In my last post, a month ago, I mentioned that we had invited our neighbours, Terry and Julie, to join us for a meal. Well we repeated the happy experience only this time including their two children (Esme, who is 11 and Merlin, who is 7). So what do you cook when you are having what is, essentially, a family meal, and yet make it just a little bit out of the ordinary?

We decided on a paella. It’s easy and, as a diner, if you dig around a bit you can soon exclude any bits that don’t please your particular palate. And, having decided on a paella, it was natural we should think about some sort of tapas mixture as a “starter” and a nice fruity sangria to wash it all down with.

For the tapas, we simply used packs of mixed olives and peppers from the local store. We served slices of French saucisson and Spanish chorizo, also from the local supermarket. M-D made her famous tapenade which we spread on thin slices of fresh baguette and we produced two different verrines. (A verrine is a “taster” that can be can be either sweet or savoury, made by layering ingredients in a small glass.)

The verrines we made were stupidly simple. The first was tomato with fresh goat’s cheese. We placed two 400g tins of chopped tomatoes into a pan, crushed in a garlic clove and a bit of salt and freshly ground pepper, then brought it to a gentle rolling boil until all the juice had evaporated and only the pulp was left. This, we left to chill. Once cold, we placed about two teaspoons of the tomato pulp into the bottom of each glass. On top of that we crumbled about 1-1½ teaspoons of fresh goat’s cheese which we had broken up with a fork. Drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil over each and dress with chopped fresh basil – and yummy … lovely as an apperitif or, as we did, with a tapas selection.

The second verrine was crab and soft cheese. We used 2 x 170g tins of White Crab Meat and 150g Boursin Full Fat Soft Cheese with Garlic & Herbs. We drained the crab and placed the meat in a bowl, then we added a tablespoon of finely chopped onion, a tablespoon of chopped chives and a few twists of black pepper. Mix it all together then, as with the tomato, we placed about two teaspoons of the crab into the bottom of each glass. On top of that we crumbled about 1-1½ teaspoons of Boursin which we had broken up with a fork (any full fat soft cheese will work).

In total, with those ingredients, we made about 20 verrines (10 of each) so, along with the other tapas tasters, we had a good mixture to begin. (Incidentally, we cheat when we make verrines! We don’t have 20 small glasses but we sometimes buy Panna Cotta from Marks & Spencer and then wash the clear plastic containers. They are about 3″ tall and 2″ in diameter, so are perfect for this purpose!)

All of this, of course, was washed down with several decent-sized glasses of sangria which M-D had made three days earlier (it tastes better when it’s prepared in advance). Depending on your guests’ ability to quaff the fruit of the vine, you can change these quantities to suit yourself. This time, there were just four adults but I know that both Terry and I can manage our way to the bottom of the glass without too much difficulty! So we used 3 x 750ml bottles of 14.5% red wine (a rather palitable Bordeaux – 2010 Coteaux du Languedoc called L’Ame des Schistes). The actual recipe is as follows (ingredients below are for 1 litre of red wine. For 4 people, use at least 2 bottles, i.e. 1.5 litre – quantities of fruit etc. can then be adapted accordingly). Since the fruits in particular are going to water down the sangria, the wine used should be at least 13% volume. Never use the so-called “sangria mixes” to do this recipe, since they are already watered down.

Per 1 litre of wine use…
3 oranges – the juice of one and the other two sliced and cut into wedges
2 lemons – the juice of one and the other one sliced and cut into wedges
2 tablespoons caster sugar
100ml (1 glass) sparkling water
100ml Martini Rosso

Simply pour the wine, the sparkling water, the fruit juices and the Martini into a punch bowl. Add the sugar and slices of fruit. Give it a stir, cover with cling film and store in a cool place. Stir once or twice every day. Taste before serving and add 1 or 2 tablespoons of sugar if necessary (Sangria, however, is used as table wine, so mustn’t be too sweet).

And, yes, we did manage to see our way to the bottom of the punch bowl (all except for a couple of glasses which M-D and I forced ourselves to dispose of the following day!). As if all that alcohol wasn’t enough, for desert we had ice cream with Rumtopf (which has been sitting patiently for 12 months, just waiting for this opportunity!).

All in all, a very pleasant evening!