cooking demo for Club Ñ

Dr. Andrea Nate recently hosted a cooking demo for Club Ñ. With the help of Dr. Stacy Davis and Spanish major and Club Ñ president Robyn Schroeder, students from different levels of Spanish were able to come together in Dr. Nate’s home to enjoy some delicious eats and treats that hail from various regions of Spain. Everyone pitched in to help cut potatoes and onions, crack and whisk eggs, and prepare mixtures for the different dishes. The eggs, potatoes, Spanish olive oil, and onion combined to make the most delicious tortilla – a staple tapa in Spain – that everyone in attendance had ever had, including the well-traveled professors. Since the tortilla night happened to be right in the middle of Semana Santa (Holy Week), it was decided that it would be fitting make a popular Easter dessert that can be found in Spain: torrijas. Going for the Madrid-style torrijas, which are similar to French toast, the students mixed eggs, milk, honey, vanilla, and lemon, dipped slices of day-old baguette bread into the wash, and then handed them off to the professors, who were manning the frying pan. A final, greatly flourished sprinkling of sugar on top completed the torrijas, which were then fawned over by all for their great taste and perfectly toasted appearance. The last dish of the night was a bowl of stewed peaches, known as melocotones de Calanda in Spain, where it is a traditional dessert that dates back to medieval Aragon. In the end, it was a night of speaking Spanish, making friends, and learning about Spain’s varied and vibrant cultures through the aforementioned delicious food.