Beyond the Books

I don’t know about other authors but, while writing The Maze of Cadiz and Washington Shadow, my second Peter Cotton novel, due out later this year, I’ve spent a lot of time building background details - not always to add to the books, but to provide me with a consistent and solid foundation. I thought I’d share some of this back structure and gradually fill Peter Cotton out in other aspects.

So I’ve created a new page on my website called Beyond the Books, which I’ll add to over time. Within this page you can find Cotton’s biographical details and also letters written at different times of his life.

The Maze of Cadiz: Audio and Large Print Editions

ISIS Publishing recently acquired the Unabridged Audio and Large Print rights for The Maze of Cadiz.

The audio edition will be out this coming August and the Large Print edition in October.

Tenderloin, Garlic and Almonds - More Tastes of Cadiz

A recent blog entry by Spanish writer Miguel Aranguren, talking of the effect of the financial crisis on the Spanish, is entitled De Solomillo a Sopa de Ajo, From Tenderloin to Garlic Soup. This sparked off a number of memories.

The first was of Juan, my butcher in Cadiz, around the time Franco died. The poorer women who frequented his shop usually bought lumps of pork fat or cooking chorizo to add to their potajes of broad beans, chick peas or lentils. They were unhealthily fat, their children skinny with generations of deprivation engraved in their faces. Newly-confident, newly left-wing Juan would patiently explain that times were changing, and that they must give their children a better chance in life than they had had. To feed a child properly, he said, they must continue with the nourishing pulses but, several times a week they should also give them a good piece of steak - and, he added, “if you can afford it, el solomillo es rey” - tenderloin is king.

Given the eagerness of many of the women to be seen to be giving their children a better life, you might think that Juan’s business would be thriving. And for a time it was. Times were getting easier for a lot of people, and sales of steak shot up.

But there were still those souls who lived among the rubble in the nearby, ruined bull ring, who had no means of support. I remember one tiny bent old woman called Angelines. She would sometimes appear at the door of the butcher’s shop in her grimy black clothes and frayed slippers, and stand there until Juan called her in. He would then wrap something in paper - a marrow bone, a couple of sausages, perhaps a bit of cured ham. Angelines would extract a long tear of grey paper from somewhere among her clothes and Juan would add the amount ‘owed’ to the already long list. When the paper ran out he would tear it up and begin a new one.

Angelines did not eat solomillo. If she was lucky enough to have some oil, she might have eaten sopa de ajo, which consisted of gently frying some thinly sliced garlic cloves in a little olive oil until soft, adding hot water - or, if you had it, chicken stock - and some broken pieces of semi- stale country bread, and simmering gently.

One of the most famous Spanish soups is called Ajo Blanco (White Garlic). It’s really Cold Almond Soup - sometimes called white gazpacho - and was often served by some of my Spanish friends in Easter week.

In The Maze of Cadiz, following an over-rich meal at the house of an ex-pat couple, Peter Cotton suffers a violent bout of gastroenteritis. On his way to recovery – having drunk lots of camomile tea on the doctor’s orders – he is brought a bowl of almond soup followed by some lightly grilled chicken.

Now this soup might have been a simple Leche de Almendras - almond milk - which is often given to convalescents as a nutritious restorative, but I like to think it was Ajo Blanco. It makes a refreshing starter, or a simple supper served with strips of serrano or parma ham.

Here is the recipe:

Ajo Blanco con Uvas - White Gazpacho

Ingredients

200 grams semi stale country-style bread, crusts removed
200 grams almonds, blanched and skinned
3 cloves garlic
150 ml extra virgin olive oil
5 tablespoons wine vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
1 litre water
150 grams crisp white grapes, seeded

Method

Soak the bread in water until softened, squeeze it out and put in a blender or processor with the almonds and garlic. Blend to a smooth paste, adding a little water if necessary. With the motor running, add the oil in a slow stream, then the vinegar and salt. Beat in some of the water, then pour the mixture into a tureen, wooden bowl or pitcher and add the remaining water. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt or vinegar if needed. The soup should be fairly tangy. Chill. Stir before serving into bowls garnished with the grapes.
(Small chilled scoops of melon are sometimes used instead of the grapes)

Date with CrimeFest 2009

The arrangements for this year’s CrimeFest (Bristol, 14th - 17th May) are well underway. I shall be attending this year - along with other John Murray writers, Giles Brandreth, Declan Hughes and Cassandra Clarke - and taking part in two panels.

The first, Suspicion: Building the Suspense, Friday 15th May at 3 p.m., will be moderated by Margaret Murphy. Also on the panel will be Ann Cleeves, Brian McGilloway and Yrsa Sigurdardottir.

