• 6 large potatoes
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 glass of milk
• 1 large onion
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation: Wash and peel the potatoes and onion. Slice the potatoes and onion into 1/2 inch thick slices and season with salt and pepper.

Add your slices to a medium-sized saucepan with boiling water and cover. Allow to boil on a high heat for about 10-14 minutes, until the potatoes are soft.

Spread the potatoes and onion over a grill tray covered in baking paper and place under a hot grill. Grill on a medium heat for 3-5 minutes and turn, grilling for another 5 minutes. While the potatoes are grilling, beat your eggs in a large bowl and mix in the milk.

Add the potatoes and onion to the egg and check for salt.

Add a tablespoon of olive oil to a large pan on a high heat. Allow the oil to become hot but not smoking and pour the tortilla mixture. Cook until the eggs set, first on high heat, and then over low heat. As the tortilla begins to set, use the handle of your pan to shake it sideways and ensure it doesn’t stick. Helped with a large plate, turn your tortilla and cook the other side until it is completely set.

Presentation: Tortilla is often served sliced like a cake, cut into 6-8 large triangles meeting at the centre. It’s great hot or cold and keeps in the fridge, covered with cling film, for a few days.

Cooking tip: Grilling helps remove excess water from your potatoes as well as giving them a little firmer texture. You can replace the grill with a hot pan or even the oven. Milk added to the egg helps the mixture not sticking to the pan when using almost no oil, as well as giving the tortilla a gorgeously soft finish.

To turn the tortilla, remove the pan from the heat and shake to ensure the bottom of the tortilla is not sticking to the pan. Cover the pan with a large plate and decisively turn around all so that the plate ends under the pan. If this movement is quick and decisive there is no need to press the plate against the pan. Once the plate has the tortilla inside it, remove the pan, return to the heat and slide the tortilla back into it.

About this dish: Tortilla is a simple dish made of potatoes, eggs and often onion. Traditionally high-fat because potatoes are deep fried to make it, I have replaced the deep-fry process with boiling and grilling to avoid the use of most oil. As a result, this variation should be easier on the scales while remaining delicious and easy to make.

Curiosity: Like many traditional dishes, it appears Tortilla finds it humble origins in the efforts to create cheap, nutritious food by the poor peoples of past times, who were forced to add humble potatoes and onion to scarce eggs in order to make a meal. A world famous dish today, its thickness, method and the degree of “runniness” of the egg remain an object of much debate among Spanish chefs and patrons alike when discussing the perfect tortilla. This low-fat version will surely be seen as sinful by some.

• 2 bunches calçots or 2 bunches green onions (or 4 bunches large scallions) both white and green parts
• Coarse salt
• Pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Romesco sauce

Preparation: Don’t trim the tips of the calçots. Remove any dried peelings, leaving as much of the vegetable intact as you can. Preheat your grill to high.

Drizzle your calçots with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Arrange the calçots on the hot grill and let cook for about 8 to 12 minutes. Watch them carefully so they do not burn but allow the first layer to get charred. Occasionally turn them carefully and continue to season as they grill.

Remove the calçots and wrap them in paper towels. Let them stand and cool for about 15 minutes.

Presentation: Serve warm with Romesco sauce or olive oil, salt and pepper.

Cooking tip: When seasoning calçots, some people use cayenne pepper as well as salt and pepper. You can wrap your calçots in newspaper instead of paper towels for that extra authentic Spanish feeling.

About this dish: Calçots are a variety of scallion (Blanca Grande Tardana) native to Tarragona in Catalonia, Spain. Calçots are milder than onions and look similar to small leeks. The most traditional way of eating calçots is in a calçotada, a popular event held between the end of winter and March or April, where calçots are consumed massively. Calçots are traditionally roasted over fire in an outdoor oven but they can also be cooked in a grill, a conventional oven or on top of the stove.

Curiosity: Calçots are traditionally served on top of upturned roof tiles, which are used as serving trays.

• 12 blanched almonds
• 10-12 hazelnuts
• 1 head garlic
• 1 slice stale bread
• 2 ripe medium size tomatoes
• 2 nyores, dried red peppers or roasted red peppers, drained
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup red wine or sherry vinegar

Preparation: Rub off excess dry skin from garlic head, then drizzle a bit of olive oil on top. Roast in oven over some baking paper for 20 minutes at 150C degrees (gas mark 2) until insude of garlic head is soft.

Make sure almonds are completely dry and place almonds and hazelnuts into a food processor. Process until finely ground.

