Spanish Food and Wine Dinner

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
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Recently got back from Spain and wanted to share the experience with some friends… so I cooked up a bunch of dishes inspired by our trip (and by Jose Andres’ Made in Spain) and brought out some super Spanish wine pairings as well.

Here’s the menu, with pairings:
Pintxos:
“Gildas” – Piparras Pepper, Olive, Anchovy
Tomato Pulp and Queso Pata Cabra on Bread
Olive, Piquillo Pepper, Anchovy on Bread
Wine: Botani Moscatel Seco, Malaga, 2008

Ensaladilla Russa (recipe by Jose Andres)
Wine: La Granja Nuestra Señora de Remelluri Blanco, Rioja, 2006

Gazpacho Shot

Lamb Loin Chops with Peppers and Polenta (inspired by L’auberge Basque)
Wine: Bodegas Ondarre Reserva, Rioja, 2002

Cheese and Fruit:
Idiazabal and Membrillo (inspired by Akelare)
Roquefort Ice Cream, Rosemary Raisin Crisps, Honey (inspired by Akelare)
Fresh Chevre Ice Cream, Berries (inspired by Etxebarri)
Wine: Jorge Ordonez Old Vines #3, Malaga, 2006

I did all the cooking, and was pleased with everything EXCEPT the main course, which needed a higher pepper/polenta proportion! Jose Andres’ Ensaldilla Russa is a killer dish, and it worked perfectly with the Remelluri Blanco, a truly killer wine. Gotta say that everything else turned out really well. But cooking did disrupt a bit from enjoying the wine to its fullest potential.

Here are a few photos:

The wines:

Pintxos:

Ensaladilla Russa:

Idiazabal and Membrillo with Balsamic:

Full photo set at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaplanbr/sets/72157622589967795/

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Oh very nice. Love Spanish food, don’t get enough of it…

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Piling on some comments on Jose Andres’ Made in Spain cookbook. I’ve tried a good number of the dishes in this book, and they are for the most part excellent and simple and ingredient focused. Did two nights of “Made in Spain” inspired dinners this weekend, with great results (the food, not so much the photos, horrible low lighting).

Night 1 was:
salad w citrus, olives, and anchovies
cold tomato soup with Serrano ham and hardboiled egg
“wrinkled” new potatos with mojo rojo
chicken wing confit with green olive rosemary puree

Night 2 was:
heirloom tomatos, peppers, Valdeon blue cheese and homemade croutons
cold almond and garlic soup with figs and marcona almonds
melon and Serrano ham “two ways”
figs and peaches with Muscat wine sauce

Standouts from the two evenings were the cold tomato soup with Serrano, ridiculously good and ridiculously simple, the heirloom tomato salad (which was a blend of two recipes in the book), and the melon and Serrano ham, both thinly sliced and then sliced and baked til crisp then crumbled. Loved the texture contrast, and the classic melon/ham pairing was great. The wrinkled potatos are a simple and good preparation, the “mojo rojo” is a great condiment with some good kick depending on what kind of dried peppers you use. The chicken wing confit is a good and interesting dish but will not blow anyone away, the green olive and parsley puree though was great. The almond and garlic soup was the most “out there” dish - the first bite seemed a bit wrong, but if you got a fig in each bite then the flavors really came together - it needed the sweetness of the fig to work.

A few crappy low light photos (horrors, some taken with flash):