Aurora's rice with vegetables: "I went hungry as a child, yes, and you never forget that."

I'm Aurora Mas Galvany, Massicas' widow, and today I feel like making you some vegetable rice. It's the best thing in summer. It's not overpowering. In summer, everyone finds it so, so fresh. It's a dish that goes well because sometimes you have a few vegetables left in the fridge. Some chard, an artichoke... And you clean out the fridge and you have some rice... If you make it with love like I did!

Now I'm putting on my apron, which was painted by my son (who's an illustrator), because now, the way I cook, I'm "Aurora with an apron."

In summer, it's not good to be fed up. We talk while I cook, yes, I like it. All of this is work, but when you do it with pleasure... Retired people go for coffee, they go for a chat, and I think: "But I've never done that before, that..." I have nine children, I've run a restaurant for quite a few years... How do you expect me to go for coffee now? I don't know about going for coffee! I cook. I wake up and think: what will I do today? Because every day I have five or six at the table! On Sundays I put on WhatsApp: "Who's coming for lunch?" First I think it's eight, nine... And we end up with eighteen!

I see you're looking at my nails. Yes, a girl comes every week to do them, and I pay handsomely, because I like to look neat. Oh my goodness! At my age! What I'm doing makes me so happy... Because it's as if you can't see what hurts... I want to do things, and my legs won't budge! But look at me. I'm still standing here, and I tell my children: "When I die, you should say that I felt loved, cherished." If everything seems fine.

Where did this passion for cooking come from? Well, when I was ten, my father and mother, who were a barber and a hairdresser, closed down the barbershop and hairdressing salon and started eating in a farmhouse. And more and more people came every day, because there wasn't a restaurant in Cabrils. It has remained in the family, because in a restaurant, it's very noticeable when there's a conductor.

A bitter postwar period

I went hungry as a child, yes, and you never forget that. I realized that my parents always put me first, because I was little. Everything was for me... I remember eating lentils, porridge... And an orange cut into four pieces to make it last, to give it importance. And that's how we got by. I lived through the post-war period. bitter, sad, desperately sad, because at that time people wanted to work, to earn money, to live, to live... I remember that there was never any joy. I took communion when I was eight years old and we made free-range chicken. Now chickens have so much water that they're worthless, but back then the free-range chicken was a meal, no one who hasn't been through it knows. For me, the postwar period was very sad because you had to fight for everything.

It's been twenty-five years since the head of the house, my love, died. I've been the tractor and everything so that everything goes well, so that no one fights, so that they love each other... And they find my food so good, that I even stop, because what I do, I do only with my heart as open as possible. I lived so well with my husband... At thirteen I was already with him. Hidden! Because lips... Oh! My mother wouldn't let me. And he didn't make it, because I got married. But he died. We lived in a time, after the war ended, when everyone was so eager to fight and get ahead... And we did business, some of which went badly. The day he turned 65, he called me and said: "Come on. You know what? Now in September we won't owe anything. We've paid for everything." And two months later he wasn't well, he wasn't well, and he had lymphoma. He lived a year. When they told me he had three months to live, I... And he died happy and told me he would wait. And I know he's waiting for me.

Come on, let's not get sad. Now I'll tell you a good one. It turns out I have a very funny little guy who started calling me "prenda" (piece of clothing). And "take" this way and "take" that way. And we had a party for one of my daughter's sons, and he was the tattoo artist. And everyone got "Pensa" tattooed!

Now I take off my apron, because I'm "Aurora without the apron." The luckiest thing I've had in my life is owning a restaurant and being able to talk to people. Talking to people. This, for me, has given me all the joy.

Vegetable rice recipe, explained by Aurora.

Ingredients

The ingredients are these, but you should put what you have, what comes out of cleaning the fridge:

• Alls
• Onion
• Red pepper
• Green pepper
• Leek
• Zucchini
• Tender bean
• Eggplant
• Carrot
• Spinach
• Mushrooms
• Vegetable broth (with the heads of the vegetables)

At the end:

• Cauliflower
• Asparagus
• Parsley
• Crushed tomatoes
• Saffron
• Rice
• White and red pepper
• Oil, salt and sugar

Preparation

I start by peeling an onion. From Figueres. What a treasure, this onion, it gives such good taste...

I pour the oil into the saucepan. And when it's warm, I add the onion. Meanwhile, I'll chop the green and red peppers. I don't follow any order. I'm doing it. I add garlic, but garlic is very delicate; it browns quickly, and if this happens, it becomes bitter. I don't add too much either, since we shouldn't eat it all day. The idea is to make rice that's smooth and doesn't repeat.

I peel a zucchini, but there's no need to remove all the skin. I add it. It will break down quite a bit, but we'll find it, because the taste is already there. I chop the leek and add it.

Now, the green beans. The carrot and a little spinach. And I'm heating the broth, made with the vegetable heads and trimmings. I'll add the cauliflower at the last minute so it looks nice and florid, like flowers growing out of the rice. Now I'll add parsley; it's also very good, and I get it from the garden. Everyone tells me that the vegetables I make are very good because I let them boil for very little. People boil their vegetables as long as they want, and they don't turn out good. I don't look at the time. But I only preach this: don't let them overcook. Now the tomato, which is from the garden, and I fried it yesterday to get ahead. What a joy. This could also be a chanfaina.

I'll add the salt, but I do it by eye, ok? People weigh it. I don't. Now white pepper. Then a little paprika. I could also add saffron.

And now I'll add the rice. By the handful. One, two, three, four, five, six, and one more. Delta rice. Say what you want. He Well, it's expensive. But you can really tell it's good. I brown it a little. Now I add the broth. How much water do I add? Whatever I think is right.

And now the asparagus and cauliflower, make sure it's nice. I don't look at the minutes. I taste it. And if it seems right to me, I turn it off. I check the salt content. I always err on the side of sweet, because if it's too salty, it's more complicated.

Now we have to wait for it to cook; we can't do much more. I'll add a little sugar because tomatoes are acidic. I turn it off and put a slightly damp cloth on it because... Oh! Now that's delicious, because I don't know why the cloth is on! Come on, let's get to work.

Since I have a kitchen where the stove isn't very big but the frying pan is, I invented something... A diffuser, it's called. That's how I put the pizzas, so that the fire is distributed to me.