Gambas Pil Pil

The temperature has reached nearly 40C - it's impossible to stay in the sun during the day and really hard to fall asleep in the night, but we still dream of holidays in some far away and probably even hotter country! We must be mad? Or probably just know the rule - stay at home and there will always be jobs to do - too well. I must admit I can relax fully only when I am away: I prefere worrying if I have seen all of the most interesting tourist attractions and not if it's time to water the garden, wash the dishes up or clean the bedroom. I'm sure you get the picture...

While we still haven't left our cosy-lots-to-do-aroud house we dreamt we were somewhere else... lets say in Spain! Do you know a way how to make a dream seem at least a bit real? We decided our way would be to cook Spanish food. Tapas!*

I love sea food, but don't get to have it very often, so every time we have shrimps, muscles or squid it turns into a bit of an occasion! And if someone else is cooking and you don't have to worry about a thing... just look at the clock every five minutes and ask - is time yet? - the only thing I can do is exclaim - SPLENDID - in a strong posh English accent. (Thank you, Andrew!)

This is our famous prawn and avocado salad with a secret ingredient, that makes the sauce so special.

Muscles in tomatoe and ginger sauce. Believe me, in this sauce they are gorgeous.

This is something we didn't prepare from scratch, I think it's cod pretending to be crab, but was nice nevertheless.

Anyway, if you want to smell and taste Spain follow these simple instructions:

Put some oil (100ml) into a pan and make it real hot, so that when you add prawns (350g), finely chopped 4 garlic cloves and 1 chilli pepper (without the seeds if you don't like spicy food) they'd sizle. Wait till the garlic turns golden (this should take about 1 or 2min.) and pour everything into a bowl. Serve your gambas pil pil with white bread and lemon wedges.

Now close your eyes and imagine you are somewhere on the cost of the Mediterranean...

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*Tapas is the name of a wide variety of appetizers, or snacks, in Spanish cuisine. They may be cold (such as mixed olives and cheese) or warm (such as chopitos, which are battered, fried baby squid). In select bars in Spain and maybe in North America or the United Kingdom, tapas has evolved into an entire, and sometimes sophisticated, cuisine. In Spain, patrons of Tapas can order many different tapas and combine them to make a full meal.