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The Spanish Kitchen by Clarissa Hyman
This exclusive extract is from Clarissa Hyman’s new book ‘The Spanish Kitchen’, published by Conran Octopus (£20). It’s a fascinating gastronomic journey through Spain with the emphasis on regional ingredients, recipes and traditions from ‘One of the best food and travel writers around at the moment’ (Time Out).
“One grape, three products! Raisins, table grapes and wine. That’s the first thing you have to learn,” said Javier Aranda Bautista, my soft-spoken but cordial guide to La Ruta de Pasas, the Raisin Road that winds through the mountains east of Malaga. We were headed for Axarquía, one of the three main wine-making zones, also renowned for large, aromatic, sun-dried raisins made from the same Moscatel grape, once as much a herald of Christmas as Tiny Tim and holly wreaths to Anglo-Saxon homes on both sides of the Atlantic.
The production of sun-dried raisins in Malaga is thought to date back to the Phoenicians; the Romans are said to have issued raisin rations to their  soldiers. Much used in the Moorish cooking of al-Andalus, the geographer Ahmad Al-Razi wrote that the best and longest lasting raisins in the world came from Malaga. Under the Muslim Kings of Granada, trade expanded, helped by the opening of the Straights of Gibraltar to Italian ships taking raisins, figs and almonds to England and Flanders. By the 18th century, raisins from this mountainous hinterland were traded throughout Europe, sought after for their exquisite taste. In 1845, Richard Ford in his “Handbook for Travellers in Spain” commented how superior they were to raisins from Valencia. Even Hans Christian Anderson described how the grapes were laid out to dry on hillsides exposed to sun, but protected from night dew.
Indeed the artisan method of production he described has changed very little over the centuries, with the raisins produced by around 2,000 smallholders, each as individual and obstinate as, well, an Andalusian mule. Javier sees the downside, “The fragmented structure of the industry does not fit into the modern industrial pattern of big supermarkets and mass distribution. Our main markets are in Madrid, Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country, but even in Malaga itself many people are unaware of the special quality of their own raisins. It’s all the same to them. It’s unbelievable!” |
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