My husband and I have just returned from our honeymoon in the tiny mountain village of Finestrat on the Costa Blanca in Spain.


The last visit 4 years ago was a fleeting day visit, but this time we were lucky enough, thanks to our wedding guests, to be staying for 2 weeks, smack in the middle of the historic old village in a 19th century townhouse. And right round the corner from us was the local bakery, run by a lovely couple, Vincente and Vincenta, who bake all their own produce on the premises.


On my first visit I bought traditional Mallorcan ensaimadas and some bread. The ensaimadas were to die for, and we returned the next day whereupon Vincenta pointed out to me some sumptious looking pies called Coca Xiras, telling me they were a local Finestrat speciality.



I can't describe how wonderful are these pies - somewhere between a quiche and a folded Calzone pizza yet nothing like either. After eating the entire pie between us for lunch one day, on my next visit I asked Vincenta how they were made and she told me the basic ingredients, and mentioned the pressing down of the dough onto the filling, and the use of hot water.

After returning to England and a couple of failed experiments, I finally nailed it, and the recipe I came up with is below. It is not as wonderful as Vincente and Vincenta's Coca Xira, for that you will have to travel to Finestrat on a Friday or Saturday before 1pm and pay them a visit. They will be retiring in March 2011 so get there before then! You can find them on Google Maps by typing in forn alt finestrat.


 There's a once an hour 35a or 35b bus from the Hotel Bali near Benidorm, or from the main bus stop in La Cala, direct up to Finestrat so it's well worth a visit, or ten to fifteen minutes drive from the coast if you're in car or cab.


Valenciano name: Coca Xira
Spanish name: Coca Girada
English name: Finestrat pie


Dough:

(This quantity of dough will line and cover a 20cm tin with some left over so could be used for a larger tin.)


2 cups flour
6 fl oz water just taken off the boil (add more water if necessary)
¼ cup good quality olive oil
large pinch salt

Filling:

(This quantity will be enough for about two pies.)

Any combination of ingredients can be added to a basic fried onion base. This is what I used:

1 large onion chopped finely
1 red pepper deseeded and chopped finely
3 cloves peeled garlic
1 small tin anchovies, drained of oil
50g finely grated parmesan
380g tin spinach drained, squeezed dry in seive
1 tin octopus tentacles in oil, drained
50g chopped chorizo
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.


Oven Preparation:

Put the oven on hot, gas mark 7, with a pizza stone on the middle shelf, for 20 minutes before you plan to bake the pie.

Method for dough:

Rub oil into flour
Add salt
Add very hot water and knead five minutes until you have a smooth dough.
Put into oiled zip lock bag in fridge if you need to store it, but dough is fine if used immediately.

Method for filling:

Fry onion, pepper and garlic until onion is soft and transparent and pepper soft.
Tip into bowl, add rest of ingredients and mix together.

Assembly:

Mix 2 tablespoons olive oil with 1 teaspoon tablespoon Spanish smoked paprika to make baste. Use ordinary paprika if you have no choice, but it is best with Spanish smoked paprika which you can buy online.

Paint the oil and paprika mix over inside of a shallow tin with a pastry brush. I've been using a thick aluminium tin but Vincente and Vincenta bake it in a foil tin for sale in their bakery so a foil tin is fine too.

Roll pastry thinly, 2-3mm, and cut a circle big enough to line the tin, go up the sides and leave a 1cm overhang to be folded over when pie is asssembled.

Add enough filling to come just under the top of the tin and press down.

Cut a thicker (5-7mm) circle of pastry to fit on top of the pie covering the filling but inside the thin pastry lining which you're going to fold over the top of the thicker top circle.

Paint the outside top of the pastry with water to help the folded over lining stick.

Place the top circle of pastry onto the filling and press down on the filling.

Roll the overhanging lining pastry onto the thick topping pastry and crimp with fingers all the way round, making sure there are no gaps and the pastry is sticking, much as you would finish off a Cornish Pasty.

Prick pastry all over the top with a fork and press down with hands so that the filling inside meets the pastry on top.

Baste with the olive oil/smoked paprika mix.

Put the pie tin into the oven on the pizza stone and bake for 20 minutes then remove, prick again to release steam, press down all over with a wooden spatula to remove more steam, baste again with oil/paprika mix, then put back for another 10 minutes. Remove and repeat basting and repricking process then finish off baking for another 5 minutes.

The finished pie should be darkish, looking almost slightly burnt as in the photos.

Serve warm or cold cut into wedges either on its own as a picnic item or with a simple tomato and lettuce salad dressed with a sprinkling of olive oil and lemon juice.



Some more photos from Finestrat...I'll put a link to an online gallery once I've sorted through all the pics I took.




Bread from Vincente and Vincenta's bakery, served with barbequed squid and red pepper, and a simple tomato and lettuce salad on our roof terrace. With this view...


Climbers will recognise many of the classic lines up the mountain (The Puig Campana) which Brian loved to follow through his binoculors, having climbed the  Vía espolón central himself 4 years ago.

