Programme 3 - Rick Stein

Programme 3 – Catalonia, Valencia, Sueca and La Mancha

Still in Catalonia, Rick is invited for lunch by Spain’s equivalent of Ringo Starr - Antonio Mier - the retired drummer of Los Mustangs the famous Beatle’s cover band over here.  Antonio’s a very funny, passionate man who has put down his drumsticks and now loves to cook great Catalan dishes at his finca in Blanes.  He makes Rick a fabulous dish of new season’s broad beans cooked with ham and black pudding. 

Rick then drives south to the land of El Cid and the rice fields of Valencia.

“I must have seen El Cid at least six or seven times when it first came out,” he says with much enthusiasm, “I loved Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren and the amazing battle scenes. But I especially adored the music by Miklos Rozsa – to me it represents everything I feel about this country, a country where you can feel the weight of history just by turning a corner of a narrow street or by gazing out over vast plains dotted with hilltop villages and castles. History here, it seems, was only yesterday.”

Rick goes along to a paella cooking competition in the town of Sueca where forty identical paellas are cooked over orange wood fires in front of some very fussy judges.

Finally his travels bring him to dusty La Mancha in the heart of the country – famous for mad old Don Quixote, saffron, good wines, Manchego cheese and the fabulous purple garlic. It is here near the village of Las Pedroñeras he tastes the best garlic soup ever – it’s very simple, extremely satisfying and goes exceedingly well with a chunk of freshly baked bread and a glass of tempranillo.

Key contacts

Cookery sequences featured in each episode with a fabulous view in the background were filmed at Villa La Era in Casarabonela, Spain.

Villa La Era, Partido Martina, Los Cerillos, 29566 Casarabonela, Málaga, Spain, tlf. +34 649 199569 www.laera.es