1. CROQUETAS

By all the laws of healthy eating, they ought to be firmly off limits. The filling is a thick creamy béchamel made of flour and oil and milk which is allowed to congeal in the fridge. But wait: this goo is then dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and deep fried. The croqueta is the greatest product of the laudable Spanish reluctance to throw anything edible into the trash-can.

The recipe (every Spanish cook has their own) deploys leftover meat from the Sunday roast chicken or cocido (see below), the last shreds off the bone of a fine jamón, the remains of a roast partridge, rabbit, or else chopped boiled egg, chopped cooked mussels, wild mushrooms… the possibilities are virtually endless.

Whether the results are worth eating is another matter. A bad croqueta is floury and dry-textured, mean on the filling, and insufficiently seasoned. A good one is a sublime nugget of savoury creaminess with a crisp outer shell. Six or eight (or ten) of these morsels along with a green salad and a beer, and you’ve got yourself a Monday night supper fit for King Juan Carlos.

2. BEACHSIDE EATING

The seaside, as a central element of Spanish life, has its own rules and rituals. And beachside food and drink is no exception. You can either bring your own food: classically, iced gazpacho, cold breaded pork cutlets, tortilla de patatas, and a big slab of watermelon.

Or you can head for the chiringuito - the Spanish beach bar which often contains a simple, sandy-floored restaurant. The chiringuito menu is almost identical from the Costa Brava to the Costa de la Luz: you are bound to find paellas and/or other rice dishes, fried squid rings, juicy steamed mussels, clams a la marinera, fish a la plancha, fried, or char-grilled a la brasa…

Everything will come with chips and a standard beachside ensalada mixta of iceberg lettuce and tomato and onion. To drink, there will be cold white wine or sweet sticky sangria in jugs packed full of ice. For afters you will probably just grab a cornetto from the freezer and head back to the beach to sleep it all off.

3. ESCABECHE

Medieval British cooking used to have this too: it was known as ‘caveach’. The basic idea is a mild pickle applied to meats or fish, usually after cooking. The vinegar and spices help to preserve the main ingredient for another few days, creating a whole new dish in the process. Nowadays the technique is most often used with rabbit, partridge or quail, or sardines which have been previously fried. A quick-simmered sauce of vinegar, wine, herbs and spices is poured over the meat or fish, which is then kept cold in the fridge for those moments when you want something easy, quick and tasty. Escabeche is fast food from heaven.

4. MOJAMA

The miracle of mojama is little known outside Spain, but it’s surely only a matter of time before it catches on. The facts are these: the loin of a red tuna Thynnus thynnus, preferably caught in one of the fixed tuna-nets still found along the coast of Cadiz, is salted and dry-cured until it has the hard yet toothsome texture of a good jamón serrano. It is then finely sliced and served with salted almonds and a cold glass of dry sherry. And there are very few things in this world, in my entirely unbiased opinion, that come close to it in sheer deliciousness.

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