Tempt your guests with a little taste of Spain

Place the garlic in a mortar along with the pinch of salt. Take a pestle and smash the garlic cloves to make a smooth paste. (The salt stops the garlic from slipping at the bottom of the mortar as you pound it down.) Add the lemon juice to the garlic. Drop by drop, pour the olive oil into the mortar slowly as you continue to crush the paste with your pestle. Keep turning your pestle with a slow, continuous circular motion around the mortar. The dripping needs to be slow and steady. Make sure the paste soaks up the olive oil as you go. Keep adding the oil drop by drop until you have the consistency of a very thick mayonnaise. If your allioli gets too dense, add half teaspoon of water to thin it out. This takes time — around 20 minutes of slow motion around the mortar — to create a dense, rich sauce.

Using a vegetable peeler, remove the orange and lemon zests. Set aside 1/4 of each zest. Cut the orange in half and juice it. Split open the garlic cloves by placing them on a chopping board and pressing down hard with the base of your hand or the flat side of a paring knife. In a large bowl, combine the orange and lemon zests with the orange juice, garlic, oil, vinegar, thyme and salt. Add the olives and mix well. (An easy way to do this is to combine the olives and the dressing in a plastic container with a lid and simply shake.) Marinate for at least 12 hours and serve at room temperature.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the potatoes, and boil until soft, about 20 minutes. Drain and pass through a ricer, or mash by hand, to create a smooth puree.

In a small pan, heat the cream to boiling point. Set aside one tablespoon of the cream and add the rest to the potatoes. Mix with a wooden spoon until the cream is thoroughly incorporated into the puree. Mix in the cheese cubes vigorously with a wooden spoon, until the cheese becomes part of the puree. Little by little, add most of the oil until it too is part of the puree.

Drizzle a little more olive oil and the remaining warm cream over the potatoes. Sprinkle with salt to taste and serve.