A TASTE FOR TRAVEL
SPAIN

Spanish is a cuisine that celebrates quality of produce and simplicity of preparation first and foremost.  Every region of Spain boasts a repertoire of dishes celebrating the local harvest, and they all taste great!  They have a saying in Spain: “Food should taste of what it is”, and this mirrors my own philosophy of food – Enhance the flavours of your food, don’t disguise them!  The Spanish philosophy is to use the best, freshest ingredients, and add just enough spice and flavourings to show them at their best – as they say, “there should be no confusion of tastes”.

In Spain, the art of food is an essential facet of the art of living, and “life happens at the dinner table” - a place for social interaction, heated debate, and some of the finest conviviality (and food) in the world.

The cuisine of Spain has evolved over the centuries with initial Roman influences mingling with those of the Moors (almonds, oranges, sugar cane, spices such as cumin and cinnamon, and rice).  The Spaniards may have conquered the Aztecs, but they weren’t above adopting Montezuma’s nuts, chilli, chocolate and tomato recipes as their own.  Later still came French and Italian influences.

Nowadays, when we think of Spanish food we immediately think of Tapas and Paella (pronounced pay-ay-a).  They are undoubtedly the quintessential flagships of Spanish cuisine, yet do we really know that much about them?

Back in the day, one would try to escape the hot days and nights of the Spanish summer with a glass of sangria or sherry at the local wine bar.  Being chilled and sweet, the wine would often attract the attention of flies and bugs, presumably as hot and parched as everyone else.

To prevent a handful of floating insects, or dust for that matter, in their customers’ glasses, the bartenders carefully placed a ‘tapa’ (or ‘lid’ in Spanish) of a slice of bread, jamon (cured ham), cheese, or morcilla (Spanish blood sausage, similar to black pudding) over the top of the glass to keep the flies away from the sweet nectar within.

The punters rather took to the habit of sitting, nibbling at their ‘lid’, or ‘tapa’ whilst sipping their wine, and soon they were heading to the local for the tapa (‘tapas’ is the plural) as much as for the drinking.  The bartenders approved as the saltiness and dryness of the tapas made their customers drink more. 
And so Tapas was born. 

In time the word came to mean not only ‘lids’, but also a huge range of finger food perfect for lazy, sunny afternoons & convivial evenings spent sipping a beverage.  Perhaps more importantly, tapas is a lifestyle choice.

Turks and Greeks call the practice of having many small dishes to nibble on ‘Meze’, but it is the Spanish who have adopted Tapas as a way of life.  These delightful dishes are not only a food, they are an excuse for being social and a part of the community – every trip to the local tasca (tapas bar) is sure to bump you into old friends and associates, as much as allowing a drink and a snack or a meal.  Tapas is also a way of staying sober whilst you drink (public drunkenness is unpardonable in Spain, unlike here, so the food is used to counter the effects of the wine as much as anything else).

Tapas can be anything – garlic bread, sliced ham, chorizo sausage, meatballs in a fresh tomato sauce, a bowl of marinated olives, deep fried squid, pickled octopus, chilli mussels, crumbed slices of rabbit fillet and countless more.  The general rule is that the dish is small and easy to eat, preferably with fingers or a small fork.

 Here’s a few of my own ideas to get you started for the next time you invite friends to your ‘tasca’ (tapas bar).  Have them prepared before your guests arrive, then cook them leisurely on the barbecue one at a time.  You won’t fill your guests up before the main course, and they won’t go hungry either, or get too inebriated drinking in the Aussie summer sun.

 Pork & chorizo meatballs

500g pork mince
1 stick chorizo sausage (you can substitute this with cacciatore, salami or similar) finely diced or minced in a blender
1 egg
1 – 1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs
grated zest of 1 lemon
large pinch of fresh or dried sage
large pinch sea salt and cracked black pepper

Combine all ingredients to a semi-firm mix, then shape into 2cm meatballs.  Refrigerate for an hour to allow meatballs to firm up.  Cook over low heat on the barbecue until cooked through. 

