sevillana includes onions, tomatoes, red peppers and mushrooms.
The Moorish influence is reflected in the wide variety of sweet pastries and desserts rich in honey and nuts, such as pestinos (deep-fried pastries flavoured with anise and white wine) and alfajores (almond and honey sweetmeats that are made in Sidona for Christmas). Other traditional desserts include yemas de San Leandro, crytallised egg yolks made by nuns of the convent of San Leandro in Seville and tocino de cielo (roughly translated as ‘heavenly bacon’), a kind of cream caramel rich in egg yolks.
Several fine ewe’s milk cheeses are made in Andalusia: Queso de Grazalema (a hard cheese similar to Manchego), Queso de los Pedroches (a soft cheese produced near Cordoba) and Moro (a soft, creamy cheese made in the province around Seville).
The Levante – Land of the Sunrise – is made up of the provinces of Valencia, Castellon de la Plana, Alicante and Murcia. Valencia is the birthplace of paella. Paella is named after the shallow, round iron pan in which it is cooked. Although paella is traditionally made with fish, some versions, such as paella huertana, are made only with vegetables. Other rice dishes include moros y christianos (Moors and Christians), which is made with black beans and white rice, and arroz con acelgas (rice with Swiss chard).
Along the flat coastal strip lies the fertile huertas (market gardens) of Valencia, which produce a wealth of vegetables and fruits: broad beans, peas, green beans, asparagus, onion, garlic, olives, capers, melons, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, pears, Muscat grapes, lemons, grapefruit and, of course, Valencia oranges. Elche in Alicante has the only date grove in Europe. Almonds also flourish and appear in many desserts and sweetmeats. The most famous confection is turron (nougat), which is made in Jijona and Alicante.
Cheeses from Valencia include Tronchon, a semi-hard cheese made with goat’s and ewe’s milk, and Queso fresco Valenciano, or Puzol as it is sometimes called – a fresh goat’s cheese.
Further south, the huertas of Murcia produce early spring vegetables and salad greens. The region is famous for its fine tomatoes and peppers, both of which appear in tortilla murciana, a thick omelette that sometimes includes aubergine.
Catalonia lies in the north-east corner of Spain, between the French and Andorran border, and Valencia. The Catalans are a fiercely independent people who have retained their own language and culture. At the height of its power in the fifteenth century, Catalonia, together with the Kingdom of Aragon, ruled much of the Mediterranean coast from the Levant to Provence, as well as Corsica, Sardinia, The Kingdom of Naples and Sicily, and the Duchy of Athens.
The Catalan cuisine is the oldest in Spain. The first gastronomic text – the Libri de Sent Sovi – appeared in Catalan in 1324. It was followed by Rubert de Nola’s Libre de Coch, which was first printed in 1477 and contains recipes that are still prepared in Catalonia today.
Catalan cuisine has much in common with Provençal cooking. It is based on four sauces: allioli (a garlicky mayonnaise), picada (a thick paste made with toasted almonds and hazelnuts and flavoured with saffrom), sofregit (a rich tomato and onion sauce) and samfaina, which is made with onion, tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, and aubergine and resembles the Provençal ratatouille. Another popular sauce is romesco, which originated in Taragona and is made with sautéed almonds, breadcrumbs, tomatoes and sweet and hot peppers.
Catalonia is olive oil and wine country, both of which were introduced by the Romans. The Romans also taught the Catalans the art of leavening bread. Catalan meals usually begin with pa amb tomaquet, slices of country bread (toasted or not) that are rubbed with garlic and tomatoes and sprinkled with olive oil. Catalans love fried, stuffed and roasted vegetables – especially peppers, aubergines and all kinds of mushrooms. They are also fond of pasta (many Italian emigrated to Barcelona in the early nineteenth century), especially canalons (cannelloni) and fideus. Fideus are a short, thin vermicelli that is not cooked, like pasta, in a pot of boiling water, but sautéed in olive oil in a shallow pan and cooked like paella with hot water slowly added until it is absorbed. The word fideus is thought to derive from the Arabic word fada, meaning to overflow.
Desserts include the ubiquitous crema catalana, a rich custard cream topped with caramelised sugar and similar to the French crème brûlée, and menjar blanc, a chilled almond pudding, which the French also claim as their own under the name of blancmange. Mel i mato is a dish of fresh white cheese similar to Italian ricotta, which is sweetened with honey.
The Balearic Islands have a long history of invasions by Romans, Vandals, Byzantines Moors and Barbary pirates. Even the English occupied Minorca in the eighteenth century. The islands have many cultural links to Catalonia, which is reflected in their language – a dialect of Catalan – and their cuisine. Mallorca’s most famous dish is probably sopa mallorquinas, a dry bread and cabbage soup that is rich in tomatoes, onions and garlic and prepared in a greixoneira – a shallow earthenware pot with a rounded base similar to a wok. Mallorcans make various savoury tarts called cocas – similar to pizze but without the cheese. Cocarois are spinach turnovers filled with raisins and pine nuts.
Pastries and confection often include almonds. Gato (a moist almond cake) is traditionally made for Christmas and for various fiestas. One of Mallorca’s most famous desserts is gelat d’ametilla (almond sorbet). Greixonera de Brossat is an almond cheesecake made with Requeson cheese flavoured with cinnamon and lemon rind.
The cooking of Menorca is less spicy than that of Mallorca. Menorca is famous for its fine vegetables, in particular onions, leeks, tomatoes, cabbage and potatoes. Bread is a staple and held in high esteem. Traditionally, the most important dish of the poor was oliaigua, a simple garlic soup made with onions, garlic, olive oil, parsley and water. Today there are many variations – made with tomatoes, leek, cabbage, asparagus, cress or eggs. Oliaigua was once eaten for breakfast, lunch and supper with plenty of pan casero (homemade bread).
Like Mallorcans, Menorcans have a sweet tooth. Numerous pastries and cakes are made including estrellas (sugar cookies), buñuelas (doughnuts), carquiñols (almond biscuits), congret (a kind of sponge cake made with mashed potatoes) and amargas, an almond sweetmeat that is traditionally made for Christmas.
No part of the world can be more beautiful than the western and southern coasts of Turkey.
– Freya Stark, Alexander’s Path
Turkey
Turkey lies on the north-east corner of the Mediterranean astride two continents – Europe and Asia. The Turks are proud of their history and proud of their cultural heritage. Turkey has a wealth of classical monuments and biblical sites. It is a land of tremendous contrasts, with its rugged mountains and wooded hillsides that drop sharply down to the sea, the strange volcanic landscape of Cappadocia and the rolling steppes of Central Anatolia. Turkey is surrounded by the sea on three sides: The Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara to the north, the Aegean to the west, and the Mediterranean to the south.
Turkey has a long and turbulent history. It is home to the oldest town known to man – at Catal Hoyuk near Konya which was built around 7500 B.C., where irrigation was first used and where animals were probably first domesticated. Around 200 B.C. the Hittites – an Indo-European people from the Balkans – swept across
