Melons, Peppers, Aubergines And How To Make “Espencat”.

It’s been all systems go for the past few days in our abode. We’ve been bottling more and more tomatoes, harvesting “capazos” full of veg and wheelbarrows of melons, followed by the more complicated tasks of either finding places to put them (never easy), using a few kilos up in different recipes or preparing them in various different ways so they can be stored for use in the future months.

Summer is always a busy time for us but I forget from one year to the next just how much work it entails. I’m not moaning (honest!) and with things the way they are in the world at the moment, I’d sooner be doing all these things in my home than going out with my mask on in the boiling heat. It’s just that, from time to time I wish our cats would give us a hand (or paw) in tackling some of these jobs!

The year hasn’t been a great one for us in terms of melons, “melón” in Castillian Spanish, “meló de tot l’any” in Valenciano (which means melon for all the year, so called because they can be kept until December under the right conditions), and watermelons (“meló d’alger” or “meló d’aigua” in Valenciano, “sandía” in Castillian Spanish). Last year we had about 14 wheelbarrows full of each sort, all rather large specimens too. If I recall correctly, there was a “melona”, a type of long watermelon, that weighed 12 kilos.

This year, Pep had to sow the seeds four times before they actually sprouted. The first three times, it rained so much afterwards that the seeds rotted in the earth. Eventually he got them to go, although they weren’t too keen at first. Because of the cooler weather they took quite a while to start growing properly.

I’ll quickly mention that Benissa is much cooler than a lot of places nearby, especially in the summer. Orba can often be 5 or 6 degrees warmer at least. I remember a day when the thermometer hit 42ºC in Orba and remained a very chilly 29ºC in Benissa. There’s obviously a scientific reason for this but I have no idea what is is.

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While the plants were growing (they take up quite a lot of space) it rained again (and probably again, knowing what this year’s been like) which made the weeds grow very nicely all around the plants. Seeing as the melon plants grow along the ground and not upwards, it’s impossible to get a rotavator in between them to remove all the weeds. The weeds, no doubt, take a lot of the nutrients that the plants need and they just haven’t thrived this summer.

We’d noticed that the plants were gradually drying up, even though they get water daily, and also seemed to have some sort of disease. The melons hadn’t grown to their usual size and although some of the telltale signs that they’re ripe were there, they’re not as sweet as they should be. Pep blames it on the fact that it’s a leap year. They have a saying, which I’ve mentioned in another post, “En año bisiesto, la cosecha en un tiesto” (In a leap year, the harvest fits in a bucket). At least we’ve got an excuse, let’s see what next year brings!

Thankfully, most of the vegetable plants have done pretty well. As you know, the tomatoes are never-ending (we’ve got another bottling session planned for this afternoon, we’ve already got about 40 large jars!) and the green beans have done pretty well too, although these are nearly finished now. I made a mistake in one of my past posts, but Pep has recently put me right. I said that we had 5 green bean plants. What I should have said was that there are five holes, each with 3 to 4 plants in them (I had no idea). So a couple of years ago when I thought we had 15 plants, we actually had close to 50!!!! No wonder I couldn’t cope with them all.

What we seem to be harvesting a lot of these last few days (although even then, Pep says they’re not as productive as previous summers, blooming leap year), are peppers and aubergines. We have four different sorts of aubergine: long black ones, white ones, stripy purple and white ones and a very odd type which is greenish with a bit of purple on. We had these odd ones last year but they were always very bitter. This year, although we didn’t plant this green variety, one has sprouted up amongst the others. They’re not bitter this year though. Very strange.

When it comes to peppers, we have the long Italian green ones (pimientos italianos), and we should be picking “cuatro cantos” red ones, the type with four sides. Well, that’s what we purchased from the online eco shop we sometimes get our little veggie plants from but what we have is a mix between them and the long Italian green ones. They’re very tasty but I think the shop has had a slight problem with cross-pollination. They’ll get used though, don’t you worry.

One of our storage methods for the Italian green peppers is roasting them in the oven with a good drizzle of olive oil and a few pinches of salt. Once they’re nice and soft I let them cool completely before putting a few in a bag and freezing them. When I want to use them I defrost them in the fridge and heat them in a frying pan. Easy-peasy!

The red peppers can also be frozen. We use raw peppers for this purpose but I’m sure there are lots of different methods. They get washed, dried, then cut up into chunks or strips and stored in bags, ready for use with whatever dish you fancy. They freeze pretty well and if you cook them in a recipe you can’t tell the difference. In our house the strips get used in a veggie paella, poor man’s prawns as they’re known in Spanish. Personally, I prefer red peppers to prawns so I don’t mind if I’m poor!

If I want to use a large amount of these two yummy, summer veggies in a dish, one of my favourite ways is the local dish “Aspencat”, proper spelling “Espencat”. The name comes from the Valenciano verb “espencar” which means to tear into strips (more or less).

It consists of roasting the veg whole either in the oven or on wood embers (this gives the veggies a smokey flavour), allowing them to cool, peeling them and subsequently tearing them into strips. These strips get placed on a platter where an almost illegal amount of olive oil is poured on, along with a few pinches of salt.

The veggies used are aubergines, red peppers and sometimes tomatoes and onions. Today I’ve made it with the first two but you can use what you like. You often see it served with different “salazones” (fish that have been cured with salt), cod or “mojama” (part of the tuna fish), for example. Small chunks of garlic are also sometimes added. I prefer it without any of those ingredients, just adding the veg, olive oil and salt.

This is another dish that’s so simple to make but tastes really summery. And if I can get Pep to cook the veggies on the bbq while we’re making our tea, even better. Turning the oven on in this heat is not the best of ideas. I adore it as a side dish to “tortilla de patata” (Spanish omelette). It’s delicious on bread or as a filling with “coques de dacsa”, small fajita type wraps made from wheat and maize flour. I also like to serve it with a wrap made from flaxseeds (recipe here), this adds protein, fibre and also plenty of Omega-3 oils. However you serve it, I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s really delicious.

Last night we all went up to Pep’s mum’s casita in Pinos. She’d prepared “cocas” and “ensaladilla” and I took the “espencat”. A lovely way to end the day.

Well, that’s the lot for today. I best go and help Pep outside seeing as it’s slightly overcast. Got to make the most of it, we’re supposedly in for some extremely hot weather this weekend. Thanks for reading. As always, any suggestions or questions please feel free to contact us, we’d love to hear from you. See you very soon. Love Georgie and Pep xxx

P.S. I shall be back on Valley FM this Saturday, just after 12pm. You can listen online or on 94.5FM/102.6FM. Here’s the link to last Saturday’s show. My bit starts at around minute 38. Cheerio for now!!