I recently had the pleasure of meeting Rodrigo de la Calle, a young Michelin-starred chef, as part of a project he has been working on for our Viña Mayor wine range. Not only is he a thoroughly top bloke, he is a very passionate chef, spearheading a movement he calls “gastrobotanica” reviving rare varieties of … Continue reading
Empanadillas are little pastries that are found all over Spain (originally from Galicia) and Latin America. One of the most common fillings is tuna, egg and tomato. I´m often disappointed by them in bars as the filling can be bland and stodgy with too much gloopy tomato sauce – I experimented at home to make … Continue reading
Navaja means blade or razor and like the English razor clam, it refers to that most phallic of sand dwelling creatures. My local fish stall was selling them at a special price today so I thought I´d give them a go. They weren´t exactly cheap but 14€ for a kilo of super fresh clams seemed … Continue reading
The Spanish word for olive, aceituna, comes, like many of my favourite Spanish words, from Arabic. Az-Zait, which means the juice of the olive, gave Spanish the word aceite, which now refers to any type of oil, but in Spain, usually olive, used liberally in both sweet and savoury dishes. Aceitunas, or olives themselves, are … Continue reading
Lentils with chorizo Comida de cuchara, or “spoon food” is a collective term for the type of dishes that can literally been eaten with a spoon. Usually eaten as the first course at lunch time, they are based around vegetables, pulses or carbs, frequently with ham or chorizo or other fatty meats used for flavour … Continue reading
My parents visited us recently, and as it was their first time in Madrid, I took it upon myself to take them on a culinary journey from the most traditional to the vanguard of Spanish cuisine. As it seemed to be a roaring success (apart from the fact that they gained several pounds and suffered … Continue reading
Does it make me sound greedy to say I moved to Spain almost entirely for the food and drink? A year spent living in the Ribera del Ebro, an area in Navarra and La Rioja known for the quality of its fruit and vegetables, infected me with a passion for Spanish cuisine that nagged like … Continue reading
Spain is delicious 