Traditional Recipes of the Axarquia

By Malcolm Coxall

The Axarquía is a small, remarkable corner of Andalusia in Spain. It has witnessed some of the most culturally cataclysmic events of the last 40,000 years of European history, such as the arrival of the first modern human beings in Europe, the invasion of the Phoenicians, Byzantines, Romans, Visigoths, Arabs and most recently, the Christians.

It is a bountiful area with fertile soils and a good climate. However, it is not always an easy place. In just a few years the climate of the area can fluctuate from abundance to drought. The geography of the region makes access very difficult; to this day many of its villages are remote, often inaccessible.

These extraordinary historical, climatic and geographical conditions have made the Axarquía an area of great diversity. One of the most interesting facets of the region is its cuisine. It is full of Roman, Arab, Jewish and Christian culinary traditions, many of which are obvious in the 200 plus recipes contained in this book. To give a better insight into the culinary origins in this collection of recipes we have divided the book into the following chapters:

GENERAL:
- The geography, landscape and climate of the Axarquía
- A short History of the Axarquía and gastronomic influences
- The Agriculture of the Axarquía
- Traditional ingredients
- Village by Village: A short Gastronomic tour of the Axarquía

RECIPES:
- Starters, Salads and Gazpachos
- Soups of the Axarquía
- Main Dishes of the Axarquía
- Goat's Meat dishes
- Lamb dishes
- Rabbit dishes
- Pork dishes
- Poultry dishes
- Stews and Fricassees
- Casseroles
- Fish Dishes
- Sweets and Confectionary
- Breads and Tortillas
- Wines and other alcoholic drinks of the Axarquía
- Tapas of the Axarquía
- Timetable of Meals in Andalucía
- Traditional Breakfast in the Axarquía
- Merienda
- Table, serving and restaurant etiquette in Andalusia

The cuisine of the Axarquía is a delicious and exciting voyage of exploration in Spanish taste, country life and European history. We hope you enjoy the journey!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Malcolm Coxall
• Release date: Jun 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9788494085376

Malcolm Coxall

Malcolm Coxall is a management consultant, systems analyst, organic farmer and author, with more than 30 years experience working for many of the world's largest corporate and institutional organisations, starting in the field of dispute arbitration for the ILO. These experiences have provided him a ringside view of the management methodologies used by medium and large businesses in areas as diverse as banking, oil, defence, telecoms, insurance, manufacturing, mining, food, agriculture, aerospace, textiles, and heavy engineering. Malcolm has published articles on political science, sociology, human design, sustainable agriculture, organic food production, technology in organic farming, biodiversity, forest management, environmental protection and environmental economics. He is active in European environmental politics and was a successful private complainant in the European Court of Justice in several cases of national breaches of European environmental law. He now lives in Southern Spain from where he continues his IT and system consultancy work, writing and managing the family's organic olive farm.

Book preview

Traditional Recipes of the Axarquia

TRADITIONAL RECIPES OF THE AXARQUÍA

Malcolm Coxall

Published by M.Coxall - Cornelio Books

Copyright 2013 Malcolm Coxall

First Published in United Kingdom , Spain , 2013

ISBN: 978-84-940853-7-6

The true story of a people is best discovered in its kitchen

This is book is dedicated to

Conny,

David and Miguel

and to

Restaurant Mesón El Pilar,

Colmenar, Málaga , Spain

Without whose help this wo uld have been almost impossible.

Also a vailable as an eBook (in full colour) for Apple, Kindle, Kobo and Sony .

Preface

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Th e genesis of this book was the combination of the author's interest in history and sociology , taken together with his hands-on involvement as the proprietor of an organic farm in the heart of the Axarquía . This , in turn , led to an interest in the traditional cuisine of the Axarquía - a part of Europe that has seen more than its share of traumatic social history over the last 5000 years or more .

The difficulties of the landscape, the climate and the geography of the area raise a lot of questions about how traditional farming methods and gastronomy have evolved . How did the people of the Axarquía manage the ir food supply in some of these isolated villages , long before the advent of surfaced roads , motorways and refrigeration ?

