Cooking in Quarantine: Jorge Cortés, Head Chef at Palacio de Villapanés shares one of his recipes.

Jorge Cortés, Head Chef at Palacio de Villapanés shares with us its recipe of the traditional Iberian pork cheek, a native dish from the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula.  The perfect recipe to impress during quarantine!
Ingredients (for 2 people):
300 gr of Iberian cheeks
60 ml olive oil
30 ml of amontillado (Amontillado is a pale dry sherry wine made in Montilla, a town in southern Spain), any other dry sherry wine you have will be appropriate
30 ml of red wine
100 gr of onion
60 gr of green pepper
60 gr of red pepper
100 tomato
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of paprika
Fine salt
1 lt of water
Recipe:
1. Clean the meat leaving the surplus membranes all around and season it with salt and pepper.
2. Cut the garlic


3. Cut all the vegetables mentioned in the ingredients list




4. Add the oil and heat it

5. Fry the garlic, then the onion



6. Once fried, we add the rest of vegetables until they are cooked



7. Then we add the cheeks, and we braise.

8. Add the species and the wines

9. We cover with water and we leave it on low heat for 2 and a half hours until it becomes tender.

10. Once you reach the good tenderness, we put apart the cheeks and we blend the surplus of juice

11. Serve it!

3 incredible spiritual baths rituals to do at home during the quarantine

How to turn your bath into a sacred ritual 
Quarantines times can involve stress and anxiety. And to fight this stress, our partner BellSire Seville gives you 3 ideas of spiritual baths to find peace in these hard days of confinement. Spiritual cleansing baths are used to reject the negative, open the paths, eliminate negative situations, attract positivity and above all … relax!
The time has come to make your daily bath a sacred ritual, a spiritual moment where you can find yourself and unwind your mind. With water at different temperatures we can obtain therapeutic results and rapidly feel calm and decontraction .If you add  some essential oils and plants you will increase the effect, making your bath a true moment of peace and relaxation.

1. Baths for Muscle Aches and Soreness

Photo courtesy: @mdsn.design

  • Fill your bathtub with water at a temperature between 29 and 38 degrees (between 84,2 °F and 100,4 °F)
  • Add rosemary, chamomiles, lavender, it can be in essential oils, in infusion bags or plants directly taken from your garden. Between 10 and 20 drops of essential oil will be enough.
  • To obtain an homogeneous mix of essential oils in the water, you will need to add a little honey, a glass of wine, oat milk, rice, or salt from the dead sea.
  • If you have a body and facial scrub, that is even better! You can have greater cleaning results, activation and purification of your skin

2. Rejuvenating bath

  • Fill your bathtub with water at a temperature betwen 30 and 38 degrees (between 86 °F and 100,4 °F)
  • Add sandalwood, myrrh, orange, rose or lemon. Between 10 and 20 drops of essential oil. If you want better results do not forget to add a glass of wine. The polyphenols found in the wine are rejuvenator and antioxidant. You can serve you another glass of wine to taste, there is no greater pleasure!
  • You can add to your water products that you probably have at home: lemon or orange rind, cinnamon sticks, grapefruit, oregano, fresh rosemary or dried roses.
  • A good exfoliation will help you get a perfect purification on your skin.
  • Remember to gently dry your skin and nourish it after your bath

3. Baño circulatorio

  • Fill your bathtub with water between 29 and 38 degrees (between 84,2 °F and 100,4 °F)
  • Add essential oils like chamomile, lavender, juniper, lemon, or cypress. And do not forget to add a conductor such as neutral gel, sea salt dead or a little honey…
  • Before the end of your bath, do a good exfoliation on your legs, feet or buttocks, it will help oxygenate the blood and improve
    your circulation.
  • After your bath, apply on your body an oil for blood circulation

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