Serve with Voodoo Moon’s Cranberry Barbecue Sauce

Fruity Calimari

4 medium squid tubes, cleaned
1 kiwi fruit
1 cup flour
grated zest of 1/2 lemon
large pinch sea salt and cracked black pepper
1/4 cup canola oil

Slice the squid tubes into rings about 1/2 - 1 cm wide and place in a bowl.  Squeeze  the kiwi fruit flesh out of it’s skin and mix through the squid well.  Cover with cling film and allow to marinate in the refrigerator for a few hours.  The kiwi fruit’s natural acidity will tenderise the squid as well as flavouring it.  Don’t allow it to marinate for too long, however – after a couple of days the acid will break the squid down to a mush!

Combine the remaining ingredients well.  Shake the kiwi fruit from the squid rings and toss well in the flour mixture to fully cover. 

Heat a little oil on the hotplate part of your barbecue to beading point, then throw the squid in small batches onto the heat very quickly until the flour crisps up and cooks golden.  Make sure the squid is cooked all over and remove to your serving tray before frying the next batch.

Serve with Voodoo Moon’s Jade Dragon green chilli & coriander jam and wedges of lime.

Chilli Prawns

12 large king prawns, shelled and de-veined, but with their tails left on
1/2 jar Voodoo Moon’s Seven Gates of Hell chilli sauce
(or our Eternal Damnation habanero chilli sauce for the truly brave!)
2 tbsp finely sliced fresh basil leaves
1 lemon
splash canola oil
large pinch sea salt

Heat oil on the barbecue hotplate until beading point, then throw the prawns on and cook, stir frying all the while.  Be careful not to over-cook the prawns or they will lose their juicy tenderness and melt in the mouth sweet texture.  Remove from the barbecue and place in a bowl, add salt, basil, a squeeze of lemon, and the chilli sauce.  Toss to coat thoroughly and serve with a bowl for the tail shells.  Don’t forget a finger bowl of warn water, sliced lemon & sprig of mint.

The perfect thing to wash down the tapas on a hot summers day is a chilled glass of Sangria.  Once upon a time Spanish wine wasn’t ALL good, so to make it more palatable, it was combined with water, other wine, spices, fruit juices – anything to make it taste more pleasant!  There is no set in stone recipe for sangria, it’s like making a wine punch – you put in whatever pleases your own palate, and whatever suits your base ingredients (ie:  sweet white wine, dry red wine, whichever you choose).  The main thing is that your sangria is refreshing and quaffable, rather than sickeningly sweet as is so often the case in cheap restaurants.  Try this recipe:

Sangria

2 lemons
2 oranges
1 stick cinnamon
One or two handfuls of ice
1 litre cheap dry red wine
750ml lemonade

Pour the wine into a large jug or bucket, then add the cinnamon stick and a 5cm piece of zest from each the lemon and orange.  Squeeze the fruit juice into the mix, stir and allow to sit in the fridge for at least an hour.  Stir in the ice, and add the lemonade just before serving.

They say that if you put two Spanish cooks together, you will get three perfect paellas, which shows you the diversity of this amazing dish.  Paella is traditionally cooked in a wide, shallow, round, iron pan called a “paelleras”.  The pan dips in the middle, has no lid, and has a handle on either side.  The pans remain shallow so that the rice cooks in a thin layer, and the fire under the pan should be as big as the pan itself, so the rice cooks evenly. Traditionally this is an open fire flavoured with vine cuttings and citrus trimmings, but for us a barbecue is the  perfect place to cook your paella.

Guiness Book of Records attempts at the biggest paella ever sometimes produce huge pans, which take dozens of men to carry, but they are always as shallow as the smaller paelleras.

Traditionally paella is only cooked by men, perhaps because of the heat and the weight of the heavily laden paelleras, but if the ladies want to give it a go, I say more power to ‘em!

Every region and taste of Spain has it’s own variation of paella depending on local produce, some featuring chicken, rabbit, pork sausages, lamb, seafood or combinations thereof.  Paella negre is even coloured with black squid ink.  I have adapted this recipe from one featuring rabbit and vegetables, to feature chicken and seafood in a more Australian style.

