There are two must-have condiments
in every tapas table. With just a loaf
of bread and these two you’ll have the perfect start for a delightful tapas
meal. I’m talking about allioli and tomate rallado! Allioli is a kind of garlic mayonnaise that we use to spread on a
piece of bread and munch on that in between tapas’ bites. Tomate rallado is just grated tomato
accompanied by salt and virgin olive oil.
We spread it on the bread and eat it like that or we use it as a base to
spread some allioli on top. They are really easy to prepare and they help bring
the flavors of the tapas together. They
are sooo simple and sooo good.
Valencia, my region in Spain, is famous for its rice dishes –paella especially- and we use the allioli as a condiment with our rice dishes as well. Sometimes what I’ll do is prepare a paella as the main dish but then serve 3 or 4 small tapas as appetizers, and two of them are always gonna be the allioli and the tomato. Then, I’ll have some bread, some type of cured meat, and some manchego cheese. Everyone likes to dip into them when waiting for the bigger meal to arrive!
Allioli
Here is what you will need.
MATERIALS:
-
Hand blender
-
Blender bowl to mix ingredients
INGREDIENTS:
-
1 garlic clove
-
½ lemon
-
Canola oil
-
1 egg
-
Salt
In Spain I would use sunflower oil cause it
tends to emulsify better than olive oil and it’s cheaper, but here in Ohio I’ve
been using canola oil and it works just as well.
HOW TO PREPARE IT:
1.
Cut the garlic clove in small pieces and add to
the blender bowl.
2.
Add about 1/2 cup of oil, 1 egg, salt, and the
juice of half a lemon.
3.
Blend together without moving the blender. When
it starts to emulsify you can start to add additional oil very slowly up till 1-2 cups. I’ll
typically make about 2 cups of allioli for a 6 person party.
4.
Transfer into a serving bowl and refrigerate
until ready to serve.
Check out this video if you want to see the emulsion happen! It really takes a little over a minute to make homemade allioli
Tomate rallado
Here is what you will need.
MATERIALS:
-
Grater
-
Bowl to serve
INGREDIENTS:
-
2 medium tomatoes
-
Salt
-
Virgin olive oil
I like to buy the big heirloom tomatoes that
actually taste like a tomato. I recently discovered the kumatos. These are kind
of small and more greenish than the heirloom variety but also have a pretty
good taste.
HOW TO PREPARE IT:
1.
Grate the tomatoes in a deep dish
2.
Add salt to taste and garnish with olive oil.
3.
Transfer into a serving bowl and refrigerate
until ready to serve.
Enjoy!!