Señora Estrella
Good evening, I´m Estrella, Don Alonso Quijano´s housekeeper. Don Alonso doesn´t like to go to a party emptyhanded so he´s asked me to whip up something quick for All Saints´Eve. The trouble is I have to make enough of it for 500 people. Don Alonso says there won´t be 500 people at the party. Most of the food will be eaten up by one little boy with an appetite that puts Camacho´s guests to shame.
Camacho
I! I´m Camacho. You can hardly see me because I´m in the middle of my wedding banquet. But it doesn´t matter if you don´t see me because what really matters about me is that I´m fabulously rich. Let me tell you about my wedding banquet. I´m so rich I´ve employed more than fifty cooks. The number of cheeses I´ve bought for the occasion could serve to build a brick wall big as the one in China. I have six huge pots, big as wine vats, choke full of different kinds of meat. I cut down more than a good sized forest to use as firewood to cook my provisions with. I -
Señora Estrella
Hold it right there, Camacho! If a certain little boy hears about your wedding banquet he might crash your party and I have a feeling even you, rich as you are, will end up poorer than your rival Basilio.
Camacho
Eh?
Señora Estrella
I don´t believe everything people tell me, and I certainly know Don Alonso sometimes says and does strange things, but...something´s happened that´s made me believe every word he said to me this time.
The other night I was out trying to pick asparagus by the light of the moon. I didn´t see any asparagus. What I saw was...an elf? I said to myself, tomorrow is another day and the one-eyed woman will see the asparagus and not an elf, and I returned home and went to bed.
But yesterday I was out in broad daylight and I saw...an elf. I returned home and there was Don Alonso waiting for me impatiently. He told me his English teacher was giving a party and he was invited and...
If there´s anyone who knows what she is seeing, it´s me, the one-eyed woman. When I see an elf, what I see is an elf. So if Don Alonso says he wants me to cook for five hundred, for five hundred people it shall be.
Now, it´s clear I need something quick and easy and that will appeal to a little boy. I know! I´ll make nuegados - nut brittle! My friend Pepe gave me a recipe from a cookbook published by his sister who is a teacher and her pupils from Daimiel. Here it is!
Nut Brittle
Ingredients:
2 kg. of nuts.
1/2 kg. of honey
1 spoonful of sugar
Utensils: Frying pan, wooden spoon, dish or tray
Preparation: Break the nuts in pieces and toast them a little. Boil the honey during half an hour together with the spoonful of sugar. Add the toasted nuts to the mixture of sugar and honey, stir a little and transfer mixture to a plate. When the mixture cools, cut in pieces and eat.
Time employed: One hour
Difficulty: Easy
Season: Since today there are nuts all year round, you can make nuegados whenever you please.
Comments: In the olden days, nuegados were made in the summer to be eaten on Sundays, since they had few ingredients. They could also be made only with sugar, without honey, but the result wasn´t as good.
Don Quijote
We´ve got to start working, Estrella. There´s a lot to be done.
I´ll help you in the kitchen. It´s not beneath me. Everyone should do a little housework. It´s good for one´s health and reminds one that one is human and that little things matter.
I´ll start by cracking the nuts.
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