The Axarquía is a bountiful agricultural zone , with fertile soils and a good climate. However, it is not always quite as bountiful as we would like it to be . In just a few years one can see how the vagaries of weather and a difficult geography can create huge fluctuations in harvest s, causing periods of abundance followed by seasons of catastrophic failure , all within a very short time. Droughts can last for months or even years, and then may be followed by extreme rains and flooding . Winters c an be sunny, warm and completely dry , or they may be freezing, stormy and snowy. Summers may be moderate , but equa lly summer temperatures can soar to an airless 40 ºC or 50 º C for many weeks at a time.

How did the farmer and his family cope with these fluctuations in the field and in the kitchen? More interestingly , how did they adapt their diet and cuisine to man a ge the variations in the supply of ingredients , and the changes in ambient conditions? How, under fairly difficult conditions, did the people of the Axarquía manage to invent some of the most nutritious and tasty recipes in Europe , using only some quite basic, unprocessed ingredients? What historical, economic and social influences have given us the recipes of the Axarquía that we enjoy today?

The Axarquía has always been a place of passage and settlement, lying as it does on the ancient crossroads between Europe and Africa , so it is easy to imagine how many of the outside influences and food ingredients arrived in the region. The Axarquía has been continuously colonised since the earliest humans entered Europe from Africa . This early colonisation, some 40,000 years ago, was followed over the millennia by waves of invaders and traders , including ancient Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Visigoths, Arabs, and in recent years European Christians.

Over the centuries, the Axarquía (and indeed much of Spain ) has seen periods of war, invasion s , human plagu es, catastrophic plant diseases, harvest failures, civil unrest, and rebellions. It has oscillated between periods of peace and relative affluence to times of terrible civil disorder, dire poverty and famine. The Axarquía has had a lot of history , even by Spanish standards!

Needless to say, this continuous ebb and flow of fortunes has had a profound effect on what we now see in the Axarquía in terms of its architecture, the way of life, the attitude of the people and also very profoundly on what and how the people of the Axarquía farm and eat , and what they consider important in life.

It is interesting to note that understanding what is traditionally eaten in a region is an alternative way to learn and understand the history of the peoples of the place. The stomach has no ideology , and therefore the history of food and culinary traditions often provides a more honest insight into the history and mentality of a people than many a conventional history book.

Aside from the history of the Axarquía , the main purpose of this book is to document a set of traditional recipes that we have collected in the villages of this tiny corner of Spain . Despite the fact that many of these recipes have their origins in the distant history of the Axarquía , every one of them is part of the daily cuisine of the region and our main purpose is to bring these delicious recipes to life for those who do not yet know them.

1. Introduction to t he Axarquí a

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Preamble: The Axarquía is a beautiful a nd unique corner of Andalucía. Despite its appearance as a sleepy backwater, the region has often found itself at the very centre of history in both Andalucía and indeed Spain . In some respects the Axarquía is a microcosm of all Andalucía. It is a rather modest, unassuming, hard-working and stoical society. O ne gets the feeling that the people have pretty much seen it all over the centuries and are now busy with the important business of living and making the best of it. Food is very much at the centre of this philosophy.

Like most of the people of Andalucía , the people of the Axarquía understand some of the mo re important things in life, such as the value of their family, friends, neighbours and the solidarity of their village. They delight in good company, good food, camaraderie and a glass or two of good wine. In many ways, they are worlds away from their materialistic and utilitarian neighbours in Northern Europe and the rest of the Westernised World.

This love of life is very much reflected in the recipes we have here for you. Sometimes very simple basic ingredients are turned into exotic and delicious dishes with the most amazing culinary imagination . These recipes seem to show that , even in very bad times, the people of the Axarquía held on to their dignity, their love of their own place , their environment , and their self-respect - often very much against the odds , and often in the face of adversity, poverty, even famine.

We hope you enjoy this book and hope it give s the reader an insight not only into the delicious recipes of the Axarquía , but also into the hearts of the tenacious, inventive and delightful ly warm-hearted people of the region. We mention especially the rural women of the area , whose great imagination and pride has , over the centuries, created so many of the wonderful dishes in this book.

1.1 The Geography, landscape and climate of the Axarquía

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The Axarquía is the region to the east of Málaga city, and derives its name from the Arabic word pronounced as Ash-sharquía. The region extends along the coast and inland into Málaga province and covers an area of approximately 1025 Km ² . Its capital is Vélez-Málaga.

The dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy defines the word jarquía (xarquía in the old Castilian) as district or territory located east of a great city and dependent on it and says that it proceeds from the Arabic word Sarqiyya, meaning eastern part. A more romantic interpretation of the name Axarquía is the land where the sun rises.

The most easterly town in the Axarquía is Nerja and the most westerly town is Rincón de la Victoria. To the north the Axarquía extends as far as Alfarnate and borders the province of Granada in the north east and east. The region is bounded in the north by the first really high peaks of the Penibaetic system of mountains. This is the first range of high sierras which run west to east across the south of Spain . The highest peak in the Axarquía is La Maroma (2066 metres), which is part of the Sierra de Tejeda.

The Axarquía is composed of 31 municipalities: Alcaucín , Algarrobo, Almáchar , Alfarnate , Alfarnate jo, Arenas, Árchez , Benamargosa , Benamocarra, El Borge , Canillas de Aceituno , Canillas de Albaida , Colmenar , Comares , Cómpeta , Cútar, Frigiliana , Iznate , Macharaviaya , Moclinejo , Nerja , Periana , Rincón de la Victoria, Riogordo , Salares , Sayalonga, Sedella , Totalán , Torrox, Vélez-Málaga and La Viñuela, and 67 smaller districts.

Most of the Axarquía n landscape consists of the lower montes. These are old limestone hills , which are criss-crossed with intricate valleys, smoothed and eroded into a fantastically complex topography rising up to 1100 metres in places. These montes are relatively accessible and cultivated, in stark contrast to the high sierras , which form the natural northern boundary of the Axarquía . These mountains are basically inaccessible and uninhabited and crossed only via two very basic mountain passes.

The Axarquía n climate is basically Mediterranean, with a subtropical microclimate in the areas close r to the sea, which ensures mild winters and warm summers. The annual average temperature in the region is 18ºC and the area has more than 320 sunny days a year.

The traditional economic activity of the Axarquía is agriculture, with a particular emphasis on olive, almond, wine, honey, horticultu re and goat's meat production. Despite the beneficial climate and fertile soils, large parts of the interior of the Axarquía are considered to be marginal in terms of food production , because much of the land is inaccessible and suitable only for manual agriculture. Thus, the farming traditions of the region and the difficulty of communications have led to the creation of many small population centres inland.

Over the centuries, these small, quite isolated villages have developed rich and independent gastronomic traditions alongside their highly adapted and sometimes very difficult agricultural activities.

A Map of the Villages and Towns of the Axarquía

1.2 A short h istory of the Axarquía and gastronomic influences

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Here is a brief timeline showing the history of the Axarquía :

900 BC : Phoenician s settle the Iberian Peninsula and found Cádiz .

800 BC : Bastuli ( Celt Iberian ) settlements.

770 BC : Founding of Malaka by the Phoenicians .

600 BC : Greek settlements along the coast of Andalucía .

500 BC : Carthaginian (Punic) settlements in Andalucía.

218 BC : Region i nvaded by Rome .

19 AD: Foundation of Baetica as a province of Rome in Spain .

100 AD: Province is renamed Malaca and becomes part of the Roman Empire .

476 . Foundation of the Visigoth kingdom .

500 : Rome in decline, invasion by Byzantine, Germanic and Visigoth pirates .

624 : Byzantine expulsions .

711-718 : Muslim Arab conquest of southern Spain - Málaga city now known as Mālaqa .

1026 : Axarquía becomes part of the independent Taifa (Muslim kingdom) of Mālaqa .

1239 : Axarquía becomes part of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada .

1487 : Final siege of Mālaqa by the Catholic monarchs .

1484-1501: Mudéjar period , in whi ch Muslim converts were given protection .

1481: The founding of the Spanish inquisition - the suppression of Jewish and Muslim practices in Spain ..

1492: Capitulation of King Boabdil of the Kingdom of Granada .

1492: Wider colonisation of the conquered Kingdom of Granada by Christians from other parts of Spain begins .

1492: Columbus ' discovery of the Americas .

1609: Phillip II of Spain decreed the Expulsion of the Moriscos - the Christian ethnic and religious cleansing of Spain .

16th-18th century : Málaga and Axarquía depopulated and in economic decline .

18th century: Period of economic recovery for the region .

