We were looking for Cabrito Asado, roasted goat, so on the advice of Jose Luis who runs Hotel de Villa de Abalos where we are staying, we made a booking at Meson Chuchi about half an hour away in Fuenmayor. And it didn’t disappoint. There is a much more famous and up market Asador in Fuenmayor, Asador Alameda, that is also excellent for lunch, but that Cabrito at Chuchi is said to be the best around.

One of the great wine and food matches available in La Rioja is Cabrito Asado and a Gran Reserva from La Rioja. In this case we chose Bodegas Muga Prado Enea 2000. While not the best vintage of this wine, it has all the classic characters: pine resin, soft wood notes, plenty of fruit but savoury overall. It was a perfect match with the goat. The wine list here is quite good, lots of options from La Rioja including big name modern wines like Benjmin Romeo and Artadi to classics like Riojanas and C.U.N.E.. The list doesn’t have vintages on it, just ask and they will be more than happy to let you know. When we ordered the Prado Enea 2000, a number of other wines of better vintages (1995 or 2001) where also offered, which is very handy if you don’t know your Rioja vintages.

Of course it would be uncivilised to jump straight to the goat, so some artichokes with jamon and garlic to start with, which were ok, then some excellent Morcilla de Burgos, blood sausage. Then out comes the goat, a whole leg for my plate. A whole head of garlic (which I did eat) and a potato (which I didn’t find room for), thats about it. Needless to say, no dinner for me that night!

I will let the photos do the rest of the talking, needless to say Meson Chuchi is highly recommended. Closed on Wednesday nights and generally for a week in September. Phone: +34 941 450 422 or book at www.mesonchuchi.com

Amelibia is my favourite place to eat in the old walled town of Laguardia. We ate here a couple of times on our last trip and were very keen to get back and see what’s new. It’s a small restaurant (just 12 tables) that overlooks the vineyards and across to the Cantabrian mountain range. Laguardia is just about the last outpost of Euskadi, or Basque country, and as such the food here is a good mix of Basque food and traditional Riojan food. So you will have a menu that has things like kokotxas pil pil (throat of hake in an olive oil and garlic emulsion, a very Basque dish) and rabo de vaca al tinto vino (oxail in red wine, a typically Riojan dish).

Most importantly, the wine selection is excellent. Mostly made up of local producers from Laguardia (and there are many), plus selections from around Rioja, with a few other things like Cava and sherry in there as well. We went with Artadi Vinas de Gain 2006, which has soften over the past year and is even more silky and fragrant than my last tasting. Still, there is nice line and length with a firm backbone of acid, it coped with my very fatty main with ease.

These guys offer modern interpretations of traditional classics, so your oxtail has no bones and is wrapped in what looks to me to fried rice paper. Excellent quality ingredients are used here, including the great fresh produce of La Rioja. Today we had a carpaccio of bacalao, very thin slices salt cod over a base of aioli with oil, chilli flakes and chives, and some mixed vegetables with jamon and garlic to start with. For mains we had the excellent Rabo de Vaca and a dish of deboned pork knuckle and foie gras. The pork knuckle that had been slow cooked and shaped into a cube, with a big hunk of foie in between. Very decadent.

Pork knuckle and foie

Then there is dessert. Ultra dense chocolate mousse with Maldon salt and olive oil…sounds weird, tastes like chocolate on steroids! The salt brings out the chocolate flavour and intensifies it. This is going on high rotation at home!

Another bonus is that they are open on Mondays (someone has to!), so they are closed Tuesdays instead. Also closed Sunday to Wednesday for dinner. Booking essential in peak seasons, highly recommended at other times. Ph: +34 945 62 12 07

A glass of manzanilla and some boquerones (white anchovies) was just the thing much on while I flipped through the wine list. The guys have one of the broadest lists of Spanish wines getting around, lots of different stuff from all over Spain, plus good stuff from Chile, Argentina and Portugal. While that was impressive, the stand out of the day was the new scallop and morcilla dish that’s in the running for the best thing I’ve eaten this year, and that includes a couple of weeks in Spain. Four little stacks of scallop and morcilla with the thinnest pastry envelope of creamy, yogurhty goodness, plus some finely chopped cauliflower sprinkled over the top. All that on a bed of braised cabbage. The piquillo peppers stuffed with salt cod were rock’n too. Definitely worth getting up at 4am to catch the plane for.

Rustic, raw and a bit wild (in a good way) on the nose, sappy plums and darker cherry show through with a bit of earthy undergrowth. Savoury and earthy, as opposed to sweet and sunny. Fresh and ready to go, there’s some lush tannins that lend texture and softness, with enough acid to keep it fresh. A nice long finish too.  More plummy goodness on the palate, very savoury with a touch of spice and cinnamon with some cherry after a bit of air time. A good homage to the joven style. 87 Pts.

