I confess that each morning now I am adding a quantity of brandy to my coffee now that winter has arrived and plenty of snow has landed on the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains.
Don't look at me like that! It's normal practice in Spain.
I always make sure that I have no plans to drive that day - which is more than can be said for some i see having an alcohol fuelled breakfast in my local Spanish bar.
I was left home alone for a month recently and with no time to undertake supermarket shopping in Spain. No need to worry.
Providing you have a good local weekly market, a fishmonger or mobile fish van, and just so long as you have ingredients and spices to hand in your kitchen; almost anything is possible.
So what can you cook should you be visited by Spanish children? There are popular meals that are traditional in Spain. One is akin to mildly spicy fish fingers. Spanish mothers ask their children if they would like some Soldaditos de Pavia. The following recipe is a variation on that dish, which you will find being served in many a tapas bars in Seville. And, remember, children are welcome in most bars in Spain.
There is a Spanish saying as follows:- "Of soup and love, the first is the best." So here is a recipe for a soup, or hotpot, that you will love. Giuso's are very popular in Andlaucia. Spanish food historian Luis Benavides Brajas tells us: "It is something they do really well in southern Spain. A guiso is more like a hotpot or stew than a soup and they are very filling and tasty. Every Andalucian cook knows how to make a good guiso."
