How green is my Lecrin valley....a pre-Easter lunch

I thought you would like to share this peaceful pre-Easter lunch we had last sunday with friends at Marianne and Thierry's house. This happy couple is Belgian and very very much into food. They live in the Lecrin valley in the south of Granada and restored a lovely finca and opened a few bungalows for summer rentals. I met Marianne some time ago at Gym's art classes where she made very delicate clay sculptures. I knew she was a talented sculptor but what I didn't know is that she and her husband Thierry are divine cooks ! They recently started to host private lunch or dinner parties and elaborate a monthly menu based on the seasonal products as the whole food comes from their own garden and the meat is locally produced. Everything from the delicious tapas served as an apéritif to the dessert is entirely homemade. The surroundings are peaceful and quiet and the ambiance is relaxed...well...just the Andalusian way.

After nibbling on tapas of homemade terrine and herbs tortilla, our menu comprised : calçots with its special Romescu sauce made with almonds, lamb from the Segura mountains served with roasted potatoes and strawberry and raspberry bavarois.

Now, of course I can hear you ask...what on earth are calçots ? Calçots are a special type of onion, very popular in Catalonia. To me they look and taste more or less like young leeks. This is how Marianne and Thierry prepared them. Wrapped in newspaper sheets, they cooked very slowly on ambers between two clay tiles.

After a while, the outer envelope of the calçots is burnt and they're ready to be eaten. When Thierry opened the newspaper, I laughed because he used some French paper to wrap the onions. Very convenient to catch up with the news even if the papers are dated.

Mmm... Monchéri is not a calçot expert but you get more or less the idea. The inner green onion is meant to be pulled out and then dipped in the sauce. It has to be hot too to be fully enjoyed.

I loved how the lamb was cooked with plenty of garlic. We all had very generous portions and there was still some left was for a second helping

But for me, I could have eaten two or three of these raspberry and strawberry bavarois....So delicious...Marianne didn't have enough strawberries in her garden so she mixed them with frozen raspberries she kept from last year.

We just received the menu for April...sounds promising... I guess you will read more about Marianne et Thierry's fabulous cooking more often on this blog...
And this cute little one below is very lucky indeed to have found such a good home !

if you're in the area and would like to book lunch or dinner at Marianne and Thierry's
you can email them at capithierry@gmail.com