@ Estado Puro with my friend Alicia

Last Thursday in Madrid, I went to Chef Paco Roncero’s tapas bar, Estado Puro; the perfect example of the new and modern way to enjoy tapas. Many modern restaurants in Spain are honoring the tapa, but taking it to another level, creating and imagining new recipes, while experimenting with different textures, surprising presentations, etc. It’s wonderful to be able to taste top Spanish cuisine in small bites, as you can try many different items off the menu. And when the menu is good, believe me, you want to try as many things as you can.

Estado Puro makes surprising new versions of the most traditional tapas, not being afraid to change them upside down. Like the tortilla de patatas,  I’ve tried many different versions: liquid, foam, ice cream flavoured… but Estado Puro’s creation was great, a soft and creamy potato purée with caramelized onions and an egg yolk, served in a small glass.  The patatas bravas were very good, just a little bit hot as they should be. The toast was also quite good, though it’s a pity they don’t have more than 3 different types of bread. For dessert we had a new version of tiramisu, served in a glass, with mascarpone cheese and chocolate powder on top, and amaretto liquor gelatin at the bottom.

Patatas Bravas

Mini Burguers

Estado Puro; A New Tapas Trend

Tiramisu

The place is very nicely decorated, with many seats in front of a big window facing a busy street. The walls and the ceiling were completely covered by peinetas, an old Spanish flamenco accessory. It looked awesome!

What I didn’t like about the experience is that the waitress seemed quite rude. Maybe it’s because I just got back from the States, where the service is unbelievably nice and attentive. But my friends also complained about it, so I don’t think it was just that.

Other than that, the place is great. If you go to Madrid, don’t miss it, it’s cheap and chic!!

-Rocio

To enjoy Spanish patatas bravas…

Como ya he comentado en otras ocasiones es típico en la laurel que los bares tengan una especialidad, aunque cada vez son menos los bares que solo son conocidos por un pincho. En el caso de hablar de patatas bravas a todo el mundo en Logroño le viene a la mente el Bar Jubera. 

Este bar está siempre lleno de gente disfruando de unas buenas bravas. He de confesar que están muy buenas, aunque yo las he probado mejores, a mi personalmente me gustan más las salsas que tienen mezlcado el picante con la mayonesa. De todas formas no dejéis de visitar este bar, es la tapa perfecta para compartir en grupo.

Ingredientes:

• 1 Kg de patatas.
• 1/2 Kg de tomates.
• Harina.
• Pimentón picante.
• 1/2 vaso de vino blanco.
• Aceite de oliva virgen, guindilla y sal.

Preparacion:

Pelamos las patatas o papas y las troceamos en cuadrados con un cuchillo. Se pueden hacer friéndolas, cociéndolas o ambas cosas, eso depende del gusto.

Una vez preparadas las patatas, rehogamos los tomates pelados junto con la guindilla, cuando ya estén añadimos el vino blanco, la cucharada de harina y un poco de pimentón picante, sazonamos con sal, retiramos la guindilla y vertemos esta salsa sobre las patatas en el momento de servir.

Si la salsa es muy espesa se echa un poquito de agua.Acompañar con Cerveza bien fria.

En el caso de que no las queramos tan picantes se puede suprimir la guindilla.

Tapas is one of my favorite theme menus to serve when hosting a cocktail party.  Compliment delicious small bites with a big batch of sangria.  Several items on a tapas menu – such as olives, nuts, cheese, bread and cured meat – don’t require any cooking.   Here’s a menu to get your tapas party started.

Tapas Menu

Marcona Almonds
Gazpacho “Shots” (served in tall shot glasses)
Spanish Cured Olives or any mixed olives
Spanish Tortilla Bites
(link to recipe below)
Patatas Bravas (fried spicy potatoes)
Gambas Al Ajillo (shrimp in garlic sauce)
Spanish Green Bean Salad with Pimientos
Garbanzo Bean Salad with Roasted Red Pepper Vinaigrette
Spanish Cheese Platter: include Manchego (sheep’s milk cheese), Calabraza (Spanish blue cheese), Iberico (cow, sheep and goat’s milk cheese), Tetilla (soft cow’s milk cheese), Membrillo (quince paste – link to post about Membrillo below) and paper thin slices of Serrano Ham wrapped around store-bought breadsticks
Country-style Bread or Sourdough, sliced thin

