Spanish food
I love Spanish food. I mentioned last week that I enjoy Mediterranean cooking, but if I had to pick one country’s food and drink, it would be Spain.
Because of…
1. Pigs (vegetarians look away now)
I would like to send out a wholehearted thank you to the pigs of Spain who died to bring me a) chorizo sausage and b) serrano ham (and occasionally merguez, blood sausage, too). Serrano ham is amazing, really strong and tasty (too strong for some, perhaps). You can get chorizo ready to eat (and in spicy or mild versions), or as cooking sausages. I’ve just noticed that the deli down the road from my flat in London stocks the mini chorizo sausages that I first encountered in Aber. They are utterly perfect for a casserole (with tomatoes, potatoes, etc and smoked paprika, of which more in a minute).
2. Tortilla
(As eaten on Wednesday night, in fact.) Potatoes. Eggs. Olive oil. Frying pan. Mmm. This recipe does it properly, ie cook the potatoes in oil (boiled potates may mean fewer calories, but they also tend to mean soggy tortilla). My usual addition is red peppers, but it depends what’s in the fridge. Athough the recipes say not to, I rather like my potatoes nicely browned and with a few crisp edges… and that bit about leaving the potato-egg mix to sit for 15 minutes? Like I’m going to wait another 15 minutes for my tortilla… (Might just manage 5.)
And of course, tortilla can be eaten as…
3. Tapas
This is just such a great way to eat with friends. Don’t you just love being able to share nice things around the table? And to try lots of different things without ending up feeling totally bloated? And it doesn’t matter if one dish doesn’t really work, you can just order some more of that really delicious one over there… Although some restaurants (eg, trendy places in London) use this as a means to charge extortionate prices for microscopic dishes of food. Bad, bad, bad.
4. Wines
You want a cheap red wine that may not exactly be smooth and sophisticated but will pack a bit of a punch? Yes, there are sophisticated Spanish wines too, I know. (And good white wines, although that often seems a bit hit and miss.) Anyway, I have to give a cheer for the Torres family, who produce several damn good wines, including what my mates and I fondly call ‘bull wine’ (proper name Sangre de Toro) because each bottle comes with a tiny plastic bull figurine - of which I now have a substantial collection to play with… and this is the only one living in London. (Do you want to see the rest? They come in different poses!)
5. Cheese
Which often means extremely good goat’s cheese (a personal minor addiction); but plenty of sheep and cow cheeses too. (A list of varieties.) A current special favourite is murcia al vino, a creamy textured goat’s cheese ‘bathed’ in… red wine. I could eat pounds of this stuff. And it’s such a pretty colour too.
6. Smoked paprika
Definitely Product of the Week. I would never be without it.
This is my favourite, the mild sweet variety. It also comes in hot and (one I’ve never tried) bittersweet. The only thing is that once you’ve tried it, you hardly ever use ‘ordinary’ paprika again. (Except, for example, with saffron-flavoured dishes; you do not want to overwhelm your expensive, delicate saffron with this stuff.)
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Wine that comes with plastic bull figurines? I’ve never heard of that. Whatever next.
Comment by Claire — Saturday, 9 October 2004 @ 2:27 pm
Yeah, it’s a gimmick I suppose (do I need to point out that the wine’s name translates as Bull’s blood?), but they’re so cute. And it’s a pretty good wine, and not hard to get hold of. I have a bottle by me right now (from Threshers).
Comment by Sharon — Saturday, 9 October 2004 @ 9:35 pm
Mmm. Spanish cheese is very good, though I’m also perfectly happy with local cheeses. (But mostly lazy, so I just buy cheddar all the time – probably good, otherwise I’d sit eating sheep’s milk cheese constantly, and who needs that?)
I’m for Indian, first. There was a neat article on Slate about how medieval food were spiced much like Indian food is now and I thought it was rather too sad that those medieval feast places never would serve *that* . . .
Comment by wolfangel — Saturday, 9 October 2004 @ 10:56 pm
I saw that article too - wasn’t it great? And I really do enjoy Indian food too (I’m just not so good at cooking it). And as for cheese, I love it pretty much wherever it comes from, and will eat far too much of it given the chance. This weekend’s selection is a very nice local smoked cheese (which came from a stall on the farmers’ market that also does terrific smoked salmon and trout and bacon). Yum yum yum.
Comment by Sharon — Sunday, 10 October 2004 @ 10:19 am
You swine! I used to love smoked cheese but have been warned off it now -smoked applewood was like crack to me (not to be confused with appledore - a nice, fluffy cheese if you have a sweet tooth, which I don’t). Re: suasages: I live round the corner from a prize-winning English butcher who makes his own, ha! Pork and apple or sage, beef and pepper, and extra large chilli willys, which are a spicy treat (and could keep a BBC regional radio host in innuendos for a year). I’m not sure but I think applewood contains some paprika.
BTW, did you see the extract from the Future Dictionary of America in this week’s Guardian magazine? This has probably long been out in the states. A dictionary 50 years in the future allowing for the innevitable influence of the American right. Look out for future-words such as condoleesy, empty-tomber and my fave, caninadate. And “bush” as a verb, too. A book that’s almost written itself.
Comment by Steve — Sunday, 10 October 2004 @ 2:05 pm
The butchers in Kew is on my shortlist of things I really shall miss when I leave London. They sell their own free range pork and sausages - and oh boy are their sausages good. Anybody going down to the PRO is well advised to pick some up to take home (the shop is right next to the station).
Yes, I saw the ‘future dictionary’ thing; but I dunno, I wasn’t that tickled really.
Comment by Sharon — Sunday, 10 October 2004 @ 4:54 pm