Miguel's Tapas

Miguel Maestre is a flamboyant over the top chef who has a passion and enthusiasm for Spanish inspired food. Whilst he has a range of restaurant experience its his appearances on television that most Australians will remember. His style is the opposite to laid back, he is a high energy enthusiastic cook.

The recipes in this book are a mixture of traditional tapas dishes, which many will readily recognise but there are also some of the chefs own creation inspired by Australian styles and food preferences. He stresses in his introduction that he feels the laid back Australian life style is ideally suited to tapas.

This book is organised a little differently to other tapas cookbooks I have in that its organised around the time of day. So we have breakfast, morning tea, lunch all the way through to late night snacks. The very last section of the book contains detailed explanations of basics and saucing. In all the book contains around 75 different dishes to experiment with.

Myself I could not go past the crispy potato and Chorizo Egg for breakfast.

Crispy potato and Chorizo Egg

Heat olive oil in a non stick pan

Spoon 1 small grated potato into 2 creased egg rings

Top with sliced chorizo

Cook until potato is crisp

Crack an egg on top of mix cook until egg is just done

Remove rings serve with bread and lemon.

I just loved this first thing in the morning filling and just so simple. Many of the dishes throughout this book are simple and straightforward. These are ideal dishes for a lazy summers day. Here in Australia we are just moving into summer and a few 30c days are a reminder of the real heat still to come. Where we will want tasty food that is quickly prepared and ideal fro eating in a casual setting.

Some of the dishes are very modern and provide a chance to use contemporary favourite ingredients. One that looks great and is certainly next on my list to try is a softshell crab and sauté of edamme. If desert is more your thing how about a bread and butter pudding made with leftover sourdough and Pedro Ximenz. There is something I am sure that will appeal to every one in this book.

Its not all positive however and although every dish is pictured on a full page the illustrations do dominate the recipes. If you love lots of colour pictures in your cookbook you will love them in this book. However I feel there needs to be a  balance between pictures and recipes and I feel this book has gone too far with its pictures.

Chorizo Cider Style

Boil in 250ml water, 250mls white wine vinegar, 2tbs castor sugar four peeled eschallots until soft

Meanwhile fry 3 sliced chorizo in a hot pan

Add eschallots (after draining)

1 tbsp of chopped parsley

Deglaze with Apple cider (50ml)

Serve with parsley garnish

I hope these 2 recipes give a feel for the book as a whole. It is well and thoughtfully laid out. The recipes are well explained and easy to reproduce. The techniques are also well explained and easy to follow. I know I will be cooking from this book for some time a worthy first book.