Tapas

[Melman Giraffe]

Olla

This weekend I have invited a few friends over for a Tapas evening. However my Tapas is some what limited.

So over to you guys..... Post your recipes

Ta

[Big Al.]

Here's 10 to be going on with.

http://uktv.co.uk/food/homepage/sid/6286

[mattley]

Melman Giraffe said:

This weekend I have invited a few friends over for a Tapas evening. However my Tapas is some what limited.

Perhaps you should have thought that through .......


I love good Tapas but really can't be bothered as it's a lot of effort and you need lots of dishes but a spanish friend of mine does a fantastic thing with prawns wrapped in ham.

Basically just wrap prawns in ham with cocktail stick to keep it together, put them on an oiled tray and drizzle olive oil over and into a hot oven for a few minutes until the ham starts to crisp.

[HereBeMonsters]

If you have a good market (or greengrocer) near you, Pimientos de Padron are brilliant...little bite sized peppers, one in ten is amazingly hot. It's like Russian Roulette.

[Anna_S]

Could cheat a little bit?
http://www.ocado.com/webshop/getSearchProducts.do?...


Otherwise, I love having simple spanish dishes...
a plate of serrano ham and spanish cheese (havarti is a personal fav)
spanish omelette
revuelta - basically scrambled egg, with prawns, ham asparagus, mushrooms etc..
meatballs

and everything Big Al said!

[Noger]

Chorizo with Fino. Get some cooking (soft one) Chorizo. Fry slices, then bung in some sherry and reduce.
Manchego with Membrillo. Slice of cheese, bit of quince paste on top. Jobs a good 'un.
Make a tortilla, let it cool. Slice.
Track down some Pata Negra ham. Pricey but ooooo so good.
Olives.

The Moro cookbook has a lot of lovely, and easy, tapas recipes.

Agree about Pimetons de Padron, excellent !

[Romanymagic]

I usually do three family favourites for tapas (after all you don't need to do loads of different dishes). I would do Patatas Bravas, Chorizo in red wine and garlic mushrooms. Simple but effective. Let me know if you want the recipes posted up.

Cheers

RM

[Mobile Chicane]

Alternatively you could cheat and get the Waitrose microwave tapas in little terracotta dishes, augmented with some olives, marinated seafood salad, artichokes / peppers, bread and cheese.

Waitrose also have a wine on offer at the moment for £3-odd as part of their 'Mediterranean' selection: 'El Prado' tempranillo rosé. Not a bad drop.

[Wadeski]

stuffed baked squid, sliced, and speared with a cocktail stick to keep the slices together.

[Melman Giraffe]

Romanymagic said:

I usually do three family favourites for tapas (after all you don't need to do loads of different dishes). I would do Patatas Bravas, Chorizo in red wine and garlic mushrooms. Simple but effective. Let me know if you want the recipes posted up.

Cheers

RM

If you could that would be great.

Thankyou

[escargot]

Big Al. said:

Here's 10 to be going on with.

http://uktv.co.uk/food/homepage/sid/6286

Don't use the patatas bravas recipe from that page though - I tried it ages ago. It's st. (as per the other comments you'll see on the page).

[sleep envy]

Melman Giraffe said:

This weekend I have invited a few friends over for a Tapas evening. However my Tapas is some what limited.

good luck, tapas is hard work!

[Don]

I find Tapas evenings can be treated the same as curry evenings.

Do some dishes of your own. Not too many - two, perhaps three is enough.

Buy in some others from Waitrose/M&S

Lots of variety, not too much of a killer to do. Much better and cheaper than doing it all from Waitrose/M&S as you still get a "home-cooked" feel.

[Romanymagic]

Melman Giraffe said:

Romanymagic said:

I usually do three family favourites for tapas (after all you don't need to do loads of different dishes). I would do Patatas Bravas, Chorizo in red wine and garlic mushrooms. Simple but effective. Let me know if you want the recipes posted up.

Cheers

RM

If you could that would be great.

Thankyou

Will post up tonight when I get home from work.

Further to the good comments above, I tend to do tapas as a starter (kind of) and then paella as a main with loads of sangria. Good fun evening's on the whole as long as you keep my brother in law away from the brandy!

Edited by Romanymagic on Friday 24th April 10:37

[Romanymagic]

escargot said:

Big Al. said:

Here's 10 to be going on with.

http://uktv.co.uk/food/homepage/sid/6286

Don't use the patatas bravas recipe from that page though - I tried it ages ago. It's st. (as per the other comments you'll see on the page).

Not wrong. My Patatas recipe comes from a Spanish tapas recipe book and is a lot more involved and a lot better ingredients than the uktv recipe.

Some of the other recipes in that selection of 10 don't appear to be too bad though...

[captainzep]

I may be too late, but one dish I have managed to recreate fairly well from my local (and decent) tapas bar is chick peas and morcilla. Basically chickpeas gently panfried with broken-up back pudding in a little olive oil with a squeeze of lemon to cut through the fat and a bit of thyme or mint.

Its easy and very nice.

Also I can't get enough of chunks of decent chorizo baked in cider. Another easy one when preparing the meal. Just cut up your chorizo, cover with cider and bung in a low-med oven for 20-30mins.

ETA: I've just remembered there's some chopped prunes or equivalent in there too.

Edited by captainzep on Sunday 26th April 07:04

[missdiane]

One of our PHer friends did dates wrapped in bacon, so very moreish...

[escargot]

Suitably inspired, I've now decided to do a tapas evening tonight too.

[Noger]

Am I the only one to be frequently disappointed by Patatas Bravas ? Even in Madrid/Seville they have failed to inspire.

Fino's "Potato and Chorizo Chips" however, are divine. Never tried making them...but if anyone does dust off the DFF then let me know

http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/590879

[escargot]

Noger said:

Am I the only one to be frequently disappointed by Patatas Bravas ? Even in Madrid/Seville they have failed to inspire.

Depends really. My recipe is in no way authentic but it is pretty tasty. It incorporates lardons, garlic, onion & fresh chillis so it packs some powerful flavours.

Last nights Tapas went down pretty well. It was only simple (as it's the first time I've ever attempted it).

I made 4 dishes -

Patatas Bravas
Chorizo baked in Cider
Spanish Tortilla
Homemade garlic bread

I particularly enjoyed the chorizo, my only criticism was running out of bread to dunk in the cider/chorizo sauce.