n autumn, I love foraging for mushrooms and there is never a year when I don’t go to look for them on a few walks. As well no year goes by when I don’t enjoy a good mushroom mellow rice made with mushrooms stock. The reason is that I like to feel the earthy special flavour mushrooms have that sometimes gets lost in between other ingredients. I love a good risotto but unfortunately they abuse so much of the Parmesan and butter that mushrooms get behind those bold flavours. I like my mushroom dishes to taste very pure as if I was tasting and smelling the forest.

When trying to cook with a bit more flavour it is inevitable in lots of different dishes the need to resource to a home-made rich and flavoursome stock. In some dishes it is fundamental to use them as water just doesn’t quite cut it. At times we all resort to the quick and ready stock cube, but if you want to eat a more natural diet or have restaurant tasting dishes that are incredibly satisfying when you serve them at the table then there is no way around it as to make your own. The difference will make you proud and your chicken paellas will taste better than ever.

We don’t only tin tuna in Spain, we have an array of recipes for it. This is one of the recipes my mother cooks at home all the time. She makes a very tasty sauce but, with all respect to my mum, she overcooks the fish to death in a very old fashioned way. I don’t blame her, that is just as how she learnt to cook it! This is my fresher and lighter version of this home classic, which I will cook for her soon; let’s see what she thinks.

These pot-roasted lamb shank with artichokes take a while to cook but are in fact very easy to prepare. This is one to make when you feel you deserve a treat – it definitely does the job. Prepare yourself for mellow, fall-off-the-bone lamb. If lamb is not your thing, you can always use shin of beef.

This simple recipe carries an explosion of flavor. It makes a great tapa or starter when you are entertaining friends or family as you can leave it hot in the oven until you need it.

In Spain we eat a lot of chickpeas and pulses in general, it’s an important part of our diet. I always have a few tins in my cupboard to rustle up a quick dinner, it saves you a good couple of hours of simmering. This recipe is super healthy and very traditional, you normally find them as a tapa by themselves but today I needed to make a larger meal for us at home so I added a beautiful fillets of plaice which have turned them into a fantastic “plato principal”. It is more common to find this recipe made with spinach but as I have the spring greens on season and it is one of those ingredients not many people knows how to use I thought I would explain how to cook with them really easily. Enjoy!

This dish was commonly found in northern Spain and was always cooked in the spring with the new lamb season. It’s one of those ugly brown but very tasty slow-cooked stews Spain is famous for.

We also use other meats for this dish, such as goat or chicken.

Today you hardly ever find it in restaurants and only makes it as a family meal cooked mainly by grandmas.

These deep-fried béchamel balls were sent from heaven to make us mortals a bit happier. Croquetas are famous throughout Spain – customers rave about the taste and texture while those who make them know that the best things in life come at a price – yes, they are time-consuming to prepare.

Serves 4-5 as a tapa, preparation time: 20 minutes plus soaking, cooking time: 10 minutes

As you may well guess, I have cooked thousands of tortillas in my life. There are about 25 different ways to cook tortilla and I have cooked them all: onion first, onion after, caramelized or not, no onion, potato slow-cooked or fried... the mind boggles. But after all my research, I believe this is the best recipe.