HB&B Blog — Spain

Wine & Food Killers: Jackfruit Empanadas and Parajes del Valle Macabeo Maceración 2022

Claire Bullen Natural wine Natural Wine Killers Orange Wine Spain

Wine & Food Killers: Jackfruit Empanadas and Parajes del Valle Macabeo Maceración 2022

At most weddings, the food is barely worth remembering – but at this one, there were empanadas. Beef empanadas, cheese empanadas, all dressed in a deliriously spicy orange sauce. I remember them, but I can’t for the life of me remember how many I ate. Ever since, I’ve thought about making them at home. Empanadas are made across Latin America from wheat flour, corn or even cassava; their fillings and styles and colours vary, they can be baked or fried, served hot or cold. In this way, the empanada feels less like a singular entity and more like a category, capacious enough for flights...

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Wine & Food Killers: Temaki Hand Rolls and Clot de les Soleres Garnatxa Rosato 2019

Claire Bullen Natural wine Natural Wine Killers Spain Sparkling wine

Wine & Food Killers: Temaki Hand Rolls and Clot de les Soleres Garnatxa Rosato 2019

Pizza parties, taco parties, bagel-and-lox parties… If you ask me, there’s no better dinner (or brunch) party format than “food item you create and customise yourself from a spread of ingredients”. For the host, there’s the joy of simplicity, the release from pressure: Supply all the base components and let your guests take it from there. And for those attending, there’s the satisfaction in making something entirely your own, with only the ingredients you like most – no compromise needed. Beyond pizza and tacos, I’d like to enter one more dish into the do-it-yourself canon: the temaki hand roll. True...

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Wine & Food Killers: Tiger Prawn and Squid Paella with Oriol Perez de Tudela Escabeces 2019

Claire Bullen Natural wine Natural Wine Killers Orange Wine Spain

Wine & Food Killers: Tiger Prawn and Squid Paella with Oriol Perez de Tudela Escabeces 2019

The other day I read a newsletter pondering whether “the vibes are off” in New York City this summer. This prompted me to wonder: How are London's vibes faring right now? After the last 18 months we’ve had, it’s not like we can just emerge and throw ourselves into a non-stop party without careening into an emotional wall at high speed. The perma-grey, monsoon-like downpours and fraught Covid debates aren’t helping. But in this strangest of seasons, I’m finding more moments of brightness, flashes of another, better world peeking through the cloud cover. There is the joy in sharing pints...

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Wine & Food Killers: Halloumi Fries And Folias De Baco Pet Nat Renegado 2020

Claire Bullen Natural Wine Killers Pet Nat Red wine Spain

Wine & Food Killers: Halloumi Fries And Folias De Baco Pet Nat Renegado 2020

I’ll begin with a controversial statement: To me, most French fries – chips – are… not great. Sure, there are always those first few transcendent fries in the bag, the ones that are still hot and crisp – the ones that cause the circuits of your brain to light up and throw off sparks at the sudden wallop of salt and starch and fat. But soon, too soon, that initial burst of activity dies down under the soddening accumulation of sogging potato and cold oil mixing together in the mouth. The textural variation, that devilish crunch, is lost, and with...

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Wine & Food Killers: Mackerel with Herb Salad and Crispy Sumac Potatoes and Constantina Sotelo Rosalía

Albarino Claire Bullen Natural Wine Killers Spain White wine

Wine & Food Killers: Mackerel with Herb Salad and Crispy Sumac Potatoes and Constantina Sotelo Rosalía

As I’m writing this, false spring has been and gone. You know the one: That tricksy week in February or March that’s so golden and sun-drenched it swindles us into believing that winter is well and truly over. This happens every year, and we should know better. But after months of confinement, what else is there to do but indulge in a bit of hope? The sun and warmth stuck around just long enough to convince me that it was right to open the windows, wear lighter layers than was probably advisable and linger over tubs of cut fruit in...

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