This dish probably falls somewhere between a risotto and a paella, and there’s no doubt it has a strong Spanish flair with its use of fiesty chorizo and seafood; whatever you decide to call it, I think you’ll find it a surprisingly easy and forgiving dish to assemble that lends itself to all kinds of mealtimes, from comforting winter lunchtimes to more demure dinner times.

I’ve divided the ingredients list into two parts; firstly the bare bones of the dish (which you’ll absolutely need), which are followed by a few extra garnishes which could be left out if your cupboards are a little bare. And so, without any further ado -

Essential Ingredients

- 2 Cloves Garlic

- Salt

- Olive Oil

- 4 Tomatoes

- 2 Medium Red Onions

- 150g Fresh, King Prawns

- 200g Chorizo

- Freshly ground Black Pepper

- 500g Risotto Rice

- 2 Beef Stock Cubes

- 1 litre boiling water

Serves 4 – 6

Optional Ingredients

- Fresh flat leaf Parsley

- A couple of glugs of White Wine

- A few chunks of hard Italian cheese such as Grana Padano, Pecorino Romano or Parmesan

Method

Start by heating a couple of generous glugs of Olive oil in a large sauce pan, adding a dash of salt (to taste) and gently frying the sliced garlic cloves for a couple of minutes. Coarsely chop the Parsley and add this to the pan along with a splash or two of white wine (to taste). Stir well and allow the contents to simmer for a few minutes before adding the tomatoes whole and covering. Simmer until the skins of the tomatoes soften and fall away (about 10 minutes), then stir everything well to break the tomatoes down.

Next, add the prawns and the chorizo; I tend to use ready sliced Chorizo like you might use in sandwiches and tear it into strips, but if you’re feeling extravagant (like I did this time!) you could buy a whole Chorizo sausage and slice it yourself! Toss in a couple of chunks of hard cheese, grind some black pepper over the dish then recover and simmer for 5 minutes.

Now, at this point turn up the heat and add the risotto rice, stirring well to allow the rice to fry for two minutes – being careful not to let anything burn or stick to the pan. In the meantime, prepare your 1 litre of hot beef stock and after the two minutes, add the first quarter of the liquid to quench the rice. Cover and turn the heat down to simmer, watching carefully – once the risotto begins to dry up, add the next quarter and so on, until the rice is well cooked and the risotto has thickened to a creamy consistency. Serve, garnishing with some chopped parsley if desired and enjoy!

Extra Tip: If you’re lucky enough to have the rind of the cheese, cut it into small 1cm chunks and add with the rice; you’ll find the rind softens in the heat and becomes a wonderful cheesy crouton!

Making a paella is not an easy thing. You have to learn to measure the rice in relation to the rice and vice versa, and the only way to do it is through practice. Nevertheless, once you learn to use the “eye-meter,” a paella can be a very easy and satisfying dish to do for any occasion. Start practicing!

Paella Valenciana

Ingredients, 4 servings

12 oz. Bomba rice

1.5 lb. Chicken (white and dark meat)

14 oz. Rabbit (you can skip this if you don’t like it and just add more chicken)

2.5 oz Lima Beans

5 tbsp. Shredded FRESH tomato

12 oz. FLAT green beans

2 Artichokes

6 fl. oz. Olive oil

paprika

saffron

fresh rosemary

salt

water

A pan of 12.5 inches in diameter, or a little over a foot, and around 1 to 2 inches high (for more people see below)

1. Pour the oil in the middle of the pan, level the pan and wait until the oil is very hot. Once the oil is ready, put the cut pieces of chicken and rabbit (lightly salted) and lower the heat to medium.  Cook the meat thoroughly, this part is very important. It has to be golden brown. Tip: If you add salt to the borders of the pan, where there is no oil, it won’t burn.

2. Add all of the vegetables previously diced, except for the tomato. Sautee them for a few minutes. Once they the vegetables are ready, make a hole in the middle of the pan and push vegetables and meat to the sides of the pan. In this hole put the shredded tomato and the paprika, mix and let it fry lightly over low-medium heat for a few minutes.

