An Inside Look At A Traditional Galician Bakery

Pictures taken at Bakery Panaderia Mollete Bolleria in Ferrol, Galicia where the owner, Jose’s friend allowed us an exclusive look at how Galician bread is made.


Since the Spanish eat bread with every meal, bread is a big deal for them. At Mollete, bread is prepared by hand (and love) then baked in a wood-fired oven. The bakers arrive at 2am and continuously bake all day. What blew me away is the price of each baguette. One sells for 0.95Euro (about 1 US dollar). Isn’t that crazy? In New Zealand it would be quadruple the price of that. And apparently, even so, the locals still complain that the bread is too expensive. Can you believe that? Anyways, we bought a cod and raisin empanada. BP. B for bacalao (cod) and P for pasa (raisin). C for carne (meat). Typically, Empanadas are eaten cold so we had ours later in the day for lunch. Guys, I am getting fat.



“What must you break apart in order to bring a family close together? Bread, of course.”
― Jodi Picoult
“The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight…[Breadmaking is] one of those almost hypnotic businesses, like a dance from some ancient ceremony. It leaves you filled with one of the world’s sweetest smells… there is no chiropractic treatment, no Yoga exercise, no hour of
meditation in a music-throbbing chapel. that will leave you emptier of bad thoughts than this homely ceremony of making bread.” ― Mary Francis Kennedy Fisher



“Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.” ― James Beard

“All sorrows are less with bread. ” ― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra


“Let it never be said / there can be a Heaven / without fresh bread.” ― Glenn Logan Reitze

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” ― Virginia Woolf



(Can you see the cut empanadas in the back?)



“After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.” ― Oscar Wilde

The World Is Indeed Full Of Peril…

“…and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring…

From top to bottom: avocado, tomato and walnut sandwich made with brown-rice bread, a NZ apple – I was so freakin’ excited to find it and its three brothers. This is because, Japanese apples are HUMONGOUS. Believe me, they’re the size of my dad’s head. So it’s been really fun actually holding an whole apple with one hand and completely finishing it. Next, lunch at One Room Cafe, more boyfriend adventures and last, my new personalised chopsticks and tofu-shaped chopstick holders gifted to me by Yuka’s loving parents. Why two? “One for you and one for your future husband” they said.

Obento For Dummies

Sorry I mean newbies. The other day, I had a light-bulb moment where I realised, WOW I am actually a free-lance writer! I chased my dream (posting every single day – sometimes twice!) and it came true. Please support what I do by checking my latest obento article HERE.

Little Hands

Hiromi asked me to help out with an English camp. We picked blueberries (some of which were from NZ!), played games, sang songs and made sandwiches (with “hard” bread which the kids were unfamiliar with hehe). I absolutely adore children! Here are the pictures.

 

Let Everything Happen To You

…Beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. (Rainer Maria Rilke)


Top to bottom: morning prayer, Anisa-style banana split with NZ honey, local organic blueberries and home-made granola with Rye bread from Olivier, morning cycle featuring sky, bento love, and last but not least, my favorite healthy noms sent to me by my dear mama.

I Went To The Woods

because I wished to live deliberately. -Henry David Thoreau

Just kidding, I had no choice in my placement here.







This soba recipe is an easy adaptation of this soba recipe.

Bye Bye Bento

I first acquired this “bento box” from a lovely Japanese woman who farewelled me with it from her shop, filled with left-over vegetarian lasagna. Naturally, I instantly fell in love. I’d never seen anything like it before and soon enough, a piece of tin became (and I’m being truly honest here), my most prized possession. Often, I would think if I were to choose one thing to keep with me for the rest of my life, it would be my bento box. I day-dreamed about taking to Europe then India. Filling it with love. I don’t even know why I let myself think it was mine. I felt so attached to the thing. I feel so attached to it. It has sort of become a symbol of freedom and happiness in my life. Because every lunch-time, I can get away from the depressing teacher’s room and go outside with my lunchbox.

Today my worst fear came true.

She asked for it back.

So I am forced to say bye bye, bento.

 

Brown Rice Sushi For Lucy

For me actually but that title rhymes. And my friend Lucy requested this.

I’m no sushi expert. Believe it or not, living in Japan doesn’t automatically make you one. Though I will say, here, sushi means raw fish on a little thingy of rice with a layer of wasabi in between only. Not this. This is maki sushi, I believe.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups uncooked short-grain brown rice
2 cups water
1 tbsp rice vinegar
pinch sea salt
nori (seaweed) sheets
your favorite fillings cut in strips (I used raw salmon, orange capsicum, lettuce and avocado)
a rolling mat

Rinse and drain rice, place into a saucepan and pour in water.

