Spanish Night In - Tapas

My girlfriends showed up for our girls' night in. One veggie, one pregnant. I wasn't ready... I thought I was, but not quite. Kids' social lives...


I'd spent most of my day off preparing - shopping, cooking, grinding, but still somehow managed to coerce them into chopping onions, washing mushrooms, pouring the wine, whilst I read the kids a bedtime story.

Still, in the end, it was worth it! José Pizarro's Seasonal Spanish Food, back in action:

During the day, I first made the lemon cheesecake I've made before.


Then the mojo de cilantro, a salty coriander dip - intense but addictive! You have to get Pizarro's book for this, it's just amazing.

Mojo de Cilantro

A tortilla - onion and potato, it took a bit longer than I expected, to make sure all the potatoes were cooked, but it was well worth the effort.

Tortilla

At this point I had to stop to get the kids from school, ballet lesson, school open day... so it was half an hour to go when I started the rest:


The Stuffed Peppers from Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals. Good flavour but slightly dried out - perhaps I left it under the grill for too long.

Stuffed Peppers

Catalan Spinach - usually just with spinach, but Sainsbury's didn't have any, so I got a bag of mixed spinach, rocket and watercress. Sorry José!

Catalan Spinach

Fried mushrooms, with shallots and thyme, again from Pizarro's book, without the bread part. (bit of a blurry photo here, I don't know how much Cava has gone down at this stage).

Fried Mushrooms with thyme

Chorizo with cider, again from Seasonal Spanish food. I felt sorry for my veggie friend with this one, as it was so good! Full of flavour and I so love that chorizo taste.

Chorizo with Cider

And that cheesecake. Lemony! The last two slices I took into work, and they were eaten with mucho gusto!

Lemon cheesecake.

Much praise all around for my efforts, despite my guests having to chop their own onions!

They even took a doggy bag home, a slice of tortilla, some mojo and a piece of cheesecake for my veggie friend, and tortilla and chorizo for the dad-to-be.


Photographs taken by the only sober person! (Not me...)