I got a call from Scott at The Spanish Acquisition when I was on way home last Wednesday: “We’re going to the New Movida, do you want to come along?” How could I say no? I quickly dived out of the car and made my way down to Hosier Lane to check out Movida Next Door, or Movida Dos as everyone seem to be calling it.

Its a fairly clean, but small space just down from the original Movida. Plenty of nice wood and white walls with a small bar just in front of the kitchen. There is a small list of tapas and raciones followed by a tight list of beers, sherries and wines. Being opening night, Frank was on the pans with bevy of Melbourne food and wine identities in the bar slurping and munching their way through the menu. The staff had a tough time working their way through the crowd, and you’d get plenty of opportunity to get to know the people next to you in the bar.

I had been expecting a more ‘cheap and cheerful’ version of the full restaurant, the kind of place you can go for a couple of drinks and a couple of snack for $20. It seems this isn’t quite the reality (although not too far off). It’s not a holding bar for Movida either, or just a sherry bar (although there is sherry on tap from a barrel, fresh from Jerez). It’s something else altogether.

The menu is full of Spanish classics. The jamon and mahon croquetas are some of the best I’ve tasted, fried fresh sardines that showed off the quality of the fish, and the best of all: braised beef cheek with marrow bone. This is an excellent dish and had me looking around just in case someone was stuipid enough to leave any unguarded on the plate. Liver pinchos were well done, as was the fried anchovy on goats cheese.  The only thing that didn’t work was the eggplant ‘chips’, just not my thing really. A quick trip through the wine list saw us drinking a raft of styles: La Goya manzanilla (don’t even mention the new label to me), NPU amontillado, 2006 Castro Martin followed up by a bottle of Capçanes Lasandal.

Overall, its a fairly cool drop in type joint with plenty of atmosphere and charm. Just be prepared to pay similar prices to Movida. The food is up to it, so I can’t really complain too much. It’s open a bit later than Movida too.

No photos on this one, I made it quickly and ate it before I though of getting a shot.

What you need 

• The stubby end of a jamon (or just a thick slice), cut into small cubes,
• 2 mid sized fresh mushrooms, cut into small cubes,
• 3 good sized slices of dried ceps/porcini mushrooms,
• 15mls cream,
• 40mls milk,
• Garlic breadcrumbs,
• Parsley, and
• 3 tablespoons of some very good EVOO.

What to do: 

• Add the milk, cream, dried mushrooms and jamon to a pot and heat until just before it boils.  Turn the heat off and leave it for 10 minutes.
• Fry up the fresh mushrooms and add to the mix, returning the pot to a low heat for 3 mintues.  Careful on the seasoning, it will already be quite salty.
• Put the mixture in a small bowl, add the EVOO and garnish with parsley and bread crumb.
• Serve with plenty of crusty bread.

What to drink: Fresh manzanilla.

I picked up the recipe in Seville. Apparently its something people cook at home for lunch, rather than something you would see in a restaurant.  There is no seafood in this dish, but of course can add some on top if you want.  The city is famous for bitter or tart oranges and this is one way to use them up, the other is marmalade.  Traditionally, they use rabbit instead of chicken and add snails towards the end of the cooking.  The end result is a very savoury  dish.  Don’t over do the meat etc, they are a highlight, not the main dish.  The quantities used here are for a four person paella pan, add or subtract to get the right amount for your pan.

You will need:

• 1 Chorizo (chopped in to slices)
• 250g Pork belly (chopped into smallish bits)
• 4 Chicken wings
• 1 Green capsicum
• 1 white onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1.5 cups of chicken stock
• 1.5 cups of tart orange juice (no added sugar with pulp or from Seville oranges)
• 1 cup Calasparra rice
• 1 tin of piquillo pimentos
• 1 Paella pan

Seasoning:

• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ¼ teaspoon rosemary
• 5 Black pepper corns
• a touch of salt
• 4 strands of saffron
• 1.5 teaspoons smoke paprika

What to do:

Get prepared and set up the flavour base:

1. cut up the meat into small pieces, mince the onion and cut up the capsicum in small squares.
2. put the orange juice and stock in a saucepan and bring to the boil.  Reduce to a simmer until needed.
3. add some oil and fry the garlic on low heat in the pan and remove.  Dry off in paper towel.  Put in mortar with the seasoning and grind up.
4. fry the onion and capsicum lightly and remove from the pan
5. quickly seal the meat in the pan and remove.