Pour 2-3 tablespoons of virgin olive oil into a small frying pan and quickly fry the stale bread until both sides are browned. Remove from the heat, reserving the pan and oil and allow the bread to cool on a paper towel.

Quarters the tomatoes and sauté for 4-5 minutes in the pan and oil used for the bread, adding more oil if needed. Sauté for 4-5 minutes. Remove pan from heat.

Once bread is cooled, tear into large pieces and process with the nuts. Add sautéed tomatoes and continue to process. Squeeze each roasted garlic clove from its skin into the processor. Finally, place your nyores or red peppers into the processor and process until you get a thick puree.

With the processor still running, drizzle in the oil and vinegar. Add salt to taste.

Presentation: Romesco is typically used to dip barbecued poultry, meat, fish or vegetables. Serve on a large earth plate to share or give each of your diners their individual dips dish.

Cooking tip: Make sure not to make too fine a puree. Also, when adding the oil and vinegar at the end look out for the moment the oil is emulsified in the puree and gives it its characteristic texture.

Leaves of fennel or mint may be added, particularly if served with fish or escargot.

About this dish: Romesco is a sauce originating in Tarragona, Catalonia, that is typically made from almonds and hazelnuts, roasted garlic, olive oil and nyores  – small, dried red peppers. It is perhaps most often served with seafood, but can also be served with a wide variety of other foods including poultry and vegetables, particularly calçots.

Curiosity: Romesco is key for the most traditional way of eating calçots: a calçotada, a popular event held between the end of winter and March or April, where calçots dipped in Romesco are consumed massively.

• 1/2 Kg Sugar
• 125 cc Water
• 1 Kg Almonds, finely ground
• 7 Egg Whites, whisked until very fluffy
• Caster sugar for sprinkling

Preparation: Heat the water and sugar until a light syrup has formed. Add the almonds and cook for 15 minutes, stirring constantly.

Stir in 4 egg whites, remove from the heat and stir in 3 more whites, making sure you keep stirring throughout.

Preheat the oven to 200 C (gas mark 6). Lay waxed paper on an oven tray. On the paper, place the dough formed into walnut-sized balls, leaving some space between them. Press the balls slightly down to achieve a lightly oval shape and press a little sugar in the centre of each oval using your little finger. Place the tray in the oven and bake till golden. Take out and sprinkle with caster sugar.

Presentation: Serve as dessert on Boxing Day and Xmas day, on a tray with soft and hard nougat and nuts. Mazapán can be decorated with food colouring and syrup prior to baking.

Cooking tip: Make sure to mix all ingredients well and have enough egg in the mix, as egg gives marzipan its shiny, golden finish. Marzipan can be shaped in moulds prior to baking. Traditional shapes include fish, stars and even snails!

About this dish: Mazapán is Arabic in origin, arriving to Spain with the arab invasion of the 8th century. There is a strict quality categorisation for Mazapán and even origin denominations like those applied to wine (particularly famous are Mazapán de Toledo for its high quality and Mazapán de Soto, which includes lemon and sour almonds in its recipe). It is available all year around but consumed mostly in Christmas, except in Valencia, where napkins (Mocaors) filled with fruit-shaped Marzipan are given by men to their girlfriends and wives at the Mocaorà celebration on the 9th of October.

Curiosity: Mazapán is often used for decoration rather than to eat. It is common to see large Mazapán statues adorn bakeries, restaurants and even homes. Mazapán is also often used to make Christmas decorations to hang on the Christmas tree.

• 2 bell peppers – pointy red peppers
  are best
• 2 cod fillets
• 8 pieces of shellfish (raw king prawns, scallops, squid rings…)
• 1 clove of garlic, sliced
• 1/2 small onion, diced
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• rock salt
• white pepper

Preparation: Heat 1 tbsp oil on a large pan over a medium heat. Add the sliced onion and the garlic and turn slowly until golden and soft.

Add the fillets of fish to the pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Turn and cook for a further 1 1/2 minute. Remove and reserve.

Now add the shellfish with some more salt and peper and cook, turning frequently, for about 4 minutes.

Place the fish and shellfish -together with the onion and garlic- onto a chopping board and chop coarsely. Transfer to a bowl and mix the rest of the olive oil in using a spoon.

Using a large knife, remove and discard the top of the peppers. Remove the white strips and seeds from inside and rinse. Use a spoon to fill the peppers with the fish and shellfish mix. Make sure to pack the filling firmly but not too tightly.

