Tag Team Tapas (Part Two)

Part Two of the Tapas was not only inspired by the hot April Weather but also by a top-drawer tip to Birmingham the weekend after the Easter weekend. With the Dogg on a kind of holiday of her own for the preceding three weeks, in addition to the Birmingham Trip I had taken in some epic nights out, tea at new Pizza Restaurant, Curry, a frame or two of Snooker and the evening do of a wedding of two awesome people.

The Birmingham Trip saw me hook up with some close friends for a meal and plenty of pool as well as a night out that ended in the local branch of a Walkabout. The morning after that night out, April 9th I believe, one of my friends and I took in some Spanish Tapas at a bar in Grand Central by the Train Station. One Tapas dish contained meatballs and it was this dish that gave me the recipe idea on the blog today.

The ingredients were as follows:

Two New Potatoes sliced narrowly length ways.
Two Cloves of Garlic, topped, tailed and diced.
A tin of Chick Peas drained.
One Onion topped, tailed, peeled and finely sliced.
One Red Pepper de-cored, de-seeded and sliced into small squares.
Two Tomatoes cut into cubes.
A teaspoon of Paprika
A teaspoon of Dried Thyme.
A teaspoon of Dried Oregano.
A teaspoon of Tomato Puree.
A quarter of a pint of White Wine.
Eight Vegetarian, no this isn't a joke, Meatballs.
Four strips of Vegetarian Bacon.

On the player was another Captain Beefheart Record; this time "Trout Mask Replica". It is considered not only his best but one of the best albums ever and has even found itself subject to an order preserving it in the United States' National Archives. In truth it's an acquired taste but one that is worth taking time to acquire for the record to reveal its charms.

The first job was to shallow fry, in my Le Cresceut in Olive Oil, the New Potatoes, the Chickpeas and the Garlic. I did this on a medium heat for around fifteen minutes.

Then I added the Onion, Red Pepper, Tomatoes, Spices and Herbs and Tomato Puree, stirred them in and sweated them for another fifteen minutes.

After that I added the wine, which for those wine lovers among you was a light New Zealand number called Wairau Cove that was a Sauvingnon Blanc, the Meatballs and Vegetarian Bacon. I then stewed everything a further fifteen minutes.

The end result was a stew that was not overly runny and had plenty of richness with tangy spices. Although it was a stew it wasn't overly heavy, in light of the extremely hot weather, and evoked memories of old adventures to the Canary Islands and new and wonderful adventures to Birmingham nearly two weeks earlier.

Stew up- this Meatball Stew was a pretty fair approximation of the quality stew I had in Birmingham previously.