Start the real cooking:

1. add the stock/juice mixture to the pan and get it boiling.
2. add the rice, meat, veg and seasoning/garlic mix to the pan. And stir around to mix everything up.
3. Do not do anything but watch the liquid level and test the softness of the rice until the rice is soft.  You might need to add some extra liquid, but make sure you add it hot.
4. when the rice is about 75% cooked (still a little crunchy) remove from the heat and cover with a tea towel for 10 minutes.
5. White you are waiting, slice the pimento into long strips.  Once the 10 minutes are up, get artistic and arrange the strips on top of the paella.  You can also use orange slices if you want.

Croquetas must be the ultimate bar snack, hot and crispy on the outside, warm, gooey and salty on the inside. I have been to a couple of tapas bars around Spain that specialise in Croquetas, including a great one in Valladolid where I got these tips on how to make them. These guys take their croquetas very seriously and make thousands of them each night. 1 Euro gets you two little balls of crunchy, salty magic to go with your wine.

They are fairly easy to make, but there are some tips to get a really good result:

• The best tip is to make the bechamel the night before and make it light.  This gives you a light and gooey end result so you can eat heaps of them. I find this recipe to be spot on.
• cook the flavour (chorizo, mushrooms, jamon etc) in the butter/oil mix, otherwise they will taste like lumps of salty milk.
• Make sure the entire thing is covered in crumbs, any areas that aren't covered with go a bit nuts when they hit the oil.
• Make sure your flavour is cut up very fine.  Unless, you want your mates to choke on it. In that case go ahead and leave it chunky.
• Practice makes perfect.

What you need:

• 1 cup of milk
• bay leaves
• Onion
• 40g butter
• A dash of olive oil
• 60g Chorizo (about 2/3)
• 35g Plain flour
• salt
• bread crumbs 
• eggs
• frying oil

 What to do:

Heat the milk in a saucepan with the bay leaves and onion.  Just before it boils, take it off the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes, then remove the bay leaves and onion.  Add the olive oil and butter to a frying pan and once melted add the flour.  Mix until it forms a kind of runny paste.  Gradually add the milk until you have a sauce.  Spread the sauce on a plate and put it in the fridge for at least 3 hours, overnight is best.

The bechamel should be soft and pliable by the time you take it out of the fridge, so shape the sauce mixture with two table spoons, then roll in the egg and bread crumbs.  Heat the frying oil and give them a quick fry until golden.   Eat straight away. 

This is a very handy little dish, it could be a large snack or have a couple for lunch with a salad.  It goes well with verdejo, but really this is chicken for red wine.  Good garnarcha would be my pick.

What you need:

• 4 Chicken thighs, skin off.
• 4 long slices of Jamón serrano.
• 60g manchego, 6 months old.
• Sage leaves .

What to do:
Preheat the oven to 180.  Open up each of the chicken thighs and put a sage leaf and a good wedge of cheese in the middle.  Season with pepper.  Wrap the jamon around the outside of the chicken and tie it up with kitchen string.  Put it in the oven and cook for 30 minutes.  Eat.

There must be more pigs in Spain than any other animal. Pork can be served at every meal on some days, its one of the reasons why I love the place. I think its got something to do with pissing of the Arabs who had a bad habit of invading the place every couple of centuries. Or maybe just because it tastes great.

What you need:

• 1kg pork belly. Get you butcher to remove the bones.
• fresh thyme
• cumin seeds
• salt

Sauce:

• A few sprigs of thyme
• a splash of sherry vinegar
• half an onion, minced.
• 1 cup of red wine

What to do:

Cover the rind of the belly with salt to remove some moisture about an hour before you plan to put it in the oven. Heat the oven to 220. Put a bit of oil in a roasting pan and put it in the oven to warm up. Dry off the rind and put the pork rind down in the roasting tray. On the top side sprinkle the cumin seeds and thyme. After 30 minutes drop the temp down to 190. Cook it for about another 30 minutes and turn the meat over and cook for another 15 minutes.

