Mantecados, jams, liqueurs and other sweets are part of the centuries-old convent offering, delicacies to which the sisters of the Carmelite monastery of Granada have added sushi, noodles or sotanghon, demands to guarantee the survival of the congregation.
The popular proverb says that God squeezes, but does not suffocate, a maxim that the seven cloistered nuns of this monastery hidden among the crossroads of streets and squares of the historic Realejo of Granada have clung to, an order with a lot of faith and few resources. .
This monastery founded more than five centuries ago survives with one and a half pay, which two of its seven nuns receive for retirement and disability, a figure that seems little support to maintain the building, pay for electricity, food, water...
The prioress of the Carmelites, Sister María Dolores, explained to EFE that household expenses became greater than income despite the saintly hand they have in making sweets, jams and liqueurs, and they decided to look for alternatives.
"The five sisters who have arrived from the Philippines proposed making food from their country, so as not to offer anything Spanish that is more common here, and the response has been surprising," Sister María Dolores recalled.
And since the ways of the Lord are inscrutable, this convent with the smell of almonds, butter and lemon has found the solution to its prayers with flavors from other places and has placed a sign on its door with photographs of noodles, spicy soup, sotanghon, sushi and exotic mango and passion fruit smoothies, around thirty options to feed a dedicated clientele.
"I had tried the noodles and some other food because on holidays they made them to their liking, but not the sushi," said Sister María Dolores, who prefers not to compare the culinary offerings that these days allow them to forget their debts with some Homemade cooked croquettes.
The congregation has activated a telephone for these orders with an Asian flavor that are served through the convent turnstile after the well-known Ave María Purísima, the particular greeting to enjoy a menu that tastes of blessed glory.
"The response has been surprising and we are not yet there to save, but we are here to ensure that we make ends meet," added the prioress of this convent who now spends part of her time at the lathe, attending to orders.
The almost miraculous recipe sweetens the daily life of these cloistered nuns who divide their time between an oratory and a recreation space with two heaters and a pinch of cold, "like any poor person", and the kitchen in which they combine tradition and new culinary proposals.
Sister María Dolores has already learned to make sushi, "which is very easy," and will add her expert hands to those of her five Filipino colleagues to be able to meet an almost miraculous demand.
But he warns: "We continue making Christmas sweets, there are already people who have called to order their things and that doesn't stop."
The congregation has already put its hands to the dough to offer traditional mantecados and pastas, those divine recipes that only combine almonds, flour, butter and sugar, and that have been the sustenance of the Carmelites for decades.
This tradition adds to the orders of sushi and noodles that now feed this congregation that has found the perfect recipe to guarantee a future that tastes of glory.
