I was in the tapas mood so I made some Spanish inspired dishes for New Year's Eve. These snacks are reminiscent of some Spanish spiced almonds I once had at a tapas bar. These were crazy easy to make. I started by toasting some cumin and coriander seeds. These were ground and mixed with some coarse salt, sugar, paprika and wonderfully smoky chipotle pepper powder. The almonds were baked for 1o minutes in a 400 degree oven then mixed with a bit of olive oil and the spices and roasted for another 10 minutes. See! Easy as spiced almonds!
Here's an other classic Spanish tapas that I served on New Year's Eve. It couldn't get simpler. I just heated some olive oil in a pan, added some red pepper flakes and lots of chopped garlic. This was cooked for just a few seconds and the shrimp was tossed in. It only takes a couple of minutes of stir frying to cook the shrimp through. Near the end I squeezed a lemon over the shrimp and plated it up. It is important NOT to skimp on the olive oil. Use a good amount so you'll have a little bit of heaven to dip your crusty bread into.
