Posts Tagged ‘spain’

Tapas Revolution

Friday, January 27th, 2017 | Books, Food

Tapas Revolution is a cookbook by Omar Allibhoy. Omar hails from Spain and previously worked at elBulli, which, between 2006 and 2009, was voted the best restaurant in the world four times running. Now he runs a chain of UK-based restaurants by the same name as his cookbook.

Tapas is usually associated with small dishes. However, most of the recipes Omar includes are big meals. Typically, the dishes involve frying a lot of garlic, throwing in some chorizo, and then maybe adding a few more ingredients. We are pretty sure we set a new chorizo-eating record somewhere towards the end of tapas month.

Some of the recipes were a bit lacking on the instructions. A bit of filling in the blanks, and adjusting the quantities to something more sensible. Other dishes were beautifully simple to implement. My favourite recipe in the book is the still lemonade.

Prawns with chorizo, black pudding and fried bread.

Clams with ham.

Chicken paella. I only put half the amount of water in that the recipe indicated. Even then, I was incredulous. “This is never going to work”. But it did; it all came together at the very end.

Creme caramel. The instructions for making the caramel are very unclear, but it turned out edible.

Blackberry cheesecake.

It was a fun book. Most of the recipes were quick to cook. Those that were not, could be left unattended while you did something else. Some of the instructions were frustrating, but there are definitely recipes in here that I will be going back to. If nothing else, it provides simple recipes to cook things like prawns and chorizo in a tasty and uncomplicated way.

Divert course!

Wednesday, March 26th, 2014 | Video

This is not even a little bit true. But is very funny.

Spanish Grand Prix

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013 | Distractions

There is something truly magical about the Spanish Grand Prix. While the sport us ultimately dominated by Britain, the following in Spain is colossal, and is reflected in them having both the Spanish and European races in the country.

What was most impressive about Sunday’s race was the sheer noise generated by the crowds. Usually you can’t hear anything above the roar of the engines, but every time Fernando Alonso passed the grand stands you could hear their cries – no wonder he brought his Ferrari home to a dominant victory.