I had some girlfriends coming over for dinner a couple of weekends ago… I love having people over for dinner so I can try cooking new things, and spend a day in my kitchen putting a meal together. Not everyone’s cup of tea, I know, but I love it.
I wanted to try a new type of cuisine for the girls. I’ve been wanting to try some Spanish cooking for ages, so what better opportunity?! Plus, after a few weeks of dreary winter weather (this was before the beautiful spring days we’ve been having in Wellington), I decided we need some colour. So Spain seemed a good choice on both counts.
I don’t know about you, but my cooking background has mainly been a good grounding in ‘kiwi’ home cooking (which I see as based on British cooking, but a bit lighter, with some Asian flavours and a few unique dishes thrown in). Like most New Zealanders, I cook some South East Asian food at home, as well as Indian, a little Middle Eastern, Moroccan, Mexican (probably Tex Mex admittedly), and French and Italian.
But I’ve never really cooked Spanish food at home. Spanish cuisine, especially tapas, has had a resurgence in restaurants over the last few years, but the food, other than the odd paella, hasn’t made it as far as my home dining table. Am I alone in this?
The thing that I loved about putting a tapas menu together was I could pick lots of little dishes, and prepare most of them in advance. And because they were all new – if one flopped, no problem! I could pretend it never existed! Plenty more food to go round!
This was the menu for the evening:
Spanish Tapas & Paella Party
- White Sangria -
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- Home Made Catalan Tomato Bread -
- Garlic Prawns & Potatoes -
- Pork & Almond Meatballs with Tomato Dipping Sauce -
- Beef & Spinach Empanadas -
- Catalan Spinach -
- Spanish Salad with Smokey Dressing -
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- Paella with Chicken and Chorizo -
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- Tarta de Santiago (St. James’ Cake) -
Clearly, we needed to start the night off with a few drinks. A white sangria was in order.
There are thousands of sangria recipes out there. It would appear that every Spanish family has their own, and I imagine it’s one of those things that nobody makes quite right except your family. Like pav. I based my Sangria recipe on several I found at www.spain-recipes.com. It was gorgeous – I especially loved the apple juice ice cubes. Can’t wait to try it again in summer using my favourite Central Otago stonefruit.
White Sangria
Apple juice, for ice cubes
1¼ cups water
1 bunch fresh mint
½ cup sugar
3 cinnamon sticks
3½ cups wine
1 pear, cut into chunks or slices
1 peach, pitted and sliced
2 nectarines, pitted and sliced
1 large orange, sliced crosswise
2 small lemons, sliced crosswise
1 lime, sliced crosswise
3 cups sparkling apple cider
The day before…
Pour the apple juice into two ice cube trays and freeze.
Combine the water, half the bunch of mint leaves, the sugar and cinnamon sticks in a small saucepan, and bring to a boil over a medium heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. Once the syrup is at room temperature, remove the mint leaves and cinnamon sticks and discard.
Pour the syrup into a large container – if you can fit your serving vessel (punch bowl or jug) in your fridge, then use that. I found it easier to use a big plastic container (needs to be able to hold 2-3 litres). Add the wine and prepared fruit. Mix well, cover and chill overnight. Get the apple cider in the fridge chilling, too.
Just before serving
Pour the syrup, wine and fruit mix into your punch bowl or serving jug(s), and mix in the (chilled) apple cider. Add your apple juice ice cubes and the remaining fresh mint leaves from yesterday. P.S., I like the way my fruit randomly arranged itself into a face on the side of the jug!
This mixture filled two big water jugs like this one – there’s a lot of fruit to fit in! For a starter drink at a dinner party, it serves about 8-10. I had some left over so I re-used the apple juice trick and froze sangria ice cubes. I think they’ll make a nice addition to a G&T. And I’m sure there’s a use for all that wine-soaked fruit once you’ve finished the sangria, if you’re into recycling.
By the way, this post has got me thinking about what other parts of the global food map are missing from my repertoire. I don’t really know any cooking from eastern Europe or Russia (except Beef Stroganoff and the less said about that, the better). And I don’t think I cook any South American food. I love making Moroccan dishes but that’s only a small part of the African continent… what other cuisines would you love to try cooking at home?
