Tradition in many countries holds that pork is the meat of choice to celebrate the new year, just as fowl is traditional at the end of the year. One digs forward with its snout, the other scratches backwards.

Pork is a good choice for anyone planning a New Year’s Eve party. Its infinite variations lend themselves to almost any style of entertaining, from the grand centrepiece of a leg of pork or even a suckling pig, to neatly plated medallions of pork fillet with a red wine and prune sauce or a fashionable dish of slow-cooked belly or knuckle of pork, with sauerkraut (chopped pickled cabbage), red cabbage or lentils also considered lucky foods in some cultures.

Pork comes in other forms too, as myriad variety of sausages and cured meats. In France, small sausages are grilled and served hot with ice-cold oysters.

Or boudins noir and boudins blanc are grilled or roasted and served with caramelised or puréed apples. In Italy, cotechino and zampone are served with polenta, lentils and mostarda di frutta.

With chorizo and jamon serrano readily available, as well as the lesser-known Catalan sausage, fuet, another theme suggests itself for a midnight supper, a Spanish evening of tapas and pinchos.

Now it is possible to find not only decent cava but crisp fresh fino sherry. Gonzalez Byass puts the bottling date on the back label of Tio Pepe, so there is no reason to drink tired old wine. Treat it like a white wine. At 15 per cent alcohol, it is no stronger than many table wines now available. A classic dry amontillado, such as Tio Diego from Valdespino, certainly deserves a place on the table, as does a sweet, rich sherry, perhaps Apostoles or Mathusalem. With plenty of chilled Spanish beer, such as Estrella, and a bottle or two of rioja, the party will be utterly authentic.

Whereas most of Spain serves tapas as accompaniments to pre-dinner drinks, the Basque country is the home to pinchos, small morsels of deliciousness piled on to rounds of bread, or served on skewers. Here are some ideas for whichever version takes your fancy.

Try small potatoes, boiled, halved and hollowed out then filled with a little tapenade and a thin piece of rare roast beef on top. Pinchos morunos are skewers of small pieces of tender lamb, grilled and served with the cooking juices mixed with a lemon and cumin dressing.

At midnight, the Spanish custom is to eat one grape with each striking of the clock

To make matrimonios take bread rolls and fill them with both salt-cured anchovies in oil and fresh anchovies seasoned with garlic, vinegar, oil and parsley, together with fried green peppers. Champis are three or four skewered mushrooms on bread, fried in garlic and olive oil, sometimes with a prawn or two thrown in for good measure.

Migas is perhaps an acquired taste, simply fried breadcrumbs and crumbled chorizo. Embuchados might be more difficult to prepare at home, as these are grilled thin slices of lamb’s intestines with a parsley and garlic sauce and fried red peppers.

We like montaditos very much and nothing could be easier than these miniature sandwiches: Serrano ham, cooked pork, Manchego cheese or pieces of tortilla, for example, sandwiched in a small crusty bread roll. Other tapas you might want to consider are zapatillas de jamon, a grilled sandwich of Serrano ham on Spanish bread with tomato sauce. Patatas bravas, the staple of any Spanish bar menu, are fried potatoes with spicy tomato sauce and mayonnaise. Berenjenas con queso are small aubergines, halved and grilled, topped with cheese.

Setas are grilled oyster mushrooms and rotos are bread rolls filled with scrambled egg, chorizo or rizzi. Fried quail egg and chopped chorizo on bread are cojonudos, and another favourite. I like to slice an olive or dried tomato baguette and top it with mayonnaise, a white asparagus tip and a freshly cooked prawn, all held together, like all pinchos, with a cocktail stick. It is worth remembering that canned or bottled asparagus is highly prized in Spain and you will find it in all the supermarkets.

Add a bowl of olives, and one of toasted almonds – perfect with the fino. Buy a chunk or two of Manchego cheese, make a thick potato tortilla in advance and a selection of miniature chilled desserts with a Spanish flavour and you have a perfect New Year’s Eve supper. Plenty of shopping is involved, but no last-minute cooking.

And remember to buy the grapes. At midnight, the Spanish custom is to eat one grape with each striking of the clock.

Feliz año Nuevo! A Happy New Year to you all.

Tortilla español – potato omelette

(Serves 10 as a tapa)

500g potatoes
2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
6 to 8 eggs – depending on size, and the size of your omelette pan
¼ tsp each Gozo salt, freshly ground black pepper and pimenton
1 to 2 tbsps chopped fresh coriander, chives or rocket – optional

Scrub and thinly slice the potatoes. Heat half the oil in a heavy saucepan, and turn the potatoes in it for a few minutes. Cook together for a few minutes more, then add enough boiling water to just cover the potatoes. Reduce the heat as low as possible, partially cover the potatoes, and cook for two to three minutes.

Drain them in a sieve. Beat the eggs in a large bowl, with the seasoning, stirring in the greens, if using them, and tip the potatoes into the eggs. Leave for 10 minutes or so to let the potatoes absorb some of the egg mixture. Heat an omelette pan and add the rest of the oil. Pour in the omelette mixture. Lifting the mixture from edges to middle, cook until the underside is firm and brown and the top beginning to set. Slide the omelette out on to a plate, still flat and then turn it upside down in the pan to cook the second side. Turn out on to a plate and cool to room temperature before slicing.

Sherry syllabub

(Serves 10 to 12)

75ml brandy de Jerez, or other brandy
½ nutmeg, grated
100g-125g golden caster sugar
250ml sherry
750ml double cream

Using sherry can transform dessert prepared for a Spanish New Year’s Eve supper. If you use fino or other dry sherry, you will need more sugar than if you use a sweet sherry such as oloroso dulce or PX.

Infuse the brandy with nutmeg and sugar, and leave overnight.

Next day, stir in the sherry. In a large bowl, whip the cream, and then gradually incorporate the liquid.

Serve chilled in small glasses.

Chilled creamy rice pudding

(Serves 10 to 12)

125g pudding rice
1 vanilla pod or cinnamon stick
600ml full-cream milk
Caster sugar, to taste
500ml cream or 300ml cream and 200ml clotted cream

Cook the rice and vanilla pod or cinnamon in the milk until the grains are tender. Remove the vanilla pod, split it and scrape the seeds into the pudding. Remove the cinnamon if using it. Stir in the sugar while the mixture is still hot and allow it to cool. Whip the cream, fold it in, and spoon the mixture into small ramekins or a large, shallow quiche dish. Chill. Spread the clotted cream on top if using it. Sprinkle on a layer of sugar to cover the surface, and put briefly under a hot grill until it melts and caramelises, or use a cook’s blow torch. Remove from the heat and refrigerate.

You can achieve a similar effect by cooking the sugar until it just caramelises and then pouring it over the chilled pudding. It should set to a nice glossy, brittle surface.

Cook’s note: as an alternative to the caramelisation, you can simply dust the surface with a little cinnamon for an authentic Iberian flavour.

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