ARTICHOKES WITH HAM

Artichokes are a great vegetable and are delicious with ham.

You need:
- 2 kg of artichokes (it seems a lot but for this recipe you need to get rid of all the leaves, which you can used for a soup)
- 200 gr serrano/iberico ham (diced) - you can also try with parma ham.
- olive oil (4 tablespoons)
- salt

Clean the artichokes: get rid of all the leaves, cut the tails and chop the artichokes in fourths. You can rub them with lemon if you do not want them to get dark - personally, I find that rubbing them with lemon alters their flavour and do not mind if they get a bit dark.

Heat the oil in a big pan. Turn up the heat to its maximum setting. Add the artichokes, and wait for 5 minutes (stirring from time to time). Then add the ham, lover the heat and wait for another 5-7 minutes until the artichokes get tender (the exact timing depends on the quality of the artichokes: as a general rule, more if the artichokes are round and less if their are pointy) Serve immediately.

PRAWN 'LITTLE SALAD' - ENSALADILLA DE GAMBAS

This is a version of the 'Ensaladilla Rusa/Little Russian Salad'  (see our recipe) that is typical from the South of Spain (from San Lucar de Barrameda, by the beautiful natural park of Donana in Cadiz, to Huelva).  They have  some of the best prawns in the world there. My children prefer this to the Little Russian salad that you can find all over Spain -  probably because it has more potatoes and less vegetables. You can do a summery lighter variation of this with white melon and prawns - it sounds like an odd combination but it is delicious.  You need:
- 500 gr potatoes
- 350 gr prawns (un-shelled)
- mayonnaise (1 egg, 200 ml sunflower oil, salt, juice of half a lemon)
- water
- salt

Fill a pan with lots of salty boiling water. Put the unshelled prawns into the pan, lower the heat and let them simmer for 2-3 minutes (the prawns should be pink - but do not over boil them or they will become dry). Take the prawns out of the water, but keep the water. Un-shell the prawns (don't get impatient because it just takes 3-4 minutes and the kids can help on this) cut them into mouthful chunks, and put the shells (including the heads of the prawns) back into the pan. Add the diced potatoes to the water and boil for 7-8 minutes until they are tender (the exact amount of time depends on the kind of potato that you may use). Take the potatoes our of the water and drain them well but keep half a glass of the liquid. Mix the potatoes  with the prawns. Prepare a mayonnaise (see our '2 minutes mayonnaise' recipe) with the egg, sunflower oil, salt and lemon. Mix half a glass of the boiling water with the mayonnaise and finally mix the mayonnaise with the potatoes and prawns. Put it all into the fridge as it should be served cold.

Add some crusty bread and a green salad and that is lunch done.