A Spanish table, start to finish
The Spanish section of the library is one of the deepest, with 48 recipes, and these eight fit together as a meal: small plates first, then the tortilla and the rice, then something to set with a spoon. The notes flag the one step in each recipe that people skip and should not.
Padron peppers
1 of 8
Two ingredients: olive oil and the peppers. Five minutes in a hot pan until blistered, then flaky salt. About one in ten is hot, which is the whole game.
Gambas al ajillo
2 of 8
Prawns cooked in garlic oil with cayenne and parsley, ideally in a terracotta dish that comes to the table still spitting. Peel the prawns but leave the tails on.
Spanish Tortilla
3 of 8
Onion cooked slowly in oil and butter for fifteen minutes, potatoes for fifteen to twenty more, then the eggs. The slow start is the recipe; a hurried onion makes a flat tortilla.
Jamon & wild garlic croquetas
4 of 8
A thick bechamel with manchego, jamon iberico and wilted wild garlic, chilled, rolled, breaded and fried. The chilling step is what lets them hold their shape.
Paella
5 of 8
The prawn heads are sizzled and mashed into the stock first, which is where the flavour comes from. Chorizo, squid, mussels, broad beans and saffron follow. Do not stir the rice once it is in.
Seafood fideuà
6 of 8
Paella's cousin made with short vermicelli instead of rice: monkfish, prawns, mussels and squid in a saffron and paprika stock. Check every mussel closes before it goes in.
Migas
7 of 8
Day-old bread dampened and rested, then fried with garlic and pork until the crumbs turn crisp. A shepherd's dish that works as a side to the seafood.
Crema Catalana
8 of 8
Milk and cream infused with cinnamon and citrus zest, set with egg yolks and cornflour, and finished under a torch or a hot grill. The infusing step is where the flavour lives.