rivka

(cross-posted to

food_porn, with minor modifications)

The February issue of Food & Wine magazine focused on Spanish cooking. As soon as I saw the issue, I knew that when

therealjae visited me a few weeks later, we would have to make tapas.

Our menu:

Garlicky wild mushroom saute
Lamb meatballs with basil
Shrimp and clams in broth
Manchego cheese
Mixed olives
Rosemary sourdough bread

tapas dinner

We went a little crazy in the mushroom section at Whole Foods, and bought seven different kinds to make up the pound and a half we needed for the wild mushroom saute. I had never even heard of half these mushrooms. Here's a picture. Clockwise from the top, we have: enoki, portobello, hedgehog, oyster, blue foot, black trumpet, more portobello, and shiitake.

seven kinds of mushrooms

The blue foots were probably the most interesting mushrooms in the mix - they had a firm, meaty texture and a strong, slightly sharp flavor. The hedgehogs were the cutest, and added a nice touch of light color to what was otherwise a uniformly medium-to-dark brown dish.

Preparation was simple. We sauteed the mushrooms in a little extra virgin olive oil, removed them to a plate, sauteed several cloves of thinly sliced garlic and some crushed red pepper in a little more extra virgin olive oil, added a few tablespoons of sherry, let it boil for a minute, and poured the resulting sauce over the mushrooms. It was fabulous - the best dish on the table.

sauteeing the mushrooms

Next up: lamb meatballs. They were supposed to be seasoned with fresh mint, but Whole Foods was fresh out - so we used fresh basil instead. The meatballs themselves were very simple: ground lamb, egg, and bread crumbs, with a tablespoon or so of shredded basil. We browned them in even yet still more extra virgin olive oil, set them aside, and made a sauce from pureed cooked onion, crushed tomatoes, garlic, more fresh basil, beef broth, and white wine. (Pinot grigio.) This dish also turned out very, very well. The meatballs were mild and velvety, the perfect vehicle for the assertive, tangy sauce.

We steamed littleneck clams and medium-sized peeled shrimp very simply: in white wine, scallions, and half a hot red chile, diced. This was waaay tastier than it had any reason to be. The clam liquor, wine, and seasonings mingled to make the perfect broth for soaking piece after piece of crusty rosemary sourdough bread. The shrimp were okay - maybe a trifle overcooked - but the clams were perfectly luscious. Sadly, there are no close-ups of the cooking process. We were too hungry by then.

We rounded out this trio of cooked tapas with a large wedge of manchego cheese (of which I ate a full third before realizing that it was a raw milk cheese, which I shouldn't have been eating - oh well) and a generous pint of mixed olives - black and green, fresh and cured. And the bread. We wanted to make a fourth cooked tapa - it was going to be phyllo wrapped around gorgonzola cheese and leeks, and fried, with a sherry dipping sauce - but our eyes turned out to be bigger than our stomachs.

This was enough. More: this was perfect.