Abel's invention

My friend Abel came up with this impromtu late-night snack after a hard day of Tapas eating. By midnight we were peckish if you can believe that.
The result was amazing beyond its simple appearance.
Baked sobrasada and cabra cheese croutes.
Sobrasada is a speciality of Mallorca and is a kind of spreadable paté, yet it is not made with offal.
It has similarities in texture to French rillettes, yet the meat is not cooked.
It is heavily spiced with sweet, smoky paprika and garlic and has a bright red/orange appearance. Usually it is spread, cold, on bread but the genius stroke here was to bake it with the semi-cured goat cheese topping.
Slimming it is not.
Delicious it definitely is.
Well done Abel!

Tapas week in Tarragona 2

Second hit of the Tapas tour of Tarragona went as follows:
We started at L'Etoile on Calle Union.
Dau de bacallà sobre brownie de botifarra negra amb compota de verdures i pols de pernil ibèric.
Cube of Salt Cod on black pudding brownie, pea and asparagus puree and ham dust.
Very striking and vibrant. When eaten all together the flavours were interesting. But have to say it was all disappointing. A classic bit of 'style over substance'. The black pudding didn;t benefit from being turned into a chewey brownie, and the overall taste experience was quite unmemorable.


The next place, however, heralded a contender for BEST TAPA of our entire experience:
"Cómete el Rabo" "Eat the tail"
Braised Oxtail wrapped in sliced ham with crispy artichokes and leeks and vermouth reduction.
It was FANTASTIC. Like the best steak pie filling you've ever had with a great presentation, (ie. it looked like delicious food, not art) We all wanted seconds!


Next was Ramon's, an unassuming local workers bar. I had actually tried this tapa when the owner was deciding what to serve, so I knew what to expect. He called it Black and White and it consists of Morcilla (black pudding) form Jaen and scrambled egg with aioli sauce and raspberry ketchup (!?)
Sounds a bit wierd but it was my all-time second favorite. Served warm, the cinnamon and allspice flavours of the sausage matched really well with the earthieness of the dish. The two sauces together just really worked. Bloody lovely! Who would have thought ..... raspberry ketchup..... and they say Tarragona is provincal!

The last tapa we tried turned out to be our all time favourite, and I think it will win the overall competition. (you can vote online for your favorite)
Cruixent de guatlla amb bolets
Filo pastry parcel of guineafowl with porcini mushrooms and a herb salad. (the first time I have seen anyone use dill in nearly 2 years here) and a light soy sauce.
We had to wait a bit but it was worth it. Fragrant, moist and tasty guineafowl with the rich accent of the awesome boletus wild mushrooms and the savoury soy for extra umami and a modernist nod.

Tapas week in Tarragona

Long time no blog. Yes. I know. But here I am. Back with news of life in TGN.
It;s tapas week. Various restaurants sign up to offer a tapa and a drink for €2.50 for the duration of a week or two as a promotion of the city's grastronomy. Choose a district and walk from one to the other during lunchtime or in the evening.
So we went on the trail in the Serallo district.
Here are the results.....(double click any pic to enlarge)

First place.Marisqueris La botigua
Plum Cake de bacallà, broqueta de rap amb arrossejat i esfera de crema catalana
Salt cod muffin, monkfish skewer with rice crust, and (dessert) liquid sphere of crema catalana.

Verdict. Good. Well presented. But pre cooked and served room temperature. Described as 3 courses on a plate. It was nice, specially the crispy rice crust round the monkfish skewer, but not amazing.

Second place:EL RACÓ DEL PESCADOR
Broqueta de popet a l'all cremat
Skewer of baby octopus with tomato, white wine and creamed garlic and croutes.
A great off-the-beaten-track, old fishermans bistro which still clearly retains all it's authenticity and soul. The dish was great. The almost rosmeco-like sauce (but no nuts) was deep and flavoursome. Served with rose cava. Very tasy and rustic. Honest, traditional cooking at its best in no-nonsense surroundings. I'll be back!


Third place:PERNILERIA I SIDRERIA SERRANO
Mos de "morteruelo"
A Crostino with a 'rillette-like' pate made of partridge, pork, wild boar and rabbit on spiced bread with tomato and mint garnish. DELICIOUS. Served with red wine. The mint was placed with the halved cherry tomato at one end and we were advised to eat this end last and it was a great final firework in the mouth.


Fourth Place: RESTAURANT MARISQUERIA CAL JOAN
Barquetes de bacallà al perfum d'alls confitats
Crostino of salt cod with confit of young garlic and parsley.
This was simplicity itself, but the fantastic thing was it was cooked to order and seved hot, cloaked in an aioli. It was the best we had had so far. A thick, premium piece of salt-cod, with a faint crust of flour clinging to it and the perfume of sweet young garlic and parsley.Awesome!


Fifth place:SIDRERIA DONOSTI
"Serrallo'ko Lorea" (Flor del Serrallo)
The flower of the Serallo.
This was a flaky pastry pie containing morcilla (black pudding), membrillo (quince preserve) and calçots (spring onions) with a drizzle of tomato sauce.
It was served warm and flaky with white wine in those funny, flat, Basque tumblers. It was the best thing we had had. Amazing. Sweet, earthy, peppery and slightly haggis-like. Fantastic.


