Tapas - cheap and easy?

[AbbyLou]

Next weekend we've got my sister and her boyfriend staying over. I would like to cook tapa on Saturday night and need some ideas. I've had a look online and it's a bit of a minefield and looks like it might cost a fortune for all the fiddly little bits. Does anyone have any idea for tapas recipes that won't cost the earth or take me all night to make? Are there any I can combine ingredients for to keep costs down?

There are some lovely recipes here You can make or prepare most of this in advance.

stuffed tomatoes
prawn and bacon brochettes
russian salad
Fried Spanish morcilla
olives
asparagus tortilla
patatas bravas (or patatas a lo pobre)
little pork kebabs
something my Spanish friend makes and it's so simple - grated ripe tomatoes, salt, mix with olive oil tiny bit of crushed garlic and serve with crusty bread
more olives
roasted peppers (in a jar)
artichoke hearts in olive oil (in a jar)
mixed beans (from a tin) mixed in a tomatoey sauce
one can never have enough olives (Tesco does some nice tinned Spanish ones stuffed with lemon peel for about 86 pence).

For dessert rice pudding and strawberrries, cinnamon icecream?

I wanna go to Spain... and eat tapas

Thank you there are some great ideas there. It looks a little complicated, I'd be tempted to cheat. The problem is my sister lived in SPain for over a year and loves her Spanish food.

A really easy one is to get some chorizo (not the finely sliced stuff), cut it into cubes, fry until it begins to crisp and add some squid stirring so that the squid takes on the red colour from the chorizo oil, then stir in some haricot beans. Garnish with finely sliced slivers of red onion and chopped flat leaf parsley.

Gambas pil pil is very simple - small prawns fried in (very) garlicky butter with a couple of dried chillies.

You can also make a Spanish tortilla quite easily if you have a good non-stick frying pan (it does take a bit of patience though).

Thank you Lala they sound really easy.

Buy a few slices of really good jamon iberico and as JamNam suggests, a few of those preserved vegetables - artichokes, olives (ones with anchovies in the middle are very Spanish), small peppers, some sliced aubergines - and I think you're there.

I did tapa for my book group a while back. I served:

Tortilla - really easy, (but as lala says, you need a non-stick pan). Cook this in advance then serve at room temp.
Olives and artichoke hearts from a jar.
Cold cuts with some manchego cheese
I then par-boiled a bag of baby new potatoes. Pan fried some chorizo till the oil came out then added half of the pots, cooked till everything went crispy and golden.
The other half I sauteed and served with garlic mayo (shop bought!)
Some salad and bread

And that was it. Really easy and you can cook everything in advance now I come to think of it, so easy for folks coming round.

Tesco do a whole range of Spanish tapas, at least 15 different ones (chorizo, praws, tortillas, potatoes etc) they are very small portions so I would say you would need to allow for about 5 pots per person, so just get huge selection and share as usual. Think they are about 5 for £10

Or I would do

Good Spanish ham, salamis, olives, feta stuffed peppers, sundried tomatoes cheeses and great selection of breads.

Potatoes with alioi

king praws in garlic garlic and more garlic.

Huge bowl of fresh cooked prawns

ham and cheese potatoe croquettes

Huge bowl of mussels in white wine

Meatballs

You can buy marinated anchovies at the deli counter in most supermarkets, which are boquerones.

Ensalada rusa would be cheap to do as it's just mixed frozen veg with mayonaise.

Patatas bravas is just fried potatoes cubes so shouldn't cost much to make.

Escalivada is nice but fiddly and probably not cheap by the time you've bought the red peppers, onions, and aubergine.

Pan con tomate is just old baguette rubbed with overripe tomatoes and garlic.

Tortilla isn't expensive. I was taught how to make it by a Spanish lady this way but make sure you add plenty of salt to replace what the potatoes lose during cooking. This is key IMO.

A nice olive oil with crusty bread. Some aloli (garlic mayo) would probably go down well too.