Clementine Season!

If there is one food emblematic of Spain it is jamón ibérico, a kind of cured ham. Spaniards are seriously proud of this stuff, and would take great offense at what I'm about to say: it's o.k. After months of hanging in a musty barn the stuff is imbued with subtle hints of... musty barn. And unless it's the good stuff carefully carved into thin slices by a pro it can be just tough and stringy. When I leave Spain I will miss olives, tortilla, gazpacho, red wine, bread, all of which seem more delicious here. But on a rainy, October day like today, I was in the mood for a more under the radar Spanish classic: puré de verduras, vegetable puree (uy, translation does it no justice). So I went to the Corte Inglés in search of acelgas, white chard I think, and a crucial ingredient in the soup. Now you may balk at the idea of vegetable puree, but let me just say puré is the one form of green vegetable my carnivorous roommate Alberto will eat. It is that good. I polished off two bowls of soup and some crusty bread, followed by my first clementines of the year. Thank god these droplets of Valencian sunshine come into season just as the rains hit. Yum!