Anatto is a food colouring extracted from small reddish-brown seeds contained in a prickly seed pod, the fruit of a tropical South American tree. Although edible, the seeds have little flavour and their culinary value is on the whole limited to their colouring properties. They are used to give yellow-red colour to charcuterie, Edam, Mimolette, Cheshire and Cheddar cheese, and dried fish such as haddock as well as pastries, sweets and butter. They are soaked in water and squeezed or, in some places, the seeds are fried in lard to impart their red colour and then discarded. The fat is then cooled and used for cooking and colouring other foods.
Anchovies, most often available fresh. In Spain anchovies are often deep-fried and arranged in a fan-shape joined at the tale.
A region in southern Spain with coasts on both the Mediterranean and just turning the corner onto the Atlantic. Much of it is the basin of the Guadalquivir river with the Sierra Nevada in the south east. The cuisine is influenced by both Arab and Jewish traditions and sherry, Montilla and Málaga wines are produced. It is a well-irrigated area and it produces olives, vines, cereals, nuts and citrus fruits. The principal cities are Seville, Córdoba and Granada with their beautiful Moorish buildings, a tradition of flamenco and bull-fighting and a sensation of heat in all things. The bulls provide some oddities in the cuisine as various parts of them are offered after bullfights, though visitors to the area generally do not get to see these sought after items. In Andalucía, fish is fried, soup is eaten cold in the form of gazpacho (either the classic tomato version or the ajo blanco of Málaga). Of course, the oranges grown in this region are of the bitter Seville variety, which are great for preserves. In the high mountains of the Sierra Nevada excellent cured hams are produced. Fino (from Jerez de la Frontera) is regularly drunk here as an apéritif and is thought of as a white wine rather than as a sherry.
