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Goat’s Cheese and Onion Tapa

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Another splendid tapa : cheese and onion Spanish-style.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 10 mins
cooking time: 15 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 white onion, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
  • 4 thin slices of baguette, cut on the diagonal to make them larger
  • 8 thin slices goat’s cheese log (e.g. Soignon)
  • Salt

Method

First, sweat the onion, together with a pinch of salt, in the olive oil until soft and translucent. Toss in the chopped garlic and fry for two minutes more making sure that the garlic doesn’t toast. Set aside to cool.

Top each slice of baguette with some of the sautéed onion and garlic together with a little of the pan oil. Arrange two slices of goat’s cheese on each.

When ready to serve, warm your assembled treasures in a 160°C oven for a few minutes to soften (but not toast) the cheese.


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Posted in Tapas Tagged with:

Chicken Liver with Caramelized Red Onion Tapa

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One of my favourite tapas . The original of this is actually made with duck liver which, if you could get it, would be very decadent and luxurious. However, the more widely available chicken livers work very well, too. The Pedro Ximénez [pronounced “Hi-MEN-eth”], which can be difficult to find and tastes like liquid raisins, is a delightful addition but not absolutely essential. At a pinch you might substitute cream sherry though it doesn’t taste the same.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 15 mins
cooking time: 1 hr

Ingredients

  • 25g butter
  • 1½ tbsp olive oil
  • 2 red onions, halved and finely sliced
  • 25g butter
  • 40g caster sugar, prefereably unrefined
  • 100ml red wine
  • 30ml sherry vinegar
  • 100ml Pedro Ximénez
  • 4 plump fresh chicken livers (well, halves/lobes, technically), trimmed
  • 4 thin slices baguette
  • Salt & pepper

Method

The caramelized red onion. In a small frying pan, melt the butter with one tablespoon of the olive oil and then sweat the finely sliced red onion for five minutes until soft and translucent. Pour in the red wine and sherry vinegar, then add the sugar and a pinch of salt. Simmer gently until the liquid has evaporated (~20-30 minutes).

The Pedro Ximénez. Boil it to reduce by 50% then allow to cool before use.

Cooking and assembling. When you are ready to serve, fry the chicken livers in the remaining half tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat leaving them slightly pink in the middle. Top each slice of baguette with some of the caramelized red onion and sit a chicken liver on top. Drizzle over a teaspoon or so of the reduced Pedro Ximénez.


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Posted in Tapas Tagged with:

Smoked Salmon And Asparagus Tapa

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Here’s a tapa that really needs the bread base to support it. Smoked Salmon didn’t sound very Spanish to me but it came from a Spanish book so I imagine it is.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 10 mins
cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients

  • 2 slices smoked salmon, halved
  • 12 fine asparagus spears
  • 4 chive stalks
  • 4 thin slices baguette
  • mayonnaise
  • Salt & pepper

Method

Rinse the asparagus tips then cut them to a length of about 5cms/2ins. Steam them for 2-3 minutes (depending upon thickness – go for an al dente finish). Let them cool then tie them into four bundles of three spears using the chive stalks.

Spread the baguette slices thinly with a little mayonnaise. Fold a half slice of salmon attractively on top of each baguette slice and top with a bundle of asparagus spears.


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Posted in Tapas Tagged with:

Piquillo Peppers Stuffed with Crab and Shrimp

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The original of this recipe begins by cooking large raw prawns and making a sauce with the cooking liquid, shells and heads. A little of the sauce is them mixed with the mayonnaise. If you’re preparing a tapas spread single-handed, you’ll have enough on your plate without that and this simplified version tastes v. good but …

You could also serve these peppers on a slice of baguette, as in the original, but I like to serve them on their own because a tapas spread can end up with too much bread if one is not careful. So, bread or not is entirely up to you and your assessment of balance.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 10 mins
cooking time: n/a

Ingredients

  • 4 bottled piquillo peppers, drained
  • 100g white crab meat
  • 100g cooked, shelled prawns
  • 2 tbs thick mayonnaise
  • 1 tbs pickled capers, drained.
  • 4 thin slices baguette (optional)
  • Salt & pepper

Method

Deftly chop together the crab meat and prawns before mixing it together in a small glass bowl with a couple dollops of mayonnaise. Season to taste. Handle the piquillo peppers very gently as they can be frustratingly fragile. Open the peppers and support them in one hand while you stuff them with the crab and shrimp mixture using a teaspoon.

