Soulful Travel and Cooking Tips from Amazing Maderia

summerbourne

I’ve been a bit quiet on here lately because Glyn and I decided to escape the soggy UK and find a bit of sun on the sumptious island of Maderia. We hadn’t been there before but have totally fallen in love with it. We stayed in a studio apartment that only had a 2-ring hob for cooking so it was a bit like cooking in a campervan (except a lot more head room!) and I developed a couple of campervan-style recipes while I was there…

But first let me offer you a visual feast before we get to the foodie stuff. There’s no doubt that Maderia is special and we really recommend it for a bit of easy winter sun. (Checkout my Instagram page thecampercookie for more pictures.) 

Lush landscape…

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Volcanic lagoons…

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Secret valleys…

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An exquisite ocean moment…

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Fresh Tuna in the market…I pan fried a couple of steaks and they were out of this world!

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Not sure why I look so nervous in this one…I kind of expected it to come alive and get me…

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But Now to the Food

While we were there we tried the local artisan bread, ‘Bolo do Caco’ which is a round loaf made with sweet potato added and cooked on a hot plate. They serve it in restaurants a lot with garlic butter and it is totally delicious.

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I wanted to make the garlic bread in our apartment but, as we didn’t have an oven, I pan-fried it instead and it worked really well so it is something I will do when we are out in the van. In fact I make it at home a lot now using panini rolls.

Here is one I did tonight to have with my cauliflower soup.

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How to Make

  • First you need to make up some garlic butter which means just chopping up some garlic and mixing it with salted butter and add a few herbs if you like, I added dried oregano. Any extra can be kept in the fridge or frozen.
  • Cut the panini in half horizontally and spread the garlic butter on the inside
  • Put the bread in the pan dry-side down and let it heat up. You will see the butter melt in to the bread.
  • Flip the bread over so that butter side is now facing down and cook for a minute or two until golden brown.

The smell is amazing! This is great to eat as a side with your pasta, BBQ or soup.