Category Archives: Snacks and Tapas

A Summer Lunch

06 Monday Aug 2012

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The sultry summer heat dampens the appetites both for eating and for spending a lot of time preparing food. The mediterranean style of serving several little dishes of fresh and stimulating food is the way to go.

Fresh Figs with Serrano Ham

fresh_figs_with_serrano_ham

Pimientos Padrones Friedpimientos_pardones_fritos

Ensalada Murcianaensalada_murciana

Baby Squid Stuffed with Hazelnuts and Raisinsbaby_squid_stuffed_with_hazel_nuts_and_raisins

Prawn Frittersprawn_fritters_tortillitas_de_camarones

Sun Dried Tomato Pesto with Italian Crispbreadsun_dried_tomato_pesto

Here is the recipe for the Prawn Fritters or Tortillitas de Gambas.

The fame of these delicious fritters has spread from Cadiz where they originate, to the whole of Spain – and now beyond. Once you have tasted one you can see why. 

I first had them in Granada. It was the end of a warm June afternoon spent exploring the Albaicin, the old arab quarter of the city, the narrow streets dividing the beautiful houses full with the scent of orange blosssom and honeysuckle. We came across a rose draped square high up the hill with views out over the city and so installed ourselves outside a cafe with expectations of crisp cool white wine accompanied by a tasty local morsel.

The waiter brought us a list of the tapas available. When faced with such a list I always choose something that I have not tried before. So the toritillitas were ordered.

The ice cold wine arrived and shortly after the Tortillitas. Tiny shrimp still in their shells which add to the crispness of the fritters of light batter flavoured with garlic, onions and parsley. They arrive sizzling hot to your table.

Made with Camerones, a tiny brown shrimp found in the marshy coastline around Cadiz and Sanlucar de Barrameda, these are poor mans food turned  culinary delight. These shrimp do not find their way to the area of spain where I live very often and when they do I have to make the Tortillitas. In the meantime I use small peeled prawns, which are a good enough substitute.

The key ingredient in the batter is chickpea flour. Gram flour to Indians. It is the same flour as used in Onion Bahjis. Chickpea flour has a slightly sour taste to it which goes very well with fish, but its main attribute is that it crisps wonderfully when fried. Use it to coat fish or vegetables before frying. As a bonus it adds extra protein, but that is not why it is there.

As with all recipes, there is no one that is the definitive, and asking my Spanish friends for the best recipe for these fritters, each one gave me a different one. Some use all chickpea flour, some mix half and half chickpea and wheat flour, some swear by using only a coarse ground wheat flour called Recia. So after much experimentation, this is my favoured mix. The chickpea flour for crispness and sourness, the wheat flour for smoothness. The addition of chilli is not traditional, but I love a bit of spice with my fish.

For enough for 6 people

Chickpea flour –  60 gms

Wheat flour     –   40 gms

Shrimp or peel prawns   – 100 gms

Garlic very finely chopped  – 2 cloves

Parsley finely chopped – 1 tablespoon

Chilli finely chopped – to taste

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

water
150 – 180 ml

Oil for frying – either sunflower or olive

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add water to make a thin batter.

If you are not sure about the amount of water try frying a sample fritter.

Heat oil in a shallow frying pan to a depth of about 1 cm. When it is hot put in a tablespoonful of the batter. It should spread out into a thin fritter. If the batter is too thick to spread, then add more water to the mix.

Fry a few at a time on a brisk heat until crisp and light brown.

Serve immediately.

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Tapas Lunch – for my friends in St Gervais Les Bains

03 Tuesday Jul 2012

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While I was in St Gervais I wanted to treat my friends there to a little taste of Spain so decide to prepare a lunch of tapas dishes. This is what we had –

A little glass of Apricot Gazpacho.

