Tapas Off

The most recent in a line-up of offs, (See Pie off, and Curry off) The Tapas Off was a roaring success, I think we have mastered the little bites of food and often for offs rather than large meals.

With 7 of us taking part there were many tasty morsels to be had, Starting with a Mezze plate (or is that more Turkish?) Slivers of melt in your mouth prosciutto, a crumbly mature Cheddar, olives, crusty bread, and Andrew had pickled Sardines which came out fantastic and octopus with not so much success!


L&T made stuffed mushrooms, My mum says "Life is too short to stuff mushrooms" Even if it takes a while theses were delish!


Andrew deep fried white bait, white bait are tasty but the tiny bones were a bit disconcerting, best when straight out of the hot oil.

The Boy made Empanadas, he even made the dough (pastry?) they actually turned out a little like Cornish pasties. very tasty.

Oh dear these were Bad. Andrew bought a Tapas book and this looked so strange we said he had to make them, Not sure what they were called but I believe the combination of dates, brandy, chili, and blue cheese wrapped in prosciutto, should never be touched again. disgusting.

Prawns wrapped in prosciutto a much better plan!

The Boy made Spicy meatballs cooked in a sofrito sauce. The meatballs had a hidden cheesy gooey centre. The boy did a practice run with these and did half with cheese and half without. once cooked you couldn't tell which were which and after my 4 for tea I had all non-cheese filled. For lunch and other 4 non-cheese filled. finally for lunch on day 2 I found a cheese filled one! delish. on the night they were all stuffed with cheese to avoid disappointment.

L&T cooked spicy chicken wings with a yogurt and turmeric oil dip (please correct me if I got that wrong) we all made a mess as we ate them. Really good.

L&T had slow roasted the Pork Belly on a bed of fennel at home and just warmed it up on the night, this was melt in the mouth succulent and juicy. I'm not usually a fan of pork belly because of how fatty it is, but the slow roasting had broken down the fat and just left beautiful meat.

Chris cooked up whole spicy paprika prawns, I believe there was a lot of butter involved in the cooking, really tasty prawn meat just waiting to pop out of their shells, I'm sure when I was up in Darwin someone showed me a trick to getting prawns out of the shell it was so easy and fast and simple and then i had a few more beers and now I can't remember it at all. Another messy dish!

Ah! my dish was a combination of 2 recipes. I was aiming for a frozen vodka gazpacho! I combined a frozen vodka tomato soup recipe and a gazpacho recipe and ended up with a savoury slushy that was really weird. A complete flop and not the palate cleanser I was aiming for!

Finally Karen russeled up a HUGE Paella, the special paella pan creates a crunch crust on the bottom as it cooks, I'd never seen paella made before, the main ingredients are sauted off in the pan and then the rice and stock are simmered together in the pan until the rice has absorbed all the stock. There are many rules about stiring to create the perfect cruncy bottom. Karens version was great but it was small portions all round as we had eaten quite a lot already!

Thanks guys for a fantastic evening, what shall the next off be?