So, while we’re at simple dishes, here’s another one that is simple, just takes some time to make. Migas. This is a traditional meal of shepherds in Spain, made with old bread and a few things to make it edible. There are as many recipes as you can imagine, and then some, so I’ll just put a basic one here and you can wing it from there. The biggest problem is, around here old bread doesn’t get dry and hard, as it should. It doesn’t even get rubbery. It just gets mouldy.

If you ever want to grow mold for some reason, move to New Zealand. You’ll love it.

Anyway! Let’s start with some not-so-old bread and some extras.

Basically, we need:

• Bread.
• Garlic.
• Water (do I really have to show that in the picture?).
• Oil.
• Bacon.
• Red paprika.

Something that also goes really well with this is sprout garlic. Chopped up sausages work as well. Some people use milk instead of water. And raisins as well – or plain grapes, usually added at the end when everything’s done.

The first thing to do is to get rid of the crust of the bread. Usually, when the bread is hard and dry – as it should be -, I grate the outside to make crumbs, useful for later use, and just heep the white inside. After this, cut the bread into small pieces, by hand or with a knife if the bread is hard. Afterwards, you want to get them wet.

This is the delicate part, you want the bread wet enough so that it becomes kinda sticky, and the pieces start to stick together, but not so wet that it becomes a soapy mess. What I usually do is, after washing my hands thoroughfully, use them to get it wet. Put some water in my wet hands, mix with the bread pieces, do it agan, then keep at it until the texture is right. It’s very noticeable, the bread will be sticky.

After that, chop up the non-bready ingredients. Time to get started with them!

Now, put three spoonfuls of oil in a pan, and start frying them. I fried the bacon first, then the paprika mixed with four cloves of garlic, chopped into big pieces – the garlic, not the paprika. Reserve the frying ingredients, keep the oil in the pan.

We’re ready for the last part. Now put the bread on the pan, and start mixing! The bread should come together in bigger clumps, and you have to keep stabbing at it and cutting the clumps into smaller chunks. keep at it! It’s a very active thing. IF the bread didn’t clump together after a bit, you may need some more water. Use a spatula or a wooden spoon, and keep breaking the lumps, until you turn this:

Into this:

At this point, I add all the ingredients I had fried before, and mix it and fry it for about 10 more minutes. And we’re ready to eat!

This is a high-calorie dish, so that plate up there should actually be enough for several people (I mean, consider just how much stuff we’ve put in there, including a big loaf of bread). If now you add grapes, it’ll combine greatly.

They work cold, too. And you can even make it a sweet dish, with milk and chocolate instead of garlic.