Gulas al Ajillo Pintxo

Gulas al ajillo is Basque in the way pintxos are Basque: small, exact, and meant to sit proudly on a slice of bread with a toothpick through it. The old luxury behind it is angulas, baby eels, cooked simply with garlic, oil, and guindilla. Gulas are the everyday substitute, made to echo their shape and bite, and they let the dish come back to the home table without emptying your purse.

The method that decides it is the garlic oil. Warm the garlic slowly in olive oil until it turns pale gold and smells sweet, then add the guindilla and the gulas only long enough to heat through. If the garlic goes brown, it tastes bitter and bullies the whole pintxo. Keep the pan gentle. This is five minutes of cooking, not five minutes of showing off.

If you can find true angulas, cook them the same way and treat them with even more restraint. Most of us will use gulas, and that's honest. Far from the Basque Country, look for chilled or frozen gulas in a Spanish or Portuguese shop; if you must use surimi strands cut thin, the flavor will be milder and the texture softer, so add a little more garlic oil and do not overcook them.

Pile them on toasted bread at once, with a little of the oil soaking into the crumb and one small guindilla on top if you like heat. Siempre sale, si lo sigues. My Margin beside this one says only: "no dorar el ajo," don't brown the garlic.