All of the tables had been removed and guests were treated to wine and an endless supply of fresh tapas, presumably from recipes in the book.
Since Bocadillos is my favorite Basque place in the city I bought a copy of the book and had it autographed. (Note: do not call Bocadillos a "Spanish" restaurant within earshot of Chef Hiragoyen. You will be corrected!). I've been going through it and trying things out. This is my favorite recipe so far...
(Adapted from Pintxos: Small Plates in the Basque Tradition)
Ingredients
1 lemon
4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons coarse salt
8 large shrimp (15 ct), peeled and deveined
4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled
2 tablespoons Aioli or mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon piment d'Espelette
1/4 teaspoon pimenton
8 whole guindilla peppers packed in vinegar
Piment d'Espellet for finishing
Fleur de sel for finishing
Method
Prepare shrimp cooking liquid by placing 2 qts water into a saucepan. Cut lemon in half, squeeze juice into water and add lemon halves to pan. Add garlic, red pepper flakes, and salt. Bring to boil. Add shrimp and cook until they turn pink (about 30 seconds), drain and set aside.
Cut eggs in half and scoop yolks into a small bowl. Smash yolks with a fork and stir in aioli, piment d'Espelette, pimenton. Add salt to taste. Fill the egg-white halves with yolk mixture.
To serve, you will need 8 small bamboo skewers. Thread 1 shrimp and 1 guindilla pepper onto each skewer. Arrange eggs and skewers on plate. Sprinkle everything with a bit of piment d'Espelette and fleur de sel.
Note: I didn't have any guindilla peppers, but I did have a can of roasted Piquillo peppers. I got my Piment d'Espelette from Tierra Vegetables at the Saturday San Francisco Farmer's Market.
