Tapas please!

[ursula]

I'm thinking of doing a dinner with just "Tapas" - hot and cold hors d'oeuvres with a Spanish flavour ...I have a great recipe for spicy sizzled shrimp, and somewhere (if I dig in my pile of recipes after my recent move) I have another great one for garlicky mushrooms, but anybody have any other yummy and interesting recipes for appetizers that can be combined to make a meal?

[KelLeg]

We have a tapas place here in Kansas City that I love. Some of the appetizers include: ceviche, beef tenderloin with a blue cheese topping and a marinara with goat cheese served with crostini. I don't have recipes, but these all sound like things you could make from CL recipes. I have one favorite recipe that is kind of mediterrenean. It is a sun-dried tomato tapanade. You take a bag of sun-dried tomatoes; reconstitute them. Mix them with a couple of cloves of garlic, a small jar of kalamata olives and some goat cheese (half to whole package--taste as you go). Put all of this in a food processor and process. Then, serve with slices of Italian bread, toasted or not. Delish!

[ursula]

Thanks KelLeg - the tapenade sounds great - as does the idea of the goat cheese crostini.

[aliwally]

Here's some ideas - I LOVE TAPAS, could eat it every day all day.

A real easy tapas is:

chorizo sausage
pack of puff pastry
circular cutter

Cut smallish circles out of puff pastry - lay a slice or two of cooked chorizo on trop, seal with another circle of pastry (use beaten egg & milk to help stick circles) - brush with a little more egg & milk, put on cookie sheet and throw in oven for 10 minutes. Yum yum.

Another attractive tapas is to buy melon and proscuitto ham, cut melon into chunks and wrap a piece of ham around it, secure with a cocktail stick. Looks nice on a plate to pass around.

Also, in Publix supermarkets, you could cheat on one dish and buy the potato and ham croquettes made by Goya. They're in the freezer section. Croquettes are a very popular tapas, many different fillings and the Goya are the best pre-made ones out there.

And yet one more good idea - and again, you could cheat and go for the frozen variety, and that's deep fried calamari. Serve with a spicy marinara dipping sauce.

And best of all - Catalan Bread!!!! Slice a French loaf on the diagonal so you have a big flat area. Grill briefly to warm up, spray olive oil, grab garlic cloves and rub on, then slice a large, juicy tomato, and rub hard on the bread surface until you literally turn the bread red. Then quickly grill once more and serve - the absolutely best with slice of parma or proscuitto ham. Oh how I wish I were back in Barcelona!!!

Don't forget to serve Sangria too!!!

[Gail]

Here's a link to a previous post on the subject:
http://www.cookinglight.com/vbb/showthread.php?threadid=1887&highlight=tapa

If this isn't enough, and you're in the mood for a lot of reading, try running a search (upper right hand corner) using appetizer as your key word. (Also click "search by subject name" or you'll get every thread where the word "appetizer" has been used) I can't promise those other threads will necessarily have Spanish recipes, but you'll get a ton of ideas!

Welcome aboard!

[gertdog]

Fun dinner party idea!

Olives! You've got to have olives. Here's one recipe I love that has great Spanish flavors:

Olives with Roasted Cumin and Paprika
from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

1 1/2 cups Kalamata olives
several pinches red pepper flakes
1 tsp. cumin seeds
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 T extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp. paprika
juice of one lemon

Taste the olives; rinse them if they’re excessively salty. Place them in a bowl. Toast the cumin seeds in a small skillet until fragrant, then bruise them with a pestle or the back of a wooden spoon to release their flavor. Add the cumin seeds and remaining ingredients to the olives and toss. Let stand one hour or more before serving.

Other ideas:

Our local tapas restaurant has three dishes that I love. One is a russet potato, split into 6 wedges. It's deep fried and then served with a chipotle aioli. Delicious! And you could probably oven bake the potatoes instead of frying.
The second dish is a flatbread with assorted toppings (it's different every time). Basically it's a mini pizza with fun toppings. Southwestern (black beans, smoked cheddar, chilies), or green olives, lemon zest, and white cheese, or anything else that sounds interesting. I made something similar for a graduation open house this spring... topped my flatbreas with sliced tomato, slivers of yellow pepper, provolone, bits of red onion, walnuts, and shredded basil.

The last dish is asparagus with browned butter, parmesan, and pecans. It is to die for. I've never made it at home but I bet it would be pretty easy to do.

[ursula]

You guys are great - fabulous ideas. Thanks a lot!

[SusanT]

I took a Spanish cooking class and got some great recipes. Here's one of my favorites -

Escalivada - Grilled Vegtable Tapas

8 thick slices peeled eggplant
2 cloves of garlic pressed
1 red onion sliced
2 tsp capers, rinsed
1 tbs olive oil
3 medium tomatoes sliced thick
1/2 cup roasted red peppers
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Heat the oven to 450. In a small bowl combine the olive oil and pressed garlic. Arrange the vegetable slices on a baking sheet and brush with the oil mixture. Roast for 10 to 15 mintes per side, being careful not to turn. Turn and brush the oil mixture and cook an additional 10 to 15 minutes.

Allow the vegetables to cool enough to handle and chop coarsely. Place in a serving bowl and add the capers, peppers, salt and pepper. Serve on lightly toasted bread slices.

[Salsera]

Gusto (The CL offshoot focuses on Latin cooking) did an article on tapas in their first issue. I had a tapas party based on those recipes. I served wedges of tortilla espanola (my all-time favorite), roasted vegetable canapes, a chickpea & roasted red pepper salad, and good Spanish olives. Of course we had it all with sangria! You should be able to locate the recipes somewhere, if not, let me know and I will post.