Tapas recipes.

Recipes, ingredients and methods.

Tapas recipes are as varied and interesting as the people who invented them.

Here we'll look at what to buy, where to buy it, and how to prepare it.

There is no ‘standard’ tapas recipe for any individual dish. A simple tortilla, the quintessential omelette, will have a different recipe in every region you may care to visit.

As a rule, tapas means small. The best way to enjoy it is as an aperitif with a glass of fino sherry, a good wine or a cold beer.

However, tapas are so versatile that many people make a complete meal of them. These are called ‘raciones’ and are available everywhere you find tapas. It’s the same thing - only bigger!

Here we will be concentrating on the classic tapas recipes which are found as bar snacks all over Spain and are usually taken with an early-evening drink.

Ingredients, methods and improvisation.

As we go through the following recipe pages I will be listing many different ingredients and suggesting possible alternatives for those that may be hard to find.

Here is a list of basic tapas ingredients which you should try to have available at all times.

I will also be recommending some reliable sources where you may buy your ingredients and other interesting items online.

If you like your tapas recipes in book form there are many excellent books on tapas and Spanish cooking. Check out our recommendations to start you off.

The measurements will be primarily in metric, with the approximate imperial equivalent in brackets.

The important thing to remember is that nothing is set in stone as far as tapas is concerned. Use a bit of initiative and a bit of Spanish improvisation.

Don’t worry about getting it perfectly to the ounce, measurements are only a guideline. A bit of this, a slosh of that and a glug of the other works just as well.

And if you don’t have a specific ingredient, try something else that’s similar - you might just invent something special!

If you can read, you can cook!

These web pages are not supposed to be a beginners cookery course! I am assuming that you have some knowledge of cooking and can find your way around the kitchen.

However, most of these tapas recipes are so simple that, as my dear mum always used to say: if you can read it, you can cook it!

One of the best ways of learning about Spanish cooking and recipes is to go to Salamanca in Spain and study them!

There is an excellent course run by Don Quijote, the in-country language school, that combines a cookery course with a Spanish language course. What better way to further your culinary education?!

The main thing though is to enjoy yourself and discover new ways with food and recipes, cooked and served the Spanish way: with soul, with flair and with passion.

But, most importantly of all, with friends.

The recipes.

Firstly, I would like to say that none of the recipes on this website are my own. They have been around for far longer than I have and I make no claim to originality or invention.

Be gentle with me, dear reader. I know there will be some tapas recipes missing here but I am constantly adding to them so if you don't see what you're looking for, send me a nice email and I'll get it online asap.

I have divided the recipe pages into rough sections to make it easy for you to navigate around them. Where a recipe has two ingredients you will find it on the pages of its main one. So ham and cheese will be found on the meat pages and tuna and red pepper will be on the fish pages, etc.

Each page will have links to each other and, as I said earlier, to recommended sources, suppliers and other useful information. I hope you enjoy making these tapas recipes as much as I do.

Meat tapas recipes

Fish and seafood tapas recipes

Vegetable tapas recipes

Egg and cheese tapas recipes

Basic store-cupboard ingredients

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