Mini Delce de Leche Brownies (link to recipe below)
Caramel Flan

Sangria (link to recipe below)
Spanish red wine, such as Rioja, Garnacha or Tempranillo
Cava (Spanish sparkling white wine, similar to Champagne)
Spanish Cervesa (Beer), such as Mahou, Voll Damm and Mahou Negra

Spanish Tortilla Recipe
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/spanish-tortilla-recipe/index.html

Membrillo
http://hiphostess.wordpress.com/2008/05/31/membrillo-quince-paste/

Dulce de Leche Brownie Recipe
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2006/06/dulce_de_leche.html

Sangria Recipe
http://hiphostess.wordpress.com/2008/02/28/hip-twist-on-traditional-sangria/

Question: What is better than a delicious plate full of food? Answer: Several delicious plates of food of course. The reason we love Spanish tapas so much is that we get to experience a whole range of tastes and textures in one sitting – a nibble of prawn and a spoonful of pork stew, a bite of omelette and loads of crusty bread to mop up all the juices.

Our table full of tapas, for just two people!

Tapas, served as a meal, also has a relaxed feel to it that is perfect for entertaining. You can slowly graze, picking at some food then pausing to drink and chat before moving on to a different taste.

Having said that Will and me enjoyed this mini feast to ourselves with a bottle of Vino Tinto and we also had a starter and dessert – the word pigs springs to mind.

The starter was a favourite of Wills, roasted red peppers stuffed with cream cheese (although this time I stuffed them with a mix of ricotta and feta, which was what I had in the house, it is nice with cream cheese and chopped herbs). I placed them on a plate with rocket and some jamon Serrano. A great nibbly starter that doesn’t fill you up too much.

Starter: roasted red peppers stuffed with cream cheese

The first tapas dish was patatas bravas. I follow a delicious recipe of Simon Rimmer’s which you can find on my post called ‘Tapas for two’ in the August 2008 archive – you really must try it, it is so delicious. Then for a lighter dish I sliced some courgettes lengthways griddled them until charred but not floppy then dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and a good grinding of salt and pepper.

A dish that was a real success was one I came up with while on holiday in Spain, and I have to admit it did taste better over there because they had deliciously soft cannellini beans, good quality chorizo and juicy tomatoes.

Tapas dish: chorizo and butter beans

To make it fry half a finely chopped white onion in some olive oil until it starts to soften, then add a finely chopped clove of garlic and fry for a few more minutes. Add some chorizo in large slices and cook until it releases it gorgeous red oils. If you like add one or two chopped juicy tomatoes at this stage and cooked for a few minutes. Throw in some cannellini beans or butter beans and warm through, then serve with crusty bread.

Lastly I did some garlic prawns, something you tend to find on most Spanish menus and which invariably tastes delicious with their fresh prawns, but didn’t taste so great with my slightly rubbery supermarket prawns. Just fry some slices of garlic in plenty of oil, then cook the raw prawns until they turn pink, squeeze in a little drop of lemon juice, season, then throw in some freshly chopped parsley and serve in a shallow dish – but definitely get good quality prawns!

There’s still 5 more days, and in the back of my head I’m thinking I need to get going and get these updates flying and up on the site. SIGH.

Anyway, here’s a double post for all five of you that actually check this out every Monday and Thursday. Then again, it’s Tuesday, so I guess most will see this on Thursday. But we’ll move on…

Dinner was a two parter that particularly indecisive night. We stopped first at a small restaurant (that specialized in food from the indigenous mountain areas of Spain style) which seemed to be run and operated by a one man team. Seriously, this guy was taking the orders, bussing the plates, pouring us drinks, making the food- all with a smile. Some highlights were the jamon iberico (the ham featured earlier on the site at La Boqueria) and the chorizo (Spanish sausage) lit on fire. One thing that I didn’t agree too much with was this cheese we got. It was very aged and featured an assortment of colors- light meat and dark meat- and for me, a little tough to stomach.

We made our way out and into another restaurant which was pretty much the opposite of the place we were at before. It was crowded, there were many workers and they appeared to be in a hurry. We found a place at the bar and ordered some patatas bravas and calamari which was pretty darn good (maybe because it LOOKED familiar). We finished our meal and within minutes the place was closed and that was our cue to make our way back to the apartment. Our last full day in Spain has finally ended.