Just before serving, top the bread, if using, with the stuffed peppers (do not do this too early ‘cos the bread may go soggy). Either way, sprinkle over a few drained capers.

[A decorative squiggle of Marie Rose sauce on each pepper wouldn’t go amiss if you happen to have some in the cupboard/refrigerator.]


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Posted in Tapas Tagged with:

Stuffed Tomato Tapa

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Another vegetable unit to add to a spread of Spanish tapas . Smallish tomatoes are great to stuff with all manner of fillings; this is just one.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 1 hr
cooking time: n/a

Ingredients

  • 8 small-medium tomatoes
  • 1 large egg, hard-boiled, shelled & finely chopped
  • 6 pimento-stuffed green olives, finely chopped
  • 25g canned anchovy fillets (½ can), chopped & oil reserved
  • pepper

Method

In a small glass bowl, mix together the finely chopped egg, olives and anchovies. Moisten the mixture with some of teh reserved anchovy oil to make a pleasing consistency. Season with a few turns of black pepper – you won’t need salt because of the anchovies.

Invert the tomatoes so that they stand on the stalk end. Cut a cap off the round end of each tomato and hollow it out carefully with a teaspoon. Slightly over-stuff each tomato with the mixture and sit a cap back on top to pretty it up.

[If you can get a mixture of red and yellow tomatoes, you’re really cooking on gas – or not.]


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Posted in Tapas Tagged with:

Roasted Sweet Pepper Salad

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Feel free to use a mixture of red, yellow and/or orange peppers but avoid green peppers in this at all cost. I find that there isn’t a great deal of colour difference between orange and yellow peppers once cooked, either, but by all means use both.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 10 mins
cooking time: 45 mins

Ingredients

  • 2 red peppers
  • 2 yellow/orange peppers
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
  • 2 garlic gloves, crushed
  • 1 tbsp pickled capers, drained
  • 6 black olives, stoned
  • 1 tbsp fresh marjoram (or oregano), chopped
  • Salt & pepper

Method

Roast the peppers in a blisteringly hot oven (230°C/450°F/gas 8), turning a couple of times, until they are, well, blistered all over (~25-30 minutes). When nicely blackened, put the peppers into a bowl and cover them with cling film. Let them steam thus for ~15 minutes to help loosen their skin.

Hold each pepper over a clean bowl and snip a hole in its base (the pepper’s, not the bowl!) gently squeezing the juices out. Peel off the blackened skin (a blunt knife can help with this and let’s face it, most people’s knives are blunt). Remove the stem, core and seeds before slicing the flesh of each pepper into thin strips. Arrange alternating coloured strips of pepper on a serving plate.

To the reserved pepper juices, add the olive oil, sherry vinegar and crushed garlic. Whisk together seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Cut each olive lengthwise into 2 or 3 pieces.

When ready to serve, drizzle a little dressing over the pepper salad, then scatter over the olive pieces, capers and chopped marjoram/oregano.

Serve as part of a mixed spread of tapas , preferably with some dry sherry as is traditional.


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Posted in Tapas Tagged with:

Pollo al Ajillo

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Said to be the most popular way to cook chicken in Spain, as the name implies this is something of a garlic fest. As usual, variations abound. This is my most successful execution which, typically, was my first attempt. It was in Spain and is essentially a combination between the eminent Mr. Stein’s approach, calling for marinading the chicken pieces in garlic, and the equally eminent approach taken by Moro using masses of fresh bay. Recipes usually state, “white wine or fino sherry”. In my view, the sherry is essential.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 4 hrs
cooking time: 40 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 chicken, ~1.5kg
  • 1 bulb garlic, separated
  • 5 tbs olive oil
  • 200ml fino sherry
  • 6 fresh bay leaves
  • Salt & pepper

Method

Marinate the chicken. Remove the legs, breasts and wings of the chicken. Skin the breasts (including the first part of the wing) and legs. Leave the skin on the middle part of the wings. The Spanish would leave the bones in the legs but I like to bone it for my guests: two chunks of meat from each drumstick and two from each thigh. Separate the fillets from beneath the breasts and cut each breast into, say, four chunky pieces. Put the chicken pieces into a suitable glass bowl. Skin four of the plumpest garlic cloves, crush them and, with a tablespoon of olive oil, massage them into the chicken pieces. Leave it to marinate, stirring it occasionally, for three hours, if possible, but at least an hour in any case.

