This time round El Capote surprised us by holding its food and wine event on a Saturday! Children were sent to their grandparents’ houses and the old faithfuls treated their partners to a fantastic night at El Capote.

Not being allowed in before 9pm opening time, we congregated on Market Lane wondering what delicacies were to be sampled forthwith.

Everyone waited in anticipation…

good food, good wine, good company

We started off the evening with a beautiful Cappuccino de Foie. Having previously tasted this on a previous occasion I was very appreciative to see it on the menu again as it was one of my favourite dishes served on these evenings. So much so that I firmly believe that this dish could make its way onto their regular menu.

Our next treat was a lamb and grape meatball which was delicious but it was the presentation that did it for me. Like something out of a science Lab we were instructed to squeeze the soy sauce pipette into the lamb meatball. And without cutlery there was nothing to be done but pick up the meatball on the pipette and drop it into your mouth as you squeezed. The sweet succulent lamb and sweet juicy grape doused in salty soy sauce was delicious. I could have feasted on a bowl of these!!

Following this was a delicious light gazpacho which we felt was more like a salmorejo as it was so smooth and silky. Poured over the sea scented meat of some juicy muscles, gently sprinkled by some micro herbs for a crunchy, floral back note to the gazpacho. A delicate dish. The only thing that annoyed me was that the square bowls it was served in made it difficult to scoop any dregs of gazpacho left behind!

Another gorgeous dish was the fillet of bass (ròbalo) served on a salad of soya beans, cubes of mojama, seasoned with yuzu (an Asian citrus fruit used to season dishes) and dressed with an infusion of baby prawns (camarones). The mojama adding intense saltiness to the otherwise bland fish broth created by the camarones. Each mouthful bursting with citrus notes cutting through the fish. Every mouthful was exquisite.

What would have complimented this dish well would have been some tortillitas de camarones – as served in El Faro, Cadiz.

The last of the savoury dishes was an oxtail and shiitake empanadilla served on a wave of creamed ras-el-hanout potatoes. The aromatic spices in the potatoes working beautifully with richness of the oxtail and shiitake mushrooms. The empanadillas had been steamed which is traditional when using this type of pastry for dim-sum, however, as the potatoes were creamed I felt the textures here were too similar; the dish needed an extra texture and perhaps either deep frying them or even cooking them as Japanese gyoza (first fried in a pan until the bottoms are golden and then steaming them) would have provided this something extra.

I say all this having thoroughly enjoyed the dish and fully aware that having to fry something would have been time consuming and an extra task to have to be done in an already extremely busy kitchen and considering the amount of other jobs that had to be done to create this evening’s menu.

My favourite dish of the evening followed. And even though I’m not one to have to end a meal (or 6 course dinner!) with a sweet this one did it for me. Rice pudding, enticingly referred to as Risotto de Arroz con leche with a twist, was a seductively sublime dish. As it arrived at the table my immediate thoughts were that it was very pretty with its pink decorations and fruit – absolutely beautiful.

Freeze dried raspberries crushed over to add colour, texture and flavour. And topped with a cloud of raspberry flavoured candy floss!  Each spoonful was a voluptuous sweet dream, everyone at my table was silent as we feasted; frequent sounds of instant gratification coming from all over the room…

…Mmmm…que bueno…ooooh….delicious…mmmmm…

I can imagine that had people been eating this in the comfort of their own homes they would have been licking the bowl with greedy abandon.  It was absolutely delicious.

Nothing more to add other than what a beautiful dish to end what was another great evening of good food, good wine and good company.