Éamonn's Spanish Experience!
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
Two weeks ago, we packed up some of our favourite contributors and jetted them off to Malaga in sunny Spain! Armed with Éamonn's passion for food, we scoured the biggest market Malaga has to offer! After Éamonn encountered all this smashing produce, he was privileged to learn the time honoured way of making Paella from two Spanish ladies in the know! He'll be cooking up this Spanish inspiration on the show today!
GARLIC SOUP WITH GRAPES (ORIGINAL GAZPACHO)
Ingredients
. 180g of bread, preferably stale
. 250g of raw skinned almonds
. 3 cloves of garlic
. 1 litre of ice-cold water
. 500g of grapes (Muscatel), seeded and cut in half
. 1 tablespoon of sherry vinegar
. Olive oil
. Pinch of salt
Method
Rub or chop the bread in breadcrumbs -a nice touch is then to toast these before proceeding with the recipe. Place the toasted breadcrumbs, garlic, almonds and salt together in a blender and pulse these until a paste begins to form adding in the olive oil, a little at a time. Then add the vinegar and transfer to a bowl.
Add in the litre of water and the grapes. Toss in some crushed ice if desired. Leave it in the bowl in the fridge for about 30 minutes before serving.
PAELLA
Ingredients
. 6 cloves of garlic
. 2 green peppers
. Saffron
. Saffron powder (or mild paprika)
. Grilled or roasted red peppers, cut into strips
. Spanish paella rice
. 400g squid, cut into pieces
. 500 grams of shrimp or other shellfish
. 1 dozen large prawns
. 1 litre fish stock
. 1 kilo of clams or other shellfish
. 2 dozen mussels, cooked and on the half shell
. 250g of peas, shelled (or tinned petits pois)
. Olive oil
. Salt
. Glass of white wine
. Little tomato puree
. 6 lemons
Method
Begin by cooking the mussels in a little water or wine -allow to cool and strain and reserve the liquid.
Peel and crush the garlic; De-seed the green pepper and dice finely.
In a paella pan saute the garlic in some olive oil and stir constantly. After two minutes, add the green pepper and allow this to cook for 5 minutes. Keep stirring and do not allow the garlic to burn.
Next, add the clams and allow to open. These will release their juices adding to the flavour. Then add the saffron and stir in followed by a small pinch of saffron powder, to colour. Allow to cook for another minute and add all the peas.
When this has been done, add the rice, 1 cup per person and stir in together with the shrimp. Stir constantly and add no more than a teaspoon of tomato puree. Continue to stir the rice for a few minutes, adding fish stock a little at a time. Allow to settle in the pan,then reduce the heat.
Allow this to continue to cook over a low heat adding more fish stock if necessary for around another 8 to ten minutes or until the rice is 'just so'. In the meantime garnish on top with the whole prawns and strips of red pepper.
Serve immediately (after leaving to rest for 5 minutes) and garnish with wedges of lemon.
For more information on where the Afternoon Show filmed, plus many other attractions visit www.spain.info