Sixth place. RESTAURANT L'ÀNCORA
Cruixent de peix. Crispy fish.
A busy , narrow, old fishermans tavern with tanks of lobster, turtles (?!*) and oysters. It had a dizzying array of ingredients, both cooked and raw, on display in that very Spanish, slightly 1970's style of point-and-order restaurateuring. I have a major problem with many of these establishments because they insist on displaying already-fried items such as baby squid and fish, which then get a second bath in the deep fryer once ordered. I try to explain to my Spanish friends (who still think that one cannot eat well in the UK) that we laughed this kind of treatment of seafood out of our kitchens about 20 years ago.
Anyway, we stood and watched 6 hard-core, dyed-in-the wool, post-middle-aged Spanish line chefs crank out dish after dish of pre-prepped seafood in classic cazuelas (terracotta dishes) from an impressive wood oven. We deflected the shoulder barges that were an unavoidable and charming part of the long narrow bar in which we stood, and tried not to spill our drinks on our clothes. The place was noisy and fun. The tapa of fried battered hake fingers with classic romesco was, it has to be said, fresh, crispy and good. Very good. Although I find hake too soft for this kind of thing. There's little to chew once you've penetrated the batter.

TRADITIONAL BARCELONA TAPAS

went to BCN on a pilgrimage to Commerc 24, the hot, contemporary tapas restaurant run by ex-Adria chef Carles Abelan. It's perfectly located in the less salubrious, but up-and-coming area of El Born. I think there is an unwritten law that seems to state that the best places are never in the 'best' areas. There's something about the integrity of a place that can't afford the best location. The food has to be good, to get people to come there. Anyway we couldn't get in. So had to shelve it for another day. In the mean time I managed to go to this place which was more old-school and very charming for it. Counter displays of raw ingredients which got passed back to the kitchen through a hatch for cooking and then delivered to you. The place was slick,busy and looked the part. Staff were nicely kitted out in white jackets and attitude; clearly from the school of 'bark and don't smile' which i'm actually begining to get used to. I've stopped taking it personally as it seems to be an 'across-the-board' policy. I orderd a pile of oyster mushrooms and some croquetas. Mushrooms were greasy and underseasoned with burnt flecks of something...maybe garlic....and lacked that vital acidity. No lemon/wine/sharp herb to lift them. I've come to the conclusion that the best way to cook mushrooms is to effectively steam them in an emulsion which reduces to become a dressing lifted by a squeeze or squirt of chosen acid. Season. Add herb. Done. I keep trying the croquetas in the vain hope that one day I'll find one that dosen't taste like wallpaper paste. I guess i'll have to keep trying....Spain has some nice food...but there's a lot of average stuff too.

THERE ARE SNAILS!!!!

Locals love their snails..and most bars advertise their availability with a simple sign in the window saying "Hay caracoles" or "cargoles" in Catalan, sometimes illustrated with a cartoon drawing which looks like Brian from the Magic Roundabout. This means 'there are snails' but translates as 'snails are on the menu'. The classic recipe produces a bowl of snails in a spicy, slightly murky and thinnish red/brown sauce. I think the murk comes from paprika which can have that effect on a sauce. They are quite delicious and very different to the classic Burgundian treatment. All you need is a toothpick, glass of wine, lots of noise and wafting cigarette smoke (yes they still allow that here) for a truly definitive gulp of Spain.

MISTAKES COME IN 3's so they say....

Well I managed to accrue my 3rd food-based cock-up to follow on from the Prawns and Percebes. Let's hope this is the end of it and I can get back to some good gastronomic discoveries. Anyway I was in one of my favorite tapas bars and wanted to try some new stuff. Liked the sound of 'Aros de cebolla rebozado' believing that aros must be Catalan for Aroz (rice). So I had made up my mind this was some kind of interesting rice dish with onions. I asked the waitress and she gabbled away at me and I made the fatal mistake of nodding when I didn't really understand. Actually I did understand her, but her explanation didn't match my preconception, so I assumed I had misunderstood. She said 'it's a bit like Calamares (fried squid rings) and very delicious'. I assumed there would be squid in the rice dish. So I ordered it and almost burst out laughing when I realized what it was. DEEP FRIED BATTERED ONION RINGS!!! 'Aros' has nothing to do with 'aroz' but means 'ring' . So I sat in the deepest of Catalan bars trying to explore the inner mysteries of Catalonia's most fundamental ingredient and all I get is a McDonalds-ish bowl of onion rings. What's that expression about 'assumption being the mother of all cock-ups......'?

