Dissecting Enormous Courgettes, Sharing Out The “Vint-I-Cinc Herbes” And An “Horchata” Recipe.

The time had come to share out the “vint-i-cinc herbes”, the twenty-five herbs (more or less) we’d gathered from Pinos at the beginning of June. Pep’s mum kept reminding us that if we didn’t do it soon they’d be so dry they’d disintegrate when we handled them and would be good for nothing.

Sunday afternoon was best for all of us to spend a little while together sorting them out. Before we left for Pinos, Pep informed me that the time had come to open the three massive courgettes (or courgealiens as they’re fondly known by me) and collect the seeds so they can be dried in the sun for a few more days, ready for sowing next year. The huge squashes had been drying in a shady spot for quite a few days so, armed with a massive knife and a lot of elbow grease he set about dissecting them.

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Once he’d removed all the seeds and had separated them from all the gooey pulp, he spread them out on some brown paper and left them out in the sun to dry. At night, they’d be placed under our riurau as there is quite a lot of humidity where we live and they wouldn’t dry out properly if we left them outside. The chickens were given the courgettes once the seeds had been removed. They just stood there looking at them, as if to say “what on earth are we expected to do with those?!?!” Chickens often like to pick out the seeds first, especially with courgettes, melons, cucumbers, etc, so they weren’t amused with our offering.

Off we go to Pinos. We’d forgotten to take our secateurs (there’s always something) so with the help of a couple of pairs of scissors and our fingers we chopped all the herbs up, mixed them together and divided them into 3 big carrier bags (the 10 cent ones!), 1 bag for each of us. The smell was divine, a mixture of rosemary, thyme, lemon verbena, mint and 23 other herbs filled the air. I could have stayed there all day breathing in the aromas these plants release. I really don’t know where we’re going to store them, mind you. Ideally, they should be kept in an airtight container but I don’t have one big enough. No doubt we’ll think of something.

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Earlier in the day I’d made some “horchata” which I took to Pinos for us all to have a glass for “merienda”, the Spanish word for an afternoon/evening snack. “Horchata” is a typical Valencian drink made from tiger nuts (chufas) that are mostly grown in Alboraia, home to the delicious beverage. If you’re ever anywhere near this town you must pay a visit to one of the many “horchaterías” and sample the drink that they’re famous for.

It’s one of my favourite summer drinks, along with “granizado de limón” (lemon slush) and is full of health benefits. Rich in vitamins C and E, it’s also a good source of magnesium, phosphorous, calcium, iron, potassium, soluble fibre and a great substitute for milk if you can’t have lactose. But aside from all that, it’s delicious and I love to make it in the summer.

All you need to prepare it are “chufas” (tiger nuts), water, sugar, a small piece of cinnamon bark and a piece of lemon rind. The last two items are optional but I think they make a nice addition to the finished drink. Not too much though, they’d overpower the flavour of the “chufas”, their flavour is quite delicate.

The “chufas” need soaking for at least 24 hours in the fridge (sometimes I leave them for up to 48 hours, changing the water once) . This helps to soften them as they are rather hard. Once they’ve been soaked, rinse them and add to the blender along with some water, cinnamon bark and lemon rind and blitz until the “chufas” have been ground down and the liquid is white. You then need a nut milk bag (or possibly a piece of muslin although I’ve never tried that) to strain the liquid.

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When you’ve squeezed out as much of the “milk” as possible, rinse out your blender and the lid to get rid of any bits of “chufa”, pour the strained liquid back into the blender along with the sugar and blend to incorporate, approximately 30 seconds. Serve immediately with ice or pour into a glass bottle or jug and store in the fridge until nice and cold. If you don’t consume it straight away, before you serve it you will need to give it a good shake as it can separate, leaving a fine “chufa” residue at the bottom of the bottle.

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Serve by itself or with “fartons” (don’t laugh), the traditional sweet bun that gets dunked into the “horchata” before being eaten. Any type of cake or biscuit would go well with it though, whatever takes your fancy.

After we’d sorted out all the herbs and drank our “horchata” we took the dogs for a walk. Just as we were leaving, it started to thunder and when we were half way round our usual, circular walk (always the way, you don’t know if it’s quicker to go back or carry on) it started to rain quite heavily (what’s going on this year!!). We got slightly wet, as did the dogs. The problem was, we’d left the courgette seeds drying in the sun, the same sun that had now disappeared behind big black clouds. By the time we got home they were absolutely saturated, as was all the garlic we’ve been drying for the last 2 or 3 weeks. Great. Fantastic. Marvellous.

We removed all the seeds from the paper which they’d stuck to, dried them (firstly with kitchen towel which stuck to the seeds and made our task even more burdensome so we changed to a tea towel) gave them new bits of paper (writing the type of courgette on the paper of course) and placed them on top of a cupboard inside the riurau. It gets very warm in there so that’s where they’ll stay until they’re dry, we won’t have any more disasters if it decides to rain again.

The garlic was transferred into new cardboard boxes and is now drying (again). Hopefully it can soon be stored and we won’t get caught out with a sudden change in the weather, the way this year’s going no doubt we’ll be in for some more showers before the summer is out. As I’m writing this it has started to bucket down. Mad!!

Well, that’s it for today folks. Looks like we’re going to start preserving our tomatoes so I best be off to get all the jars ready. Thanks for reading. Remember to contact us if you have any suggestions or questions or just fancy a natter, we’d love to hear from you. Take care and see you very soon. Love Georgie and Pep xxx