Little Dishes-Spanish Style Tapas
I’ve come to the conclusion that there are two ways to approach any style of cooking. First, you strive for authenticity. Texas chili doesn’t have beans? Then mine won’t either. My grandmother’s chicken soup was the best? Then make it taste like Grandma’s. Once you achieve authenticity, you repeat it endlessly. Why change? You’ve got the best. This is the approach behind classical cuisine. Everyone needs a killer dish or two in their repertoire, something they can rely on over and over.
The other approach is to learn the style and its elements, then incorporate them into your general cooking. Once you learn an etouffee sauce, you can cook all manner of meat, fish, fowl and sausages in the New Orleans style. So what if you can’t get fresh crawfish or shrimps with their heads on and your local andouille just doesn’t taste like the sausage you get in Louisiana? You simply find what is good around you and reinterpret. Clearly you must exercise common sense and good taste, but this is the process by which all regional cooking was developed.
What does this have to do with tapas? Tapas are little dishes usually served in tapas bars all over Spain. One orders a bit of this and that with a glass of sherry or wine, stacking up plates which are totaled at the end of the meal. It is fine way to eat and it lends itself to casual cooking. If you like to cook, and your friends like to eat, nothing beats a tapas party.
However, authentic tapas can be difficult. Angulas in Garlic Sauce, a tapas favorite, requires fresh baby eels, something the local supermarkets tend not to carry. Other, more familiar tapas depend on varieties of seafood of a freshness and variety that is not available in the States, let alone in the Pioneer Valley. Serrano ham, the Spanish cured ham similar to prosciutto, is more costly than the imported Italian variety, when you can even find it. The Manchego and other Spanish cheeses I’ve found mostly come precut and prepackaged.
Clearly, reinterpretation is called for. In the recipes below, I list some dishes that started out as authentic tapas and took a twist. Others are just things I like to cook, which happen to fit into the general Mediterranean theme of tapas. If you’re looking for some good cookbooks on the subject, try Penelope Casas‘ Tapas, the Little Dishes of Spain, Joanne Weir’s From Tapas to Meze, and for a more general approach to small dishes, Martha Stewart’s The Hors D’Oeuvres Handbook. (Say what you like about Martha, the lady can cook and this book is filled with gems.)
You may want to go all out and serve only tapas. You may find that making several tapas followed by a main course suits your style better. Tapas add an air of informality no matter how formally your guests are dressed. I’ve made tapas for four, for 10, and once for a group of 20 women at a Girls Night Out gathering.
When you build a tapas menu, start with something simple to give your guests time to gather. Olives are traditional. Try the small bright green Picholine or Luques, the small black Nicoise, and the oil-cured black olives for a change from Kalamata. The dates and sausage below are perfect for the next course, a tasty little treat that whets the appetite for more.
Next, I like to set out a crostini bar. Put out a basket of baguette slices and three or four dips and spreads. Your guests build the appetizers to their tastes and everyone has something to talk about.
Most people seem to like shellfish. Your choice depends on whether everyone is standing around or seated. If people are sitting, steam mussels or clams with garlic, white wine and parsley or serve boiled unpeeled shrimp with a variety of sauces. If they’re standing, serve peeled shrimp and stuffed clams or mussels. Stuffed calamari, sliced into bite-sized pieces, are also a great tapa. You can make them in advance, then simply heat in the sauce, slice and serve.
Fried food, like fritters or batter-dipped vegetables or seafood, is not something most people make at home, so serving it offers a real treat. You can pretty much deep-fry anything and people will like it. Serving this after the crostini gives you a chance to get the oil hot and prepare the fried foods while your guests are working on the crostini.
Finish with something more substantial, like a grilled pork tenderloin, so people feel like they’ve eaten a meal. Accompany the pork with some quartered red onions marinated in olive oil, skewered, and grilled or broiled. One tenderloin serves three as an entree; you can double or even triple that as part of a tapas menu.
Originally published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Friday, September 03, 2004
Recipes
July 10th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
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