The second panel is called Pick-Up on South Street: A Date with Debut Authors (after the 1953 film starring Richard Widmark and Thelma Ritter, in which a pickpocket unwittingly lifts from a woman’s handbag a message destined for enemy agents and becomes a target for a Communist spy ring. Lots of dark looks and turned up collars.) This panel is on Sunday 17th at 9.30 a.m. and will be moderated by Peter Guttridge. The other members of the panel are Alison Bruce, Steven Hague, M.R.Hall, Matt Hilton and Jenni Mills.

I know that CrimeFest, which is organized by Myles Allfrey and Adrian Muller, was a great success last year. I ’m looking forward to it.

First Shot Award, Debut Novel of the Year

I was delighted - and honoured - to find out recently that The Maze of Cadiz had been picked for the First Shot Award (for a debut novel) in Mike Ripley’s Shot of the Year Awards, 2008 ….

and also named by Nick Hay, in his Mysteries of the Year 2008, as Debut Novel of the Year.

Is there a smiley for such things?

Are There Clams in Heaven? - More Tastes of Cadiz

Around fifty years ago, the peculiarly Spanish humourist Álvaro de Laiglesia published a collection of stories entitled En el cielo no hay almejas - In Heaven there are no Clams - the implication being that heaven must be a pretty boring place without them.

I love clams - much prefer them to mussels. They have a more delicate taste and texture. I enjoyed eating them out for years before I got around to making them myself and when I did, I wondered why it had taken me so long. They are very easy and quick to prepare, and taste wonderful.

In The Maze of Cadiz , before Peter Cotton eats his Atún Encebollado (see earlier blog entry) he has a dish of clams as a first course, and some fried green peppers - definitely part of the tapestry of smells of Cadiz.

The peppers are those small, long, thin-skinned ones that are so common in Spain but not readily available in the UK. I have seen them occasionally in specialist delis or greengrocers - usually called Italian peppers. The ones Cotton ate were deep-fried gently in olive oil - left whole with the stalk, (drain well on kitchen paper) and sprinkled with a little salt. They can be eaten with the fingers, holding them by the stalk. I don’t often cook them myself but occasionally taste them in Spain (they are delicious but quite rich),

The clams Cotton ate were almost certainly almejas a la marinera.

Clams must be very fresh. You need to go to a good fishmonger to buy them alive and in their shells. Nothing else will do. If any shells are damaged, discard them. If any are open, tap them. If the shell closes immediately the clam is alive and can be used. If not, you must discard it.

Clams are easier to clean than mussels - no shell scrubbing and bearding. When I get them home I rinse them carefully in a couple of changes of water and then, before cooking, soak them for a while in water with a squeeze of lemon juice to get rid of any grit. Again, watch for any shells that don’t close when tapped.

This is how almejas a la marinera are usually prepared in Cadiz:

Ingredients

• 750 grms - 1k fresh clams - consult with your fishmonger for taste and texture
• Good virgin olive oil
• 2/3 cloves garlic sliced thinly
• A few spring onions ( or one if they are the large Spanish kind)
• Tsp Spanish sweet paprika
• A glass of dry sherry (fino or manzanilla) or dry white wine
• a little salt and black pepper
• chopped flat-leaf parsley (optional)
• lemon quarters to garnish
• some good crusty bread to eat with it

Method

• Heat the oil gently in a pan
• Before it gets too hot (to prevent burning) add the chopped spring onion and the garlic and cook until soft
• Turn the heat up and add the paprika, the clams, the white wine a little salt and black pepper
• Shake the pan, cover and cook until the clams have opened - no longer or they will lose texture and flavour. (Any clam that has not opened should be discarded)
• Stir in the finely chopped parsley (some gaditano cooks say parsley shouldn’t be added - it’s up to you)
• Serve and eat immediately, garnished with lemon quarters.

The Maids of Cadiz

Looking for a title is not always the easiest thing. The Maze of Cadiz owes something to Leo Delibes, most famous for the ballet Coppélia , who composed a song for ‘high voice’ called Les filles de Cadix. Versions of it are available on Youtube by Joan Sutherland, Deanna Durbin and quite a few others. Jeanette MacDonald sang it in a movie of 1942 called Cairo described as something on a spoof on spy stories.

For me, however, the real link is with an arrangement by the great Gil Evans for Miles Davis’ Miles Ahead, an album of 1957, called The Maids of Cadiz. It is purely instrumental, no voice, high or otherwise, and Miles Davis plays a flugelhorn. You can watch him in action on Youtube in a later version at a concert in Montreux, conducted by Quincy Jones. Fabulous.