# Spanish Tapas Recipe



## Flourgirl (Mar 13, 2007)

I taught a Spanish tapas cooking class last week and this recipe was everyone's favorite!

I love mini meals and Spanish flavors are so intriguing, if anyone has their own Spanish tapas recipes, please post!!

Just a tidbit of information. It is said that the name for these little dishes is derived from the Spanish word, "tapar" which means "to cover". In the early days of the tapas bar, a tapa was a slice of cured ham or pork that was used to cover one's glass in order to keep the flies out. 

Mini meatballs in saffron sauce over fideos

8 oz. ground pork
8 oz. ground veal
4 Tb. chopped fresh Italian parsley
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 large egg, beaten
3/4 cup white bread, soaked in water and squeezed
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper 
flour to dust

1/4 c. olive oil
1/4 C. minced onion
1/2 tsp. Spanish paprika
1 C. chicken stock
1/4 C. dry white wine
1/4 tsp. saffron threads
1/4 C. heavy cream

Mix pork, veal, 1 Tb. parsley, half garlic, egg, salt and pepper in bowl to blend. Shape meat into 1 inch balls. Dust with flour. 

Heat oil in skillet over med. high heat. Add meatballs and saute until brown. Remove and set aside. Add onion to pan and cook until tender. Stir in paprika, then 1 cup broth and wine. Simmer and return meatballs to the pan. Cover and cook 10-15 minutes. Uncover, add 2 Tb. parsely, remaining garlic, and saffron. Simmer about 10 minutes, add cream and season to taste. 

Serve over cooked fideos.


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## mudbug (Mar 13, 2007)

what are fideos?


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## redkitty (Mar 13, 2007)

This post made me think of Sevilla (my favorite place in Spain) and lots of sangria!  A Tapas party would be fun in the summer!


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## Candocook (Mar 13, 2007)

Tapas recipes for dinner or lunch

Nice tapas site.


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## Katie H (Mar 13, 2007)

mudbug said:
			
		

> what are fideos?



Silly, mudbug!  They're little Spanish doggies, of course!!


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## mudbug (Mar 13, 2007)

Thanks, Katie. But how do you make them lie down and get cooked?


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## Katie H (Mar 13, 2007)

mudbug said:
			
		

> Thanks, Katie. But how do you make them lie down and get cooked?



You have to train them to "lie down and play dead."  Kind of morose, though.


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## mudbug (Mar 13, 2007)

Flourgirl, please come rescue Katie and me from these morbid speculations before we totally hijack this thread.


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## Katie H (Mar 13, 2007)

mudbug said:
			
		

> Flourgirl, please come rescue Katie and me from these morbid speculations before we totally hijack this thread.



I'll quit if you quit.  Let's go talk about toilet paper and the RIGHT way to put it on the roller.


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## mudbug (Mar 13, 2007)

I'm on it.  Check out Off-Topic Chat.


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## auntdot (Mar 13, 2007)

The recipe sounds like albondigas.

Read fideos as a thin pasta, like vermicelli. Often cooked with other stuff ingredients, including tomato sauce.

Love tapas, unfortunately many don't know how great the stuff is. Le tthem just try it and they will be hooked.

Wish there were more tapas places to go to, we love the stuff.


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## Flourgirl (Mar 13, 2007)

Oops, forgot to check the thread...

Yes, auntdot, thank you. Fideos is the spanish word for "noodle". These are very thin and only about 1-2 inches long. I like to buy fresh angel hair pasta and cut it into 2 inch sticks and then drop them in broth with a pinch of saffron...yum! Or just add an extra cup of chicken stock to this meatball recipe and let the fideos cook in the broth and that helps thicken it too. Like Spanish style Swedish meatballs.


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## cjs (Mar 14, 2007)

Good sounding tapas there, flourgirl.

I like to add fideos to fried rice.


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## Mel! (Mar 14, 2007)

Hello Candocook

That Almond Garlic Stressel looks delicious.
But what would one serve it with? 

Mel


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## Candocook (Mar 14, 2007)

Mel! said:
			
		

> Hello Candocook
> 
> That Almond Garlic Stressel looks delicious.
> But what would one serve it with?
> ...


 
That is strange isn't it. I guess you could use it as the crumb topping for potatoes or something. Potato dishes are popular for tapas also. 
I got that site and the one I am posting below to print out a little cookbook for our kids when we gave them tapas pans a couple of years ago for Christmas.
Here is a nicer site in my opinion.
Tapas Recipes


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## Constance (Mar 14, 2007)

Check out the Red Peppers with Anchovies on that site. I have an Italian friend who fixes these, and they are great! She also uses green peppers, and those are good too.


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## Flourgirl (Mar 14, 2007)

Candocook, I HAVE to try some of those on that website!