Let soak for as long as possible but if you don’t have the time, 30min is fine.

Cook rice over medium heat until done? Sorry not sure how else to put it..follow packet instructions? Or taste some to check.. you may need to top up the water once or twice (about 35 min).

Let rice cool until warm then mix in the vinegar and salt. Rice should be slightly sticky now.

To roll the sushi, lay a sheet of nori, rough side up, on your rolling mat. With wet fingers (I find its also useful to have a damp towel nearby), firmly pat a thick, even layer of brown rice over the nori, leaving  top edge about 1/2-inch deep uncovered with rice.

Assemble your fillings in a line along the bottom edge of the sheet.

Now we’re ready to roll (both literally and figuratively) so fold the bottom edge of the sheet up, enclosing the vegetables, and roll roll roll your mat? If you didn’t F up, you should have a thick cylinder thing by now.

Here I gently wrap the mat around the roll and squeeze it not-so-gently one more time – for good luck’s sake.

This recipe should make 3 rolls. Cut each roll into 6 pieces for serving.

To make a California roll, that’s the one with the rice on the outside, do what I did and watch this video.

Or look at someone else’s blog who has step by step pictures and accurate cooking instructions. Sigh, I can’t even today.

Date ball recipe here. Tiny cherry tomatoes from my neighbor’s backyard. Gifted, not stolen. Maybe.

Six Delicious and Filling Healthy Lunch Ideas

Hands up if you’ve started your diet or life-style change with a healthy breakfast and a plain salad lunch only to break it with a hangry binge come dinner? Right, happens to the best of us. Growing up, I always had a big lunch. That’s how Iranian’s do it. Kebabs or stews on rice for lunch and something light, a salad or a small sandwich for dinner. There’s no better feeling than sleeping on a light stomach and by night-time, your lunch will be burnt off and digested. This also goes for sweets or dessert. If you must have them, have them during the day. Here are 6 of my favourite delicious and filling healthy lunch ideas:

1. Brown Rice Onigiri

Fried brown rice balls. With salad. So easy. Brown a little onion with a little oil in a frying pan, add 1 cup of carrot/corn/peas mixture, fry little longer. Crack a free-range egg or two in it, mix in. Add two cups cooked brown rice. In a small jar, mix 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp smooth peanut butter, crushed ginger, crushed garlic, salt and pepper. Pour over. Cook until hot and steamy. Shape into balls using a plastic wrap. Serve with a nutty salad.

2. Frittata

Frittata is super filling and great for left-overs. Be creative with your vegetable, herb, cheese and nut combinations. Serve with salad. Recipe HERE.

3. Wholewheat Couscous Salad


Like frittata, couscous salads can have absolutely anything in them. Get creative with a colourful mixture of raw vegetables, nuts and seeds. Use wholewheat variety. Delicious! Recipe here, here and here. Boiled egg, optional. Truffle/bliss ball recipes here, here and here.

4. Grilled Fish, Tofu and Salad

This ones for those who eat fish. A big piece, pan-fried served with raw tofu on a simple green salad. Will keep you full forever. Okay, that may be an exaggeration but you get my drift.

5. Brown Rice Salad 

Basically a deconstructed brown rice onigiri. A delicious mix of raw and roasted vegetables, dried fruit, nuts and herbs. Recipe HERE.

6. Healthier Potato Salad

Mayonnaise free, potato salad. Dressed with avocado and yoghurt. Healthy fats and probiotics for the win. Enjoyed with a side of raw snap peas and cherry tomatoes. Recipe HERE.

 

Experimenting In Ze Kitchen

Most of the time I don’t follow a recipe. Instead, I experiment and end up pleasantly surprised (most of the time). Below are some of my recent creations. From top to bottom: gluten, refined-sugar and dairy-free walnut and mandarin cake which I made using the juice of two mandarins and which ended up tasting not a smidgen mandariney but still yum according to my mom (that rhymed). Wholemeal turmeric, sundried-tomato and parsley muffins, and today’s lunch: a green salad of broccoli, snap-peas and asparagus, all young and all blanched in hot water for 4 seconds then tossed with raw pumpkin seeds and pistachio nuts before being dressed in lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper.
Oishi katta (it was delicious).  They were delicious.