Host a Spanish night
Two tables: Sunday paella from the pan, and a tapeo of tortilla and bravas.
A Spanish house does not serve paella with a tapas tasting and a shot of gazpacho. The rice is a midday gathering. The bar plates are another evening. The cold soup is summer.
Cook one free recipe as the center and give it the sides that belong to it.
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Sunday paella
One pan, lemon, maybe allioli. No gazpacho course. No bravas on the side.
Paella Valenciana is rabbit, chicken, beans, and saffron rice cooked so the bottom toasts. Eat from the edge. Lemon brightens. Allioli stays in a bowl if anyone wants it.
Do not serve gazpacho first. Do not add a stack of tapas that turn the rice into a side.
The clock
- Morning: light the fire or heat the wide burner.
- Sofrito, meat, stock, rice — do not stir after it settles.
- Rest off the heat, then the pan to the table with lemon.
Cook these free recipes
- Paella Valenciana — The free midday pan — lemon, not tapas.
Tapeo night
Tortilla, bravas, wine. The paella pan stays hung on the wall.
A Spanish omelette of potato and onion, cut in wedges, is enough for a night with a dish of bravas. Bread, olives, a cheap red or a beer.
This is not Sunday rice. Do not hide a paella under the tapas.
The clock
- Cook the tortilla slowly; let it set.
- Fry the potatoes; sauce for bravas.
- Wedges, wine, stop.
Cook these free recipes
- Tortilla Española — The free tapa that can be the night.
- Patatas Bravas — The free fried potato — bar plate, not a paella side.
Set the pan or the small plates in the middle. Find a paella pan or a cazuela the same way as the pantry — a search, not a single listing that disappears.
Find a paella pan on Amazon Find a cazuela on Amazon
When you want the rest of the map — more rice, tapas, and the Sunday extras — Authentic Spanish Cuisine is the book that keeps the table going. Read how the table is set before people arrive.
The Spanish pantry, pots, and table
The spices, mixes, and hearths that belong to Spanish cooking — then the people around them, and the kitchens still joining the table.
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