Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Tapas, Part 2

I have two more tapas to continue the story from The New Spanish Table that I started other day. I would have loved to try the bacalao hash, but I haven’t found salt cod locally and will have to place an order online. The tuna-stuffed tomatoes and scallops with pistachio vinaigrette both sounded great too, but they’ll have to wait until our next tapas party. This time, I was determined to stuff some piquillo peppers, and try the black olive, anchovy, and caper spread. I was certain I had purchased piquillo peppers at my usual location of Central Market before, but of course, when I needed them this time they weren’t there. I called around and found they did have the lovelies at the south location of Central Market, so they were mine in the end. In the book, piquillos are described as “the caviar of capsicums.” The roasted, flat-packed peppers are mostly sweet with a little earthiness, and their small size makes them perfect for stuffing just a bite or two.

The stuffed piquillo recipe in the book is found under the title veal-stuffed piquillo peppers. In the intro to that recipe, von Bremzen explains that the classic version usually involves a stuffing of seafood with bechamel sauce, and she suggests alternate ideas instead of veal. I went the seafood route and made a shrimp stuffing. I chopped some shrimp, sauteed them in olive oil with a little chopped garlic, and then added a bechamel. Once cool, that mixture was stuffed into the piquillos, and the peppers were chilled in the refrigerator to set. Meanwhile, a sauce was made by sauteing finely chopped onion and garlic in olive oil, and to that, chopped piquillos and grated tomato were added. I’d never grated a tomato before, but you simply cut it in half, grate it on a box grater, and discard the skin. After the sauce with the tomato added had reduced, sweet and hot paprika and white wine were added. Last, a little cream enriched the sauce. Some of this sauce went into the bottom of a baking dish, the stuffed peppers were placed on top, and the remaining sauce was poured over the peppers. I should explain, an optional step in this recipe is to bread and fry the stuffed piquillos just before placing them in the baking dish with the sauce. I skipped that option and baked the naked, stuffed peppers in the sauce until warm. These little guys were delightful with chunks of shrimp in the smooth bechamel and the paprika and cream in the sauce. This was a plate and fork kind of tapa, and it was hands-down our favorite if we had to pick only one.

The olive spread was next. I already have a favorite black olive tapenade, but I wanted to try this one just to see how it compared. I was intrigued by the use of anchovy and a hard-cooked egg yolk here. The entire mixture included black olives, anchovies, capers, garlic, one cooked egg yolk, rum, yes rum, mustard, and olive oil. This was a rich and flavorful olive spread and the anchovies and rum gave it spunk. I like a good bit of parsley in an olive spread, so I sprinkled some on top. I already declared the stuffed piquillos our favorite item of the night, but there were no disappointments here. I’ll be making all of these again, and from now on whether I’m making this olive spread or my old stand-by, it will have some rum in it.




27 comments:

  1. Wow this is bringing our long weekend in Bilbao all back to me! Husband would go crazy for those stuffed peppers! And beautiful tapenade. Ooh Lisa, I must follow you to the Tapas!

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  2. Oh, I'm drooling... Everything looks so appetizing and good!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  3. Beautiful tapas in both part 1 & 2! The stuffed peppers sound especially delicious!

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  4. Your piquillos rellenos look scrumptious, well done! I recently saw a very good option in a Spanish blog, piquillos stuffed with pureed Spanish tortilla... that must be the top!

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  5. Everything looks delicious. I think the olive spread would be my favorite. I've got to try that recipe!

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  6. Mmm, bacalao is one of my favorite things. I had it raw (reconstituted, though) with olive oil and garlic in Barcelona. Sharon didn't like it in that form much, though. I'm surprised you haven't found it there, though. The HEB at Parmer and McNeil sold it in wooden boxes usually near the refrigerated crab and such. Why they refrigerated it I don't know, I thought the salt took care of that? But then, I used to be freaked out that the grocery stores here shelved the eggs next to the bread.

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  7. Lisa, the tapas looks delicious, so is the olive spread.

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  8. those are the fanciest stuffed peppers i’ve ever seen, and the olive spread, while not appealing to my freakishly olive-hating self, looks lovely too!

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  9. This all looks so good, I love tapas, I'll never forget the wonderful food hubby and i had in barcelona.

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  10. I love stuffed piquillos. My only problem with them is trying to prevent the stuffing from going all over whatever I'm wearing!

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  11. Wish we had a good tapas place around here! So I don't have to make them, LOL, but your stuffed peppers look divine...actually everything you make my dear looks great, especially the caramel I just saw below!

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  12. part 2 is much more interesting!! love the idea!!
    cheers!!

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  13. You are doing great with this book, everything looks delicious.

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  14. I like the olive spread. Now I feel like throwing a tapas party for the heck of it.

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  15. Rum in the tapenade? Oooh, I bet that was divine. But then, rum improves just about everything. ;)

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  16. What an interesting olive tapenade recipe. I'd love to try it!

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  17. I haven't really tried tapenade... nice photos..

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  18. The peppers sound so delicious with the shrimp filling! And what a unique tapenade recipe with rum in it - my mind would never go there on its own!

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  19. Gorgeous. I need this book. Please tell my husband!

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  20. Are these just going to get better and better as we go along?? I love the combination of red pepper and shrimp combo- but am not crazy for anchovies- although often you really can't taste them. Maybe the rum covers the flavor? ;)

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  21. Believe me or not, I have just bought some bacalao from the fish monger the other day, it looks like croquette, just have to fry them. I love all tapas, your part I and II are both exciting!

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  22. Gorgeous dishes! I would love to try the stuffed peppers!

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  23. I haven't tasted the other tapas but i"m guessing the seafood piquillo peppers would be my favorite too.

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  24. That looks so very intriguing. Love the purplish color.

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  25. Tapas are so fun and these look yummy! I need to check out this cookbook!

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  26. Holy cow, this looks so good I love piquillo peppers and homemade tapenade. I so love tapas, my favorite nibble food. You've inspired me with all sorts of ideas.

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  27. I have a jar of piquillo peppers and now I know what to do with them! (I suppose I shouldn't buy items without having a plan of action first). I've heard so much about Central Market - it sounds like a gourmand's dream. I hope you'll have another tapas party soon so we can see the bacaloa hash and tuna-stuffed tomatoes!

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