Gazpacho, paella, and tortilla española were the highlights of our recent cooking experience at Sky’s home in Madrid. Carly wanted to describe the tasty experience in more detail for our “reading audience.”

Each country has its own unique cuisine with prevalent traditions. While we have been eating Spanish food since we arrived in Spain, a group of us decided that we wanted to further delve into the Spanish cuisine by getting hands-on with the traditional food we were eating. At a large majority of the tapas restaurants in Spain, three dishes seem to be a constant on each menu: paella, gazpacho, and tortilla española. Our program director, Sky, graciously invited us to cook with him inside his home here in Madrid. We started off with the paella by cooking chicken and chopping vegetables. Next, a mix of rice and spices were added into the pan on the stove. Paella takes the longest to cook out of the three dishes, and by the end, its delicious smell was emulating through the entire kitchen. The gazpacho was next, which also required a lot of vegetable cutting. Gazpacho is a tomato-based Spanish soup traditionally served cold. It was very refreshing and cooled us off after spending the day in sunny Madrid. Next was the tortilla España, which can almost be described as a potato omelette. We made a mixture of eight eggs, potatoes, and onions, and poured it into a pan to cook. This dish is supposed to be softer in the middle and more well done around the edges of the tortilla. In order to achieve this, the tortilla has to be flipped over in the pan to be cooked on both sides. The flip can be difficult to do, but we were able to do it! At the end, we were able to get a taste of what we made. Each dish came out to be very tasty, and we thoroughly enjoyed cooking each one. Now, we have learned much more about the delicious and tasty Spanish cuisine we have been sampling during our time here in Madrid.

Thank you, Carly, for your insight into our cooking experience in Madrid!

Gazpacho – ingredients: tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper, green pepper, sherry vinegar, garlic, ice water, and salt

Paella – ingredients: chicken, green beans, diced tomatoes, rice, chicken stalk, garlic, onions, and saffron

Tortilla española – ingredients: eggs, potatoes, onions, olive oil