I had planned to use Black Cherries for this and had bought some as well as the Apricots, but on trying the apricots they were quite tart to say the least so I swapped for them. See the Nispero Gazpacho post for the master recipe.  There is no need to blanch the apricots, I just needed to add some water to the soup as the puree came out quite thick. And don’t forget to chill the glasses – the condensation on the glass looks pretty as well as keeping the soup well chilled.

Sobresada on ToastsImage

The Sobresada is bought ready made all over Spain, it is almost like a Chorizo rillette if that makes sense. It is pork meat and fat beaten to a paste and flavoured with the same Pimenton and garlic flavourings as Chorizo. You spread it thickly onto stale bread and then bake in a medium oven -160 centigrade – for ten minutes. Sprinkle over some capers if you have them and serve.

Ensaladilla Rusa

Russian Salad – Spanish style. Small diced Boiled potatoes, Garlic Mayonaise or Aliolli, a small tin of Tuna, chopped Green Olives and Gerkins, Green Beans boiled and chopped finely or Sweet Peas all mixed well together. You want to add enough mayonaise to get a smooth consistency – some Spanish cooks mash part of the potatoes to add to the smoothness. The ideas is to get the salad to hold together on top of a piece of bread.

Revuelto De Setas

Revueltos are soft scrambled eggs that hold together whatever is in season. They are also made with Asparagus and Prawns, Spring Garlics, Peppers – the famous Piperrada, Salt Cod……….the list goes on.In good olive oil, fry a couple of cloves of garlic cut small. When slightly golden add the mushrooms – whichever variety you have to hand, stir, cover and stew until cooked. Break the eggs into a bowl, stir to break up the yolks and season. When the mushrooms are cooked add them to the eggs and mix well. Add more oil to the cooking pan, return the egg mix to the pan and cook slowly until just setting. Serve immediately.

Morcilla con Ajos Image

Morcilla is the Spanish version of Black Pudding and there are as many versions of it as chefs who make it. In my area of spain it is flavoured with Pine Nuts and little Anis. One can have it sweet or slightly spicy.Cut it up and roast it with whole cloves of garlic in a medium oven for half an hour.

Liver with PeppersImage

There are two keys to getting this right. The first is to make sure that you fry the onions and peppers long enough that they are starting to caramelise around the edges, and the second is not to overcook the liver. Bear in mind that liver even though it is cooked enough will ooze pink juices like a steak and like a steak if you find that it is undercooked it can always go back to the pan for a few more minutes.

Fry in olive oil a finely chopped onion and a chopped red and yellow pepper. Fry on a medium heat stirring from time to time until the vegetables are well cooked and starting to caramelise.

Meanwhile cut pigs liver into bite sized pieces. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. liver_with_peppers

When the vegetables are cooked add the liver and stir to mix. Season with more freshly ground black pepper. Stir again. As soon as the liver is just cooked, serve. Then try to take a photo without camera shake!

Mixed Salad with Oil and Red Wine Vinegar Dressing

And to finish my friend Conny made a Bizcocho de Tres Leches – Cake of Three Milks – I will leave you to search for the recipe for yourselves. It was wonderfully light and creamy – and so pretty !bizcocho_de_tres_leches

Mini Chicken Pstilla

07 Thursday Jun 2012

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I was invited to a lunch last week, and my contribution was to be the “amuse bouche”, a mouthful of something tasty to whet the appetite.  I had been reading one of Claudia Rodens books on middle eastern cooking the night before, and this inspired me to create a dish using the fruit, nut and spice combinations of that area. Also my dish had to be something quick and easy to prepare as the lunch invitation coincided with my day for opening my farm shop – click on the La Micaela Farm Shop at the top of the page for more details.

In the freezer I generally have packs of a local product – Obleas – which are little rounds of pastry a bit thicker than filo pastry. The traditional Spanish filling is a small amount of a thick stew made from fried peppers, garlic, tuna and tomatoes. The rounds are then folded in half to make a semi circle and sealed firmly on the joining edges, then the Empanaditas are deep fried until crisp.chicken_mini_pstilla

For lightness I prefer to brush the pastry circles with oil or butter, put the filling in the centre, fold the pastry upwards and pinch the edges together lightly, and then bake the little parcels. My favourite filling up to doing this one was of crumbly goats cheese and blanched spinach or chard bound together with egg.