Trying to find the cluster of restaurants for dinner.

The spread.

Pretty empty.

The person who ran this place. He is pouring us the drinks. I’m not sure why, but it’s pretty cool.

A close up.

I promise that it WASN’T absinthe…or was it?

Chorizo’s lit on fire!

The cheese with assorted cuts of “light and dark meat.” It was tough to eat.

The star of the evening, jamon imberico. Very good.

Group shot with an open flame.

Fire eater.

The second spot was hopping.

This guy was rapid fire. But the food was good.

Patatas Bravas. I think this was my favorite version of it in our short stay.

Squid/calamari. Very good.

They closed up shop as soon as we left.

Coming up: breakfast in Barcelona and then Berlin.

Voor de kenners is de uitslag geen verrassing. Een populaire website van studenten met meer dan 160.000 gebruikers, www.patatabrava.com, maakte een ranglijst op van de lekkerste patatas bravas in Barcelona en Catalonië. Al jaren was bekend dat je in Barcelona voor de beste versie van deze eerst licht gekookte, daarna snel gefrituurde aardappels bij Bar Tomás in de Major de Sarrià moest zijn. In de weekeinden staat er altijd een lange rij mensen, waarvan sommigen de portie bravas (meer hoef je niet te zeggen tegen de ober, waar dan ook, dan “una de bravas!”) gewoon mee naar huis willen nemen. Al sinds begin de jaren zeventig heeft Tomás de faam van de lekkerste bravas van de stad, puur door de mond-op-mond reclame.

Tweede is La Esquinica (het Hoekje), maar die zit een roteind weg uit het centrum (Bar Tomás is trouwens ook niet bepaald in de buurt van de Rambla). Voor degenen die niet te veel willen lopen of de metro niet willen nemen, die kunnen terecht bij de nummer 4 in deze klassering, Bar Ski aan de Via Laietana, dichtbij het politiebureau dat vroeger zo berucht was omdat de tegenstanders van het Franco-regime er in de kelders werden opgesloten.

Gevraagd aan de eigenaar van Bar Tomás (op de foto één van de obers) wat nou het geheim van zijn bravas is, was het antwoord ontnuchterend: er is geen geheim. Gewoon zorgen dat ze zo snel mogelijk vanuit de keuken op de tafel terechtkomen, dat is alles, zei hij. Maar de soort aardappel, de olijfolie en het kwakje saus erover: de smid gaat zijn geheim natuurlijk niet verklappen.

Se idéia é comer Paella, Salamanca é o lugar

Se você gosta de mastigar pastilhas e dançar tecno a noite inteira, Barcelona é o seu lugar. Se você faz o tipo emergente e gosta de bolsas Louis Vitton e óculos da Dior, também: uma caminhada com o cartão de crédito em punho  pelo Passeig de Gràcia será a materialização de todos os seus sonhos consumistas.

Mas se você faz aquele tipo mais normalzão, que gosta de comer e beber a preços justos e, no caso de sobrar verba, comprar um livrinho ou CD, Barcelona também não vai decepcionar.

Para a sede de conhecimento, a cidade tem uma rede ótima de livrarias, a La Central, cujas seções de cinema e fotografia dão uma coceira desgraçada no bolso. Eles têm ainda áreas para livros em vários idiomas, inclusive português, com muita coisa do Eça Queirós e uma edição do Verdade Tropical do Caetano Veloso que deve estar lá só pra queimar o filme.

Pra quem quer matar a sede etílica, um lugar indispensável é o Elisabets, que fica perto do metrô Plaza Catalunya, na área universitária. O botecão não tem absolutamente nada de especial, mas ofecere copões de meio litro de cerveja a 2 euros, uma pechincha, podem acreditar. No cardápio, o destaque são as patatas bravas com molho picante, igualmente baratas. Diferentemente de Madrid, em Barcelona não existe o hábito sagrado de oferecer ao cliente algo para picar junto com a bebida, como uma tapa ou azeitoninhas, então as batatas são uma boa opção para matar a fome gastando pouco.