3. Mix everything. Add water up to the top border of the pan. Add salt and let everything cook for around 30 minutes. Add more water if necessary.

4. After 30 minutes, the resulting stock has to be a little bit below the top part of the pan. In other words, in the height of the pan is 2 inches, the water has to be at about 1.5 inches. At this point, taste the stock and add more salt in necessary.

5. The rice must be added in a very special way. Since there are no measurements for the rice, it has be done in relation to the water that we have, this is why it’s important to monitor the levels of the water. If you have followed the explanation above about the water, the rice should cook fine. Add the rice making a line across the diameter of the pan, like this. The rice should be half-submerged. About a finger of rice should stick out, and the rest should be in the broth.

6. We put the saffron on top of the rice and then mix all of the ingredients together. All of the rice should be submerged at this point. We cook this for about 6-7 minutes in high heat, or until the rice starts to show.

7. At this point we have to lower the heat to its lowest level, place the rosemary on top of everything and let everything cook in low heat for about 5 minutes. If after these 5 minutes the paella has still some stock left, cook it for 3-4 minutes in medium heat. If it doesn’t have much broth left or no stock at all, cook it for 3-4 minutes in low heat.

8. The paella is done! Put the paella aside and let it rest for around 5 minutes and it’s ready to serve!

NOTE: Like I said in my previous post, there are many variations on this recipe. People add onion, garlic and/or red pepper, put different vegetables and skip the meat entirely and just add seafood (prawns, calamari and mussels are the most common)

NOTE2: If you want to make a bigger paella the pan has to be bigger too. 4 servings= 12.5 in, 5 servings=13.5 in, 6 servings=14.5 and so on.

Here is a great You Tube home-made video about paella valenciana done by an American in Valencia

Enjoy!

picture from lamerce.net

I can say with almost absolute certainty that very few restaurants in the U.S know how to cook a paella. Despite being sold everywhere and anywhere here, the yellow rice with a few vegetables and some shrimps that they try to pass for paella is NOT a paella.

I’m from Spain, and having savored hundreds of paellas during my life (and cooked), I’m kind of an expert on it by now. People think that paella is a dish typical of all Spain, but it isn’t. The truth is that there many variations of this dish, all depending on the geographical region of Spain. The most commonly known is that from Valencia, known as paella valenciana. It has more vegetables than other variations, and is made with rabbit and chicken. There is also the paella marinera, or seafood paella.

Two of the most important ingredients of the paella are the type of rice used and where everything is cooked.

Paella means literally pan or skillet. The typical paella pan looks like this. If you don’t make the paella in a large, very shallow pan, then it is not a paella. A pot won’t do.

The rice used is short, almost like sushi rice, in Spain we call it bomb rice because of its shape. It looks like this. If you use long or medium rice the texture of the paella will not be correct, because it is the stickiness of the bomb rice that allows for everything to bind together.

Also, when cooking a paella, is very important to use olive oil only, fresh ingredients and wood utensils.

Curious facts: The paella dates from the 16th century according to www.lapaella.net. Also, it is the most known dish of Spain and is served in thousands of restaurants around the world (although many times is not paella!!)

Stay tuned for the recipes on my next post!

One of the great things about getting down to our beach house at Lorne for the weekend is the opportunity to cook up a feast for our family and friends.

The other is to make use of the fine seafood, vegetables and smallgoods available at the local stores.

For a party of six or more, a paella is the perfect dish to conquer both of the above.

The paella is a rice based dish, originating from Spain. It is thought the first paellas came from the Valencian region, typically using rabbit or chicken, snails and beans. Nowadays, the many paella variations now found in restaurants will likely bare little resemblance to the first dishes from 19th century Spain. The classical “Western” paella consists usually of seafood (often prawns, mussels and fish) and perhaps a surf-and-turf inclusion of chorizo and/or chicken.

While a traditional Spaniard may scoff at some of these new age interpretations, my opinion is that even a more Western paella, when executed in accordance with some basic paella principles, can still capture the spirit of the original dishes.

