When it contains seafood, or so we were informed today…..

Leaving the usual tourist sights and haunts today (after all we are explorers) we took ourselves over the river, to Triana and the market Always ones for trying something a little different, we were booked on a cookery course to make three traditional Spanish dishes, salmorejo, spinach and chick peas and paella….

We were given a short tour of the market by Jessica and shown hams from white pigs and black pigs (who are fed on acorns), fruit and vegetables, spices and olive oil. The kitchen is very modern, and you are given aprons to wear and have a workstation each. There were 14 of us today, a large family group from Taiwan, a man from Florida and two couples from Canada plus the foodies from France…

It was quite hands on, we all had a part to play in cooking the three courses. Above all it was tremendous fun, enhanced by Leo the chef and instructor who made everything easy to follow.

We blitzed tomatoes, chopped onions, diced garlic very finely and were shown how to debone a chicken. A couple of hours passed really quickly then we were ready to eat what we’d prepared. It was very tasty, especially the paella, which was spiced with toasted saffron and smoked paprika. Leo then prepared a simple dessert of mint leaves, lemon sorbet and cava, all blitzed up into a smoothie. It was probably the best thing I’ve ever done on holiday and we’d highly recommend it.

The heat here hadn’t diminished by the time we left and we waddled over the bridge, incredibly finding our way home without getting lost…there must be something in this Spanish beer..