1808-14: Napoleonic Wars .

1880: A new economic decline is triggered by the P hylloxera blight and the collapse of the sugar industry .

1898: Loss of the final Spanish colonies .

1931-1936: Spain 's First Democracy: The Second Republic

1936: Spani sh civil war: M any brutal atrocities from Francoist military dictatorship against the largely Republican population of the Axarquía .

1977: Democracy returns to Spain .

1.2.1 Historical Gastronomic influences:

Phoenician influences: The Phoenicians were a sea-faring people and most of their settlements were on the sea or close by. Malaka was an important part in many of their trade routes.

- Muscatel: The Phoenicians are believed to have introduced the Muscat grape in to the Axarquía . The grape ( vitis vinifera ) is believed to be the oldest cultivated variety of grape in the world.

Roman influences:

- Olives: The Romans originally introduced the cultivation of olives into the Axarquía .

Arabic influences: There are many culinary and agricultural influence s , which came to the Axarquía during the Moorish era:

- Irrigation: The Moors were experts in the design and construction of irrigation and water storage systems for agriculture. Many of their constructions are still in use in the Axarquía to this day .

- Olives and Olive oil: The Arabs extended the planting of olives in Andalucía , and olive oil was an important part of the economy during the Moorish era.

- Sugar: Arab traders introduced sugar cane cultivation to the Axarquía (from India ) .

- Orange s and Lemons: Arab farmers brought o ranges and l emons for cultivation in Andalucía.

- Almonds: An Arab caliph of Cordoba is believed to have brought a lmonds to Andalucía from Syria to beautify the city of Cordoba as a present for his bride .

- Herbs: The use of herbs in dressings and sauces was introduced by Arab cooks.

- Cotton: The Moors introduced cotton - growing to Andalucía .

- Dried fruit in savoury dishes: The frequent use of dried and /or fresh fruit in savoury recipes is a tradition brought to Andalucía by Arab cooks of the Levant . Dried figs and raisins became common in savoury dishes .

- Figs: The modern cultivated fig was introduced by Arab agricultur al ists into Andalucía.

- Wines: Whilst wine production was discouraged with taxes , it was not consistently outlawed during Moorish times (on the contrary in fact) .

- Asparagus: Ziryab (the blackbird), was a Baghdadi Arab musician to the court of Cordoba. He was also keenly interested in food and invented many new Andalus í dishes , which survive to this day. He was responsible for elevating the humble spring weed called asparagus to the status of a delicacy. (This man actually deserves a whole book dedicated to him alone - he was really an extremely clever inventive and colourful person of enormous talent.)

Christian influences: The Christian invasion of Andalucía brought many changes:

- Pork: The lifting of the Muslim prohibition on pig meat brought about a new culinary repe r toire of fresh and p reserved meats, like cured hams, chorizos and other cured meat products .

- Wine: The taxing of wine production was relaxed and the wine industry in the Axarquía was encouraged in order to generate revenue for the Christian monarchs.

The influence of the Americas : The discovery of the Americas brought many changes to the diets of everyone in Europe , but especially to the sub-tropical areas of Southern Andalucía :

- Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, aubergines, potatoes, chillies, and many tropical fruits come originally from the Caribbean and the Americas . It's hard to believe how we managed before these ingredients arrived. They revolutionised the diet in Southern Spain and gradually in all of Europe .

1.3 The agriculture of the Axarquía

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An understanding of the agricult ure of the Axarquía helps to give us an insight into the ingredients used in the traditional recipes of the area.

The Olive: The olive is by far the single most important part of the agricultural and culinary life of Andalucía , and the Axarquía is no different in this respect. There are few corners of the region where olives are not cultivated.

The European olive is a native of the Middle East and was introduced in to Spain by the Romans and then the Arabs. Olive trees can reach a great age and grow up to 15 metres in height, although they are usually pruned to ease harvesting, stimulate fruit production and pr event the trees from loosing extremely long branches in storms. Trees of several hundred s years are quite common ; some are reputedly more than 1,000 years old ! Many of these old trees are still producing fruit and are actively protected by the Junta de Andalucía as living monuments.

In the Axarquía region there are approximately 15,000 hectares of olive trees , with over one million olive trees in cultivation. Th e s e produce between 20 and 30 million kilos