What kinds of Spanish food should we make?

Question

My partner and I have a presentation, and we need to make a Spanish meal. This meal will consist of a Spanish dinner course, Spanish dessert, Spanish drink, and Spanish appetizer! Please help us with what we should make for each category and where we can get those recipes! It would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!

Answer 1

Your Spanish dinner menu:
Dinner: Paella (saffron rice with mixed seafood and sometimes chicken and chorizo (spicy sausage))
Dessert: Flan (if you want something quick, you can even get mixes for it)
Drink: Granizado de limon (make a very tart (vs. sweet) lemonade and serve over chipped or crushed ice)
Appetizer: Sauted whole fresh mushrooms in garlic and wine, served with a crusty bread

Good Luck! Sounds like a yummy time!!

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Paella is a classic dish, but if you have never made it before, it is very easy to get wrong. Don't forget the influences of Spanish food, from Morroco they got great herbs and spices and from the Mediterranean great fish, especially fresh anchovies and cod; and from the interior great meats.

For appetizers, serve an aged Manchego cheese and Idiazabel cheese along with some excellent, thinly sliced Spanish jamon (better than proscuitto) add some Spanish olives and almonds for variety (almonds are huge in Spain). If you are an experienced cook you could also serve some croquettas for an appetizer.

The best, traditional thing to make would be either a seasoned lamb roast (no mint jelly, but lots of onion, garlic, oregano rubed onto the roast and then drizzle it with Spanish olive oil).

Serve it with Spanish (NOT the US idea of what Spanish rice is, but a true yellow, saffron herbed rice).

For dessert, natilla is my favorite dessert (an egg yolk, milk, vanilla and lemon custard served with an optional coating of carmelized sugar). But, if you want to save yourself some time, buy several ready made flavors of Spanish turon (just search for "Spanish turon" online for retailers).

For drinks, go for a great Spanish Rioja wine (don't do the stereotypical sangria, its been over done) and for dessert serve a great sweet sherry (known as jerez in Spain).

After the wine and dessert, end with a good strong expresso in demitasse cups. No lemon or milk are ever served with it, only sugar.

There are many "Spanish food" cookbooks available, for online recipes go to foodnetwork.com and/or epicurious.com. If you go to a library, look for a Spanish cookbook and search for a lamb recipe with lots of garlic and spices that you like. For the rice, search in the same book but be sure to pick a recipe that uses real saffron, not turmeric or other spices. NOTE - if any of the recipes in a "Spanish" cookbook call for hot peppers - toss that book out - no Spanish cuisine uses hot peppers. A great way to test whether the book has authenticly Spanish recipes is to check its "Spanish omelet" recipe. If the recipe has only eggs, onions, and potatoes in it - that's a real Spanish cookbook.

Answer 4

Well, we were recently in a dinner/show in Barcelona, and our appetizer was either salad (with shrimps) or small toast with jamon Serrano, this is basically ham that is salted over a long period of time, if your guests aren't many and/or you can afford it, that's your best bet.. a drink.. would be sangria.. you can basically try making lemonade, adding a bottle of red wine, and a fruit cocktail (from a can). Food, that has to be paella, to get the flavor down, you should try buying a box.. that's what we do, a box (the pic is below), what we do is add some octopus, mussels and shrimp, some chorizo (a red spicy sausage), and chicken (chicken has to be cooked beforehand). And for Dessert, I would try some crema catalana, my mother had the crema catalana, and it looked great, you have to try to have like a 3mm thick hard caramel over it, and seve it in small round 3 cm deep plate... it looked wonderful.. try the websites that I'm sending you.. good luck!! If you need any more tips, let me know.. good luck

PS: MBoatner- fajitas come from Mesoamerica.. especially Mexico.. die Tortillas in Spain are mostly made with egg, whereas the ones you are talking about are made of corn flour