Just after you’ve turned the meat back over start making the sauce. Fry up the onion with the thyme, once the onion is cooked add a splash of sherry vinegar, then the wine. Let the sauce reduce to about half.

Cut the meat into good sized strips and serve with a drizzle of sauce.

I seem to have an abundance of broadbeans at the moment.  Thats not a bad thing at all, peeled and cooked up with something fatty they are terrific.   Many older vineyards and olive groves in Spain plant broadbeans in between the rows over winter, as they are very good at putting nitrogen back into the soil.  When I brought this bunch I was told by a very surly Greek woman that most men could not cook good broadbeans.  She obviously had some issues, so I smiled, avoided eye contact and backed away very slowly.  As you will see, they are dead easy.

This is a good side dish with pork or as a spring lunch with some bread.  Eat it with a glass of manzanilla or albarino.

What you need:

• About 250 grams of broadbeans, peeled.
• 100g of jamon serrano, cut into small blocks.  When you buy the jamon, ask to have it sliced thick.
• 1 small onion or shallot.
• Fresh mint.
• Olive oil.
• Water.
• Salt and pepper.

What to do:

This is a very quick and easy dish, but pour your glass of manzanilla and prepare every thing before you start cooking. Heat the oil in a heavy fry pan and cook the onion and jamon for about 3 minutes. Add the beans and a splash of water to cook the beans.  Give it a good stir and cook for a further 3 minutes.   Salt and pepper to taste.  Plate it up and stir in some fresh mint.  Eat.

Firstly, there are a whole range of cured and fresh sausages called chorizo, I'm talking about the Spanish ones, but just about any country that has a Spanish or Portuguese influence makes this style of sausage. Chunky cut pork meat and fat mixed with paprika is the main idea, but there is usually garlic, black pepper an some chili in there as well.  Then come all the other options: hot (piquante) or mild and cured or fresh. 

You use the fresh stuff as you would any other fresh sausage, but the cured one needs a bit of care.  Don't store it in the fridge for too long as it will dry out, a week or so is OK, any longer and it needs to hang up somewhere dry.  Generally, you remove the skin before using it but you can eat it if you like.  Don't be afraid of the mouldy looking ones, these are often the best and spiciest.

There are loads of things you can do with chorizo, simple stuff like fried eggs with chorizo (the breakfast of champions!), add it to paella, with pasta, on bread with a bit of melted cheese.  Then there are some fairly special dishes that really show it off.  I can't remember where I found the dish bellow, but it really shows that Moorish connection to southern Spanish cooking.

Chorizo with spinach and persan feta

What you'll need:

• 1 x hot, cured Chorizo, sliced into small slices
• about 150 grams of spinach (baby works best)
• about 30g currents
• about 50g of Persan feta (Yarra Valley dairy works well)
• a palmful of roasted almond
• Olive oil 

Start off by blanching the spinach, it needs to be a bit wilted and mostly dry.  Heat some olive oil in a pan and then lightly cook the chorizo.  What you are doing is influsing the flavour of the chorizo in the oil.  While that is frying away, give the almonds a light bash in the morter and pessel, not too much just so they break into a couple of pieces.  Once that's done add the spinach to the pan and toss it around to coat the leaves. Just before you take it off the heat, add the almond pieces for about 10 seconds then take everything out of the pan onto a serving plate.  Let it sit for about 30 seconds and cool off, then throw the currents and feta top. Mix it in a little bit.  Serve.

Beef cheek filling

You’ll need:

1Kg of trimmed beef cheek,
1 Onion, diced,
1 Carrot, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced,
1 leek, diced,
2 bay leaves,
10 black peppercorns, whole,
a handfull of thyme,
1 litre of red wine, and
1 cup of beef stock.