ANOTHER BIG ANTICLIMAX

Been trying to get my paws on percebes for years. Those barnacles form NorthEast/Basque Spain that look like dinosaurs toes and allegedly cost lives in their harvesting. Finally saw some at local rough-neck Tapas bar and gave them a try. All I can say is that they were curiously pleasant....slightly sweet, thin fleshy tubes that you pull out of the papery barnacle shell with your teeth. I was mildly enjoying them thinking that as a curious barsnack they had a certain novelty appeal. Then the barman gave me the bill for €9. What the *?"!!*? Coupled with my Prawn fiasco the other day I'm beginning to feel like I'm getting the guiri (foreigner) rip off. But I checked the prices and they are the going rate in both cases. I fully understand and appreciate the ethos of foraging for food as a survival mechanism in all parts of the world, and i am aware that this practice has led to some of the worlds most outstanding gastronomic achievements. However, all I can say is if someone offers you a small plate of percebes for €9 you'd be better off going home and marinating a few rubber bands in some seawater and adding a tiny bit of grit every few mouthfulls. I bet you could do that for less than €2.!!!

A TERRIBLE CONFESSION....SORRY CATALUNIA

I have a terrible confession to make, I feel like a heretic....I am betraying the one I love but I can't help it. I've tried and tried and tried...but i just can't help myself anymore. It has to be said. The hiddeous truth is..........I.....just.....don't .........rate.........pa amb tomaquet!. (no, the cat didn't just walk across the keyboard...that is the Catalan spelling for bread with tomato)
Now.....there is history to explain.....I first fell in love with the concept of toasted bread, rubbed garlic, fresh tomato, E.V. olive oil and salt when i was 15 and ate the product in the Valencia region many times as a young tourist. I have also reproduced the concept many times in my restaurants to good effect. Chargrilled sourdough bread or similar, rub with a garlic clove, (this tastes TOTALLY different from chopping the garilc and adding it to the tomatoes) paint with olive oil, spoon on chopped tomato flesh, season...close eyes....eat....don't speak for 30 seconds at least. It is the quintessential flavour of common sense. It encapsulates in one meagre dish the essence of great cooking tradition. That is to use your circumstances and best ingredients to perform alchemy....turn base elements into gastronomic gold. In Tarra I have tried many a tomato bread and have been mostly disappointed. Why? Well. 1. the quality of the bread. Its what I would call 'yesterdays French Baguette'....no hard crust or chewey ,lemony crumb. Its the easy cop-out but it brings the dish down. 2. The garlic has been mild to absent on most occasions.This might be considered as a refined touch, but to me it's the equivalent of de-caf coffee...kind of anathema. 3. The tradition of rubbing the tomato might be historically 'correct' but leaves me cold. I'd rather have a generous helping of ripe, chopped, tomato flesh instead of a smear of tomato water and seeds. And finally the most important missing element. The bitter twang of chargrilling. All the breads I have tasted have been 'toasted' not grilled over fire. Now the odds are stacked against me as: a) I'm not Spanish ...let alone Catalan. b)can every restaurant in Tarragona be wrong and Ant is right? But I actually don't care. I don't give a flying fig if I'm out of step with tradition....I just know that chargrilling sourdough bread over flames, rubbing it with a garlic clove, topping with chopped ripe tomato flesh, anointing with EVO and seasalt tastes a damn sight better that what I have been served.(actually I usually add black pepper and ...don't call the guardia civil......basil) So all I can say is that if what I have experienced is traditional Pa amb tomaquet then it has lost it's way.....viva la revolution!!! power to the heretic!!!! But then again, Imagine a well-meaning but deluded Spanish upstart trying to show Aunt Bessie how to make yorkshire pudding!

CENTRAL MARKET

Just love the buzz. It’s how food shopping should be. It’s so real…..no artifice. First the noise…..chaotic, uptempo, makes your heart beat quicker as soon as you walk in, then the smell…..fresh sea smells, cheese, jamones,…. Then the violence. The beheading, de-scaling, gutting, boning. The urgency to sell…to bargain…to get the best. My eyes are everywhere. I suddenly realize I’m smiling for no reason. Is that weird? Who cares! I walk around anonymous, watching, taking in everything, the prices….what could I sell a portion of squid for…the cuts…..is that ribeye? looks different….that must be tripe…’callos’…seen that on menus…now I know…. Chickens with head still on like in France…..que buscas carino? (what are you after, love?)....nada….solo mirar gracias!!! (nothing, only looking thx). I stand next to people straining my ears to try to understand. This is full speed, no-holds-barred real language...some Catalan, some Castellano. The best language lesson you can have and it's free!
Outside it’s like I’ve been to a rock concert, my ears are ringing. I head to basque tapas bar. Small beer in strange flat tumbler. Chistora sausage still warm, mushroom croqueta, tuna with padron pepper, fried cheese, pincho moruno. Would this work in UK? Keep thinking!

FIRST NIGHT....what's that red light...?

Did lizzaran. Great Basque tapas bar chain with realy good buzz and loads of tapas on the counter! Wandered the medieval streets. Great atmosphere.Still think this town amazing for a film shoot! Inadvertantly found brothel, complete with ropey old hag at bar who tried to entice me in. Little did she know.... See the pic above. It's the innocent looking bar with the nice planters above it and subtle red lights!!! I legged it back to Nuria, Got newspaper off bartender for accom leads. Hit the sack. Made plan for fire escape. Including radical jump to next balcony etc...be prepared. Hid valuables in random places.