Gazpacho

Determined to get beach-body ready (it will happen this year, it definitely will, it must) I have given up carbs... during the week... after 4pm (baby steps people!). In actual fact i've pretty much not eaten carbs so far this week at all apart from some noodles on Tuesday, but I'm not missing them that much. I'm allowing myself carbs on weekends because i'm not the sort of person who has enough will power to give something up entirely and I know i'll just crave them if I can't have them at all so weekends will be cheat days. 

It's making me more adventurous in the kitchen and i'm having to think of meals that I wouldn't normally make. God, I miss pasta, how easy is it?! So I thought I'd share with you my carb-free meals as I go. First up this week is Gazpacho, the spanish classic which is perfect for a hot summers day and is actually much more filling than you'd expect. This is a cold soup but is so tasty! 

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

1 kilo ripe tomatoes
1 green pepper
3/4 of a cucumber (peeled)
1 spanish onion
1 clove of garlic
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons of vinegar (red or white wine)
Salt
1 boiled egg (optional)

1. Roughly chop the tomatoes, pepper, 1/2 the cucumber, 1/2 the onion and the garlic. Leave a small amount of the green pepper aside.

2. Put the chopped vegetables into a blender or use a hand whisk and blend until there are no chunks of vegetables left and it is liquidy. 

3. Add the olive oil, vinegar (do this one tablespoon at a time and taste, if you want more add to taste) and salt. Mix together. 

4. Chop a small amount of cucumber, green pepper, onion and boiled egg and sprinkle over gazpacho.

Rioja Tapas Fantasticas, London

Last weekend, on a nice grey day in London I headed to the Rioja Festival on the Southbank. The best Tapas and Rioja all in one place without having to jet off to Spain? Heaven. For £3.50 you got 4 tokens to sample wines, then you paid extra for the tapas. As much as I would have loved to try all the food - and there were some amazing looking pinxos - our budget did not extend that far unfortunately! 

I tried to keep track of all the Rioja we tried but in the end there were far too many! I love a strong hearty red so I tended to try Reserva or Gran Reserva. Here are some of the snaps I managed to take. 

Chorizo a la Sidre - succulent and bursting with flavour - definitely trying this at home!

Calamares from El Cantara - delicious but for £4.50 could have done with a few more!!

We ended up buying 2 bottles of the Taron Reserva - delicious and not bad at the price of £10 per bottle. 

It was a great event and it was interesting to see how many restaurants there are in London that I haven't heard of or been to before. I think they'll definitely be worth a try. If you want a full listing of all the restaurants and bodegas that were at the event click here.

More than anything else this has made me excited for my holiday to Spain later this summer! I'll certainly be filling my glass with as much rioja as possible.

La Plaza - The Best Tapas In London?

Calamares

I love Spanish food and living in Spain for a year only fuelled my passion more. I’ve had difficulty finding really decent tapas in the UK, I hate hate hate La Tasca – completely unauthentic tapas and tiny portions with a large price tag (for what you get!) and other more pretentious venues seem to offer little of those homely, hearty dishes that really opitimise the Spanish cuisine. For some reason people seem to rave about Barrafina in Soho, London – I don’t get it. I’m not claiming to be an expert but I think it has tried to turn tapas into a fancy dining experience in order to charge extortionate prices. Also, since when was Tortilla Española that runny?! What’s that about?

Now, dear readers, I’m going to offer you a piece of my London Tapas Bar wisdom – La Plaza, Portobello Road is the best Spanish food I’ve come across in the UK and is affortable! It is the most unassuming and unspectacular restaurant in terms of the venue but it is so típico with people sitting at the bar with a ración and the TV on in the background. I’ve never been in there when there’s not a crowd of Spaniards chatting away – and that’s a good sign if ever there was one isn’t it?

Pulpo A La Gallega (above)
Patatas Bravas (below)

Last week I decided to go again, for research purposes of course! The trouble I face now is limiting my order; it’s all so good! If you’re a vegetarian it probably isn’t the best place – but then tapas in general are very meat and seafood based so you probably already know that. They have vegetarian offerings but not an extensive menu. We had 6 dishes between 4 people, they were all finished but we couldn’t have eaten anymore.

We went for the classics like Patatas Bravas, which are soft and delicious with a spicy pepper sauce – ask for them with ‘dos salsas’ and they’ll come with Alioli too (my favourite). The Calamares were crisp, not rubbery and very, very tasty. There’s always that fear with Calamares that they’re going to arrive chewy, oily and soft – that is not how they should be.

Pork is a Spanish staple and we had the pork marinated in paprika (forgive me, I can’t remember the name) and served with potatoes. Very succulent, juicy and completely moreish. They serve two pork dishes, one with potatoes and one without – so if you feel slightly overloaded with carbs you can opt for the other one.

Pork

Pulpo a la Gallega (octopus) I find is a love or hate thing. Generally it’s the texture people can’t get on with. I can’t pretend that this one is so wonderful that you will definitely love it but if you’re going to try it then make sure it’s at La Plaza. A dish from Galicia in Northern Spain, Pulpo a la Gallega is octopus seasoned with paprika and salt and served on potatoes. Delicious when done right. Our dining companions weren’t too keen but if you don’t mind the texture of octopus then you’ll probably quite enjoy it.

A plate of Chicken wings and some Tortilla later we were finished and washed it all down with a bottle of red and a huge glass of Tinto de Verano (red wine with Fanta Lemon or Lemonade). This is a simple affair and if you’re looking for fine dining this isn’t the place for you but if you want good, authentic Spanish cooking with lively atmosphere and friendly staff then give it a go – you won’t be disappointed.

La Plaza, 74 Tavistock Rd, London W11 1AN