10 Essential Foods from UK..

[oliveview01]

Lambs kidneys!!! Only once managed to buy them here, I got a big tray of them, surrounded by suet fat, I was frugle, they lasted me a year!!! I asked a local butcher if she could get me some, yes, whooppee I thought, till she said they would be 50€ a kilo!!! I didn't get any.

What are you all cooking today? I've cooked soup, leek, parsnip, pumpkin and creamed coconut with a little cumin added. Then croquetas made with tuna as my friend doesn't eat meat. Pudding will be manderines off our tree.

For our xmas dinner I am going to make a steamed steak and kidney (pigs kidney sadly) pudding, not had one for years!! Got to research how to make one!!! We rarely eat red meat so it will be a treat!

[Ama]

never bought flour from the local bakeries

There is good online shop for breadmaking: http://www.elamasadero.com/

In case anyone is interested in Dec they are organising a bread baking course in Benalmádena:
http://www.elamasadero.com/cursos-de-pa ... madre.html

[wazjulie]

custard creams, Pork pies, Fish and chips, Marmite, Not the healthiest foods I know but I miss them all. I been here 10 years now and don't get back to UK very often. Will be back for Christmas and will return well stocked up.

[gerryh]

To me the 10 essential foods are 10 cans of Strongbow.
Cheers
Gerry

[Julie]

Heinz salad cream

[Chunky Monky]

My Mate, Marmite !

[BENIDORM]

Ama,
Thank you for advising about the breadmaking supplies site and course....very useful and interesting.

Many of the items listed ,I would say,are comfort foods, perhaps consumption of them could possibly supress slight homesickness thoughts ?

Gerry...I don't see you as a 'Cider Drinker'...you come across as much more of a sophisticated individual....

Marmite seems to rule !!!

Regards,
Gordon...

[Free at Last]

Mine are:-
Teabags
Oxo cubes
Malt vinegar
Brown sauce
Spice mixes (Chana Masala, Bombay Potato, Fajita, etc)
Mushy peas
Sausages
Cauldron vegetarian sausages for the OH
A good pork pie

I don't try to bring them back, but I will always eat a chocolate eclair whilst in the UK, yum!

Heinz tomato soup was always my comfort food when ill, from being a small child. If I can't fancy anything else I can always manage a bowl of that. But come to think of it, I haven't eaten any for at least 2 years, so that must be a good thing.

[hillybilly]

Salad cream
Marmite
Golden syrup
Pickles
Curry paste + chutneys (sneak two in here lol)
Ghee
Gravy granules
Peanut butter
TVP (textured vegetable protein, in case you were wondering!)
Lemon curd...or maybe crumpets...no, lemon curd...no, crumpets...

Can't do without my PG Tips but am prepared to pay Mercadona's price for them plus any visitors from the UK are under strict instructions to fill any available spare suitcase space with tea bags ;o)

[anis]

AH..ghee...I had forgotten that and there is no real substitute. I did manage once to find a tin of it in a little back street shop in Torremolinos some years ago at a hefty price.

[BENIDORM]

hillybilly,
You cheated...12 items..but I'll let you off..

Seems like a good number of members are vegetarians..?

Two of my 'offspring' were 'veggies' when we first moved to Spain and it was a nightmare if we dined out, hardly any restaurants provided alternatives to meat.
I'm not sure what the situation is now, but imagine that it has improved,no problem for home cooking though, we always managed to find suitable ingredients to make a tasty meal.
I did try to go without any meat, but failed miserably as soon as I smelt bacon cooking, however we still have regular non meat meals and even bought loads of Beanfeast packets on our last trip to UK..

Are there plenty of vegetarian products available in Spain now ?
Might give it another go, or perhaps on second thoughts just cut down on meat....

Regards,
Gordon...
ps..Anis...I've seen Ghee on sale somewhere in Spain recently, but can't remember where...

[crazyred]

For Ghee lovers, why not make your own http://www.aayisrecipes.com/2007/05/14/ ... make-ghee/
You can get Heinz Salad cream, marmite, tetley tea bags & peanut butter in Mercadona although I make my own peanut butter.
Beni, I'm sure I've seen Soreen in the SuperSol freezer. It is one of the things I buy when I go to Morrison's in Gib along with Patak's Balti curry paste, baby corn, mange tout, sugar snap peas and Christmas puds, brussel sprouts, parsnips & swede (as it's almost that time of year again).

[hillybilly]

Oh yes, mange tout...why oh why can't you get them here?!

I've always meant to try making my own ghee...maybe I will have a go when my (very out of date by now but what the hell) tub of ghee runs out - I think there's a scraping left in it for one more curry.

