Sunday in Spain

Its Sunday morning in southern Spain.Im in the kitchen roasting suckling pig with white wine and rosemary,pulling it from the oven every 20 min.or so to lather it up with butter so the skin comes out crispy and brown.A woman from the village brought me a string of fresh rabbits yesterday.I´m braising them down with Ñora peppers and toasted garlic.I´m going to serve them with  polenta and sauted spinach with lemon.A touch of sage in the polenta goes great with the rabbit.
The sun is shinning bright and all the weekend warriors are out on their speed bikes.Wish you were here.

Indian Feast weekend.

     Having just returned from Goa,we have decided to kick off the 2011 season with a Spicy Indian weekend.
Cashew coconut chicken,spicy Zanzabari jumbo prawns,Goan fish curry and grilled Indian flat breads.

   Next weekend is our first Flamenco show of the season with ¨el Niño de ratera¨ from Saucejo.

The flamenco menu starts with a bacon wrapped rabbit terrine or wild mushroom soup followed by
grilled wild boar or Poached sole stuffed with  dungeness crab and prawns.Desert is a blood orange tart with passion fruit coulis.

For reservations log onto http://www.al-lago.es/
or call us at 0034 956 123 032 or 0034 662 052 553.

Our sixth year.

       As we begin our sixth year at Al Lago,in Zahara de la Sierra,I cant help but think back to the day we opened.We had moved to southern Spain from New York city two years befor.Our arrival in Spain was less than aouspicious.Our plane touched down at Malaga airport in gale force winds.Our 18 month old son wailing and screaming.As we arrived at the rented flat on the coast waves battered the coast line sending sea spay up over the road.
       We began a search that took two years.Traveling up and down the coast of Spain from Terrifa to Velez-Malaga.In our travels we saw no fewer than 350 properties.A delapidated monistary,A mango farm,old mills ,illegal chalets, failed restaurants and half built villas.Just as we began to loose hope we saw a property come up on a web site that looked interesting.¨Restaurant overlooking a lake!¨ We decided to drive up and take a look.Eight months later we were moving in,our furniture going up the back staircase as customers entered the bar.The waitstaff asking for change,and what would be on the menu today.We have come a long way.

Re-opening soon.

We have now been closed for Winter break for almost two months and are eager to get back in the kitchen.
The much needed trip to India for rest and relaxation was inspirational and the goan cuisine mouth-watering. I am sure those flavours will work their way into our Indian weekends in 2011, next Indian weekend is Jan 29th to 30th.

The pinch of the crisis,although less visible, in India than in Andalusia, reminds us that today's families and travellers, now more than ever, are looking for the best quality at a reasonable price. With this in mind we are currently putting together ideas for a twelve euro menu del dia to be offered daily at lunch .With the emphasis on fresh quality ingredients and the the vibrant AL LAGO flavors,this is an offer too good to miss!

Apart from our Indian weekend coming soon we will also have our first Flamenco evening of the year on Saturday 12th of Feb celebrating Valentine's, we look forward to seeing all of you soon, please put it in your diary, we re-open on Thursday 21st January! HAPPY NEW YEAR
Mona, Stefan and the Al Lago team.al-lago.es