What to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 140 degrees C.
Dice up all the veggies, put them in a caserole with a bit of oil and sweat them down for 15 minutes over low heat on the stove top.
2. add the beef cheek to the pot and brown it off.
3. add the wine, pepper and bay leaves.
Bring the mixture to the boil, then bang it in the oven with the lid on for about 6 hours.
4. The meat should be super tender by this point, but there should be some liquid left. Put the caserole back on the stove top and bash the meat around so its desicated. Simmer until just about all of the liquid is gone. You can add a bit of corn flower if you want to thicken the mixture a bit.

Empanada wrapper

This is just short crust pastry, follow the link if you’re not up on the ins and outs of short crust. Assuming you’ve made the dough continue on:

1. Raise the oven temp to 180.

2. Roll out the dough quite thin and cut out circles of dough. I use a glass with a wide mouth, something a bit bigger than an egg ring is fine.

2. Put a small dollop of the filling in the middle, not too much or it will just disintergrate. Then fold it up into a little pillow and fold the edges over to seal it up. repeat until you’ve run out of dough or filling.

3. Put all the empanadas on a baking tray and cook for about 15-20 minutes. At 5 minutes into the cooking brush them with egg wash, then again at about 5 mins to go.

4. Eat them nice and hot with a good quality oloroso sherry.

I was lucky enough to get a seat at a couple of very good master classes last week.  Put on by the Australian Sommeliers Association and the Spanish Trade Commission, there were two sessions complete with a panel of local and imported personalities and lots of goodies in between the sessions.  A lot of work had obviously gone into setting up these tastings, the very nice upstairs room at Comme was the location and a number of hard to get wines where flown in from Spain. A lot of support from all the major importers as well.

Apart from the wine there were a number of good Spanish things to munch on, cheese, olives, bread etc.  But the real standout was the Jamon Iberico from Broadway Gourmet.  I think I ate about half a kilo of the stuff, so I feel qualified to say that this particular Jamon is the best I have had in Australia, really well flavored and textured, impossible to pass up. It not avilable at retail in Melbourne yet, so you'll have to go to Movida to try some.

On to the tastings.  The first session was titled "The New Spain" and was intended to show modern styles of white and red wines from a number of regions in Spain, as well as some classic sherries.  The second tasting was all about Tempranillo from three regions: Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Toro. I'll write that up separately. Each tastings had a panel of 5 up the front, including Jose Ramon Calvo from the renowned Mugaritz restaurant in San Sabasitan.  Each section started with a bit of background and history from Jose Ramon and Raúl Moreno Yagüe from SOS (now moving on to Vue de Monde), then a few comments from the rest of the panel.

There was some real contrast between the Aussie members of the panel (coming from more an Aussie/International point of view), Jose Ramon with a Spanish/European perspective and Raul with a bit of both. Some healthy debate and outlandish comments always makes for an interesting afternoon.  For me, the main benefit of the tasting was seeing some different styles and the interest from the crowd in many of these wines.  As with most of these things, there is never enough time for a full discussion.  As usual for tastings, this is just  my basic view of the wines without scores.

The New Spain

The panel consisted of  Tim White, Raúl Moreno Yagüe, Jose Ramon, Kate McIntyre and Max Allen.   3 brackets of wines, with a set of whites up front.  I was lazy and only took notes on those wines I haven't already tasted.

Flight 1: Whites

A good intro from Jose Ramon on how to drink Albarino, drink unwooded wines in their second year only, up to five years for wooded.  Max Allen had a quick chat about the history of white wine in Spain.

1. Albarino Fefinanes III ano, 2003, Rias Baixas (Barrel fermented Albarino): gun smoke, stone fruit, melon, light honey apricot.  Bright and fresh with apple, pear, light grapefruit minerals and apricot.  I like this a lot, the best wine of the non-sherries.

2. Valminor Albarino, 2005, Rias Brixas.  Lovely as always, a very good bottle at the right temperature.  Good contrast to the 1st wine

3. Belondrade y Lurton, 2004, Rueda (Barrel fermented Verdejo): I found this very interested but it was widely canned as being too international by the aussie members of the panel.  I like it, it’s very different for Spain and yes does have a bit of a worked chardonnay feel to it.  Nuts toast, butter, cashews and melon.