Answer 5

Prawn Croquettes 3 1/2 oz butter 4 oz plain flour 1 1/4 pints cold milk salt and pepper 14 oz cooked peeled prawns, diced 2 teaspoons tomato puree 5 or 6 tablespoons fine breadcrumbs 2 large eggs, beaten olive oil for deep-frying Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and add the flour, stirring continuously. Allow the flour to cook in the butter for a couple of minutes, continuing to stir. Start adding the cold milk little by little, stirring all the while until you have a thick, smooth sauce. Add the prawns, season well and stir in the tomato paste. Continue to cook for 7 or 8 minutes. The end result should be quite thick. Let the mixture cool completely - it is usually a good idea to leave it overnight. Take a scant tablespoon of the mixture and form into a croqueta, a 1 1/2 - 2 inch cylinder. Roll the croqueta in the breadcrumbs, then coat in the beaten egg, then roll in the breadcrumbs again. Make sure the breadcrumbs are always dry to ensure an even coating. Heat the oil for deep-frying in a large, heavy-based pan until the temperature reaches 350ºF or a cube of bread turns golden brown in 20-30 seconds. Fry in batches of no more than 3 or 4 for about 5 minutes until golden brown. Remove with a slatted spoon, drain on kitchen paper and serve immediately

Answer 6

Well you only have to decide what you mean by Spanish. People from Mexico eat very different foods than those of from Colombia. Yet we are all lumped together as Spanish. I can give you a few Latin American dishes that are easy enough
You must have Margaritas as drinks (Use a strong Tequila)
Dessert you can go to a market and look for a banana like fruit called a Plantain. You can cook this by peeling this like a banana then long ways cut the fruit in half. Then in the middle cut this again. You should have four pieces per Plantain. In a frying pan heat the skillet on medium heat and place plantain in till it begins to glaze (get almost blackend) flip and repeat. These are super sweet and yummy. A staple in our culture.

This is a fun easy appetizer. Take a premade Salsa (mild or medium) get 2 ripe mangos and cut into bite size pieces and add this to the salsa. Go to the "Spanish" isle in your local market and you will see a clear package with big round "crackers" server a spoon of this mixture on each cracker. Very yummy and unexpected.

Main dish can vary from tradition taco/ quesadillas/spanish rice
Or you can kick it up a bit and make a pot of beer, chicken and yellow rice.

Ok Go to the "spanish isle" again Look for a package in a yellow box it will say Sazon Goya
con culantro achiote
This makes a great flavor and makes the rice yellow
Mix white rice one to one to one (for every half cup of water and half cup of favorite beer add one cup of rice) add one of the packets in the box for every cup of rice/water mixture you make.
To this add one cooked shredded chicken,box of frozen peas, package of shredded carrots (optional)
Cook on to a boil then lower heat to low, cover and cook unstirred for 20 minutes. Fluff and serve. You can serve this as a meal with the plantains on the side.

Answer 7

Tortilla de Patatas


Authentic food recipes from the great country of Spain.


If you like the taste of french fries, you'll love the spanish tortilla. When made correctly, the spanish tortilla is a delicious half-inch thick "cake" of fried potatoes mixed with fried eggs and onions. After cooking, the tortilla can be cut into pizza-like triangles to serve 4-6 people, or cut into squares to give a whole group a bite-sized toothpick sample.

1 cup olive oil
four large potatos (peel and cut into small pieces about 2mm thick)
salt to taste
one large onion, thinly sliced
four large eggs.

Some people add thin slices of red pepper together with the onion.

Heat the oil in a 9-inch skillet, add potato pieces, one slice at a time so that they don't stick. Alternate layers of potato and onion. COOK slowly, medium flame. DO NOT FRY!! Turn occasionally until potatoes are tender, but NOT brown. They must be loose, not "in a cake".

Beat eggs in a large bowl with a fork. Salt to taste. Drain potatoes. Add potatoes to beaten eggs, pressing them so that eggs cover them completely. Let sit for 15 minutes. Heat 2 tbsps of the oil in large skillet. Add potato-egg mixture, spreading quickly. Lower the heat to medium-high. Shake pan to prevent sticking (crucial step!!) When potatoes start to brown, put a plate on top skillet and flip to cook other side, adding another tbsp of oil. Brown on the other side. Can flip three or four times for better cooking.

Feel free to share this recipe with your friends, as long as you include my name and web address, so others can contact me with comments.

Real Spanish Food Recipes - http://www.xmission.com/~dderhak/recipes.html

Answer 8

Appetizer: Balsamic vinegar salad, crispy extremely thin bread with octopus oil
Drink: Not really much there, anything you want, I guess
Course: Calamari (they make it a different way, don't fry it, grill it, add lemon, and keep some of its blood for flavoring). Grilled vegetables are great.
Dessert: flan (?)

Answer 9

Check out the two websites:

http://www.spanish-property-today.com
http://www.spanish-property-for-sale.tv

You can search the recipe sections by ingredients and they have various courses.

Have a great evening.

Answer 10

Paella! Yum.