Heat the remaining 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet or frying pan – you want all the chicken to fit in one layer. Gently fry all the remaining garlic cloves, skin still on, until lightly browned then remove them from the pan and set aside. Add the chicken pieces to the pan and cook them, turning occasionally, until golden all over. The chicken should be barely cooked through; the breast pieces should need ~10 minutes so rescue them before they overcook and leave the leg pieces to cook for about 5 minutes more. Increase to a high heat and add the sherry, bay leaves and browned garlic cloves to the pan, scraping the gooey bits off the base. Return the breast meat to the pan and bring it all to a boil. Reduce the heat a little to keep a moderate boil going to reduce the liquid, turning the chicken pieces in the sauce occasionally. Reduce the liquid to about a quarter, agitating the pan to help form an emulsion with the olive oil. Adjust the seasoning to taste (without drinking too much of the juice!).

If you’ve got a cazuela instead of a skillet/frying pan, I’m sure that would add an air of authenticity. Use a heat dispersing mat, though. 😉


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Posted in Poultry Tagged with:

Parsley Soup

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Just occasionally, I end up with a huge bunch of parsely when all I really need is a relatively small amount. Here’s a tasty way to use up the excess so that it doesn’t go to waste.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 10 mins
cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients

  • 125g flat-leaf parsley
  • 75g butter
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 300g potatoes, peeled and diced
  • 750ml chicken stock
  • Salt & pepper

Method

Strip the leaves from the parsley and chop up the stalks. Roughly chop the parsley leaves.

Melt the butter in a suitable saucepan over low heat and sweat the onion, potatoes and parsley stalks for a few minutes. Add a few spoonfuls of the chicken stock to keep things moist and continue cooking until the potatoes are barely done. Add the rest of the chicken stock, bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer cooking for a further 10 minutes. Stir in the parsley leaves and cook for 1 more minute before pouring everything into a cold bowl to stop the parsley overcooking.

Liquidise the soup before reheating gently and adjusting the seasoning to serve. Garnish with fresh parsley if you’re being posh.


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Posted in Soups Tagged with:

Beef Rendang

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Researching this recipe was a very educational process in that it added weight to three features that I generally hold to be true. Firstly, for any given recipe there are as many variations as there are cooks/chefs. Secondly, many commentators on Internet content are insulting idiots, in this case racist insulting idiots. The racism involved here was between Indonesians and Malays all offensively disputing the heritage and preparation of Beef Rendang. Thirdly, American interpretations frequently simplify recipes to the point of being unrecognisable.

I hope this potentially daunting list of ingredients encapsulates the essence of the celebratory dish which, I think, originated in Indonesia but was adopted with gusto by the Malaysians. It was certainly very tasty and well worth the effort, though not the burning of my hand with v. hot kerisik , which seems to be one of the distinctive ingredients. Read on.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 30 mins
cooking time: 3 hrs

Ingredients

  • 2 tbs kerisik: ½ block creamed coconut or 40g dessicated coconut
  • 3+1 fresh lemongrass stalks
  • 4cms chunk of fresh ginger, skinned & sliced
  • 4cms chunk of fresh galangal, skinned & sliced
  • 4 fat cloves garlic, skinned & sliced
  • 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
  • 6 red chillis (dried seem tradtional), soaked & seeded to taste & chopped
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 2 tbs sunflower oil
  • 900g beef, topside or shin, trimmed and in large cubes.
  • 6 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
  • 4 whole cloves
  • 4 star anise
  • 4 kaffir lime leaves (fresh, if possible), finely shredded
  • zest of 1 lime
  • 2tsp tamarind paste
  • 1 tbs soft brown sugar
  • 400ml can coconut milk
  • Salt

Method

OK, first the story of kerisik. What is kerisik? Kerisik is traditionally freshly grated coconut which is then dry roasted for 30 minutes or so, followed by pounding smooth in a pestle and mortar. Be my guest. Some people here substitute that most useless of cooking ingredients, dessicated coconut; dry toast it in a wok/frying pan until golden brown and blitz it in a spice grinder. I tried this approach first and was singularly unimpressed. I found a “cheat” on the Internet which melts then “toasts” creamed coconut in a microwave so I gave that a go. Much better! Chunk half a block of coconut cream and zap it in a microwave. Use full power but do it in 10-15 second bursts, stirring in between. At first the coconut cream will just melt but it will eventually begin to turn brown, though it does so on the bottom of the pot so you wont see the colour change until you stir – stick to 10-15 second bursts, stirring well in between. Stop when it is quite a rich brown, certainly darker than golden but not black. Take care, being oily it’s above boiling point and extremely hot! Use oven gloves to remove it from the microwave attempting not to throw it all over yourself and the kitchen floor, as I did. Set your kerisik aside to cool.

