Spanish Omelette

INGREDIENTS:
75 gms butter
4 onions, sliced
4 large potatoes, peeled
1 garlic clove, crushed
6 eggs

DIRECTIONS:

1. Melt the butter in a large frying pan and then add onions and cook for about 20 minutes.

2. Put the potatoes in a pan and cover them with water. When the water will be boiled simmer them for 12 to 15 minutes untill they are tender. Then cut into thin slices.

3. Add the potatoes and garlic to the pan and then increase heat and cook for 10 minutes untill the potaotoes are golden.

4. Putt eggs into a bowl and beat them for a minute or two. Then season them with salt and black pepper.

5. Add eggs to the pan and cover it. Turn the heat down and cook gently till the bottom is golden and the top is well-cooked. Cut the omelette into pieces and serve it warm or chilled.

BON APPETIT!

Gracias por el fuego

My last two posts were about Spain. Today I'd like to share my observations about the book I read some time ago. Gracias por el fuego was written by Mario Benedetti who is an Uruguay writer. In this book he tells us about the fifties in Uruguay. The book tells story about Ramón Budiño, who is disappointed with the situation in his country and his own life. He hates his father and he blames him for all his failures. Another thing is that his father is the symbol of Uruguay. He's one of the most powerful men in the country, but for Ramón he is the epitome of all the worst. He's corrupt and he is inconsiderate to anyone. Ramón feels frustrated and that's why he thinks that the only solution to feel free is to kill his father. However he feels unable to do this.

Gracias por el fuego is book about frustrations, the frustration about living in someone's shadow, the frustration about living in a corrupt country under dictatorship and, finally, the frustration of the inability to end what we've planned. In this book we can see two important plans: political and personal. The personal crisis of the main carcter reflects the crisis of his country.

I can truly recommend this book to all who are interested in the Latin America literature and to all who just want to read an interesting book.

Octopus, soup and tarta - my favourites Galician dishes

My last post was about weather in Galicia. Today I'd like to write about the Galician cuisine, which is really delicious. When I was there I tried to use every occasion to try some new dishes. I must admit that my first contact with tradicional Galician cuisine wasn't really good. The first dish wich I tried was a tuna pie (empanada gallega de atún) and it was exeptionally untasty. Fortunately, it was the first and the last time when I had such a bad experience with typical food from this part of Spain.

As Galicia is situated by the Ocean, it's not any surprise that in it's regional cuisine dominate fish and seafood. One of the most known dishes is fair style octopus (pulpo a la gallega). It's prepared with boiled octopus and paprika and it's usually served with potatoes. I can surely recommend this dish to all of you.

The typical Galician soup is Galician broth (caldo gallego) which is prepared with cabbage, collard greens, turnip, white beans, potatoes, lard beef and chorizo; sometimes we can add also some kind of other meat like pork, spare ribs or bacon. This dish is really tasty and very good for autumn and winter dinner when we want to warm up.

The last dish about which I'd like to write some words is typical Galician cake, wich is called tarta de Santiago. The recipe for this dessert is very simple. We need only almonds, sugar, lemon peel and eggs. It's incredibly sweet like all Spanish sweets but also delicious. I'm not very fond of sweets but this tarta is one of my favourites.

There are of course lots of other Galician dishes which are incredibly appetizing, but there won't be enough place to describe all of them, so I wanted only to present my favourites ones.

Between Galicia and Spain

Few weeks ago I came back from Spain where I was on Erasmus. I spent 4 months in Santiago de Compostela, the capital of the region called Galicia. Honestly, I can assure that it's one of the most beautiful and pictueresque regions in Spain situated in the northwest part of the Iberian Peninsula. Lots of Spanish people say that Galicia is not Spain. Are they right? The truth is that Galicia differs a lot from the general idea of Spain, which we know from leaflets and giude books. The location of this region by the Atlantic Ocean causes that the climate is different than in the rest of Spain; the air is fresh and humid. The temperature in summer is much more bearable than in the rest of Spain, but during winter the humidity is so high that the average noticeable temperature is much lower than it is in the reality. I know what I'm saying, I spet there 4 winter months and the weather was awfull. It was raining all the time, what confirms the well-known stereotype that in Galicia it rains a lot. If the weather was so terrible, why I still claim that it's one of the most marvelous places in Spain? It's because of the views. They can compensate even an awfull weather. The landscape seems to be taken from a XIX^th century novels. In the landscape predominate small hills and large rivers. The green of the plants influences people's mood soothingly. Coming back to the differences between Galicia and the rest of Spain, apart from weather and landscape, also the language is different. The most of people who lives in Galicia speak Galician, which is similar to Portugal. Galicia isn't a typical Spain, it's much more. Galicia is not only sun, beach and party, it's a place where you want to come back.