Tonight our little home will turn into a Spanish Bodega. We plan to have a Spanish night enjoying tapas. Spanish tapas is at the very heart of Sapnish lifestyle and culture. Everywhere you go in Spain you will find lively and noisy bars serving small plates of superb flavours and local delicacies.
In its most basic form tapas is simply a small snack or appetizer taken with a drink or two at lunchtime or in the early evening before the main meal. Today it´s also popular to combine various sorts of tapas instead of main meal for dinner. It is essentially a style of eating rather than a form of cooking. Tapas means sociability, friends and family. The Spanish in general won’t drink without eating something as well.
Now, throughout the world, Spanish tapas has become a popular and healthy addition to the many food styles and cuisines available to us today.
Everyone is joining in and realising how pleasurable eating in this way can be. And why not? When you begin to see the sheer range of flavours available you will, I’m sure, want to find out more about ‘the small plate with the BIG flavour’.
Wherever you live, Spanish tapas will give you a tasty little mouthful of the real Spain without having to jump on an aeroplane to enjoy it! You can bring a little Spanish sunshine right into your own home - right now!
Feel free to cyber-join our Spanish night. We invite you to come with us on a journey of tapas discovery, limited only by how long you can sit here reading before your mouth starts salivating and you simply have to get up and try something out!
We´ll have…
… Chorizo - Chorizo is undoubtedly one of the most famous of cured pork sausages, available spicy, garlicky, mild, hot, smokey and red.
… Jamón Serrano - There are not many hams more highly-regarded in the gourmet world than dry-cured serrano ham. Ours is bone-in (14 lb)
… Manchego - Whilst there are many different types of cheeses produced in Spain, Manchego cheese is the most well-known and widely-available. We´ll serve an Artisan semi-aged Manchego tonight.
… Olives - the oldest and original tapas.
… Fresh bread and olive oil - One of the simplest (and one of my favourite) ways to enjoy a good, strong-flavoured extra-virgin olive oil is to simply pour it onto a plate, sprinkle some salt on it and then mop it up with some fresh, crusty bread.
Or you could use toast rubbed with a cut clove of garlic and/or tomato.
Either way, the taste is sensational!
… Albóndigas - tasty meatballs in spicy tomato sauce. This is a dish which originated with the Moors so you will usually find some exotic spices in most recipes, especially those from the Andalucian region where the Moors had the most influence.
… Empanadas de Cerdo - Pork pie. Empanadas are basically pies. You can make a whole one in a pie dish and cut it into segments, or make them into little pasties or parcels. We prefer the little individual ones, it seems to fit in with the idea of tapas better.
… Tortilla de Patatas - Spanish Omelette. I guess this has to be the best-known tapas. Some say it should be soft and others say it should be set hard; some say it should have onion and others say it should not; some serve it with mayonnaise and others serve it with tomato sauce.
This delicious tapa can be served warm or cold. If my pregnancy hormones don´t play tricks on me ours will be served lukewarm, with Aioli, containing onions.
… Champiñones al ajillo - garlic mushrooms. There are not many tapas recipes more Spanish than this. Gorgeous mushrooms infused with the exotic flavours of spices, olive oil, garlic and Spanish Sherry.
… Patatas Bravas - Crispy potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce. Patatas bravas is a simple and traditional tapas recipe. The potatoes are crisp on the outside but still firm on the inside and the sauce tastes rich, glossy and spicy.
… Crema Catalana - A popular Catalan cold custard dessert with a crispy caramel coating
We´ll serve a Spanish red wine - the Finca Allende 2003 Rioja Alta, an expressive and harmonious Rioja and Hierbas, a typical herbal liquer, for the non-pregnant people.
Now enjoy the tapas - if you´re interested in any recipe don´t hestitate to let me know =)
And now…
… our moment of Homer J.:
Homer: Are you saying you’re never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Ham?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Pork chops?
Lisa: Dad, those all come from the same animal.
Homer: Heh heh heh. Ooh, yeah, right, Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal.
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