Biking & Baking in Las Alpujarras

Here's a similar recipe to try:

Here's an easy recipe (which I plan to try this weekend) courtesy of Dr Elizabeth Cass, resident of Gibraltar about 50 years ago:

Ingredients: 1/4 lb fat bacon, 1/2 pig's chap (whatever does that look like??!), 1/2 tsp salt, 2 cloves garlic, 1 tsp curry powder, 1 lb dried broad beans, 2 quarts water (4 pints??).

Place everything in the cold water and cook slowly until the beans are tender.  I suggest eating this with soft white bread that will soak up the juices and a white Rioja wine.  Please let me know what you make of this soup and any suggestions to improve/change its flavour or appearance.

On another note, we had  a great walk yesterday from Mecina Fondales and its 'Roman' bridge (probably predates the Romans), up to the genuine Arabic aljibe or water cistern, right along the valley opposite our white villages and then down the old zigzag path to the Rio Trevelez, then back up to Ferreirola and Atalbeitar.  As we descended the steep path, we saw below a long stream of sheep, goats, dogs and 2 men, one at the front, one at the rear  on a white horse.  The transhumancia!!  And coming our way!  This is the journey undertaken twice a year, to get the livestock from the coastal lowlands up into the mountains and then back down again before winter arrives.  Usually it's May/June going up and end of September going down.  Who knows, in 2 weeks there may be snow on the peaks. We managed to find a corner of the path that would not hinder the upcoming animal traffic, and enjoyed the woolly flow as it surged past us: horned rams, soft-nosed females, young cabras dancing along and finally the plodding horse, picking its way amongst the rocks and shale.  The shepherd told us that he had been doing this for 25 years, all the way from Mulhacen to the sea.

We were so weary and starving from our day that we took ourselves off to El Mirador in Pitres and ate lamb tagines (order in advance, 2 sharing,12 euros each), carrot and hazelnut cake, and I drank a mean tinto de verano.  'Say goodnight to the folks Gracie!!'

Don't know about  you folks down on the coast but we had a lot of good, wetting rain yesterday afternoon/evening.  Just the ticket as everything had got so dry.  I managed to get 2 chocolate brownie cakes made, one with 1/2 coffee, 1/2 rum as an experiment...Steve's fellow 'mountain athletes,' as I believe they're now called, think brownie's are perfect food to sustain one at 3000m!  He is also stocking up on dried items and has plans for a weekend out alone fairly soon (before the rain becomes snow).

The Poco Picante literary evening  Spoken Word was excellent even with just 10 or 12 of us.  Usual good curry from Dave & John, people reading their own work, a Dutchman giving an excellent rendering (from memory) of Wordsworth's Daffodils and Hamlet's soliloquy...and yours truly did the Spanish bit with Lorca's Cancion de Jinete (Rider's Song).  Pity the Spanish diners had left by then...

Now then, France v NZ kick off in a an hour or so...must get to see that...and the carpintero has returned so a few windows might get fitted...and it's sunny again (of course).  Our friends from Javea arrive tomorrow and we have bought a whole piece of serrano so that Steve can experiment with a traditional Alpujarran soup of beans, onions and ham, but I wonder whether to make some jamon croquettes as tapas...and we'll have to take them to Mecinilla to sample Marissa's great cooking...or maybe Cafe Julio in Pampaneira...

We seem to be on two wheels or four legs most of the time at the moment: either Steve is bombing off to Mecina to water some friends' plants and veggie garden, or I am disappearing for another 3 hour ride in the mountains!  Either way, it is quite tiring, and turning out for some evening entertainment is really difficult.  I shall manage tango tonight but only because it is a 'refresher' class and very local; Steve will probably just sleep and I'll find him on the soafa when I get in.

Today was very hot again but we managed to pick up a cooling breeze up above Bubion in the mountains.  They forecast rain but it has not appeared!  6 of us walked, trotted, cantered and galloped along the mountain paths...the gallop almost got out of control as my horse would NOT let another one past it, and just went faster and faster, whilst poor Inger, at the front by then, was having a hard time stopping hers at all!  But we enjoyed ourselves a lot...Inger and I are discussing a 10 day horse-trek across Iceland next year...

Tomorrow night we will go to Bubion for the 'book reading and other literature' event at Poco Picante.  Last time I recited a 5 line Lorca poem; this time it's 14 lines I think and I am getting them off by heart (in Spanish).  No point in doing it if not in the correct and original language. 

I can feel that I am drifting off (all the riding and sunshine) so mention of motorbikes and cakes will have to wait............

Last night we had the great privilege of hearing the cellist Bernard Gregor-Smith playing in Ferreirola, quietly seated in the window balcony of the Alexande Music School.  He played Schubert, Bach and other pieces, just with piano accompaniment...the moon came up over the mountain while the clouds turned pink with the setting sun...my friend Angelika brought wine to share...then we all went off to a jolly good supper at El Mirador in Pitres: lamb kebabs,chicken tagines and excellent company.  

Today is 09/11.  I suppose we will all take a moment to remember where we were and how events unfolded.  I hope we also remember how many people from the Middle East have perished in the last 100 years (since the end of the Great War in fact) in equally horrible and shocking ways, at the hands of the West as well as their own countrymen.  Human nature can be inspiring and creative; it can also be greedy, corrupt and cruel. 

But competition drives the human race forward and of course it's the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand (pull your socks up England!) and Murray faces Nadal in New York (vamos Andy! vamos Raffa!)...I'm exhausted from so much physical activity and might have to rest on the terrace between matches!! 

Just back from 3 hours of tango in Motril!  The moon is up, the campo looks divine in the silvery light and it is still very warm - at 1am!  Steve has gallantly driven to Malaga to collect a  friend and her son coming home from the UK, then he is rushing up a few mountains over the next 3 days with a couple of other men.  Spanish is the only common language, which is good and they will sleep out on the hillsides.  I have opted out of this one with various feeble excuses!  In fact I am in the middle of putting emulsion on the granero walls inside and regard this as more important than mountaineering at the moment - well, that's a less feeble excuse and I'm sticking to it!

We went to Juviles last Sunday for a motorbike meet and were amazed at the numbers!  About 300 bikes filled the plaza and nearby streets, coming from Almeria and Granada as well as more local places.  I think we were the only British bikers there but as usual everyone was exceedingly friendly .  We went round the local secadero ham factory, ate home-made migas (breadcrumbs/cous-cous) and morcilla sausages and tried hard to win something on the raffle but failed miserably, as usual.  All in aid of the local church, 16th century and in the Mudejar style and all good fun.  We met a man named Romulo (Romulus) whose son, of course, is Remus...

Well, off to bed.  Perhaps a quick look at the BBC News first...areas of interest coming up have to include the Rugby World Cup which starts tomorrow (Eng v Argentina on Sat morning), tennis in the USA, more on Libya and, of course, the economic situation.  Tucked away here we manage to ignore much of the world's horrors but it is important to stay aware.