I did make crumpets earlier this year and I used to make my own lemon curd in the UK so it's just laziness that I don't bother to make it here when the ingredients are so readily available!

NEVER seen salad cream or Marmite in my Mercadonas. I'm sure the Spanish would appreciate salad cream There is sometimes a peanut butter on the shelves but there's more sugar in it than peanuts!

Beni - "veggie" food (TVP, soya, quorn, Sosmix, Beanfeast - anything like that) is impossible to obtain round here. Tofu can be had in most Carrefours...and I have been to a Carrefour on the coast where they had some veggie burger type things in the chill cabinet (oh, the excitement that day!) - v. expensive though and not particularly nice. I've only come across 2 "health food" shops (one in Orgiva and one in Gaucin) where they had a good range of "veggie" staples.

I have to confess that after over 30 years of being a strict veggie I started eating fish (and seafood) last year... It makes life a lot easier here and I try to reason with my conscience by telling myself it hasn't been intensively farmed, transported long distances whilst alive, cruelly treated in any way (apart from the dispatching bit at the end) and is (at my age) good for me. Am still a little uneasy about my decision although as a fish "virgin" I am enjoying trying new fish every week! So far, sardines, rainbow trout (so cheap!) prawns and mussels are my favourites. Fortunately I'm not squeamish so can do all the de-heading and gutting myself...perhaps the latent carnivore in me is coming out...next stop bacon counter?

[Sandramay]

For me it can depend on the time of the year, but aside from the regulars (T bags, pork pie, pref. Melton Mowbray and Marmite) it's dry cured back bacon,vegetable suet, natural smoked haddock, stew pot mix (various pulses) extra mature cheddar, almond extract, vanilla essence. My Spanish neighbour also loves me bring her the little bottles of food colouring. I'm still trying to convince her that a little goes a long way, but we are still getting generous gifts of neon postries
I've manage to buy cardamons, black and green on market stalls. It's also easy to grow your own lemon grass, roots readily.
Incidentally, the return trip this week, was turron, mandarins, olives, avos, limes, ruby grapefruit, pomegranates and chillis.

[Free at Last]

The situation for vegetarians in Spain (or at least in Andalucia) has improved a bit in recent years, but not a lot! My OH is vegetarian but I'm not.

It is easier now to buy vegetarian products in supermarkets but the range is still limited (even in the British run shops it seems to be mainly the Linda McCartney range which is available, which my OH detests). Eating out is a bit easier if you are in an area where there is a range of international restaurants, particularly Indian and Italian, but very few Spanish restaurants cater adequately for vegetarians. Even if a dish seems to be suitable for vegetarians from the brief description on the menu, we have learnt from experience that it's necessary to question this in advance as many Spanish restaurant proprietors don't seem to class jamon or chicken as meat, nor tuna as fish (and nearly all don't seem to realise that vegetarians (proper ones) don't eat fish.

Last year we called into a very busy restaurant in Colmenar on a Sunday lunchtime. The menu listed 3 or 4 dishes which looked suitable for vegetarians and my OH tried to order each in turn, only to be told they weren't available. So what could he order, I asked the waitress. "Lechuga", came the reply, and she laughed. We got up and left.

[annfoto]

Beni - "veggie" food (TVP, soya, quorn, Sosmix, Beanfeast - anything like that) is impossible to obtain round here.

I have an allergic reaction to TVP and quorn which I believe is not uncommon.
I stumbled across this years ago as a good mince substitute. It uses finely chopped mushrooms and puy or unsplit lentils, flavouring is cumin and lemon juice, then depending what you are making a good swig of Lea & Perrins and HP brown sauce.
You can use that in shepherd's pie, chilli sin carné, spag bol. etc.
I also have a mix for burgers, meatballs etc. which is made with ground pecan nuts.
Freshly cooked ingredients are often better than some of the chemically engineered products that the giant international food companies try to you they are better for you. I wonder why?

[Devils Advocate]

Innocent question

Why do veggies like their mung bean/quornesque concoctions to be fabricated and shaped like meat products?

[hillybilly]

LOL
Well, burger buns are, er, burger-shaped and hot dog rolls are shaped to fit something resembling a sausage...so if a BBQ is involved it's simply easier to use/bring your own burger- or sausage-shaped veggie alternative
As for the mince or chunk type products - I guess they're simply manufactured to a convenient shape that can be cooked easily and used in recipes that veggies can adapt, such as a shepherd's pie, lasagne or spag bol!
We don't have a lot of say in the matter, besides, what other shapes are there?

[Devils Advocate]

As a friend of mine once said about a famous female actress/singer..........."She'll never be a true vegetarian until they invent the Quorn willy"

[Mowser]

I make my own peanut butter.

Any chance of your recipe? LIDLs have run out!