Spanish rice with lobster

Arroz con bogavante

 This is a traditional dish from the Balearic Islands of Mallorca and Menorca in the Mediterranean but its popularity has extended throughout the Mediterranean Coast. A fishermen's dish, it is made with either warm water lobster (langosta) or cold water lobster (bogavante). The difference is that cold water lobsters have claws.
The rice can be cooked with different ratios of rice to fumet (fish stock). "Caldoso" rice contains more liquid and "meloso" has some liquid while "seco" describes rice that has absorbed all the stock).
By Tapas Together Edinburgh.

Fried pork Castilian style

Cochifrito

The term originally referred to small, fried parts of a pig. It derives its name from the word cochi, short for cochino or pig and frito, which describes something that is fried. In this recipe it is fried with olive oil, garlic, vinegar, basil, rosemary, bay leaves, and spearmint. This rural dish is served hot As the saying said "Pork is more likely to produce Christian converts than the Spanish Inquisition".
By Tapas Together Edinburgh

Cobblestone

Empedrat
  This is a traditional Catalan dish. Its literal translation would be: cobblestone; meaning done with stones. A funny name for a salad made of white beans and cod.
Mongeta del Ganxet is a type of bean is from Catalonia and is very well known. Creamy, soft smooth skin, make this bean a great success During the preparation of the dish, the salted cod is ripped and then marinated.
By Tapas Together Edinburgh

Cod of the monks style Alcantara

Bacalao al modo del convento de Alcántara

A mission of the Napoleonic troops was invading Portugal, and there destroying the unwavering ally of England. In 1807 at the beginning of the campaign of Portugal, French troops come to the monastery of Alcantara (Extremadura). The recipe book of the San Benito monastery was found during the looting of the library, which contained this recipe along with others. This recipe arrived in the hands of General Junot, who sent it to his wife Laura Permon (Duchess of Abrantes). She was who disclosed it along France, and arriving at the famous French chef Auguste Escoffier who mentioned that book was one of the best trophies of war.
By Tapas Together Edinburgh

Moorish pork kebab

Pincho moruno
The influence of the Moors on the cuisine of Andalucia is very apparent, and no more so than with these kebabs, which are almost Middle Eastern in their use of spices. Pincho moruno roughly means Moorish mouthfuls impaled on a thorn or skewer. Of course, the Moors were Muslims and did not eat pork, so Christian Spain took the Arab seasonings traditionally used on lamb kebabs (qodban) and applied them to their beloved meat. Similar tapa in Ceuta and Mellila, Spanish autonomous cities in North Africa, has tended to be lamb based still, due to the Muslim population.
By Tapas Together Edinburgh

Valencian style paella

Paella valenciana

The Valencians' national dish originated in the country outside the city, and it was the agricultural workers who were the first to make a fire in the fields at lunchtime and cook rice in a flat pan. They added what they could find to the pan. They cooked snails and vegetables with the rice; on special occasions rabbit, and later chicken, was added.
By Tapas Together Edinburgh

Beef Meatballs and cuttlefish

Albóndigas de ternera con sepia

Mar i Muntanya are typical Catalan dishes where sea and land flavours combine to perfection. As in this course, the ingredients are not at all exotic in themselves, the art lies in how they are combined. Legend has it that the marriage of a shepherd with a siren gave birth to the "Sea & Mountains" regional recipes, and that could be believable because this kind of combination used to be part of the weeding menus. 
By Tapas Together Edinburgh

Potatoes with Asturian blue cheese

Patatas al Cabrales

Asturias is the cheese centre of Spain. Over 40 officially registered varieties of cheese are produced by several hundred small-scale family business in this mountain region which still inhabited by bears. Queso de Cabrales is the only one to have name for itself far beyond the boundaries of Asturias. Unpasteurized cow milk is mixed with varying quantities of goat and sheep milk. Cabrales obtains its characteristic blue veining in the limestone caves. These natural maturing chambers, which were created thousands of years ago, are evenly ventilated throughout the year by cool winds which blow though the porous stone.
By Tapas Together Edinburgh

Castilian garlic soup

Sopa de ajo

Garlic, together with bread and olive oil, is part of the trio that forms the foundation of Spanish cuisine. There are many cuisines in Spain but they all have one thing in common: garlic. On average, every Spaniard eats over 1,5 kg per year Sopa de ajo is a very old, peasant-style dish and is typical of the Castile Regional Cuisine, where the winters are cold and soups and stews are eaten daily. Castilla is the "land of bread" and it is bought fresh daily. However, a Spanish cook would never serve it stale, so this recipe is a good way to use any stale bread that is left over from yesterday’s meals
By Tapas Together Edinburgh

Galician turnover

Empanada gallega

Empanadas are large turnovers that originated in Galicia and can be considered the first take away of the history. It is said that even in the XII century, pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela had already heard of empanadas and asked for them by name. Since they are an easy meal for a traveler to take with them, and empanadas are filling and tasty, this makes perfect sense. This turnover was even immortalized in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. If a hungry pilgrim eats an empanada there, it is said that the pleasure he feels will last for all eternity.
By Tapas Together Edinburgh