Preheat the oven (180°, Gas mark 4). Place the peppers on the base of a deep, oval glass heatproof dish. Cook in the oven for 1/2 hour until done – leave a bit longer if the peppers don’t feel soft when pressed with a skewer.

Presentation: Serve the full pepper on its side, still filled with the fish, steaming hot. Can also be thick sliced and served as an appetizer.

Cooking tip: Make sure not to cook the fish too much. Fish normally requires very little cooking time and the added time in the oven could dry it if overcooked. We cook it to help its flesh become loose and easy to chop, and suck in the olive oil flavour.

About this dish: Most Spanish regions sport their own variation of this simple, quick recipe. It is easy, cheap and delicious so it features on every Spanish mum’s trick bag when feeding the family. This is as close as it gets to Spanish fast food.

Curiosity: The term bell pepper is one of the many names for some fruits of the Capsicum annuum species of plants. The misleading name pepper (pimiento in Spanish) was given by Christopher Columbus upon bringing the plant back to Europe. At that time peppercorns were a highly prized condiment.

• 1 sea bass
• 2 onions, one chopped, one sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled, crushed under the side of a knive and chopped
• 1 cup chopped exotic mushrooms
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• rock salt
• white pepper
• saffron
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup water

Preparation: Heat 1 tbsp oil on a large pan over a medium heat. Add the sliced onion and half the garlic and turn slowly until golden and soft.

Preheat the oven (180°, Gas mark 4). Place the contents of the pan on the base of a deep, oval glass heatproof dish.

Make 3 large cuts across each side of the fish – one close to the gills, one in the middle, on closer to the tail. Rub the fish with rock salt and pepper, making sure some goes inside the cuts. Place 2 strands of saffron inside every cut. Rub the fish’s cavitiy with salt and pepper and place 1 bay leaf inside.

Lay the fish over the onion on the dish and place in the oven. Heat 1 cup water until boiling, add about 10 strands of saffron and pour around fish. Cook for 1/2 hour until done, turning the fish after 20 minutes. turn off the oven.

Reserve the fish, onion and garlic on heatproof plates in the oven to keep warm. Take all liquid from the oven dish and pour into a small soucepan. Make sure all saffron is transferred. Add 4-6 more strands of saffron and place over a medium heat. Leave to simmer until most liquid has evaporated, turning occasionally.

On a large pan, heat 1tbsp oil. Add 1 chopped onion and the rest of the garlic and turn until soft. Add the chopped mushrooms and cook for a further 5 minutes until the mushrooms are cooked.

Presentation: With the help of a large knive, remove the fishbone leaving 2 fillets. On a large plate, lay half the mushroom mixture. Lay one of the fillets on top, skin side down. Place some of the onion and garlic pieces reserved from the oven on top and spoon half the saffron reduction. Don’t overdo it, 3-4 teaspoons should be enough for each fillet.

Serve hot, accompanies by a salad of green leaves and some warm flatbread.

Cooking tip: Make sure not to use too much salt or pepper when baking the fish. The fish’s juices go into preparing the saffron reduction and any salt content will be concentrated.

You can add a scoop of creme fraiche to the saffron reduction just before removing from the flame to give it a softer palate or if there is too little of it.

About this dish: This dish is an original recipe of mine. It is a dish for spring, mixing winter and summer ingredients into a bright, flavoursome combination. Its colour, scent, textures and taste are all designed to wake up the senses after the winter lull. Try it at sunset after a day of sun and some showers.

Curiosity: Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of the Crocus Sativus, in the family Iridaceae. The flower’s 3 stigmas, style and stalk connecting the stigmas to the rest of the plant are often dried and used in cooking as a seasoning and colouring agent. Saffron has for decades been the world’s most expensive spice by weight and was first cultivated in the vicinity of Greece.
Saffron’s taste and fragrance are caused by the chemicals picrocrocin and safranal.It contains a carotenoid dye, crocin, that gives food a rich golden-yellow hue.

• 2 cups rice
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 4 cups Cava Brut (or any other dry sparkling wine)
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation: Heat the oil on a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and turn slowly until golden.

Add the rice, folding to ensure an even film of oil wraps every grain. Immediately cover with half the cava and add a little salt (the rice won’t need much salt as both the wine and cheese will add salty flavours).

Boil over a medium heat, turning occasionally to ensure the rice doesn’t stick, and keep adding cava as required until the rice is almost cooked (about 15 minutes).

