tapas and paella class at the cookery school manchester
Paella & Tapas Class & Meal
Our cookery classes are as much about learning to cook as they are a sociable experience. We hope you enjoyed your evening and are ready to recreate the meals at home. The recipes work really well as delicious dinners and make a great combination for dinner party ideas.
We Cooked:
- Seafood Paella;
- Spanish Meatballs;
- Tortilla;
- Morcilla, Quail Egg (hen egg) & Pepper Pinchos;
Seafood Paella
Ingredients:
- – 80ml olive oil (80 ml)
- – 1 large onion finely diced
- – 2 garlic cloves minced
- – 2 medium tomatoes peeled and diced
- – 5 teaspoons sweet paprika Spanish pimentón de la Vera is the best if you can get it.
- – 1 pinch of saffron threads
- – 2 large squid cleaned and sliced into 1/4-inch rings, tentacles left whole (not used in this dish)
- – 380g rice (380 g) see notes
- – 240ml white wine (240 ml)
- – 720ml of seafood stock (720 ml)
- – 12 prawns or jumbo shrimp, shells on if possible for extra flavor
- – 12 mussels
Method:
- In a large saucepan over high heat, bring the white wine and seafood stock to a simmer. Add a pinch of saffron threads and keep warm.
- Meanwhile, put a large (16-inch) paella pan (see notes) over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. When hot, add the onion to the pan and sauté until translucent, stirring often.
- Add the garlic and cook until aromatic (about 1-2 minutes). Before it starts to brown, add the tomato and stir, adding in the paprika and a pinch of salt. Continue to stir and saute until the tomatoes are reduced and the oil is sizzling.
- Gently add the squid to the pan and stir to coat in the tomato mixture. Sauté for about a minute, to give some colour to the squid.
- Next, add the rice and stir to combine. After a minute of sautéing, spread the rice evenly across the pan (don’t worry if it looks like a thin layer, it will puff up).
- Gently add the simmering white wine and stock to the pan, all in one go. Reduce the heat to low, and cook, without stirring, for 10 minutes. Carefully lay the prawns/shrimp in a circle on top of the rice and cook for a further 10 minutes, turning the shrimp over as they start to turn pink. If the rice starts to dry out before the shrimp is cooked, you can top it up with a bit more hot stock, half a cup at a time.
- Meanwhile, steam the mussels by putting them in a large skillet with a tight-fitting lid in half an inch of water. When the shells open, they are cooked! (Discard any that do not open).
- When the stock in the paella pan fully evaporates, you will hear a faint cracking from the bottom of the pan as the socarrat starts to form. If you don’t hear anything, you can raise the heat to medium for a short burst!
- When the rice is ready, remove the pan from the heat and arrange the mussels on top of the rice. Serve from the pan, with wedges of fresh lemon.
Spanish Meatballs
Ingredients – Serves 4:
- – 450 g ground meat a mixture of beef and pork
- – 2 garlic cloves
- – 1 egg
- – 2 ½ tablespoons dried breadcrumbs
- – 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- – ¾ teaspoon sweet paprika
- – ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- – ¼ teaspoon hot paprika
- – 1 teaspoon salt
- – ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- – 1 tablespoon olive oil
- – Tomato sauce:
- – 1 medium onion
- – 2 tablespoons olive oil
- – 3 garlic cloves
- – 2 cans chopped tomatoes each weighing 400 g/ 14 oz
- – ½ teaspoon fennel seeds
- – 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- – 2 bay leaves
- – ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- – 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
- – salt and pepper
Method:
Meatballs:
- Place the ground meat, grated garlic cloves, lightly beaten egg, dried breadcrumbs, parsley, sweet, smoked, hot paprika, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Mix well with your hand. Form between 30 and 35 small meatballs, about the size of a walnut.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet. Fry the meatballs (in two batches if necessary) until brown on all sides. This will take about 5 minutes. Take the meatballs out of the pan and set them aside.
Tomato sauce:
- Chop the onion very finely.
- Sauté: Heat the 2 tablespoons olive oil in the same skillet. Add the onion and cook it until translucent. Add the finely chopped garlic cloves and stir for another minute.
- Simmer: Add the tomatoes from the can, fennel seeds, oregano, bay leaves, cayenne pepper, and chopped parsley. Add some salt and pepper as well. Stir well and bring to a boil. Simmer on medium-low heat for 20 minutes or until slightly thickened.
- Add the meatballs to the pan and heat them in the sauce for about 5 minutes or cooked through.
- Serve as suggested above.
Morcilla, Quail Eggs (hen egg) & Pepper Pinchos
Ingredients – Serves 4:
- – 1 whole morcilla de burgos
- – 8 fresh quail eggs or hen eggs
- – 200g tinned piquillo peppers, sliced into thin strips
- – 1 garlic clove, peeled and finely sliced
- – 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
- – 1 tsp caster sugar
- – Sea salt
Method:
- In a medium size frying pan, gently warm the olive oil and add the garlic slices, cook gently for 1 minute or until lightly brown. Remove from the oil, add the piquillo peppers and slowly cook for five minutes. Sprinkle a pinch of sugar, season with sea salt and return the garlic, cook for a further 10 minutes on low heat and set aside.
- To cook the morcilla, cut the sausage into 1-inch thick pieces and fry in a hot frying pan for 3 minutes on each side. Drain on some kitchen towels.
- For the quail eggs, gently crack each egg using the edge of a knife. Drop each egg in a small ramekin or cup and gently slide it into the hot oil. Cook four eggs at a time until they firm up, 1 to 1.5 minutes. Larger eggs may take a little longer.
- On a warm plate, spoon the warm piquillo peppers, place a piece of the morcilla sausage and top with a crispy fried quail egg before serving.
Spanish tortilla
Ingredients Serves 4
- 2 large potatoes
- 1 Spanish onion
- 8 eggs
- Seasoning
- 400 ml olive oil
- Peel the potatoes, slice them as thinly as possible, ideally using a mandolin.
Method:
- Slice the onion as well.
- Pour the oil into a deeper saucepan, place over a low heat. Place the onion into the cold oil, wait until it starts to sizzle and add the sliced potatoes.
- Cook for about 15 minutes or until golden and cooked through.
- Beat the eggs in a bowl, season well.
- Strain onion and potatoes, add into your egg mix while still hot, mix through.
- Leave on a side for 10 minutes to infuse and develop the flavours.
- Place a non-stick pan on medium heat, add tbsp of olive oil. Add potato-onion-egg mixture.
- After 2 minutes or so, you will be able to release the tortilla from the sides of the pan, using a spatula. At this point, cover the pan with a larger plate and flip it over. Slide the tortilla back into the pan, to cook on the other side. Cook for another 3 minutes.
- This will give you a tortilla which is still runny and soft in the middle…
Padron Peppers – Chef demo
Ingredients – Serves 4:
- – 300 grams of Padron peppers about 2 cups
- – 50 ml extra virgin olive oil (1/4 cup)
- – Flaky sea salt
Method:
- Rinse and dry the peppers.
- Heat the olive oil in a pan at high heat until it is very hot (but not yet smoking).
- Add the peppers and cook, tossing occasionally, until the skin starts to blister and soften. Don’t let them burn, but do leave them enough time to completely soften.
- Remove the peppers and place them on a plate.
- Sprinkle generously with sea salt and enjoy!
We hope you enjoyed the class!
We really hope you enjoyed your class at Food Sorcery. If you have any questions for chef get in touch lovetocook@foodsorcery.co.uk
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