"spanish food" news and stories

Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:

• Ice cream worthy of hysteria.
• Go to Fez for your rehearsal dinner without leaving home.
• Continue celebrating Spain's World Cup win with these dishes.
• The steaks are high with Cachaça marinated hanger steak.
• Are tomatoes really necessary in guacamole?
• Is Kraft macaroni and cheese explosive?

Tortilla. Photo: formalfallcy @ Dublin (Victor)/Flickr

Like paella, tortilla española is a quintessential Spanish dish. Ubiquitous on tapas bar menus, the circular potato and onion omelet is also versatile. Add peppers (as above) or chorizo for color and texture, or follow the lead of Michael Fiorello, chef de cuisine at Chicago tapas bar Mercat a la Planxa, who loves tossing in jamón Ibérico or seasonal mushrooms.

While labor intensive, basic tortilla española (an original recipe is after the jump) is well worth the effort for its inimitable flavor and flexibility. Adapt this recipe to suit your own needs -- perhaps finish it on the stove top, perhaps in the oven, as done at Mercat a la Planxa. Fiorello agrees: "You can cook tortilla using many different techniques." No matter how you slice it, tortilla española is addictive. If you can wait this long -- and you ought not -- it will keep for a couple of days.

Recipe after the jump.

I was thinking yesterday that I don't spend nearly enough time featuring vegetarian and vegan foods. As an omnivore, I have to admit that I dig the images of big, meaty sandwiches and perfectly roasted chickens. But when I came across this photo of a veganized Tortilla de Patatas, it looked delicious and I liked the idea of altering a traditionally egg-based dish into one that appealed to the vegan folks in the crowd. Best of all, there's a link to the recipe here.

If you've got a dish you think deserves to be seen by the eyes of the Slashfood readers, head over, join our Flickr group and upload your pictures.

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Lately I've found myself in the mood for raw oysters. This extreme closeup that I found today over on Chez Pim has made me crave them even more. I can almost taste the briny juices from this beautiful, ultrafresh specimen. I don't know about you, but I take my oysters neat, so as to better savor the taste of the sea. Tabasco and lemon only mask the flavor. Chez Pim took this shot at Paco Meralgo, a tapas bar in the mecca of tapas bars, Barcelona. Pim heaps much praise on the tapas at Paco Meralgo, but points out that the real star is the incredibly fresh seafood, including razor clams and langoustines. I've always known that there's a lot more to tapas than jamon, cheese and olives, but this whole fresh seafood thing takes it to another level. Enough tapas talk, I'm off to the nearest raw bar.

[via Tastespotting]

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