The Spaniards know how to do hot-weather food, and what to drink with it, writes Hugo Arnold
In the bar of Casa Bigote, in Sanlúcar de Barrameda in southern Spain, the place was heaving on a Saturday lunchtime. We were eating dabs fried to a crispness, with sweet flesh and a salty tang; cuttlefish gently stewed with tomatoes to produce a voluptuous red sauce; and brightly coloured, nutty arroz marinara - fish and rice. We stood, shoulder to shoulder, drinking copitas of the most delicious, salty, fresh white wine - manzanilla, the lightest and perhaps most delicate of all sherries.
The Spanish adore fish. In Jerez earlier that day, we had shopped at the market, whose central hall is devoted to fish and seafood. Cod shimmered on the slabs of marble. Tuna was trimmed into fillets then elegantly sliced into steaks. The clams were good enough to eat there and then. I managed several, before moving on to sample a baby shrimp or two, as sweet as candy, but with the unmistakable taste of the sea.
The image of sherry, aunty Maud and Sunday lunch was as far from this crowd as the other side of the world. Plates of seafood stew were held chest-high among groups, each person with their own spoon. The contents were devoured in seconds. Another glass of manzanilla, and lunch looked set to roll on into the afternoon, which it did.
There is something about hot weather and eating that means nothing can move too quickly. Perfect for this month, when there is every excuse to leave the office early, make lunch last longer than usual, spend time over the table and in the preparation of food. The recipes that follow focus on Spanish ingredients, rather than being overtly Spanish. Try drinking fino or manzanilla sherry, at least with the first course. In Andalucia, four people would think nothing of drinking a bottle of well chilled fino with their first course; after that, each to their own. And if you are worried about alcohol levels, consider the fact that many wines now score 14 per cent, if not 15 per cent abv, which is only a few clicks away from sherry.