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## mateix (Mar 15, 2007)

*tapas*

hi pardon for my english,because I used to be bad in it,the name tapa=cover I think than it comes than when it  was asked for a glass of wine,in the bar cover the glass with pieces of chesses,prosicutto,etc
In spain every year used look for the best tapa,you can look for names like pintxos,tapas,etc.
when you entry in a bar to eat something there are zones where to have a beer is to eat a tapa free.
Perhaps the most famous tapa are potatoes BRABAS
We cut the potatoes about a inch,and we fry with a lot of oil.
In other side you make a mahonese with oil and egg,but you join two heads of garlic,we call alioli.al=garlic i=and oli=oil,but we used mix a egg also.
the end of the dish:in the potatoes you join the alioli,and over also you join ketchup
brabas=fried potatoes+mahonese with garlic+ketchup
there are more like pescadito frito,calamares a la romana,etc
every year there are more,they are like little dishes
jose


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## mateix (Mar 15, 2007)

*chupito de pulpo*

chupito is licour served in little glass
you need a little glass of licour,potatoes because you need to make pure of potatoes,so you need to join the boil potatoe wit some butter,and with some milk,and octopus=pulpo,and same oil and powerpeeper
you make the pure of potatoe with too much potatoe,than other.
in other side you boil the octopus and you join some peeper power,after you slice too little
the presentation is
a little glass with pure and over the octopus,is served with a spoon
pardon for my english I know is tooooooooooo bad
chupito after to have a dinner in spain we used drink coffee with licour,and after a chupito,licour:anis,brandy,etc....
jose


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## Lugaru (Mar 15, 2007)

good ones Mateix, btw do you have a recipe for a torta española being a large potato and vegetable omelette? I enjoy that from time to time but I tend to over Mexicanize it, which means I should know how to do it right first and then mess with it.


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## mateix (Mar 16, 2007)

*hi*

hi lugaru,and friends,how are you?how much time.It was imposible to me enter here for time,sorry.Now I begin to have time.
tortilla de patatas,it is our traditional dish,and how is normal there are tastes,there is who put chorizo,etc...I love to see the potatoe,and it must fry too low,near burning,and a little of onion than give sweet to the potatoe.I think is easy so I don't explain how to make it.first fry the veg too low,and retired oil and enter the eggs,you give a round,there is who make in the air,but I prefer a dish to fry the turtle in the other side.
Here there is a tapa JALAPEÑOS is a jalapeño cover with a besamel,and after flour,egg,and bread.
also there is other than is of school,pollo al ajillo=chiken to little garlic
chiken,garlic,a some spice peeper(jalapeño,etc),oil,wine,fluor
there are differents ways to make it I will explain which I love
first boil some garlic in oil,too low because yo must look than the oil has taste to garlic,retired these garlic,there is who make with the same garlic.cover half chiken pieces in flour,and fry in the same tasted oil,with some more garlic and some jalapeños or spice peeper,when they have colour,then enter wine and left to clean the chiken,the flour after boil the wine will left like a sauce like white.the chiken has taste to garlic and has something of jalapeño.
pardon for my english is toooooooooooo bad,sorry,and if you need more explications I can give more
jose


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## mateix (Mar 16, 2007)

*tapas*

I think than the idea of tapas is nice because you can offer a complicated dish and make it cheap,people can taste good,expensive dishes and make it cheap,because these dishes need to be little or concentrated,in a little piece of bread could enter since espumas,caviar,etc... and in a little dish you can enter all than you want,here in the epoque of mad cows there where who used kangaroo meat,etc.all is nice to taste like a tapa.


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## Flourgirl (Mar 16, 2007)

mateix/Jose, excellent information, thank you!

Lugaru,
I make a potato and egg torta Espanola like this, sorry no measurements...

about 4 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced about 1/8" thick
olive oil
2 med. onions, sliced thin
about 6 eggs, beaten
salt and pepper

This is a double cook method. First, place oil in large skillet about 2 inches up the pan. Add your sliced potatoes in a single layer over the bottom, then top that layer with a layer of onion, continue until all your potatoes and onion are in the oil. Then simmer the potatoes and onion in oil for about 10-15 minutes, until the potatoes are slightly softened and "floppy". Remove the potato and onions to a shallow bowl and reserve the flavored oil used to simmer them. Pour the beaten egg and salt and pepper over the cooked potatoes, while still hot, and let them sit in the eggs for about 10-15 minutes. they will soak up the egg mixture. 

Then reheat your skillet and add some of the flavored oil. Pour your egg and onion and potato mixture into the pan and flatten it with a spatula. Fry it like a big pancake until its brown on the bottom, then flip it over and finish the other side.

Of couse you could add any veggies or sausage you like.


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