Barbeque Buttered Mushrooms

BBQ Mushrooms

This recipe for barbequed mushrooms was actually a complete experiment one afternoon when we decided to barbeque. Some Spanish neighbours turned up out of the blue so we decided to create some quick and easy starters and side dishes to accompany escalivada and stuffed peppers.

You will need: (4 Tapas)

500g White mushrooms, quartered (mixed mushrooms also work)

75g Butter

Cracked black peppercorns

Salt

Method:

1. Clean the mushrooms under the tap and cut the base from the stalk, you don’t need to remove the stalk completely. Cut the mushrooms into quarters.

2. Tear off a sheet of kitchen foil about eighteen inches in length.

3. Pile the mushrooms in a line the length of the foil leaving a few inched spare at each end so the foil can be folded.

4. Place a small knob of butter every few inches on top of the mushrooms.

5. Fold the ends of the foil and wrap the mushrooms into a parcel making sure there no gaps in the foil.

6. Barbeque for 5 minutes, turn and barbeque for a further 5 minutes.

7. Remove from the grill and carefully remove the foil parcel. Serve mushrooms as a side dish or tapas drizzling over the remaining melted butter.

Tip: Can also be cooked with finely chopped garlic cloves for barbeque garlic mushrooms.

Summer Tapas

Iberian ham, marinated olives, chorizo & Morcon

Spanish tapas for the summer, what better time to indulge in some of Spain's finest cured meats. There are two combinations that spring to mind when thinking of summer tapas namely orange with extra virgin olive oil and strawberries with an aged sherry vinegar - don't believe us? Try it! Strange as it may sound these two pairings do work, in fact they work very well. We first tried orange and olive oil when visiting an organic olive oil business in near Jaen a few years ago and it remains a firm favourite, the sherry and strawberries idea came from some publicity produced by 'Capirete' here in Spain but it was not until a local Spanish chef mentioned the idea that we tried it, again now a firm favourite when those big home grown strawberries become available from the local greengrocer.

One thing about Spanish flavours are that they are usually very simple, after all, simple does work. That is not to say that there is anything boring about Spanish food, quite the opposite in fact as the Spanish, for generations have known how to cook with flavour in mind, especially with tapas.

This summer we have introduced 4 simple tapas lines with an Iberian ham twist, a handful of tapas selections put together with flavour in mind - sort of the building blocks to a classy tapas lunch leaving you to to decide on the fruits and red wines (or indeed Fino) of your choice.

Find out more...

Iberian Tenderloin Salad

Iberian lomo or 'lomito'

 If you like Iberico ham then try Iberico lomo tenderloin, a cut of premium pork loin from the acorn fed Iberian hogs. Lomo or “lomito” has an exquisite nutty flavour and is every bit as exclusive as its cousin the bellota ham. Recipes for cured lomo are few and far between but as tapas and used in salads you can create some real Spanish flavour.

You will need: (serves 2-3)

100g Lomo/lomito Iberian tenderloin

1 Large vine tomato

6 Vine cherry tomatoes

Mixed salad leaves

Mixed dried herbs

Extra virgin olive oil

Method:

1. Arrange the mixed salad leaves on a plate.

2. Using a sharp knife (ham carving knife is ideal) carefully slice the tenderloin as thinly as possible.

3. Place the lomo slices over the salad leaves.

4. Quarter the vine tomatoes and halve the cherry tomatoes, arrange over the salad.

5. Drizzle generously with good extra virgin olive oil.

6. Sprinkle mixed herbs over the tomatoes and serve.

MyCityCuisine.org, a Wiki project dedicated to helping answer the question 'What Should I Order?', is currently looking for contributors!! The project's goal is to help travelers discover local foods from all over the world. Food is an integral part of the local culture so naturally tasting local food is high on most traveler's to-do list. However until now there has been no single comprehensive source for this information. The MyCityCuisine project aims to fill this void.

You can contribute to this project in the following ways:

• Write a new dish description
• Expand an existing dish description
• Correct mistakes in an existing dish description
• Suggest a new dish to be included
• Upload a new dish photo

This site is for those interested in tasting local food, not for someone looking to cook it at home, so recipes aren't required. Visit MyCityCuisine.org to add a dish from your city!!

A Taste of Spain

Spanish sausages, cured hams, hospitality...you just have to love a taste of Spain for its products, relaxed approach and the fact that people just get on with life  - there is no rat race.

Back in November 2010 we were invited to a local Spanish curing house to sample some delights and take a look around inside the workings of the business, finally this year we made it. Already knowing how good the hams and embutidos were we decided to pop along and see how things worked - back stage.

To discover more about the visit to this unique curing house visit our News & Events page here.