A Passion for Tapas
The first time I made reservations at Kansas City’s best tapas bar, La Bodega, it was Valentine’s Day maybe five years ago. I proudly called my wife and told her I was taking her to a tapas bar. Of course, this was over a cell phone and I had a lot of explaining to do when I got home about why I wanted to spend our Valentine’s Day with exotic dancers. Once I talked her off the ledge, we went out and had a great meal. The great meal part. I’d recommend waiting until you get home to actually discuss your upcoming tapas meal with your family and/or significant other. Or roommate.
Now, with A Passion for Tapas by Love Food you can have this same experience at home!
Tapas grew from the needs of the Spanish tavern. In actual truth, A Passion for Tapas traces the origin of the tapa back to when a piece of bread was used as a covering for wine that would be served to travelers as they passed by. (In fact, tapa is Spanish for “lid.”) Eventually, some considerate tavern owner decided to top the bread with ham and cheese and soon the tapa was born.
Today, tapas have gone from humble bread, meat, and cheese to an explosion of different colors, ingredients, and flavors. Some remain simple, like olives with orange and lemon or zucchini salad with cilantro dressing. Others are more complex, like crispy chicken and ham croquettes and empanadillas with cheese and olives. Still, with 100 recipes, there is something for just about every palate in A Passion for Tapas.
Really, it is this variety, more than the tummy rumbling full color pictures or the culinary history, that makes the book. Before buying A Passion for Tapas, I had paged through several different tapas books looking for one that had the recipe for the Spanish torte, an egg/potato/onion dish that my wife always orders when we go to La Bodega. We tried to make it once at home and we failed at it miserably. So when I saw that A Passion for Tapas had that recipe, as well as recipes for patatas bravas (potatoes in a spicy fire sauce, which is my favorite dish), I had to buy this book.
My guess is that if you are an experienced tapas connoisseur, you will have the same experience looking through A Passion for Tapas. There are very few tapas I have ever seen on a menu that are not in the book. Of course, that means if you are new to the world of Spanish small plates, this book is a great way to get started, too.
With all that being said, A Passion for Tapas does have one major drawback. The book stays true to the original Spanish method of preparing each dish, complete with what seems like an absolutely awe-inspiring number of steps to several of the recipes. There are some easy recipes, but there are some very difficult ones, too.
The Spanish torte recipe itself requires the vegetables to be cooked and then they stand in the eggs and then the skillet is reheated and then the eggs and veggies are pressed into a layer and then inverted and then recooked and then… Well, you get the picture.
Honestly, this wouldn’t be such an issue except that tapas are supposed to be small plates. You are supposed to have 4-5 different tapas in a sitting, but the complexity of some the recipes means that either everyone’s coming over to cook before eating (cool party idea) or you will have to pick your menu based on cook time, not flavor combinations, which is kind of a shame.
With that being said though, I still love A Passion for Tapas. If anything, I look at the length of some of those recipes as a challenge and an excuse to make them five, ten, twenty times. Besides, if I make them a bunch, I get faster at cooking them, right?
So, hopefully I’ve inspired two fine lessons tonight. First, I hope that despite my warning, you go out and give A Passion for Tapas a chance. More importantly, though, I hope that I’ve given you a valuable lesson in how not to broach the subject of tapas bars with one’s friends and family. Both should prove invaluable in the meals to come.