The fresh spice paste. Starting with three of the fresh lemongrass stalks finely sliced, put everything down to the teaspoon of turmeric into a blender. Add a little water to help the liquidizing and blitz to a paste.

At last you can start cooking the rendang which will now take about 2 hours. In a suitably sized casserole, fry the wet spice paste in a little sunflower oil for about 5 minutes; it is said that it should darken a little though I’m not convinced mine did. Add the cubed beef to the spice paste and brown it all over. Toss in everything from the cardamom pods to the tamarind paste. Crush the fleshy end of the fourth lemongrass stalk and add that, too. Stir in the tin of coconut milk and bring gently to simmering point. Over low heat, continue simmering gently, uncovered and stirring frequently to avoid scorching, for 1½ hours or so when the beef should be tender and most of the liquid evaporated. (Rendang is referred to as a dry curry.) Finally, stir in the sugar and about 2 tablespoons of your reserved and painstakingly made kerisik. Put the lid on to allow the sugar to melt while you prepare some rice to accompany your feast.

Add salt to taste before serving with plain boiled/steamed rice (I prefer to use Thai fragrant rice) and, maybe, some steamed green beans.

Sit back with a bottle of wine and a smug, self-satisfied smirk on your face.


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Posted in Meat Tagged with:

Suquet de Peix

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This is like a Spanish Bouillabaise, a fish stew, from the Catalan region. (Fish stew doesn’t sound nearly as appealing, does it?) Driven by my having an octopus in the freezer that needed using, I got this idea from Culinaria Spain . Then I started comparing recipes and videos on the Internet and it quickly became apparent that there are as many variations as there are cooks. What I’ve documented here seems to me to distill the essence of the dish, though. Interestingly, every recipe added potatoes except my original in Culinaria Spain . Go figure, as they say in America.

The fish used here is a suggestion but monkfish seems very popular. Use what you can bearing in mind that firmer fish are better for this type of cooking.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 2¼ hrs
cooking time: ~30 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 octopus, prepared (~250g, squid would work if you can’t get one)
  • olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled & thickly sliced
  • 16 whole blanched almonds
  • 2 slices baguette, ~2cms thick
  • 20g flat leaf parsley, chopped
  • 2 medium onions, finely chopped
  • 4 large vine tomatoes, skinned and chopped
  • 250ml dry white wine
  • 500ml fish stock
  • 500g small waxy potatoes, cut in 1cm slices
  • ~400g monkfish, in 8 chunks
  • 2 sea bream, prepared & halved front & back
  • 24 large prawns, peeled & deveined
  • 500g net fresh rope-grown mussels, cleaned
  • Salt & pepper

Method

The octopus. I’ve heard that octopus should be cooked either very rapidly or very slowly if it is to be tender. The original recipe fried it briefly then cooked it in the stew for 15 minutes or so. That sounded neither rapid nor slow to me so I followed Rick Stein’s guidelines and precooked it long and slow. Put the octopus in an ovenproof pan with a tight-fitting lid together with a few glugs of olive oil. Cook it in a 150°C/300°F/gas mark 2 oven for 2 hours. Let it cool and cut it into bite-sized pieces. Reserve the cooking juices – another benefit of precooking. (This is definitely not necessary for squid – just cut them into rings & tentacles.)

The picada. This is something the Spanish use to flavour and thicken the stew. In a large skillet (one that has a lid), add enough olive oil to thinly cover the base, then gently fry the almonds, garlic and slices of bread (on both sides) until all look lightly browned. As they brown, remove them, either to a pestle and mortar or to the jar of a food processor. Either way, smash them together to a paste with a little more olive oil. Stir in the chopped parsley.

Making the suquet . To the pan and oil that cooked the picada ingredients, add the onions and fry until soft. Stir in the tomatoes and cook until broken down and a lot of the juices have evaporated. Stir in the white wine and reduce it by about a half. Add the fish stock, the reserved octopus cooking juices and potatoes. Simmer the potatoes for 7 or 8 minutes until almost cooked. Add the fish and simmer for another 3 minutes. Borrow a spoonful of the cooking liquid to slacken off the picada. Now stir in the octopus (or squid pieces) and prawns together with the picada. Place the mussels on top, cover teh pan with its lid and cook for another 3 minutes or so, just until the mussels open. (Remove any mussels which do not open.)

Let the dish rest, covered and off the heat, for 5 minutes before serving. A fresh green salad is all this needs, if anything.


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Posted in Fish