Financial Mail and Business Day

Tapas is not a local thing but it should be

John Fraser

If you think of the great cuisines of the world, Chinese, Thai, French and Italian would probably spring first to mind. For me, though, it must be Spanish.

Often deceptively simple but using ingredients of quality, the Spanish table is very close to my heart. For my last meal, I would love a simple platter of Spanish hams and cheeses. (These folk also devour the testicles of the bull after a bullfight, but I shall save those for my incarceration in hell.)

On a recent trip to London, I paid a few visits to chef José Pizzaro’s newest restaurant at the Royal Academy, and as I grazed happily on tonnes of tapas, it was not difficult to see why he has so many restaurants these days, and is such a frequent guest on UK television cookery shows.

Spanish food is also easily found in Spain, but I have yet to find a top-quality Spanish restaurant in SA. I hope someone can prove me wrong.

Pizzaro has written a few cookbooks, with The Spanish Home Kitchen being his latest. It is a shame it hadn’t yet been published when I was in London, or I would have asked this very approachable and likeable chef for an autographed copy.

However, I now do have a copy, and it is excellent. Recipes that work and are worth the effort. There are also great pictures of Pizzaro and his family, and of the dishes.

Of course, there is room for some human error when you follow a recipe with a stirring spoon in one hand and a glass of red wine in the other. The tuna tortilla I prepared from a recipe found in this book was shaped more like an omelette. It helps to cook something in the rightsized pan. It tasted great, though.

Pizzaro’s books have joined those of another great Spanish cookbook writer Penelope Casas in my collection, as I enjoy my current Spanish gastronomic phase.

With Christmas approaching, it’s a good time to forage for Spanish fare in SA stores. Chorizo is to be found almost everywhere, (not always from Spain, though), you can find Serrano ham in a lot of places and the better branches of Woolworths often have Manchego cheese and Padron peppers.

Woolworths also often stocks filleted, silvery, yummy anchovies, and they are as good as anything I have eaten in Spain.

When it gets hot, and it can get hot even as we cower under the diktats of climate change, what better than a table of tapas for you and your guests?

On second thoughts, cancel the guests. All the more for the host to guzzle.

Why not upgrade the offering by including some dishes from Pizzaro? It seems to be the cherry season, and who would not give his Cherry Gazpacho a try? All ingredients can be easily found in SA.

When winter arrives, you will find me preparing Creamy Milk and Roast Garlic Soup, and hake is plentiful, so I must be brave enough to attempt the Hake Croquetas. The Rice and Clams intrigue me, but I do struggle to find proper, madein-Spain, Spanish rice here.

Of course, no cookbook is worth its salt (and pepper) unless it has an ample pudding section, and there are great ideas in Pizzaro’s new book.

Like the Spanish, we in SA are blessed with brilliant fruit, and lots fruit salad of“great is all about produce a great is now in season. Pizzaro tells us that syrup” and it is well worth trying his recipe, as featured in Macedonia de Frutas Tropicales. (I can provide a translation of this for a small fee).

I am confident that if you can’t get the mix of fruits he suggests, substitutions will not make a massive difference. So, why not get your five-a-day the Spanish way?

For me, a great cookbook has easy-to-follow recipes, impressive, well-styled pictures of what the grub will never look like when I try to cook it, and interesting ideas — something that isn’t too everyday. This book works on all these levels, but there is one extra benefit.

It is written by a chef who knows and loves his craft, who cooks incredibly well, and who wants to share his passion. And does.

Am I exaggerating? No way, José.

LIFE

en-za

2022-12-08T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-08T08:00:00.0000000Z

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