes in the form of paella for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about eating seasonally and locally, and I try to do that even when making paella, yet there's no need to be obbessive about it, is there now? Just look at my beautiful paella and tell me it doesn't tempt you

A friend of mine, Mariana, who grew up in Spain, has taught me how to make this dish in the proper manner. It's always good to learn how to make something authentically first, as close to the original as possible, before experimenting I find. Like when I learnt to make risotto in the proper manner in Italy. It gives you a good strong foundation to build upon. Incidently, the only thing those to dishes appear to have in common is rice. And not even that really, since Mariana insisted that we used this particular rice, which sadly isn't widely available

Calasparra hails from Murcia, and although paella is traditionally Valencian, I've visited that part of the world and the arroz-type dishes are just as common in both the regions, though the meats, fish and vegetables vary. I had a beautiful rabbit paella in the mountains of Murcia for example. Of course, Valencian rice is just perfect. But do not be tempted to make paella with risotto rice, because it is simply too creamy

Here's Mariana hard at work, when she made it the first time a couple of weeks ago and I decided that when it comes to winter get-togethers with friends, paella is the way forward. Especially, if your friends are willing to help, because two pairs of hands come in really useful here!

Ingredients (serves 3)

2 cups rice

3 tablespoons olive oil

Red pepper, chopped into tiny cubes

Small onion, chopped into tiny cubes

1 tsp saffron

3 tsp paprika

Mussels - 3 handfuls

3 tiger prawns

2 squid, in rings

Fish stock cube

Lemon

2 garlic cloves

Sea salt

Black pepper

Ok, bear with me here because I will need to go into quite a bit of detail. It's not my usual style, but as we've established, you need to do this properly the first time round. Firstly, the red pepper and onion need to be chopped very, very small, but not minced. Crush the garlic cloves and heat the olive oil in a large pan. Fry the garlic to flavour the oil then discard. Fry the onion until golden, then add the red pepper and continue to fry, not stirring too much as it needs to caramelize. Add salt to taste and some paprika. Meanwhile put the seafood in cold water, with the saffron and salt, and bring to the boil. Make sure it's all covered. Cover and cook for about 3min, then remove from the water. Add half a fish stock cube to the hot water, and allow to simmer. Now add the rice to the first pan and stir in for a little while, maybe 3-4min, before adding some stock. You do not stir again. Ever. You shake the dish a bit instead, to spread everything out evenly

It should look like this. Now leave it until the water evaporates, when you can add some more. Keep doing this, shaking the pan a little from time to time. Finally, arrange the seafood on top of the paella in an attractive manner. Cover the pan and allow to cook a while longer, until the rice is perfect. Basically after about 10min, try a bit and see what it tastes like. Sprinkle with more paprika and serve with lemon wedges. When you serve it, you'll see how it's all caramelized at the bottom in a slightly crunchy and incredibly tasty way. That's exactly how it should be - enjoy

Spanish almond cakes aka the tastiest cakes in the world (and no butter!)

There's these little cakes, individually wrapped, that I can only ever find in Spain. And only randomly, in some parts of Spain, but not in others. They are my favourite cakes in the world, and it pains me that I only ever get to enjoy them once every couple of years or so... so you can imagine my astonishment, when the lovely Alice bought some homemade ones into work on her birthday!  I ate five of the little blighters immediately. I finally got round to making them for myself this weekend, and it's the easiest thing in the world - you simply mix all the ingredients with your hands, form little balls and bake in a medium oven for approximately 20-25min

They're not everyone's cup of tea, of course, and some people may find them "a bit dry" - I would describe them as "powdery" myself - but I have to concede that they are best when washed down with a warm drink (mulled wine worked perfectly well). A word of warning - if you do like them, you may not be able to stop. My friend, Simone, came round for lunch today, had one, and asked if she could take some home - result. The same happened with Mariana, which is a massive compliment because she is Spanish, and took some home for another Spanish girl!

Ingredients (makes about 20)

200g plain flour

200g ground almonds

200g icing sugar

100g sunflower/almond/walnut oil

100g light olive oil

1tsp baking powder

1tsp cream of tartar

2tsp cinamon

2tsp vanilla essence

Basque garlic soup

I learnt this dead easy garlic soup recipe when I posed the question at work: "what dish can I make with stale bread?". My friend from the Basque country suggested garlic soup, and it was by far the best sounding option. In fact, it sounded so tasty that I wanted to rush home immediately to make it. However, when I did get home I discovered that all my stale bread had been thrown away by my zealous flatmate in a kitchen clearout. It feels, therefore, like an eternity until I finally got the chance to make garlic soup (this time I hid the stale bread away in the back of the cupboard, not wanting to risk any further disappointment). The recipe down there makes about 4 portions, give or take, you know how I am with measurements

Ingredients

4 chicken thighs

5-6 cloves of garlic

Stale crusty bread - I had 4 small rolls

2 tsp paprika

1 lemon

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

First, you make stock from the chicken thighs - I boiled them in a saucepan of water for about 2 hours. Take the chicken out and allow to cool so that you can handle it easily, without burning your fingers. Pull the meat off the bones. Discard the skin and keep the tasty bits. Tear the bread into chunks, or just cut it if it is too hard. Fry the garlic and bread chunks in a small amount of olive oil, until brown, and for the last couple of minutes, add the paprika. Finally, add the bread mixture and the chicken bits back into the broth. Flavour with salt and pepper, and squeeze in the lemon juice. The last bit was my own addition, as I felt that the soup needed something else, and the lemon cut nicely through the other flavours. You may want to use a little bit less lemon, as I like things pretty zingy