“Don’t do Paella, give us something different”, they said. So over the past few weeks we have researched and practised and worked very hard to come up with something that genuinely excellent in every way for the upcoming and rather exciting Mudeford Seafood Festival – a free-entry three day event making its first appearance this late May Bank Holiday weekend. And so…. we are doing something that literally translates as ‘Breadcrumbs and Anchovies’.
Of course, as you should expect from us now, there is much more to this menu than the title suggests and, like paella, the main dish is rooted in Spanish peasant food culture, where stale bread would be revived by frying in plenty of olive oil and garlic and flavoured with whatever meats, fish and veggies were about. The process of making Migas is quite systematic and if you go to bars in Almeria where it is made you will see chefs preparing huge pans of Migas (made with semolina flour rather than bread) in advance first thing in the morning, so when the punters descend for lunch it’s ready to plate up and serve almost immediately.
Our servings of Migas will showcase some delicious semi-cured meat Tapas from other parts of Spain: Chistorra Chorizo from Teruel, and Paprika-Smoked Pork Belly from La Rioja as well as the essential accompaniments of Peppers and Olives. But the main feature, partcularly fitting at this Seafood Festival will be our home-made Boquerones: Fresh Marinated Anchovies with lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, parsley and chilli. If you have tried and liked the shop-bought ones before, these will blow your socks off!
If anyone is a bit gutted that we are not doing our Paella at this festival, we hope you will instead be intrigued to try some of our Migas instead. And we will still be doing our popular Patatas with homemade Alioi.
See you there!