Agora, se o negócio é comer paella, a cidade é pura alegria, mas nem sempre se consegue a melhor relação custo-benefício. Um lugar bacana é o Living. Tem aquele aspecto modernoso e trilha sonora lounge, o menu assusta um pouco e a carta de vinhos é salgada, mas não se impressione. A paella em si sai por uns 12 euros e é de primeira. Além das viadezas, o restaurante oferece ainda a curiosa vista do sítio arqueológico de um cemitério romano, bem no meio do Bairro Gótico.

Mas clássico mesmo é o Salamanca, restaurante com jeitão de cantina italiana e aquário de frutos do mar na entrada. O lugar é todo decorado com fotos de visitantes e matérias de jornal, já que o dono, o seu Silvestre, é cartola de um time de futebol pequeno da cidade e parece sedento por notoriedade.

Embora alguns pratos sejam um pouco mais caros, a paella de mariscos custa só 13 euros e é um espetáculo. O bom ainda é que o restaurante fica bem na praia de Barceloneta, então dá pra fazer uma bela caminhada digestiva depois da esbórnia.

Passeando entre edifícios super modernos....

...e a moçada pescando sossegadamente no pier da praia

Tapas heb je overal in Spanje. En in Nederland. Overal ter wereld, van Tokio tot San Francisco. Sinds een jaar of tien is het eenvoudige woordje synoniem aan lekker eten. Vroeger was paella hét Spaanse gastronomische product, nu zijn dat de tapas geworden. Zet in Amsterdam tapas op de deur (of tapa’s) en je hebt kans op een vrij grote groep potentiële klanten. Net zoals de Chinezen in plaats van Babi Pangang nu hun Dim Sum promoten. Staat moderner.

Maar in die overvloed aan tapas moet je wel de juiste weg vinden. Zoals iedereen heb ik een favoriet in Barcelona. Geen geheim barretje, want er staat elke dag een flinke rij voor de deur, dus mag ik hem eenvoudig op een (dank jullie allemaal) steeds beter gelezen weblog zetten. Ben er zojuist weer een keer geweest, met een Spaanse vriendin uit Nederland.

Tapas24 ligt centraal, op Diputació, bijna op de hoek met Paseo de Gràcia. Aanvankelijk heette het Tapaç24, maar die ç deed het waarschijnlijk slecht op internet, want op veel toetsenborden buiten Spanje en Frankrijk bestaat de ç niet. De naam is een knipoog naar het moederrestaurant, Comerç24, straatnaam- en nummer van de zaak met 1 Michelin-ster.

Beide zijn van Carles Abellán, een leerling van meester Ferran Adrià. Tevreden met het succes van Comerç24 vond Abellán het tijd de authentieke tapa opnieuw uit te vinden. Geen moderne hapjes, maar veel klassiekers op de best mogelijke manier bereid. De netten hangen er vol met de meest verse en grote scharreleieren. Zoals de kenners zeggen: het belangrijkste in de goede keuken is het basisproduct.

Vandaag: alcachofas fritas (gefrituurde artisjokken), pinxos de alhucema (Marokkaanse spiesjes), biquini Tapaç24 (een dure tosti met eikeltjesham), patatas bravas (fijn gesneden, zachte saus) en calçots (een soort lente-ui, typisch Catalaans). Daar moest een foto bij en het meisje uit de bediening wilde even poseren, want ze staat ook op alle foto’s van de Japanners die in de zaak komen, zei ze.

Zo klein en knus is de zaak, dat je met andere mensen aan de bar of een tafel zit. Wij zaten met vijf mannen/vrouwen die een klein prijsje uit de toto aan het verzilveren waren. De twee mannen zagen dat ik onze rekening betaalde en zeiden dat ik stom was. Ik zei dat een echte heer geen toto nodig heeft om een dame te tracteren. De vrouwen lachten, één van de mannen werd boos. Spaanse macho in een klassiek overhemd. Weet niet of-ie het eten nog lekker vond.

Já havia mencionado que meu primo, Felipe, está morando em Madrid. Ele é formado em publicidade pela Mackenzie e já viajou bastante pela Europa. Mora lá a mais de dois anos. Eu não, e por isso quis saber um pouco mais sobre a vida gastronômica de lá. A entrevista foi feita pelo  Google Talk nos dias 29 de janeiro e 04 de fevereiro.

