A stone heavier

Well, we have returned from our very relaxing holiday and have brought back lots of lovely memories, tans (or freckles in my case at least) and of course all that extra weight we promised. We indulged in lots of Spanish cliches like tapas (a yummy bowl of chickpea & chorizo stew after a swim in a natural water pool in a local village), sangria (just when i was thinking it must have been really watered down, it hit me - i forgot the punch always gets you at that party!), serrano (the most melt in the mouth jamon simply on lightly garliced toast with a smear of homemade tomato sauce), paella (deliciously soft, saffrony and shellfishy, full of freshly caught langoustines, mussels and squid) and gorgeous traditional almondy, eggy desserts like bienmesabe (see recipe below). First though, a couple of holiday snaps..

mart had to visit the 4.5kg toblerone every day

me, mart & lots of jamon

Almond & Cinnamon Custard (Bienmesabe)

25g caster sugar
150ml water
1 cinnamon stick
Peel of 1 lemon
500g ground almonds
12 egg yolks, beaten

Firstly, you need to make the sugar syrup so bung the sugar, water, cinnamon stick and lemon peel in a pan. Bring to the boil and simmer until you get a syrupy consistency that pours in a thin thread from a spoon.

Then add the ground almonds and stir in well until the mix thickens and comes away from the bottom of the pan. Add the egg yolks and over a very low heat stir the mix in the same direction until it starts to come to the boil. Remove from the heat, allow to cool and then serve with ice cream.