Nieves Barragan Mohacho

I’ve just taken delivery of an old cookbook, ‘Barrafina’ by Nieves Barragan Mohacho and Sam & Eddie Hart, originally published in 2011.  I stumbled on a recipe from it in a magazine a while ago, ‘Arrocina beans with Chorizo, Morcilla and pork belly.’  According to Nieves, ‘Many a broken man has been mended at Barrafina after devouring this dish.’  Having made it and demolished it myself along with a group of friends, I can testify to its effectiveness.  So that prompted me to buy the book. 

Now I’m all over ‘Escabeche’ and served up two versions to some old friends down in Fishguard a couple of weeks ago.  Firstly, tuna steaks, quickly seared in a hot pan, raw in the middle, then plunged into the escabeche which is olive oil, moscatel vinegar, garlic and bay leaves, heated through to a gentle simmer, then left to cool.  The fish marinades for about half an hour in this delicious slightly sweet and sour dressing before being served on top of finely sliced piquillo peppers, dressed in olive oil and chives. 

Then secondly, a more complex escabeche, olive oil, vinegar, garlic and bay again, but this time with sage, tarragon, mint, thyme, parsley, rosemary, pine nuts, sultanas, dried apricots and prunes.  Warmed through for about 10 minutes to release all those aromatics then decanted into a bowl.  Next barbeque a couple of spatchcock quail for a couple of minutes each side, before steeping them in the marinade for half an hour.  I served it on top of black beluga lentils, spooning some of the fruits and herbs over each bird. 

Both dishes produced wonderful flavours, complex, delicate and delicious, ‘Escabeche’s a great new discovery which I’m looking forward to getting ‘wedding ready’ at the first opportunity.  Talking of new discoveries, I also want to wax lyrical about the ‘piquillo peppers.’  Weirdly I’ve never used them before, preferring roast red peppers, but not any longer.  The piquillo peppers come in jars, available in most supermarkets I guess, cooked and peeled ready to roll.  They are firmer than the bell peppers and sliced super thinly, produce a lovely texture, especially with all sorts of herbs put through it.  I’ve stocked up on them and already tried them with grilled morcilla and fried quail’s eggs. 

I use the term ‘wedding ready’ because even though we specialise in ‘non-wedding’ food, in other words, dishes you would never expect to be presented with at a wedding, they still need to have that visual edge to them, colour, structure, an honest elegance, without the frippery.  It’s a complex brief and one we take seriously here at Bread and Flowers.  When you’re paying top dollar, you want the results to be beyond expectations. 

If you would like to discuss your wedding food, please contact us