Preparation

Pickled vegetables, and red pepper curls

For the sachet, wrap all ingredients in cheesecloth and tie with twine.

Boil the water, with sugar, and vinegar, then pour over the rest of the ingredients. Set aside overnight. Then separate the sachet and discard. Reserve the pickles for service.

Cut the peppers half-length wise, and de-seed. With skin side down, trim the peppers by shaving off as much of the pepper as possible from the seed side/inside. Throw away all the ‘juicy’ part, and leave a thin, mostly skin pepper. Cut the peppers juliens, as thin as possible. Put them in ice water and chill for one hour. They should curl very tightly into nice shapes. Set aside for service, as garnish.

Saffron rice chip

Rinse the rice, and boil in the measured amount of water. Reduce to medium heat then cook in a pot with the saffron and salt, covered until fully tender, 30 minutes approx.

Transfer in small batches to a vitamix or high-speed blender, a thermomix would work very well also. Add a small amount of boiling water, enough to help the rice mix, and blend on high for 3 minutes each batch, until the rice is fully smooth and pureed. Transfer all the finished rice puree to a non-stick sauté pan.

Cook on low heat for 20-30 minutes, stirring frequently with a rubber spatula until it’s very thick and dry. Don’t allow for it to get on the edges of the pan or it will dry and you will get clumps in your rice puree. Once you have thickened the puree, spread on to a silpat or silicone mat. Acetate paper would work as well. Then dehydrate in an oven or commercial dehydrator at 120 degrees Fahrenheit for 2-3 hours, until fully dry and crispy. Fry at 350 degrees F until puffed and crispy, then dry on a paper towel and season while hot with salt. Break the chips into small 2 bite size pieces and reserve for service.

Scallop sofrito

Sweat garlic and shallots in the olive oil from Spain, then add the scallop trim. Cook on low heat, slowly caramelizing. Cook for 8 hours, on a diffuser or very low heat, adding water as necessary to ensure it doesn’t burn but just slowly caramelizes. Once it is dark, and rich in flavor and color, puree completely smooth in a vitamix blender. Once smooth, pop the air out of the puree in a cryovac machine.

Transfer to a squeeze bottle or piping bag. Fill all your cleaned, brined mussels escabeche with the sofrito and reserve

Mussel escabeche

Steamed mussels

Heat wine to a boil, then add cleaned mussels into the pot and cover with a lid. Cook until all mussels are cooked and opened fully. Drain into a perforated pan and cool in the refrigerator. Once cool, open the mussels and trim all of the gills and excess anatomy out to make room for the sofrito filling.

Escabeche brine

For preparation, add all ingredients of set 1 to a container, other than the water. Separately heat the water to a full boil and pour over the ingredients of set 1 and let it steep tasting frequently for about 5 minutes, making sure it doesn’t get too spicy. Then strain through a fine mesh sieve.

Pour the liquid from set 1, previously steeped, over the ingredients of set 2 and let steep in the refrigerator overnight. Then take this liquid and pour over your cleaned, shucked, steamed mussels. Then topping with Spanish extra virgin olive oil to cover, and reserve in the refrigerator overnight to marinade.

Building the tapa, and cilantro leaf garnish

As needed cilantro leaves, the small, perfect leaves, picked from the bunch

To build the tapa, have all ingredients from the included recipes completed to perfection and ready for service.

Start with the saffron chip, as your base. Next add your mussels escabeche, that are stuffed with the scallop sofrito. About two per tapa are good, depending on size. Next add your pickled shallots and garlic, in a ratio of about 2 shallot and 1 garlic per mussel, depending on size. Next garnish with your beautiful red fresno pepper curls. Finally garnish with the fresh cilantro leaves, adding a beautiful green to our tapa. Serve on a bowl or dish of your choosing, I recommend something with a rice or grain as the base to help stabilize the tapa.

“Mediterráneo”, participant tapa in the City of Valladolid World Tapas Championship, prepared by John Carney from the Olive & Hay Restaurant (United States).
Tapa prepared by Eva María Galiano from La Teja Restaurant (Valladolid).