Abaixo, uma pequena prévia da entrevista. Se você quiser vê-la na íntegra, clique aqui. 

ARMAZÉM S.A. – Nesse tempo, na Europa, onde você comeu melhor?

FELIPE - Dentre todos os países, sem dúvida na França, até por que tive a possibilidade de experimentar um pouco mais das cozinhas regionais, etc.

ARMAZÉM S.A. – O que te chamou mais atenção na França?

FELIPE - A França é um pais que tem completamente enraizado na cultura a boa cozinha, os bons vinhos, mas que, por exemplo, tem uma certa limitação em relação à mistura de cozinhas e algo um pouco mais contemporâneo em termos de sabor.

(…)

FELIPE - Essas pequenas casas são chamadas de epicerie. Onde se encontram bons queijos, uma enorme variedade de mostardas com todos os sabores e misturas inimagináveis: mostarda com tomate, azeitonas, etc.

I’m now in to the third day of my time off. Funny how I seem to feel less inclined to blog when I actually have time for it. On work days my fingers are itching to blog all the way home. Itching I tell you! Whereas now that I am home and could spend all day blogging if I really wanted to I’m perfectly happy limiting myself to commenting on other people’s blogs and adding millions of lovely books to my Amazon wishlist. Next step winning the lottery so I can actually buy millions of books rather than just wishlisting them. Oh, and a huge house to fit them all in of course. I’d say the chances of that happening are fairly slim though seeing as I don’t even do the lottery.

Anyway, I’m sure you are all desperate to know what I’ve been doing with my time off. (What? What do you mean you’re not? But, but, I thought you caaaared!)

Let’s see…
On Tuesday I did two loads of washing. And I even remembered to get the second load out of the machine on time, before the next person called me demanding to be able to get their landry done. I was most impressed with myself. Despite this I still have an entire basked full of dirty clothes waiting to be washed. Why? It hasn’t been that long since I last did laundry. I swear stuff breeds in there. It’s worse than rabbits! I also sorted out the top drawer of my desk on Tuesday. This is another place where stuff breeds. It’s the only possible explanation. No way did I actually put all those receipts in there. Clearly they have been doing naughty things while I wasn’t looking. There must have been at least three generations of old receipts in there! I’m dreading moving on to drawer number two. It will have to be done soon though, if all goes to plan I’ll be moving out in just over a month.
Yesterday, which the observant among you will realise was Wednesday, I went out for lunch with a friend. We went to Lehner’s. I ordered jacket potato with tomato sour cream and grilled salmon strips. We received our drinks fairly quickly. We then waited and waited and waited some more. Half an hour later the waitress reappeared to tell me there was no salmon, could they offer me prawns or ‘Zander’ instead (just a moment, must go and look Zander up in my trusty dictionary… aah, it seems it translates as pike). I chose the pike. Ten minutes later the food finally turned up. It was very nice food, but not worth waiting all that time for, especially considering the place was half empty! My friend and I then went for a walk, ending up at Cafe am Markt where we drank rather yummy hot chocolate before I headed home to get ready for Spanish.
It was the last Spanish lesson of the “complete beginners” course, so after spending the first hour of the lesson actually learning Spanish we all headed off to a Tapas restaurant in town where the teacher had booked us a table. It was fantastic. I had patatas bravas – spicy fried potatoes covered in a gorgeous garlicky-cheesy sauce. It tasted wonderful. It was also a huge portion. It was enough to make a whole meal in itself.  And that was only the starter. I then had the main course of garlic chicken (it was so totally garlic night!), served with diced, fried potatoes (salty this time rather than spicy) and some fabulous sliced aubergine. This was served with a basket of bread. A whole basket, just for me. By the time we left my stomach felt like it was too big for the surrounding skin. I was like Mister Blobby, except not bright pink with yellow spots. It was totally worth it though. And I even managed to order my entire meal in Spanish. Go me!

Patatas bravas

• Knoflook
• Tijm
• Olijfolie
• Aardappels geschikt voor friet
• Paprikapoeder
• Zout & peper

Aardappels niet schillen, maar even schoon poetsen.
In grove partjen snijden.
Hussel de grof gesneden knoflook, tijm en olijfolie door de aardappelen en leg ze op een bakplaat.
Ongeveer 20 minuten in de oven op 200 C°.
Strooi wat paprikapoeder over de aardappelen en laat ze nog 5 minuutjes in de oven bakken.

