Simply Magnificent

Forget all the fiddly preparation – Spanish food is at its best when it’s straight-forward, simple and all cooked in a single pot

Although today’s Spanish cooking has gone upscale, it is still the epitome of one-pot meals and hearty, down-to-earth peasant cooking. In fact, the national dish of Spain is cocido, a hearty meal in a pot with chickpeas and meats, which is found in regional variations all over the country. Who would think that a simple potato stew, enlivened with little more than Spanish smoked paprika and a few pork ribs, could be so delicious and memorable? And, of course, what could be more spectacular than paella – the ultimate one-pot meal – so festive, colourful and crowd-pleasing, and made in its own unique pan.

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Table talk

Mallorca’s delicious rustic cuisine is undergoing a revival. We travel to the rural town of Sineu to attend a cookery course and learn some new techniques

Early morning and the seafood stalls at Mercat del’Olivar, Palma’s bustling fresh produce market, are glossy with fish and crustaceans: lobsters and crabs waving claws and antennae; langostinos in colours from baby pink to scorched orange and a dizzying selection of fish, including shark, sardines, grouper and hunks of blood-red tuna belly. Much of it has obviously just been caught – the fish are still flipping and twitching on the ice.

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To provoke and serve

Within a decade elBulli has reached legendary status in culinary circles for Ferran Adrià’s daring and inventive cuisine. Only a privileged few each year will find out why.

“Ferran has prepared a personalized menu for you.”

This is how the dining room managers begin when they introduce the menu at elBulli, judged the world’s best restaurant a record four times by prestigious Restaurant magazine. Rather than choosing for themselves, each guest is served a tasting menu of between twenty-eight and thirty-five dishes. The menu has an uninterrupted flow, but it can be divided into four separate acts, each with its own character.

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October's wine recommendations from our experts....

Pricey with John Radford

2004 El Puntido, Viñedos de Páganos
Price £23.05
Stockist: Gerrard Seel,  01925 819695,  www.gerrardseel.co.uk
I was lucky enough to visit the winery at El Puntido in 2003, just as its second vintage was maturing in the casks, and it was impressive. It has been created by Marcos Eguren, whose empire includes Sierra Cantabria and Señorio de San Vicente in Rioja, and a Vino de la Tierra bodega in Castilla y León. The Egurens have been involved in wine for a very long time: another branch of the family runs Bodegas Heredad Ugarte in Laguardia, about 5 km away from the village of  Páganos.
The winery is an interesting mix of traditional and modern, with small ‘tinas’ (oak vats) among the stainless steel tanks, and Marcos’s idea was to make a local style of wine from vineyards surrounding the bodega, in the Basque style. The wine is all-Tempranillo, with 18 months in new French oak to bring out the brightest fruit and give it the most savoury ‘cloak’, with four months ‘on the lees’ before the wine is racked off into clean barrels, to get every last vestige of flavour from the grape skins. Subtle, perfumed but mineral nose which hides a big tannic punch on the palate but with massive locked-in fruit. The 2004 is drinking splendidly and (a word to the wise) I’ve just had a sample of the 2005, and it’s even better.

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