Homemade Tapas

After our Sangria and tapas fest at Xunta, M and I made arrangements to have a lazy Friday night. We'd cook and watch a chick flick.

I got it into my head that even though we just had tapas, it would be fun and easy to to make our own tapas. Miraculously that turned out to be true.


It all started because I just wanted to have more Bacon Wrapped Dates. I picked up some good thick, smoked bacon from Whole Foods. M's an old hat at bacon-wrapped delights, so she took the lead on this front.

We didn't have time to soak the skewers, so they are a bit crispy. If I do these for the holiday party though, I'll have to make sure to soak them.

These we just baked in the oven. We lined a baking sheet with aluminum foil and popped a cooling rack on top of it before throwing the wrapped dates on top.


We didn't stop the bacon fiesta with dates though. The scallops were too big to get the bacon all the way around, or maybe we cut the bacon slices too small. Either way, it turned out okay. I started these on a grill pan before transferring to the oven, so that the bacon could finish cooking.


Part of the goal was to clean out some odds and ends in the refrigerator. These Bacon Wrapped Enoki skewers are more yakitori than tapas, but we're Asian-Americans, so we're allowed to put a little fusion onto our dinner tables. The rest of you are wannabe frauds.


Also in the theme of clean out the fridge are these avocado chunks from one very ripe avocado. At least a quarter of it had to go in the trash. These were just tossed in olive-oil, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

We remade the Garlic Shrimp. My garlic is a little old. You can see there are the beginnings of green shoots just begging to be given the opportunity to grow up. Honestly, little garlic, a fate ended with olive oil, red pepper flakes, and some shrimp isn't the worst way to go. You could have ended up at the Stinking Rose in San Francisco, a garlic-themed restaurant that rumor has it was once worthy of the title restaurant but had already lost the right to claim such a mantle ten years ago, which was the one and only time I've let the establishment be graced with my esteemed presence.

So a confession, I cheated on the shrimp. There were these pre-shelled, deveined and skewered shrimp at Whole Foods, and since the theme of the evening was fun and easy, I caved and purchased them rather than be bothered with shelling and deveining. I don't mind shelling because my Chinese mommy raised me up right and taught me to go from the underbelly between the legs, but I know of no shortcut to the stickiness and general monotony of deveining.

Then because I believe in heavy cream and because I love the Cajun Shrimp at Cha Cha Cha's in Haight and Ashbury in San Francisco, I took a stab at it myself. Armed with a jar of one of Chef Paul Prudhomme's Magic Seasoning Blends (yes, more sacrilegious acts) and some butter and olive oil and heavy cream, this turned out to be our favorite. Can't imagine why.

Then because KM gifted me with an entire package of chorizo leftover from her Sausage Party, I decided to saute in olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes some sliced chorizo, extra dates along with some cinnamon and cloves.

The dates got a bit burnt. Perhaps next time it would be worth giving them a brief soak in some sort of wine or liquor. The chorizo browned nicely though, and it was so darn easy, I don't think I'll give up on this dish just yet. Besides, I have three more chorizo links to work through.

To this we added some chicken Caesar salad from the Whole Foods salad bar. I know, the shame of pre-bought salad. What part of fun and easy do you not understand?

We toasted up some baguette that M drizzled with olive oil and rubbed with garlic. That with some leftover homemade olive bread made me really glad that I had changed into my loosest pair of jeans.

The chick flick of the night? Sex and the City. A little difficult to watch tiny SJP prance around Manhattan, while we sat in the same city on a comfy couch with rotund bellies, but we managed all right in the end.