According to family legend, my Valencian mother-in-law Oreto couldn’t even boil an egg when she was first married. Nearly fifty years later, she is one of the most accomplished and relaxed home cooks I have ever met.  She does everything from scratch and is a rich source of information about local ingredients and culinary customs. Everything I know about Valencian cuisine I have learnt from her, and I look forward to sharing it with you as I spend the next year recording what goes on in her kitchen from month to month.

The recipes found in this blog are what we and our extended family here in rural Valencia eat on a daily basis and also for special occasions. Typically, each town and region has its own variations on the basic dishes so what you see here is only a tiny slice of an extremely rich and varied culinary tradition.

We are an omnivorous family, and although many of the dishes here include meat, there will be some recipes that are suitable for vegetarians. I will always mark them as such. Also, we tend to use what my Australian and English family and friends see as copious amounts of both olive oil and salt. Feel free to cut down on the salt, but be warned that using less oil can sometimes lead to less than successful results.

By the way, Iaia (pronounced ya-ya), which is “nanna” in Catalonian, is what my daughter calls Oreto, and how I will refer to her throughout the blog