Potatoes with Paprika sauce is a popular Tapas dish in spain. This particular dish is from a Tapas bar in Madrid called La Ardosa,well noted for their Patas Bravas. I have amended the recipe to be suitable for vegetarians,but the body of the recipe remains true to the original.

Serves 4

3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion,chopped

1 large tomato ,chopped

2 large garlic cloves,chopped

2 tablespoons paprika

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 cup vegetable stock

11/2 lbs Russet potatoes ,peeled cut into 3/4 -1 inch cubes.

Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in heavy medium skillet over medium low heat. Add onion,tomato,garlic and paprika and cook for 10 minutes,stirring occasionaly. Add flour and cook 3 minutes,stirring constantly. Gradually add stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer till mixture is reduced to 2 cups ,about 8 minutes. Transfer mixture to blender and puree till smooth. Season with salt and pepper. ( can be prepared 1 day ahead,cover and chill,before serving  BRING SAUCE TO SIMMER THINNING WITH ADDITIONAL STOCK IF NECESSARY)

Heat remaining oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add potatatoes and cook till golden brown and cooked through,stirring constantly, about 20 minutes. Transfer potatoes to paper towels to drain. Divide amongst 4 plates,top with sauce and serve.

.

Plato típico muy Sevillano y muy rico, las “papas bravas” han sido todo un manjar tanto aquí en mi tierra como en el resto de España.

Digo que es un plato muy sevillano, por que aunque se sirven en toda España, aquí en Sevilla tenemos (o hemos tenido) el gusto de contar con las mejores papas bravas del mundo (hecho contrastado y ahora me explicaré).

Cerca de donde yo nací, por la zona de la Macarena, muy cerquita del hospital universitario y más concretamente por el barrio de los pisos de la renfe (como se conocen por aquí), hay un bar llamado “La Manchega” un pequeño bar, con mas pinta de tasca de barrio que de taberna que se hizo muy famoso en Sevilla por su plato principal “las bravas”.

Yo puedo decir que he probado las mejores papas bravas del mundo y como la receta parece que está desaparenciendo creo que ya nunca volveré a probar algo mejor.

¿Por que digo que son las mejores del mundo? Pues por que hasta el diario estadounidense “The Wall Street Journal” así lo acredita. Bueno en realidad dicen que es uno de los mejores 5 sitios de españa donde comer bravas. Podeis ver la noticia original en la web de “Diario de Sevilla“

El bar cambio de dueño por motivos personales del dueño original y aunque han mantenido la receta y he de decir que las he probado y siguen estando muy buenas… para mi ha perdido algo… no se, es como si hubiera perdido ese toque mágico final que antes si tenía. Pero en fin siguen siendo aun así de las mejores y sigue siendo un sitio muy recomendado para probarlas.

¿Y por que digo que parece que la receta se está perdiendo? Pues muy sencillo, en los bares de Sevilla y toda España parece que ya no quieren hacerlas como se hacen desde siempre y en lugar del bonito plato de bravas que antes podias comer, algo como esta foto…

Papas Bravas

Ahora te ponen algo tan triste y poco apetecible como esto…

Papas Bravas tristes

¿Pero esto que mierda es? Es lo que me entran ganas de decir cuando después de pedirle al camarero unas bravas me viene con un plato como este de triste.

Para empezar, las papas bravas se cuecen para que queden tiernas por dentro y luego se frien un poco, para que queden crujientes por fuera. Esto ya no lo hacen en casi ningún sitio y directamente las frien de mala manera en la freidora.

Pero lo peor de todo es esa “mierdisalsa” de color rosadoanaranjado que le ponen por encima ¡¿¡ eso que mierda eh miarma !?!

Por favor cocineros sevillanos y españoles, desde aquí os hago un llamamiento y ruego, devolvedme mis papas bravas de siempre, tirad esos botes de salsa prefabricada sin gracia, deteneos y recrearos en la elavoración de este plato tan bueno, tan típico y tan nuestro.

Y a todos los que leais este artículo, una pregunta, mirad las dos fotos y decidme ¿con cual os quedaríais vosotros?

