Spanish Tapas and Zarzuela

The night began with cosmopolitans, and a collection of bottles of various liqueurs and spirits that promised a big night to come. We were spending the evening catching up with friends in Papamoa.
Clare has been clever enough to prepare the two desserts in advance and Jim had been hard at work creating a huge selection of tapas for the adults to eat while the little people ate their home made pizza.

Tapas is one of my favourite ways to eat. I love trying lots of different flavours and textures. Our selection included dishes of prawns, eggplant and zucchini, chilli marinated peppers, fried chorizo, spiced tomato salsa, marinated dried tomatoes, spiced almonds, panchetta and melon, marinated mushrooms and the most amazing goats cheese. Luckily we had no time restrictions (we were staying the night) and I managed to eat A LOT!

The children were coaxed to bed while Jim worked on the main meal 'Zarzuela', a seafood stew with a sauce with onion, garlic, tomatoes, brandy, paprika, chilli, saffron, white wine and fish stock. I was just in time to see Jim and John lighting rum over the base mixture ( a substitute for the brandy). The stew was fantastic with a real depth of flavour in the sauce. The recipe came from Keith Floyd's book - 'Floyd On Spain'.
After the tapas and the Zarzuela I'm sure everyone was full but we still managed to fit in desert - Chocolate Mouse and Keylime Pie - both fantastic accompanied by a far too large glass of dessert wine.

Great food and fantastic company. All worth the sore head I had the next day!

Now...to plan our reciprocal dinner.