Spanish Tapas & Cocktails

For Christmas my husband gave me some Spanish cazuela dishes that I’ve been drooling over at the Mediterranean Food Warehouse for quite some time. They are terracotta that have been glazed all over except for the base and can be used in the oven, on the stove top and as serving dishes.  I love cookware that needs to be seasoned such as paella pans and cast iron; the ritual of the seasoning process makes the dish seem all the more special.  The cazuelas needed to be soaked in water for 12 hours before rubbing the unglazed base with a garlic clove (a tradition apparently!), rubbing olive oil on the inside of the dish and baking them in a low oven for 1 1/2 hours.  I started this process immediately on Christmas day which meant that they were all ready for their first tapas feast on boxing day.

To start our banquet we had Pinchos (things on skewers) called Gilda…named after Rita Hayworth’s legs according to Sam and Sam Clark who wrote Morito…I have no idea why and they don’t seem to know either! Despite their lack of resemblance to legs (probably a good thing!), they are very tasty.  They consist of a pickled chili, green olive, anchovy fillet and a cocktail onion on a stick…a wonderful combination of flavours – the sharpness of the onion with the saltiness of the anchovy, the slight bitterness from the olive and the heat of the chili…delicious with a Bicicleta cocktail from the same book (a mix of Campari and white wine and we jazzed ours up with a glace cherry on a stick…very fancy!).

The next dish is simply called Marinated Mushrooms from “The Complete Spanish Cookbook” by Pepita Aris.  The mushrooms are marinated in a mix of sherry, onion, garlic and tomato paste and are served cold.  These were very nice on sliced baguette or just popped straight into the mouth.

The “Food of Spain” by Claudia Roden has a lovely recipe for Tomatoes Stuffed with Tuna.  This is a pretty basic recipe which consists of stuffing tomato shells with a mix of cooked onion and garlic, tuna in olive oil and black olives and baking them in the oven for 20 minutes.  Despite the basic ingredients they are very flavoursome and are pretty quick to assemble.

The Complete Spanish Cookbook also had a recipe for Marinated Anchovies which enabled me to use the anchovies that I had in the freezer.  This involved beheading, gutting and removing the bones from each and every anchovy; a much easier process than it sounds (thank goodness!).  The butterflied fish are then marinated in lemon juice and salt for a few hours before being seasoned with garlic, parsley and olive oil.  I was really happy with how well these turned out and they were lovely on a chili oat cracker with a bit of brie.

And finally…”The Food of Northern Spain” by Jenny Chandler has a recipe for Spicy Mussels, another easy but delicious tapas dish.  For the sauce I was able to use the innards from the tomatoes that I stuffed earlier so there was no wastage.  Again, the sauce was very nice to scoop up with some sliced baguette…all very tasty and decadent and a bit tipsy by the time we got to the mussels with a few extra cocktails under our belts!  But hey, what a wonderful way to spend the boxing day evening 🙂