Paella

1/4 cup olive oil
4 chicken thighs, diced into large pieces
12 medium king prawns, shelled and de-veined, tails left on
12 pieces firm fleshed white fish
1 red capsicum, cut into strips
6 cloves garlic, peeled
1 medium onion, very finely diced
1 ripe tomato, peeled & chopped
1 1/2 cups short grain rice
3 cups chicken stock, simmering
8-10 saffron threads, toasted, ground and added to the stock
12 fresh mussels
2 lemons, quartered

Heat the oil over med-high flame in a 36cm paelleras or similarly sized frypan.  Brown off the chicken pieces and reserve.  Seal off the prawns and fish pieces and reserve with the chicken.  Reduce the heat to med-low and cook the red capsicum and garlic cloves until very soft.  Reserve.

Pour off the excess oil from the pan, increase heat to medium, and sauté the onion until very soft.  Add the tomato and reserved garlic cloves and cook to a very thick puree (10-15 minutes).  This mixture is called the sofrito and is the flavour base for the paella and many other Spanish dishes.  This can be made in advance if you prefer.

Add the rice, stirring until translucent and evenly distributed throughout the whole pan.  Pour in the hot chicken stock with the saffron added and bring to the boil.  Add the chicken, seafood and vegetables in a pinwheel pattern around the pan.  Do not stir the pan once the stock is boiling.  Increase the heat to med-high and rotate & swirl the pan to ensure distribute the heat evenly.  When the rice absorbs enough liquid to rise to the top (8-10 minutes) reduce the heat to med-low.

Continue to simmer until all the liquid has been absorbed (10 minutes) and check a grain of rice just below the surface.  It should be tender but not soft and mushy.  If it is still chewy add a little more stock and cook a few more minutes.

Cover the pan (or lower the barbecue roasting hood if you have one) for a few minutes to finish cooking the top layer of rice, then increase the heat to med-high for about 2 minutes to toast (not burn!) the bottom layer of rice, creating what is called the socarrat.

Remove the pan from the heat and rest for five minutes, then serve with lemon wedges.  A very important tradition to note at this point is that the paella should be served in the paelleras, from which all your diners eat together.  Dig in!

Finally, we come to dessert.  Sweets aren’t really the Spaniards strong points, but one thing they do love is fruit, which I love to caramelise on the barbecue and is great served with ice cream, and these little Spanish almond biscuits which you can make earlier in the day.

Almendrados (Almond biscuits)

2 cups blanched almonds, lightly toasted and finely chopped
2 egg whites
1 cup sifted castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence

Beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry.  Slowly add the sugar, and beat for another 5 or so minutes.  Fold in the almonds and vanilla, and place spoonfuls of the mix onto a greased oven tray.  Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes or until the biscuits begin to colour.  Makes about 3 dozen.

Barbecue Caramelised Fruit

1 pineapple
2 nashi pears or apples
1 banana
1 firm mango
2 tbsp light brown sugar
1 lime

Basically, you can use whatever firm fleshed fruit is seasonally available.  Peel and slice the fruits into bite sized pieces according to your own tastes, and toss them in a bowl with the brown sugar and a squeeze of lime juice.  Clean the barbecue hotplate well after eating your main course, and return up to heat.  Pour the fruit, sugar and juice onto the hotplate and stir fry quickly until the sugar begins to caramelise and bubble.  Remove from heat into your serving bowl and serve with honeyed cinnamon cream, ice cream, or both for the truly decadent!

And there you have it – all the food and drink you’ll need for a great summer tapas party.  If you want to do it right, think about putting up some Spanish style decorations – if you’re having a birthday party, maybe make a pinyata for the kids (a papier mache figure filled with sweets and little gifts which is hung up and hit with a stick until it bursts it’s payload open for everyone.  The hitter - usually the birthday celebrant - must be blindfolded and given the stick, whilst everyone else shouts direction and encouragement at them), or even for your grown-up guests:  you’re only as old as you choose to be!  To cap it all off, find a CD of Spanish music, maybe flamenco or something similar, to really get your guests in the party mood.  Bravo!

Be excellent to each other!

Shane Pinnegar

September 2003