This beautiful Renaissance castle is the ‘Castillo de los Fajardos’ the home of the ‘Marquesas de Los Velez‘ in Velez Blanco. Rather famously the interior patio was sold to an American dealer in the first quarter of the C20th and now resides in New York’s Metropolitan Museum. At the time the family were clearly ‘broke’ and it was an end to a rather famous era.

 As always happens, these families become scattered far and wide and inevitably spread within the ‘latin’ world, Brazil being no exception. One such daughter of ‘Los Fajardos‘, being well aware of her family history, whilst surfing on the web happened upon this ‘blog’, based as it is in the home of her ancestors. Since then she, along with her husband Jose, have been following us and have been making great contributions. She, Cecilia Fajardo, has a bond with this place which I understand completely,  I being partly of German origin. You always have the feeling that you are from another place.

 Whilst discussing the profound goodness and beauty of fresh locally grown vegetables Cecilia sent us this recipe which is a Brazilian national dish. We go to the market in Velez Rubio tomorrow and plan to prepare Dorado baked in salt in the oven with this following dish. Can’t wait.

Salu2 Simon

Couve as seen in the nature

In the fryng-pan…

Ready to eat!

The step by step here:

http://www.portalafro.com.br/aculinaria/couve.htm
This chief is Aparecida  “Cidinha”, famous in brazilian tv cooking shows.

The recipe here:

Couve Mineira (Brazilian Garlicky Collard Greens)

1 pound of collard greens, kale or Savoy cabbage
2 tablespoons of sunflower oil or olive oil
garlic to taste
salt to taste
pepper to taste (optional)

1- Wash and drain the kale or the collard greens.
2- Remove the hard stems of the kale.
3- Roll the leaves tightly together and slice into very thin shreds. As the shreds have to be very thin, the knife has to be sharp.
4- Sauté the garlic, the salt and the pepper in the oil (some people add a small union at this step - I don´t).
5- Stir-fry the shredded leaves quickly at high heat. It is important that you stop in time: the leaves have to wilt slightly but should keep their bright color.

Recipe from: DonaBrasil : http://joelens.blogspot.com/2009/02/couve-mineira-brazilian-garlicky.html

Try it, and let us know!

Cecília e José.