Spain is famous for its perfect climate of heat, one that creates distinctive flavors in wine and olive oil. Culinarily, Spain has been hot for a decade. Its fabulous restaurants and inventive chefs have had world-wide influence. If you’ve eaten a foam dish, it’s because of Spain.
Long before foam, Spanish cuisine gave us tapas, those little plates of food to share and gobble down. Tapas restaurants keep popping up and are endlessly crowded. It turns out that beside our apish genes, we must have some grazing stock in us, too. People love tapas.
Although tapas is associated with that phrase “little plates” I think better way to view it is cooking “with a little of this and little of that.” The tapas combinations are endless, with cooks loving to experiment and find new ways to combine common ingredients into new culinary experiences. This salad is an example. You’ve probably had mushrooms and onions. You’ve probably had carrots and onions. But how about mushroom and onions and carrots, cooked in wine, then chilled and eaten cold? It’s a totally new experience.
This dish is earthy in flavor and would be the perfect match for some meat-based tapas: say sausages or meat balls. The flavors are intense and deserve table mates that can stand up. Oh, when we made this dish, we cheated and first ate it hot off our skillet. That may not have authentic, but with our steak it was yummy.
This recipe is one of hundreds from a very beautiful and very serious new book: The Book of Tapas. If that sounds like something out of the Bible, well, maybe that is what was intended because you will find this to be a bible for tapas. The authors are Simone and Ines Ortega. In 1972 Simone wrote what is considered the Spanish Joy of Cooking: 1080 Recipes. 1080 Recipes is still in print and you can buy a copy of that, too. This tapas book is focused just on the spectrum of flavors destined for those small plates. The book is organized by ingredients. Chapters are devoted to vegetables, eggs and cheese, fish, and meat. And, in true tapas style, each chapter is broken into hot and cold.
The book has all the classic standards: garlic shrimp, spicy potatoes, and bread with tomato. But these quintessential experts of Spanish cuisine offer other equally important recipes: awesome meatballs, fried breadcrumbs with chorizo, shirmp croquettes, ham empanadillas, chicken with pine nuts, …
Very importantly, this book presents 150 color photographs of some of its dishes. Because tapas dishes are often unconventional or unfamiliar combinations of ingredients, it’s not always immediate what the recipe is going to look like on your table. Now you will know. It’s impossible to browse through those photographs and not say, “I’m making that today.”
Summer is the perfect season to start on the tapas path. I suggest you get a copy of The Book of Tapas and become a tapas convert. It is a good experience.
Chilled Onion, Carrot and Mushroom Salad
Yield: serves 8
Ingredients:
9 ounces mushrooms
½ lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
9 ounces small onions, peel but left whole
1 ½ cup white wine
3 tablespoons tomato paste
Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:
Wash the mushrooms in a bowl of water with a few drops of lemon juice. Remove the mushrooms and set aside on a paper towels. Heat the oil in a skillet or frying pan, add the carrots and lightly pan-fry over medium heat. When they begin to soften, add the onion, s mushrooms, white wine and tomato paste, hen season with salt and pepper and stir.
Bring to a boil, then turn the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove the skillet form the heat and let cool completely, then transfer the mixture to a bowl and put in the refrigerator until required. Serve chilled.
Source: The Book of Tapas by Simone and Ines Ortega