In any event, tomorrow is our one year wedding anniversary. Of course, we have lovely dinner reservations to celebrate the day, but of course, I had to show my love to my husband by cooking him something special. I took him back to Spain for the evening.
After setting the mood with my "Salsa Fever" station on Pandora, I whipped up some of our favorite tapas: tortilla española, gambas al ajillo, y pan con tomate. (For those who cannot speak some Spanish, that is Spanish tortilla, shrimp in garlic and oil, and bread with tomato.)
Thanks to our Eat This, Not That cookbook, I had a super simple recipe for the tortilla.
Tortilla Española (from Eat This, Not That)
(Makes six servings)
Ingredients:
-3 yukon gold potatoes, chopped into small cubes (I did not peel)
-1 sweet onion, diced
-1 tablespoon olive oil
-8 eggs, beaten
How:
-Put the potatoes in a saute pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, and boil for about ten minutes.
-Preheat the broiler, if necessary.
-Add onion and olive oil. (FULL DISCLOSURE: I never measure olive oil, I just dump it in and pretend like I measured it.) Cook til the onion starts to brown, maybe another 10 minutes. (Heat is set about medium here.)
-Add the beaten eggs, cover. Cook for about ten minutes, or until the eggs are just about set.
-Put the pan in the broiler to brown up the top. I started with the broiler on low, but found that I needed to crank it to high to get it to brown. I would say four minutes on the high setting would get that nice brown crust.
-Once the top is nice and brown, pull out and let set for a few minutes.
-Flip the tortilla out of the pan and cut into wedges.
Gambas al ajillo (I used this recipe.)
(This serves two.)
Ingredients:
-Half pound medium shrimp
-One tablespoon olive oil
-One clove of garlic, sliced thin
-Dash of red pepper flakes
-Splash of cava
How:
-Heat the oil with the pepper and the garlic until the garlic starts to brown.
-Add the shrimp and cook for about a minute, when it starts turning pink.
-Toss some cava in there. (Also, drink some. Seriously. It's delicious.)
-Cook for another minute or so.
-Toss a little sea salt on there.
Pan con tomate (I figured this one out on my own.)
(Serves two.)
Ingredients:
-One third of a baguette (I used the remainder of a two-day old one from Trader Joe's, but fresh is best.)
-One medium tomato
-Tablespoon of olive oil (again, I just kinda eyeball this.)
-Salt
How:
-Chop the tomato into chunks.
-Add tomato chunks, olive oil, and salt to food processor or blender. Process til well-blended.
-Taste and add more salt.
-Cut baguette length-wise. Toast (or broil, which is what I did since I had the broiler already on.)
-Spread the baguette with the tomato mix.
The result?
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| A super simple dinner for anyone who loves a good tapa. Seriously. |
P.I.C. was happy. I am happy. We drank a bottle of cava. I'd say our anniversary celebration is off rather splendidly.