Source: Crittenden Estate Cost: $28 Closure:Screwcap

Actually, it’s too big for just one street, it’s more of an area of the old part of town. The streets are lined with small bars, each place specialising in one thing. Most places will serve a range of food and drinks, while some just serve the one tapa with some beer and wine.  You can come for lunch or dinner, but the important thing to remember is to stop in, have a drink and a snack, chat with the locals (even if you don’t know any Spanish!) and move on to the next place. For the full experience, turn up on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday night at around 9:30pm and bring your sense of fun. The streets will be full (and I mean full) of all kinds of people: whole families, young punks, famous winemakers and gitanos (gypsies).

The tourist office in Logroño (in the big square at the top of the old town) puts out an excellent little book of who does what, and everything is on offer: pigs ears, mushrooms, top level jamon, pork, artichokes, seafood and tripe. The same goes for drinks, anything goes: from very top end red wines from Rioja to a glass of water. if you want the small beers that the locals are drinking, ask for a corto. A larger beer is a caña (pronounced ‘can ya’).  The thing that makes the food here special is the produce, it’s fresh and full of flavour.  Here are a couple of my favorites: 

Bar El Sabas: Famous for the Tortilla de patata, and it is very good. Choose from a couple of different versions, salt cod is my pick. They also have a good list of wines, one of the better ones on the strip. Calle Albornoz, 7.

Taberna de Correos: This little joint at Calle San Augustin, 8, specialises in skewers of Iberian pork cooked over wood and drizzled with a honey reduction. Ask for La Pluma to order these.

Bar Plan B: Another on Calle San Agustin (No. 41), this one specialises in Foie, the best one is Foie al Pedro Ximenez washed down with a glass of young red wine. Amazing stuffNot everyone gets this one. I go here for the Esparrago frito, white asparagus wrapped in ham and cheese, then battered and deep fried.On Calle Laurel

La Universidad:These guys are the pulpo (octopus) kings on the street. Go in for Pulpo a la Gallega and a beer. Travesia del Laurel.

Bar El Soriano: This is the best of the best. It must be one of the most popular and smallest bars on the strip. So simple but oh so good. It’s a couple of mushrooms drowned in garlic oil, with a tiny prawn on top and a bit of bread on the bottom. To look like a real local, don’t eat the bread. All of this with a corto will cost you 1 euro. There is a guy here who always tells me it’s the best tapas bar in the world…he may just be right. Oposite La Universidad.

The idea isn’t to write tasting notes, but to try and find the best wine match with roast chicken. But as there is no real score and, well, its not really a challenge, I’ll choose my favourate from the year in December and nominate that as the winner.

This week it was a simple roast chook (smashed garlic, rosemary and a lemon up the date, oil, salt and pepper on the skin and into the oven) with some Coliban potatoes and green beans. The wine for the night was a white burgundy: Oliver Leflaive Chassagne Montrachet 2005. Now I tend to think that village white burgundy and roast chicken are a combination made in heaven, and this was not far off.

The wine is still quite young and fresh with plenty of acid to cut through that salty chicken wing, but with the body to deal with the lean breast meat. Well balanced and just the right level of flavour and body to suit the mild flavour of the La Ionica 1.8Kg chicken (we normally buy a 1.4Kg organic free range bird, but a jetlag induced sleep-in keeped us from the butcher til 1pm on Saturday). There is some smoky/caramelly oak in there that really sets off the flavour in the chicken too. Just coming into the start of its drinking window, this 2005 looks much better than it did this time last year and has changed my mind on this vintage for white burgundy (at this level anyway). Overall a good start to the roast chicken season.

This is the simplest, the others vary from slowly oven roasting a whole garlic (which I highly recommend), cooking the meat in the whiskey, and making the sauce ahead of time and refrigerating overnight (ok, but not great). The sauce is also put over Tortilla de Patatas as well.

What you’ll need:

• 3 cloves of garlic, finely sliced.
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 15g butter
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon whiskey
• 1 tablespoon of beef stock
• 5 or 6 small and very thinly sliced bits of pork loin (think schnitzel thickness)

What to do:

Put the oil in a pan and gently cook the garlic until it’s mushy. Add in the butter, lemon juice, whiskey and stock. Stir it up so the garlic is mashed up and gives the sauce a bit of thickness. Keep the heat fairly low and cook it for 15 minutes until it’s reduced, you may need to take it off the heat every now and then if things get too hot. Add salt and pepper if you think it needs it (it usually doesn’t).

While the sauce is reducing heat a frying pan until it’s super hot. Throw in the pork and cook it for 30 seconds, then straight into the sauce. If you prepared the sauce ahead of time, add it and pork to a super hot pan for 1 minute. Plate it up straight away with some bread.

I’ve tried all types of sherry with this, I like it with manzanilla as it cuts through the fatty sauce, but most Sevillianos drink oloroso.

BTW the photo was taken at one of the meat markets in Sevilla, note the ‘Cerdo Iberico’ sign. (a bad photo with my old point and shoot Canon…the only slightly pork related photo I had handy)

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.