Paella for Mike's birthday...

Saffron

Paella is a Spanish dish that is infused with he delicious but expensive, hand picked stamen of a flower, saffron. Smoked sweet Spanish paprika also adds to the aroma and is also found in the Spanish chorizo that I use in this recipe. Wonderful flavors of  woods and sea are blended to make this a very special one pan meal. The word paella has origins in the Latin word for pan, patella. Today the paella pan is a distinctive shaped cooking vessel that is used to make the dish, Paella.  You could buy the special paella pan, but  just I use my 16 inch saute pan as my paella pan and it works just fine, thank you.


The kids usually get a special dinner for their birthday. This year we are doing "paella mixta" a combo of chicken and seafood. Paella was originally a rice dish from Valencia, Spain made with rabbit, chicken and snails. A seafood paella eventually came about along with a clam, mussels and shrimp base. The "mixed paella" is a combination of proteins, mine is mostly seafood with some chicken. I use skinless thighs cut into chunks.

The rice used for making paella is distinctive as well. A more round shape distinguishes "Bomba" rice from other types. Arborio rice, the Italian rice we use for risotto, will work just as well as the Valenciana Bomba variety, which is harder to find unless you go to ethnic grocery stores. The variety I
used in this recipe is labeled "Valencia style".

Valencia rice, Spanish chorizo and the most expensive ingredient, Saffron.

Fresh seafood rules the day with this dish, if you are going to put in he effort, you should try for the freshest ingredients, the only thing I use that is frozen is the peas.

Gather your ingredients:

5 cups simmering chicken stock
1 large onion diced
4 cloves garlic, mashed
Fresh rosemary
2 plum tomatoes, diced 
1/2 teaspoon saffron
2 teaspoons smoked sweet Spanish paprika
5 strips roasted red pepper
1 Spanish chorizo large diced (Spanish, not Mexican, there's a big difference!)
4 chicken thighs cut into chunks
1 lb. cod, cut into 2" portions
6 live clams, scrubbed
12 live mussels scrubbed and de-bearded
6 to 12 shrimp or prawns deveined
6 - 2" pieces of firm white fleshed fish (cod)
4 small lobster tails split lengthwise
4 cups bomba rice
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper


Put your saffron in the simmering stock to steep, it will turn the stock a rich yellow tint..

Heat the olive oil, salt and pepper the chicken, add your chicken to the pan to brown. When chicken is browned, remove from pan and set aside.



Add onions, tomato and garlic and saute until onion is opaque, around 5 minutes.






Add the chorizo, cook for another 3 minutes, add the stock and saffron, bring to a simmer.







Return the chicken to the pan and stir in the smoked Spanish paprika
and add the rice. 

Valencian tradition calls for making a cross with the rice in a tribute to Christ.
 

Stir the rice into the stock and add the cod...

...Add the mussels and clams...

 Add the prawns...

...The peas and sprig of rosemary...

...And the roasted red pepper...

,,,And finally, the lobster tails!

Cook uncovered, gently for about 20 minutes more until clams are open the lobster meat is cooked and the liquid is absorbed by he rice.

You could put the paella in a pre-heated 350° oven for the final cooking. Tradition minded Spaniards cook paella over a wood fire, I use the stove top, but a hot oven will also do the job..

¡Delicioso!

Pork Belly

Okay, this is not something that resides in any of my memories from days past, but after tasting pork belly, it is now in there.  Pork belly is the cut of the pig that gets cured and turned into bacon. But pork belly before the smoking or salt-curing is a really fatty piece of flesh that needs special treatment to become the succulent delicious treat it is destined to be.

This cut of meat must render away as much of the fat as possible, similar to cooking duck..   I brine the pork belly for a day and a half, in a water and sea salt solution of 1/4 c. salt to 2 c, water.

When ready to cook the pork, pre-heat the oven to 350º.  First thing I do is score the skin, cutting hatch marks and making sure not to cut into the meat. Add a bit of fresh ground pepper on all sides of the meat.

Next, dice celery onion and carrot, (this is called a mirepoix in kitchen vernacular,) you'll need enough to cover the bottom  of a shallow baking dish with 1/2 cup chicken stock.

Place the pork belly skin side up on the mirepoix and cook  uncovered in the oven for about twenty minutes. At the end of twenty minutes, turn down the heat to 200º and cook at this lower temperature for 4 hours.

Remove the pork belly and allow to rest. pour the mirepoix ino a sieve and drain off as much of the fat as you can.  Meanwhile heat a bit of peanut oil in a frying pan and when the oil starts to shimmer place the pork skin side down into the hot oil to crisp up the skin.

The skin will turn bubbly and crunchy like the pork rind you can buy at the truck stops on the interstate highway. Slice into chunks and serve with the mirepoix. This is some tasty puerco, my friends.

Chayote???

Yesterday, The Lovely Andrea came home from the store, as she does from time to time, with an ingredient I had never cooked before. She presented me with 3 chayote squash and challenged me to cook them.

I had never cooked this vegetable before, so I started to do some research. It seems like most recipes make a soup or include it in a salad. I wanted to actually cook it and NOT put it in a soup, so I ended up boiling and peeling the chayote, then baking the squash with roasted vegetables, eggs, cream, jalepeño, and cheese. It was a nice vegetarian dish that my family dug into with gusto.

 

Chayote asada y coliflor con huevos en el queso

Ingredients:

3 chayote, cut in half

2 cups cauliflower florets

1 shallot quartered

1 onion quarteded

1 large jalepeño diced

1/2 cup cream, half and half or whole milk

3 eggs

1/4 cup oilive oil

2 cups shredded Monterey Jack and Cheddar mix

3/4 cup Mexican crumbly cheese

flour tortillas

1 cup iceberg lettuce chiffonade

1 tomato diced

salt & pepper

salsa

Pre-heat oven to 350º

Bring a pot of water to boil, add he chayote and cook for 20 minutes until tender.

Meanwhile rub the other veggies (except jalepeño) with olive oil, salt & pepper, and roast in the oven around 20 minutes, until lightly browned.

When chayote are tender, peel and quarter them and add to pan with the roasted vegetables. pour cream over the vegetables, crack the eggs and drop them into the pan, add a dash of salt and pepper,

Cover with the cheese mixture and finally the crumbly cheese, and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and starting to brown. The crumbly cheese does not melt like the other cheese so it should be the final ingredient, it adds a nice texture to the topping.

 

I served the dish with a lightly toasted flour tortilla, (toasted on my griddle,) topped with iceberg lettuce chiffonade and chopped tomato... and salsa.

A pretty tasty dish, I'll definitely cook chayote again.