This week sees the third Sensoria festival of film and music in Sheffield, fast becoming a centre for all things film what with hosting the Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival and being the home of Warp Films. Yes, I know a few of you Londoners are still under the impression that life begins and end in London, well you may have Soho, Patisserie Valerie, Borowicks Fabrics and The Crown and Two Chairmen pub, but you've got a long walk to find any decent crags for climbing, luvvies. Sorry, make that a long car journey, stuck on the M25 for hours with other snarled up road ragers. Sigh, I remember during my ten years in London in the 80s thinking "Why don't people who live in those silly little places outside London just put themselves out of their misery?" Quaint, huh? :)


Anyway where was I. Oh yes, Sensoria. Well, last night saw the second only ever screening of a short film in which I starred as a young lass, Johnny YesNo. After JY, I went on to earn my Equity card singing and playing my guitar in bars and what were then called mental asylums. I was a busker on the London underground, a geisha girl in a Japanese nightclub in Mayfair, and an extra on a few TV programmes ( I soon got tired of TV directors and producers treating me like a bit of fluff and getting all stroppy and disgruntled when they found out I wasn't prepared to shag them to further my "career" so my TV work didn't last long.)

I also acted in a few Royal College of Art student films to help out my mates, which were all good experiences, but I finally knocked acting in the head, became a photo-journalist for the music press, raised a family and then became the managing director of a publishing company and an author, so no-one gets to treat me like shit just coz they didn't get a shag out of me. Instead, I get to write about them, and it pays my bills. OK I haven't turned the TV producer into a character for any of my books yet, but it's on the cards for the next book but one. Just banked a cheque from the Bank of America yesterday for my recent American book sales, in fact. Sweet.


I was planning to do a filmed interview about Johnny YesNo whilst actually at Sensoria, but only got as far as a dress rehearsal just before we went for our bus (see vid below. It contains a factual inaccuracy, I thought JY had been screened nationally as a B movie. It was only screened once, in Sheffield, at the old Cineplex cinema. The bit about the actor sticking his tongue down my throat during the kissing scene holds though.)






Interview with Jude Calvert-Toulmin about Johnny YesNo from jude calvert-toulmin on Vimeo.


The reason I didn't get round to doing a filmed interview whilst at The Showroom is I got sidetracked, wanting instead to film a live set by Smokey Angle Shades, a band I'd seen performing in the wonderful Strummerville earlier on that evening (I was also very impressed by The Riff Raff and Dekay performing in Strummerville.) The result is below, three numbers from the Smokey Angle Shades set. This band are magical and the real deal. No artifice, no pretence, no bluffing, bullshitting, ego, posturing or vanity. Just talent, raw passion and energy.

My kind of artists.







Smokey Angle Shades Sensoria 2010 from jude calvert-toulmin on Vimeo.

I think this is the longest I have ever gone without posting on the blog since I started it 4 years ago in 2006. Real life has intervened and I've been occupied with more important things than blogging (yes, there is life beyond writing a blog, indeed writing anything. It is the life that leads to the writing, after all.)

So here are some photos of the love shack Brian and I have built on our decking, followed by the much requested recipe for the most gorgeous, fragrant and sticky sauce - Brian's own recipe for that quintessential of traditional British condiments, brown sauce.

The love shack sign, by the way, is made from part of an oak beam from the long demolished 500 year old manor house near us. The 1930s stained glass panels are from a local reclamation yard.

The love shack is totally private, so suitable for lerv. Yeah baby.

Brian's Brown Sauce


A traditional British condiment for meat on barbies, chip butties (chip sandwiches) and fish and chips. Also fish finger sandwiches.

Ingredients:
1 pint malt vinegar
1 x 500gm jar passata
2 tablespoons black treacle
50gm stoned dates
125gm muscovado sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons cornflour
1 small onion
1 teaspoon mace
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
½ teaspoon allspice
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon tamarind extract
1 x 500gm jar apple sauce or apple puree (in Britain this is unsweetened.)

Method:

1.    Put vinegar, passata, apple puree, sugar and treacle into a pan. Stir to dissolve. Bring to boil
2.    Put all other ingredients into blender. Add some liquid from the pan. Blend until smooth. Add to pan.
3.    Cook until thick.
4.    Taste and adjust salt content / sweetness (glucose syrup) / spiciness (you could add chilli, ground cloves or ground black cardamom.)
5.    When it tastes good, bottle in hot dry bottles or jars (sterilised in the oven.)

Apologies to my regular readers for not blogging for a few weeks, but I've been decorating our bedroom pistachio and gold, a job that really needed doing (pics to follow at some point) and resuming writing on the sequel to My Adventures in Cyberspace, which is provisionally entitled My Adventures in Cyberspace II. Nearly there, ready to hand over to my editor before our honeymoon in May.

He won't be editing on our honeymoon. Or climbing mountains. He'll be paying attention to me! :)

Besides decorating and writing, I've also finally posted on my vimeo channel the Q & A I shot back in October at the Sheffield Showroom with film director Shane Meadows, Warp producer Mark Herbert and actor/writer/director Paddy Considine promoting Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee which you can buy on DVD here. It's one of my favourite films, up there with Spinal Tap and well worth having in your DVD collection.

The direct link to the vimeo of the Q & A is here. As you can see from the screenshot below (click to enlarge) a few weeks ago my video was featured on the homepage of Shane's site, which brought me overwhelming pride and joy because I believe that Shane Meadows is the greatest director alive today.