Fiesta! Few cuisines are as perfectly fit for a party as Spanish is. Tapas – that’s a nibble served alongside a drink. And the name means ‘lid’ because it was originally a saucer placed on top of a glass of wine or beer.
These days tapas restaurants are hugely popular outside of Spain. In Barcelona or Madrid they don’t have full outfits dedicated to those small plates but rather serve them in bodegas - wine bars, which is the correct meaning of the word, peculiarly hijacked by Americans to mean a grocery shop.
But Spanish vibe doesn’t only mean tapas. Rice and stews feature in Spanish cuisine strongly, as do seafood dishes. Here then is a selection of recipes, both tapas and big plates, with a lively Spanish vibe.
First things first: paella is the Spanish trademark dish whose name comes from the special frying pan used to cook it. It’s not essential though: ordinary, even non-stick large frying pan is good enough, especially when following this absolutely foolproof recipe. For best results use paella rice, Bomba or Calasparra.
Chicken and prawn paella
RECIPE
Fideuà is a variant of paella, with short vermicelli pasta instead of rice. While paella Valenciana traditionally contains meat, chicken or rabbit, fideuà is made with only fish and seafood, also cooked in an enormous pan. Several provinces claim its ownership, with Catalonia and Valencia the most likely.
My favourite tapa: padron peppers, mild green peppers (pimientos de padron) blistered in a frying pan with olive oil. They can be eaten whole, with seeds and core.
Lentejas con chorizo may be a soup or a stew, so you can cook it as saucy as you wish. Lentils cooked from scratch (or a 15-minute shortcut), chorizo sausage with ripe fresh tomatoes make a wonderful spicy, hearty dish.
Lentil and chorizo stew
RECIPE
Ropa vieja means ‘old rags’ but it only refers to the way it looks, not how it tastes! It’s a Spanish dish that crossed the ocean and took residence in Cuba and Colombia. 'Old rags' is stewed and shredded beef braised with peppers, onions and tomatoes to melting pulled beef tenderness, as tasty as it is colourful.
Another tapa recipe: slices of leftover cooked new potatoes crispened in flavourful chorizo fat. It’s the best way to use up yesterday’s boiled potatoes, but so tasty, you might want to cook them specifically for this recipe.
Crispy chorizo potatoes
RECIPE
Pan con tomate is another tapa classic: ripe fresh tomatoes grated onto slices of pan de cristal, Spanish glass bread. But it is gorgeous not only con tomate. It also makes the best toasties, and it is not that hard to make at home.
Empanada is served as tapas and usually comes as an individual sized pastry. My version is a large one with spinach and cheese filling wrapped in filo pastry. The classic is deep fried; mine is baked in the oven, with honey and pine nut topping. The filo shortcut makes it no less delicious than handmade dough!
Squid, calamari or calamares in Spanish: this is an easy recipe for fried calamari rings with chorizo slices and spring onions. One more tapa recipe to the collection but it also makes an excellent starter or a light lunch dish.
Finally, a dessert: authentic Spanish recipe for tarta de Santiago, a traditional Galician almond cake. Tarta or torta de Santiago has only three basic ingredients and is as delicious as it is ridiculously easy to make. Also, gluten free.