Will's Eats: Tapas – Often Fried and Salted

I was up in Madrid and popped out for tapas at a little Asturian place nearby. Ordered all the favorites since I don’t get up there often and we don’t have a place like this anymore down here at the beach. We did… but last season the owner turned the place from a tapas bar into an Indian restaurant - - quite a dramatic change. Now, for tapas, I have to go to the next town over.

Here’s what I had and how they are prepared. Try it at home.

Morcilla: blood sausage, with rice and onions. These were probably sliced and deepfried; at home I just do them in deepish pan.

These are little fried anchovies – Boquerones Fritos or Anchoas Fritas; dusted with a little flour before frying then salting (coarse salt) – they were beheaded and gutted but not deboned; probably soaked in lemon and water for a few hours before cooking.

Pimientos de Padron (from Padron in Galicia) are small hot peppers. An occasional one is super-spicy and surprises you; a sort of Hot-Peppers Roulette. Fried and salted.