Some 2 minutes before the rice is done, ensure there is enough hot cava to finish the rice (adding if necessay), fold in the cheese and take away from the heat. Cover with a damp cloth and let stand for 5 minutes.

Presentation: Arroz al cava can presented as a main course or as a side with traditional game or white fish. It is also found often as a component on contemporary fusion recipes.

If taken as main, some finely chopped raw spring onion or a spoonful of tapenade can help create a new flavour every time.

Cooking tip: Try adding wild sliced mushrooms near the end of boiling time for a different texture, or flavouring with foie as the rice rests under the cloth for a bit of extra luxury.

About this dish: Cava originates from Catalonia, and so does this dish. Initially prepared as a way to use a day-old half bottle of flat left-over cava, it has been adopted by contemporary Catalan cuisine as an indigenous new dish that combines european influences with local produce and years of rich winemaking history. Today Arroz al Cava can be found in the best restaurants, where it is made using only the best Spanish paella rice and the most sought-after Cava vintages.

Curiosity: Arroz al Cava is still relatively unknown outside of Catalonia. Here’s your chance to get ahead of the curve and be the first to prepare it for your foodie friends. You’re welcome.

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 litre whole milk
• 14 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp grated lemon peel
• 4 large muffins/fairy cakes

Preparation: Take a small heavy-based saucepan and add 4 tbsp sugar and 1 tbsp water. Place over a medium heat until it takes the consistency of syrup.

Take a large bowl and mix the eggs with 10 tbsp sugar. Whisk until fully mixed into a soft, custard-like texture. Pour the milk into the bowl. Add the grated lemon and mix. Finally add the muffins, broken into small crumbs and stir lightly.

Heat the oven to a medium heat (140C, gas mark 6). Fill a large oven-proof saucepan with water, then place a smaller oven-proof mould inside it filled to 3/4 of its height with the pudding mix. Make sure the water is at least as tall as the mix but can’t get in contact with it. Place inside the oven and allow to cook for 1 hour until firm when pierced with a long needle.

Let the mould cool down for at least 1 hour. Turn over a large presentation plate and allow to set. If required, slide the handle of a spoon around the mould’s border to allow air in and help separate. Refrigerate.

Presentation: Pan de Calatrava is served cool. Take out of the fridge about 1/2 hour before serving to allow to thaw slightly.

Slice and present as you would do with cake, accompanied with hot coffee after a good meal.

Cooking tip: Make sure the muffin pieces are just the right size: small enough to be albe to form a smooth layer, large enough to float during the cooking process and become the base of the pudding once turned around for presentation.

The muffins can be replaced by other porous pastries: try sweet bread, italian tiramisu fingers, etc.

Also, try adding fruit -fresh or preserved- to the mix prior to entering the oven. The combinations are endless!

About this dish: Calatrava is a small village in the province of Murcia, famous for its santuary, the cross (a cross with 2 horizontal beams instead of the traditional single beam) and the Pan, a variation on Flan admired across the whole of Spain.

Curiosity: Pan de Calatrava is a variation on Flan. Legend says that Flan was strengthened with bread donated by the village folk at Calatrava’s monastery, becoming one of the dietary staples for the monks who lived there and who had access to the other ingredients -eggs, milk and sugar- at their own little walled farm. Today it is a sough-after dessert full of infinite possibilities and variation.

• 1 kg varied fish (for stock)
• 1 monkfish
• 1 cuttlefish
• 1/2 kg squid
• 1/2 kg fresh mussels
• 200 gr fresh clams
• 8-10 large prawns
• 8-10 large scampi
• 5-6 small pieces white fish (grouper or similar, about the size of 1/2 fish finger each piece)
• 2 onions
• 5 tomatoes
• 3-6 garlic cloves (to taste)
• 250 grs fideua noodles (short, thick spaghetti with a hollow core. Use spaghetti if other not available)
• saffron
• sea salt, pepper, olive oil, and parsley

Preparation: To make the stock, fill a large saucepan with water to half its height and bring to the boil. Place the 1kg fish in the boiling water, adding 1 chopped tomato and 1/2 chopped onion. Leave to boil on a medium flame for at least 1/2 hour. You could use fish stock cubes instead, but making one’s own stock is always best if possible.

On a separate saucepan, bring water to the boil -about half height again- and add the mussels. Cover and let boil until done (about 5 minutes). Reserve 8 good looking ones on the half-shell, shell the rest and reserve the meat.