These principles are:

Rice

The rice is the star of the dish, everything else plays second fiddle. Therefore, the correct rice selection is crucial to a great paella outcome.

Short grain is strictly only acceptable, and preferably either Calasparra or Bomba rice. If the only thing you have is Arborio, then this is a one-time-only acceptable substitution. Jasmine or basmati are a definite no-no.

My preference is calasparra, I think the texture is perfect. It is also relatively easy to find at local markets and delis. Yes, it is worth the search.

Sofrito

The sofrito is a rich and jammy sauce, that provides the rice with some additional flavour and liquid. The sofrito I made was a combination primarily of capsicum and tomatoes, as well as bay leaves and garlic.

My version below was based on the Movida recipe I followed. I imagine that you could use a variant of these flavours to taste.

Stock

You really need a great stock for a paella. I wanted to make a great fish stock for my paella but I had trouble tracking down fish heads at short notice (a trip to South Melbourne market, Victoria Street in Richmond and even the fish co-op at Lorne brought no joy). This meant I had to purchase 1.5 litres of fancy stuff from Lorne Greens. ($24?!).

Make (or purchase) the best stock you can. It makes a big difference to the flavour of the rice once it all comes together.

Paellera

A paellera is a large, shallow pan for cooking paella. If you can’t obtain one of these, use a large frying pan.

Socarrat – optional(!)

The socarrat of paella is the burnt and slightly caramelised crust that forms on the bottom of the paella pan.

This crust of burnt rice is achieved by not stirring the rice for the duration of the cooking/absorption process.

Unfortunately, I think the heat was not quite strong enough during my cooking to achieve the much admired socarrat. I’ll mark this as an optional outcome from a paella, as you can certainly get a great tasting dish without the socarrat making an appearance.

The recipe I used was based on the Movida cookbook, by Frank Camorra and Richard Cornish. Frank being the chef from the famous Melbourne restaurant by the same name. For my adaption, I excluded the rabbit, fish and periwinkles. I added squid, mussels and chorizo instead!

Making the Sofrito…

Here are the ingredients!

EVOO, Capsicums, Tomatoes, Bay Leaves, Onions and Garlic

Fry up some diced onion, garlic and bay leaves for around 10 minutes.

In the meantime, dice up the capsicum. (This sends you a little crazy after four of them…)

Loads of diced capsicum...

Add the capsicum to the onions. Keep stirring occasionally to make sure it doesn’t stick. It takes over an hour for it to really come together.

After an hour or so, it starts to go quite jammy...

...now jammy!

Making the Paella…

Here are the ingredients!

Peas, sofrito, squid, raw tiger prawns, white wine, fish stock, lemon, bay leaves, thyme, rosemary, parsley, garlic, safron, chorizo, calasparra rice and mussels. Phew!

Firstly, take out your paella pan and fry up some olive oil, the saffron, rosemary, thyme and garlic. At this stage, you can also fry your chorizos. On a large barbeque, it was useful to be able to do this side by side with the paella underway…

Paella pan with chorizo cooking away...

Frying up the herbs and spices

Next step is to add the rice. Warm it through for a minute or two, then add the sofrito to stir through. Great colour!

Rice goes in...

In goes the sofrito...

Add the white wine and the fish stock. Now, from the point on, you should no longer stir the dish, in order to create the socarrat crust on the bottom (theoretically!).

Looks like too much liquid. Never fear!

The next 20 to 30 minutes is done by look and feel. Keep the heat as even as possible on the bottom of the pan. As you can image above, on a barbeque the heat in uneven. We continually rotated the pan at achieve an even heat.

Over the next little while, the rice will begin to absorb the liquid. Don’t stir, it’s not risotto!

Almost there. Adding the seafood...

You’ll see it get to a stage where it’s almost ready. It’s probably best now to add seafood at this point, as it needs the least cooking. A handy hint from my recipe was to place the prawns over little air bubbles in the rice, where steam was escaping.

Once you’re happy with it, cover with foil to rest.

