Of course fresh is best but there are always some exceptions in any cuisine.

Pickles come in jars, anchovies come in tins etc.

These peppers are a good example as they are a cooked product. Yes, you can buy peppers and roast them in an oven until they are black, then peel all the black stuff off after letting them cool down in a polythene bag.

When you have done all that the end result is just a slimy as the tinned ones and doesn't taste any better!

The other point here is that these are special small peppers which are not easily obtainable fresh outside Rioja.

Those peppers are lovely sliced on a steak with a cream sauce...

A lot of spanish food is preserved from being dryed (ham and fish) to tinned food. Look at the salad's you eat in the restaurant...the beetroot, carrot, sweetcorn is tinned. Let's not forget this is a hot country!

I don't think we as Brits can look down on the Spanish for having tinned food...let's not forget we all used to eat SPAM! Yuck.

We love the programme and it gives me,as a novice cook, some really good ideas for meals.

Having to cook everything from scratch hasnt come easy to me but Im increasingly finding that the ingredients I need are in the cupboard now or quite cheap to buy to acheive a really good dish.

I look forward to next week especially.

But for tonight Ive made cornish pasties and better than any rick could make.

I'll be round at 8 with a bottle of Rioja

We got peppers growing in pots on the patio, very expensive though, ten plants for a €.

What's wrong with these people that can't empathise with continental cuisine.
The Spanish are so passionate about their food that it beggars belief. I'm from Irish parents but lived In Spain many years and can honestly say that I had no passion for food until I lived amongst these wonderful people that live to eat and don't eat to live...........

Theres not so much passion in spanish food if you look in their trolleys to see what they are buying. You are beginning to sound like a TV advert for a programme!

I missed this prog as we don't get UK TV but I enjoyed the first episode of his Italian trip which started last week on 'Viajar.' It was more like a travel than a cookery programme.

I am thinking about buying his spanish cookery book though. Would anyone recommend it?

Absolutely yes.

I bought it before the TV series started. Like all his other TV series, the dishes he cooks on TV are very limited (most of the cooking is done by locals). There are about 140 recipes in the book and only a few were on TV.

I am very into Spanish cooking and this is the best Spanish cook book I have seen. It's all about good rustic Spanish cooking.

It's half price on Amazon at £12.50

have found "Spain Mediterranean Cuisine" ISBN 3-8331-2035-5 has some very good ideas, especially for tapas.

DD has bought it for me from Amazon as a belated Fathers Day gift so I just have pluck up the courage to give them a try. Wish I had recorded the series though nothing like looking at the stunning scenary in HD for inspiration.

Amazon also have the DVD which I presume is of the TV series. Now that they deliver to Spain free for orders over £25, I've just got to find another £12.50 worth of things to buy. Shouldn't be that difficult!

I don't think we as Brits can look down on the Spanish for having tinned food...let's not forget we all used to eat SPAM! Yuck.[/QUOTE]

Not a great lover of SPAM but I do love PEK cant beat PEK and cucumber sandwiches Bought a tin other week sandwiches for bait and couldnt help sneaking to the fridge and sneaking the odd slice

sorry by the way realy enjoyed this series

I know that I am a moron but I love fried Spam and chips, the trouble is that now I am not allowed to eat so much fat.

Graham

I quite enjoyed the series, more the travelog than the food side, Am I the only person that thinks it's over-rated?
Floyd on Spain was also a good series that is repeated every now and then.
Worth watching next time its repeated..