Y ahora un ruego… cuando os senteis en un bar y os traigan un plato de bravas tan triste como el de la segunda foto, levantaos con el plato en la mano, dirigios a la cocina y decidle al cocinero de forma clara y educada lo siguiente:

“Perdone caballero cocinero, pero yo le he pedido un plato de bravas, no un triste plato de papas fritas mojados en salsa naranjorosada así que puede usted proceder a introducirse una a una las papas de este plato por su cavidad anal por que el que está aquí no piensa comer esta mierda nunca más”

Vereis lo agusto que se quedais

Por cierto las fotos son sacadas de Flickr y la primera (la buena) según el autor de la foto, es de una bar sevillano llamado Danubio el cual no conozco pero en donde parece ser, también las preparan como Dios manda. ¡Ole por ellos!

Tapas for two

I go on holiday to Spain in just over two weeks. Ten days of chilling out, relaxing on the beach and most importantly finding fantastic local places to to sample Spanish food. Will and I are staying at my parent’s apartment in Torrevieja, on the Costa Blanca. As with most Spanish towns on the south coast it has been attacked by tourists and many restaurants offer a strange selection of Paella and Spanish omelette alongside chicken and chips and gammon and egg. But Torrevieja still has some Spanish charm and this time I am determined to find some authentic places to eat and drink.
To get us in the mood for the holiday I decided to have a go at doing a little tapas evening, but although I make a pretty good Paella, that is about the extent of my Spanish culinary range. I found a couple of recipes; one for the classic Patatas Bravas and a chorizo and cannelloni bean concoction. To those dishes I added a favourite started of mine – melon with Serreno ham – then some rustic bread with fruity olive oil and some cheese and salad. It is a strange mix of dishes but that’s the thing about tapas you can’t really go wrong with it because it is just a selection of dishes to nibble at. Knock it back with a few glasses and young Tempranillo and you can’t go wrong.

Patatas Bravas
This was a recipe I found in a book by Simon Rimmer (regular chef on Something for the weekend) called The Accidental Vegetarian. I will leave the quantity for four people because often with tapas you will be making for a crowd. But as a pointer I think I cooked about 400g of potatoes, with half a can of chopped tomatoes, one fresh red chilli (because that was all I had in the kitchen) with an added tsp of dried chilli flakes, plus three small garlic cloves for two people.

Patatas Bravas

Recipe
Lots of olive oil
600g Maris Piper or Desiree potatoes, peeled and cut into one inch cubes.
400g tin of chopped tomatoes.
3 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
Lots of fresh chopped parsley to through over at the end.

1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees. Heat a load of oil in a big roasting tray until really hot. Throw the potatoes into the oil, give them a shake, season well, and cook for about 10 minutes until they begin to brown.
2. Add the tomatoes, chillies, garlic and stir well to coat the potatoes. Put back in the oven for a further 25-35 minutes, until they are going crisp on the outside but are still soft and gooey on the inside.
3. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
WARNING: These are very addictive: make sure there is enough to go round!

Chorizo in beer
This recipe came from a really good book I read recently called ‘3 ways with…stale bread (and 99 other things you will find in your pantry, fridge or freezer)’, by Ross Dobson, an excellent Australian food writer. It is a great read for people trying to cut down on food waste and save money. Ross offers three different recipes for each store cupboard ingredient, such as tinned tomatoes, chickpeas, rice ect.
Recipe
Stir-fry one finely chopped onion in some olive oil for a few minutes. Add one tablespoon of soft brown sugar and one sliced chorizo and cook for 2-3 minutes until the sausage starts to brown.
Add a 400g tin of cannelloni beans, 125ml of beer, three tablespoons of red wine vinegar and one bay leaf. Boil for 6-8 minutes until almost all the liquid has gone. Serve in a bowl with the juices so you can soak them up with chunks of bread.

A friend brought us some jamón serrano and chorizo from Spain.  Because my wife used to live in Barcelona, and I loved every moment I spent visiting her there, this was a big deal.

If you’re familiar with (good) Mexican food, but not Spanish food, I should say that Spanish chorizo is a hard, dry sausage, and nothing like the also delicious Mexican sausage of the same name.  Jamón serrano is similar to prosciutto, although it’s easy to taste the difference between the two.  If you can find a place that sells jamón ibérico in the U.S. (it is possible now), it’s is the ham of the gods.

