Tapas

Has any one else noticed how expensive tapas has gotten lately? Either I’m eating in the wrong places or the world has gone a little bit mad (that or I have been forever spoiled by the incredible tasting menu at El Pirata DeTapas in Wesbourne Grove). £8 for three cat bowl sized portions of decidedly disappointing and really not very authentic food? No Thank You. After one too many less then satisfactory meetings with this so called ‘tapas’, I decided to take action and make my own. It was this week’s Delia Smith/Waitrose recipe collaboration that encouraged me, who can resist heavily discounted king prawns and manchego.

I trawled Google to find suitable recipes, and stuck pretty firmly to my favourites, going for a spicy Patatas Bravas, Vodka Flambeed Chorizo, Triangular Slices of Manchego Cheese with Quince, Garlicky Griddled Sour Dough, Gordon Ramsay’s Garlic Prawns, Garlic and Sherry Mushrooms (scroll down the linked page for the mushrooms), and a selection of tasty Marinated Olives.

Yes garlic loomed large, 10 cloves of garlic in fact, but I am of the opinion that garlic is one of the best ingredients, it goes in pretty much all my food, and it’s good for you to boot.

Ben had to give me a hand with the timings, which is always my downfall when it comes to cooking. Ask me to do a roast and it’s more then likely we’ll end up having a separate meat and vegetable course… If you can get the timings right (or you have a Ben to sort them for you) this Spanish inspired feast is really very easy to make, and would be perfect made in larger quantities for a group of friends before a night out.