Cantabrian Mountain Stew

Cocido montañes

This stew is typical from Cantabria, a region in the North of Spain. It is different from the other famous Spanish stews (as madrileño” or “maragato”) as it does not have chickpeas. It is made with white beans instead, which are accompanied with cabbage. According to some researches, the origin of this recipe was in the 17th century. It was cooked to fight against the cold and wet climate in the mountains of Cantabria. The rest of the elements of this recipe are known with the Spanish name of “compango”, which refers to the meat ingredients. 
By Tapas Together Edinburgh

Sobrassada on Quely biscuits

Quelitas de sobrasada

Quely biscuits date back to the 18th century to Balearic sailing companies who required food that could be stored for long periods of time. Pigs have been in the Balearic Islands for 7000 years and its famous national sausage, Sobrassada, came into existence essentially as a compromise with the weater. The air of the islands has to much humidity for ham to be air-dried. However, the climate and the local type of capsycum, used to preserve the meat, do allow a unique, soft-textured sausage to be made.
By Tapas Together Edinburgh

Murcian tomato salad

Ajotomate

Murcia is a region in SE Spain, on the Mediterranean coast, where tomatoes are a major crop. At the end of the 19th century the confused author of the Vienna food encyclopedia reported "In Spain they even eat tomatoes raw by cutting them down the middle horizontally and then sprinkling salt on both halves" This custom seemed very exotic to the author. It was thought at that time that tomatoes must be cooked for at least three hours before they could could be eaten, because it had a reputation for being poisonous.
By Tapas Together Edinburgh

Trout with serrano ham

Trucha a la navarra

The trout Navarre style, like so many traditional popular dishes, was born of necessity. Hundreds of year ago, cooking oil was a luxury in the mountainous country of the Pyrenees, lard or bacon fat was mostly used for cooking. Trout were also cooked using pork fat, in the time of plenty a little lean of ham was added, for there is no doubt that the flavor of an air-dried "jamón serrano" and the tender flesh of mountain trout are a perfect combination.
By Tapas Together Edinburgh

Baby squids in its own ink

Chipirones en su tinta

Baby squid with garlic, tomato, white wine, olive oil and its own ink ends up in a deep black dish, which is the equivalent of going to one of those restaurants where you are served your food in darkness and have the slightly dubious pleasure of trying to work out what you are eating. However the ink in this Basque dish gives a deliciously oily richness and startling appearance, yet the flavor is surprisingly subtle.
By Tapas Together Edinburgh

Beans with clams

Fabes con amasueles

The fabada is the flagship of Asturian cooking, although it has never aspired to be haute cuisine. The film director Luis Buñuel is alleged to have once said "This is a dish that was discovered by a nation of hungry people". Only in recent decades has this dish become more widely acceptable.
By Tapas Together Edinburgh

Catalonian roasted vegetable salad

Escalivada

Occasionally people refer to escalivada as a Catalonian version of ratatouille, since it's made with aubergines, tomatoes, onions and peppers, but it's not the same. Here the overrinding flavour comes from the smoky taste of vegetables tha t were traditionally left to roast in the host embers of a wood fire. Escalivar in Catalan is a verb that means to cook in hot ashes. Mountain shepherds were adept at packing their rucksacks with some cheese and wine and building a hardwood fire near a revetment of their sheeps pasture where they could grill a medley of vegetables.
By Tapas Together Edinburgh

Slow-braised chicken with fresh and dried red peppers

Pollo al chilindrón

The valley of the river Ebro, flowing from Navarre though Aragon to the west, is know not only for its wonderful vegetables but also as the "Chilindrón area", everyday stews of chicken or lamb braised with a lots of dried and fresh peppers with tomato, onion and garlic. Chilindrón could almost be described as the Spanish equivalent of a curry, so this dish is a celebration of pimentón picante. (Hot paprika)
By Tapas Together Edinburgh

Stew of mixed summer vegetables

Menestra

Ribera de Ebro in Navarre is the centre of one of the best vegetable-producung areas in Spain. Not just vegetable gardens, they are also works of art, dotted with beatiful old lodges. The artichekes the star of the menestra is stewed, and turn the dish esmerald green. This happens to artichokes if there's enough magnesium in the local water.
By Tapas Together Edinburgh

Madrid-style tripe

Callos a la madrileña

Callos a la Madrileña, or Madrid-style tripe is a dish with humble origins, like so many, as tripe it's always been an inexpensive ingredient. We know that it's been consumed since the 15th century, based on the so called "wastes" of beef. callos a la madrileña was served in lowly taverns and dinning rooms, but when the luxury restaurant Lhardy included it in its menu it stopped being only a popular dish and its ingredients, considered only for the poor such as pig's snout, trotters and tripe are served alongside finer meats in the most elegant restaurants Madrid.
By Tapas Together Edinburgh