Take a large paella pan -or a large flat-based frying pan- and add 2 tbsp olive oil. Fry the prawns and scampi for just 2-3 minutes and reserve.

Coarsely chop the rest of the tomatoes and onion as well as the cuttlefish and squid. Also peel and slice the garlic cloves. Add 2 more tbsp olive oil to the paella pan, bringing it back to a hot flame. Let it heat up, then add the tomatoes, onion and garlic. Stir for 2 minutes, then add the cuttlefish and squid. Keep stirring to avoid the fish sticking to the pan as it fries. After 4-5 minutes cooking, add the mussels’ meat and white fish pieces. Stir for a further 1 minute, then add enough fish stock for 1/2 boil + what the pasta will require. Don’t worry if it’s short, you can always top up later. Add salt and pepper to taste and the saffron. Leave to boil on a medium fire for 1/2 hour. Check and correct salt.

Now, add the clams and noodles to the paella pan, making sure they are evenly distributed. Leave to boil until the pasta is cooked and the stock has all been absorbed. Just before it’s ready, add the scampi, prawns and on-shell mussels and a sprinkle of Parsley.

Presentation: Remove from the fire and leave to rest covered for 5 minutes -newspaper, tea towels and kitchen foil all make nice covers. Add thick lemon slices along the border of the pan just before serving.

Fideuà, like Paella, is typically taken on the pan to the centre of a large table, where each person takes small servings onto an individual plate. If individually served, make sureto serve the noodles first, then top with 1 of each prawn, scampi and mussel, adding a chunk of lemon on the side of the plate.

Fideuà is often served with a dollop of All-i-oli, a thick, strong garlic sauce.

Cooking tip: Any fish will go well in a Fideuà. Feel free to experiment! Try any combination of white fish, shellfish and an arthropod. You could try replacing the squid by octopus and the shell-on mussels by shell-on scallops for extra posh.

Timing a Fideuà is difficult, as times depend on the fish, the pan -especially its size- and the heat. Use the times above as a guide but make sure you let your instincts prevail.

Squid and cuttlefish can be chewy if not cooked long enough. That’s why they enter Fideuà before the rest of the fish.

Make sure you don’t add too much stock. It’s easy to add more if you’re short, but add too much and you’ll have a soggy soup rather than a paella-like pasta wonder.

About this dish: Fideuà or Fideuada, from fideu, Catalan/Valencian for “noodle”) is a typical dish of Valencia, Spain. It originated in the 1960s in the city of Gandía when noodles were used instead of rice in the popular dish paella.

There are many variations of it with different ingredients, but it is usually made with seafood and fish, and optionally served with allioli sauce.

Curiosity: Relatively obscure until very recently, Fideuà has quickly become a favourite at Spain’s top restaurants. Its versatility, flexibility and the ability to use the freshest seasonal produce in its preparation make it the perfect blend of tradition and modernity for the aspiring star chef to make his/her mark.

• 2 bottles wine
• 2 cups cointreau
• 2 cups brandy
• 1 cup gin
• 1 cup grenadine
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp orange juice
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 lemon
• 2 oranges
• other fruit to taste, if desired (peach, apple, banana)
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 litre carbonated lemonade (Fanta, Sprite or similar)
• 1/2 litre carbonated orange (Fanta or similar)

Preparation: In a large bowl, pour the wine, spirits, juices and cinnamon. Add the sugar and mix well with a wooden spoon.

Peel and dice the fruit and add to the bowl. Place in the fridge for at least one hour so the fruit flavours infuse the wine.

Presentation: Take 2 2-litre jug. Terracotta jugs look best, but any large jugs will do. Place 4-6 ice cubes in each jug. Pour sangría mix into each jug until 2/3 full, then top up with the orange and lemon carbonated drinks.

Stir each with a wooden spoon, leaving the spoon in the jug to help keep the ice from splashing when pouring. Salud!

Cooking tip: Sangría comes out best with average-quality table wine. Don’t splash on a good bottle hoping for a better result. It will not work. Instead, use fresh fruits, good spirits and good quality juice. That will make a difference.

About this dish: The ingredients in sangría vary, particularly in the type of fruit used, the kind of spirits added (if any), and the presence or lack of carbonation. White wine can be used instead of red, in which case the result is called sangría blanca. Each region, town and bar in Spain seem to have their own recipe.

Curiosity: The word sangría comes from the Spanish sangre meaning blood.