So, I put out a plate of the sliced chorizo and jamón serrano.

Then:

Pan con tomate:

• I grated one tomato on the “fine grating” area of the cheese grater, discarding the skin.  (What do you do with tomato skins without tomato insides?)
• To that I added about a half clove of garlic, grated on a microfile style grater.
• Stirred in olive oil and a little salt, and the tomato… spread is all done.
• It goes over toast.  For whatever reason, since the price of bread has skyrocketed, now the really good quality bread at Trader Joe’s is the same price as the cheap stuff at the big box supermarket, so we have some great, chewy, stone hearth variety Italian bread.  (I toasted it.)

Patatas Bravas:

I had some of the brava sauce left over from the other night, so I wanted to use it.  And, again, the inspiration for my recipe is here: spanish-fiestas.com/recipes/patatas-bravas.htm.  Let me just say that if you come across a recipe for patatas bravas for which the sauce is basically a jazzed up thousand island, don’t do it.  Just don’t.  The basic ingredients of ketchup are all in the real recipe, true.   But, still…  Let me also repeat that I boil my potatoes then put some color on them in a minimally oiled cast iron skillet, rather than frying them.  I do it for better health, and it’s good.

Kale:

• OK, there’s nothing Spanish about Kale (at least I don’t think so), but I wanted some greens and I like Kale.  So…
• I rinsed the Kale and removed the stems.
• I made some vegetable stock from the stems.  There’s no reason to waste things.
• I heated a little olive oil.
• When it was hot, I added some chopped walnuts, maybe a ¼ cup, and 2 cloves of minced garlic.  The walnuts were raw, and needed a little flavor sauteed into them/ rawness sauteed out of them.  And, I think nutty flavors do well with cooked greens.
• I also put in a couple of pinches of red pepper flakes.
• Next, I smashed the kale into the pot and poured a some of the vegetable stock into it.
• Seasoned with salt, pepper, and a bit of ground caraway seed.
• Cooked, stirring occasionally, until it became a texture that satisfied me.

What I liked:

• Do I need to say that the chorizo and jamón serrano were delicious?  They were.
• Pan con tomate is an easy, low effort path to tastiness.  It’s goodness doesn’t have anything to do with anything I did though, it all depends on quality ingredients.
• Walnuts (or just about any nut for that matter) and caraway jive well with greens.  I don’t fight the bitterness, I just try to compliment it.  And, no, you don’t have to put in bacon or back fat to make greens good.  Although, I did eat them with two kinds of fatty pork, so…
• Oh, yeah, chorizo and jamón serrano are both fatty enough that it’s worthwhile to have some red wine with them – if you need an excuse to drink more wine…

Mussels:  I threw a bunch of basil and shiso into a little water; added salt.  Steamed mussels in it.  Fresh mussels are good no matter what you do with them.  And, one of the joys of living near the coast is that fresh mussels are cheap.  Anyway, if you have shiso and basil growing in flower boxes sitting on your balcony like I do, they make a good combo for mussels.

Patatas Bravas: I got my recipe for patatas bravas here: http://www.spanish-fiestas.com/recipes/patatas-bravas.htm.  Of course, I didn’t really follow it… not because it isn’t good, just because I couldn’t be bothered to go back to the computer to check it.  I added orange zest to the sauce; that did nice things.  I’m still working through the bag of Yukon Gold potatoes I got, so I used those.  I’m also trying to keep my fat/oil intake low, so my patatas were mostly boiled rather than blanched, then just sort put through a  half-assed effort at browning.  They’re good and a little healthier that way, but I’d also be a little pissed if a tapas restaurant served them to me like that.

White Eggplant: Sure, by this point I wasn’t really trying to orchestrate a meal full of complimentary “taste profiles”.  I bought a white eggplant because I tried to grow some last year.  They all turned back to green after they turned white.  I never got to eat any, and I thought I should show the white eggplants of the world that they haven’t seen the last of me.  I sauteed them with some diced poblano, because I cut up part of the pepper last night and need to use the rest before it goes bad.  They were tolerable.

Very run of the mill salad: Iceberg lettuce, a surprisingly good tomato, and some other stuff.  Vegetables are good for you.