MINI CHICKEN PSTILLAS

Filo pastry cut into 10cm squares or Obleas

100 gms cooked or raw lean chicken

small jar aubergine and red pepper salad – see Preserved Salads post for the recipe

50 gms toasted hazelnuts

50 gms golden raisins

a pinch or two of Ras el Hanout spices, or a mix of cumin, coriander, cinnamon and chilli all ground finely

Salt and pepper

olive oil for brushing the pastry

If you have not got cooked chicken and are starting with raw, cut it into small cubes and fry quickly in a small amount of olive oil. If using ready cooked chicken chop it into small cubes about half a centimetre square.

With a pestle and mortar crush the hazelnuts to break them up but not too small.

Put the chicken in a bowl with the nuts, salad and raisins. Season with the spices to taste.

If you have a tin for making miniature muffins or tarts it will be easier to form the little pies.

If you are using filo pastry and it is very thin you may well need to use two layers for your pies. Brush one side of a sheet of pastry with oil, lay another sheet on top and brush this with oil. Cut into squares of roughly 10 centimetres. Turn the two layers of pastry over so that the oily side is to the bottom and gently tuck the centre into one of the indentations in the muffin tin. With a teaspoon fill the pastry cup with the chicken filling. Lift the pastry around the pie and fold over the top of the filling to make a rough lid. Repeat this for each of your little pies.

If you don’t have a muffin tin, then use your hand as a rough cup, lay the pastry on your hand oily side down, put a teaspoon or so of filling in the middle and then bring the pastry up around the filling to cover it. Put the parcels on a baking tray to cook them. They may not look as neat and tidy as the ones cooked in a muffin or tart tray, and you may have the occasional burst, but they will taste just as good.

Cook in a preheated oven at 190 centigrade for 15 minutes or until golden brown and sizzling. Let cool a little before serving.

Spring Greens with a Difference

09 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by in Food for One, Main Courses, Snacks and Tapas, Starters

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After the rain that we have had and now that the temperatures are warming up, it is not only the greens in the veg patch that are sprouting. The hillsides are not only covered in beautiful spring flowers, little pink wild orchids, tiny bee orchids and miniature wild irises only a few centimeters tall, but there is also wild garlic with delicate pink flowers and wild asparagus which is worth the fight with the thorns from last years plant that protects it.

Along the seashore there are delicacies to harvest as well. Crispy bright green Samphire and the succulent leaves of the Ice Plant which are only tender enough  for a short time in the spring to be harvested. Even at this time of the year the Samphire that is in full sun all day has a tendency to be tough, so it is worth searching out bright green sprouts in shady spots. You need to take a pair of scissors and just trim off the tender ends into your bag. You can see from the photo just how you have to seek out this years tender shoots from last years dried out remains.Samphire

The Ice Plant – Mesembryanthemum Cristallinum – is so call because of the crystal-like cells that it has on its surface, particularly the underside of the leaves. To harvest the most tender of the Ice Plant leaves the same applies as the Samphire, look for brighter green leaves in the shade.

For both plants the uses are the same. You can give them a good wash and put them in your salads, steam them and add butter and a touch of lemon and have them to accompany fish, add them to stir frys and Thai curries. The Andalucian way is to make a Revuelto. This would include the wild garlic greens and asparagus, and if you are a bit flush some prawns. Fry the prawns and all your greens in some good olive oil until the prawns are half cooked and the greens a brighter colour. Add some beaten and seasoned eggs and over a very low heat stir until the eggs thicken into a creamy mass. Turn out onto warmed plates and eat immediately with crunchy fresh bread.