Spanish Night

"I want a Spanish themed evening," declared Mike over breakfast "I want to watch my new movie (The Spanish Musketeer if you're interested) with Spanish food and wine." I was speechless! I normally struggle to get them interested in food planning "Anything in particular?" I asked keen not to let the moment pass. "No not really, Keith Floyd perhaps?" So that was it, the challenge had been laid down and I got out all of my Spanish cookbooks, which only amounts to three, Spain on a Plate by Maria Jose Sevilla, Keith Floyd on Spain and Colman Andrews' Catalan Cuisine.

I finally settled on Catalan Cuisine as I know that I have had this book for over twenty years and never cooked from it. Today was going to be it's day to get off that bookshelf! I know it may sound rather pathetic but I find it hard to chose a recipe when there are no pictures in the book to help me out and this book has no pictures at all.

I finally chose Chicken and Prawn Ragu from Page 226. It seemed to be very authentic, although I am no expert at all, and I was intrigued by the way the dish was put together. The chicken pieces are sautéed and removed from the pan, then the prawns were given the same treatment before I had to make a sofregit (which is used as the basis for many Catalan recipes and in this case was onions and tomatoes gently fried into a mush). the chicken was added to the base and simmered for a while before I added Pernod and wine, simmered for some more before the prawns were added. I then had to make a picada (which is a Catalan roux) and this was made of almonds, parsley, fried bread and almonds. This was tricky to make as he recommends that you make it with a pestle and mortar. I made the mistake of putting the chocolate in before grinding up the almonds and bread and it took me ages! This was added 10 minutes before the end of cooking time to thicken the sauce. 

I served it up with cubed potatoes roasted in Olive Oil and Rosemary in the oven and Mike had sourced a bottle of Spanish wine. We sat and switched on the TV to watch the film in the kitchen. "Well," I asked "What do you think?" There was a pause as I held my breath for the verdict. "It looks spectacular," he replied " and tastes better. It is such a change to be served up Spanish food that doesn't have chorizo in it. I love it ... now be quiet I'm watching my film!" Nothing makes me more contented than a family enjoying my food, and I smiled away as they watched their film and ate everything on the plate. It's taken me twenty years to use this book ... what have I been missing? So far so very very good!