Flight 2: 4 red wines from 4 regions

1. Domino de Tere 'Pago 3', 2002, Bierzo (Mencia): earth, aniseed, coffee, chocolate.  Light and smooth with red cherry and blue fruits.  I thought it was ok, seemed to be well received by the panel with lots of talk of Cabernet Franc.

2. Bodegas Pirineos 'Marbore', 2003, DO Somontano (Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Moristel, and Parraleta): pepper, spice, earth, red and blue fruits, mint, herbs.  Red juby fruits, rosemary, plum, blueberry, tart sour finish. Long.  A really interesting wine, very intellectual, but not great drinking for me.

3. Pasanau 'Finca la Planeta', 2002, Priorat (Cabernet Sauignon): Sweet red and blue fruits, herbs, earth and rocks, violets.  Plum raspberry, grainy tannins, loads of acid, fruitcake and a long finish.  Very surprising, I liked this a lot but can't help thinking that it would be more interesting with some Garnacha in it.

4. Olivares Monastrell Dulce, 2003, Jumillia: Raisins, varnish.  Grapey, muscatels, aniseed, cinnamon and extremely strong tea.  I'm starting to come around to the style, but probably not well placed in this group.

Flight 3: Sherries

1. Alvear Amontillado, Montilla Moriles: Honey almonds, orange rind and spice.  burnt caramel, bitter oranges and more almonds.  I like this too, managed to grab a bottle for further investigation

2. Romate Oloroso "la Sacristia' VORS: Jerez: almost honey, some roasted nuts, and rancio characters.  Tangy salty, dry and nutty in the mouth.  Very good.

3. Lustau VOS Oloroso, Jerez: Something wrong with this, its all onions cooked in balsamic vinegar with old fish.  Should have been great, but drinks like its been open too long.

4. Gonzalez Byass Oloroso 1964:  A real marvel.  Good vanilla ice-cream, smoke, very fresh and complex.  Think of very good, smooth single malt and you've got it.  Huge length.  Wine of the tasting for me.

You will need: 

• Mussels. As many as you want to eat.  If you have 4 or more people 1Kg is a good size for tapas.
• 1 cup of bechamel (or white) sauce. I use the aussie version: butter, flour, bay leaf, pepper and onion.  Many Spanish recipes use olive oil, garlic, onion, parsley, and a little nutmeg. 
• egg beaten and bread crumbs for coating
• Olive oil for frying and finishing

How to make it: 

Steam the mussels and remove the cooked meat, saving the best shells.  Make the bechamel and leave it to chill so that it becomes hard.  Put a spoonful of bechamel over each mussel so that cover the bug and fill the seashell. Coat the top of the shell with egg and breadcrumbs and shallow fry the top half of shell.  throw the completed mussels on a plate with a bit of salad and drizzle with olive oil.

There are a couple of variations on the theme: add a small slice of jamon on top before crumbing (my favourite), add some grated cheese to the top and give it a quick grill after frying, and finally add some mild blue cheese to the bechamel for some extra funky flavours.

I find manzanilla is perfect with this dish, but an albarino with some good acid would go down a treat.

You will need:

• 1.5 kg of Lamb shoulder, preferably de-boned and rolled;
• A hand full of fresh thyme leaves;
• 2 teaspoons of smoke paprika;
• 2 gloves of garlic;
• 2 teaspoons of rock salt;
• the juice of 2 lemons; and
• a glug of olive oil.

Putting it together: 

I leave the thyme leaves on their stalks and just cut it into small pieces, but you can pick them off if you don't like the look of the woody bits.  Put everything but the meat, oil and juice into a mortar and pestle and grind it up.  It doesn't need to be finely ground, just well mixed and the thyme leaves bashed up a bit.  Add the lemon juice to form a paste.  Add enough oil to turn the paste into a runny mixture.  Coat the meat in the marinate, if you have a rolled shoulder try to stuff some of the mixture into the centre of the roll.  Let it marinate for at least two hours, over night is better.

I find the ol' webber does a good job of slow cooking this type of stuff.  2.5 to 3 hours on medium heat or until the centre of the roll is about 65-70 degrees.  Let is sit for 5 minutes somewhere warm and then carve up.  Serve with a good red from Ribera del Duero.