Ingredient guide
What these recipes use that your usual shop may not stock: what it is, where to find it, and what you can put in its place.
AjvarA Balkan paste of roasted red peppers, often with aubergine, garlic and oil, either mild or hot.1 recipeartichoke heartsThe tender, fleshy core of the artichoke flower bud, with the tough leaves and choke removed.1 recipecabanossi sausageA thin, smoked and air-dried pork sausage, firm and well seasoned.1 recipechorizoSpanish or Portuguese pork sausage, heavily seasoned with paprika and garlic, which releases red fat as it cooks.3 recipesciderSpanish cider, mainly from Asturias and the Basque Country: dry, tart, usually cloudy and still.1 recipeCranberriesSmall, red, very tart berries, sold fresh, frozen, or dried and sweetened.1 recipefresh corianderThe fresh leaves of the coriander plant, bright, lemony and faintly soapy in aroma.1 recipeGlucose syrupA thick, clear sugar syrup made from starch, only mildly sweet, that keeps sugar from crystallising.1 recipemussels!Blue mussels, black-shelled sea mussels with tender orange to pale flesh and a mild, briny-sweet flavour.2 recipesPadrón peppersSmall green peppers from Galicia, usually mild, occasionally surprisingly hot.1 recipepiri piriA small, very hot chilli from Portuguese-speaking Africa, used in Portugal fresh, dried or as a hot sauce.1 reciperabbitLean, pale meat with a delicate, faintly gamey flavour, usually jointed and braised.1 recipesaffronThe dried stigmas of a crocus, thin deep-red threads that turn food golden yellow and give it a bitter-sweet, floral, faintly honeyed aroma.4 recipessalt cod!Cod that has been salted and dried, soaked for days before cooking; known as bacalhau or bacalao.1 recipeSherry vinegarVinegar made from sherry and aged in casks around Jerez in Andalusia, rounder, nuttier and deeper than ordinary wine vinegar.2 recipesSmoked paprikaPaprika made from peppers dried over oak smoke, called pimentón in Spain; deep red and smoky, and sold as sweet, bittersweet or hot.1 recipesquidA slender cephalopod with tender, mild flesh, cooked either very briefly or for a long time.2 recipesWafer paperPaper-thin, neutral-tasting sheets of starch and water used as an edible base for sticky sweets such as turrón or macaroons.1 recipe