While resting, fry up some garlic, a bit more of the wine and steam the mussels in a pan. Give them a shake after five minutes and throw out any that don’t open.

Place the best mussels on top of the paella. Garnish with lemon and parsley.

Voilà!

Sofrito

125ml olive oil
2 white onions, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
4 bay leaves
4 large red capsicums, seeded and diced
4 ripe tomatoes (alternatively, ~300g canned tomatoes)

• Heat the oil in a heavy based saucepan over low-med heat
• Saute the onion, garlic and bay leaves for around 10 minutes to soften
• Add the capsicum. Cook for around 30 minutes.
• Add the tomato and continue to cook at a low heat for another 1 to 1.5 hours
• Makes around 450g (or two cups)

Paella

100ml olive oil
pinch of saffron
2 tbsp of thyme leaves
2 tsp of rosemary leaves
4 garlic cloves, finely sliced
800g calasparra rice
sea salt
500g sofrito
1 chorizo sausage, sliced and grilled
250ml white wine
1.5 litres of fish stock
extra hot water on hand
1 squid tube, sliced into strips
small bag of mussels, debearded
12-15 small raw prawns
handful of frozen peas
2 tbsp of flat leaf parsley for garnish
1 lemon, sliced for garnish

• Heat the oil in your paella pan.
• Add the saffron, thyme, rosemary and garlic. Stir for a minute or so.
• Add the rice, with perhaps a few pinches of salt. Stir for a minute to coat the rice in the herbs and oil.
• Outside of the pan at this time, fry up your chorizo.
• Add the wine, and then fish stock, and stir to combine. Increase the heat to high to bring to boil.
• From now on, do not stir the dish.
• After 15-20 minutes, the rice will have made it’s way towards the surface. If you’re short on liquid, add more hot water if required. Don’t add more than necessary. Better to have to little than too much.
• Add the chorizo, dotted around the rice.
• Once the rice has almost absorbed all liquid, place the prawns and squid around the rice. Add the peas.
• Continue to cook for another 5 minutes or so until rice is done and no liquid remains.
• Remove from the heat and cover with foil, rest for 10 minutes.
• While the rice is resting, fry up a little extra garlic with wine and olive oil. Add the mussels and steam for 5 minutes. Discard unopened mussels.
• To garnish, add mussels to the top of the rice. Cover with the chopped parsley and sliced lemon.
• Serves six people very generously

De Valencia! No es acaso famosa la paella valenciana? pues entonces no había otro lugar mejor para probarla, la auténtica, o bueno, en teoría.
Mi amiga Luz y yo emprendimos el viaje para probar dicha teoría. Así que después de un madrugón marca acme en pleno sábado, nos fuimos cómodamente en un autobús poco concurrido y en el que, o nos odiaron o se enteraron de cuanto chismorreo, perdón, conversación intelectualmente estimulante, intercambiamos.
Después de cuatro horas de camino que pasa por una región de viñedos, llegamos a nuestro destino. Unos minutos de caminata nos llevaron hacia el centro histórico de la ciudad. Pudimos subir a las Torre de Serranos (poco de lo que queda de la muralla que circulaba la ciudad), entrar a la Basílica de la Virgen de los Desamparados, la Catedral (en la que se encuentra una reliquia del Sto. Cáliz), la Lonja de la Seda (la casa de bolsa del siglo XV), el Mercado Central (donde hay paelleras de toooodos los tamaños), pasear por plazas y edificios antiguos entre jardines y árboles de naranja valencia, por supuesto.
Para cuando nos dio hambre, unas amables valencianas nos recomendaron un lugar para comer paella, así que fuimos a tal lugar para encontrarnos con que habían cerrado cocina. Eran apenas las 3 de la tarde pero creo que se sienten medio franceses al respecto y, o comes a la hora que toca o a ver qué se te ocurre. Pero no nos íbamos a dejar vencer tan fácilmente, por cuanto restaurant pasábamos veíamos el menú y si aún atendían (no es que hubiera tampoco por cientos) y llegamos a uno en la que un “amable” mesero dijo que estaban llenos, pero era nuestra última opción, así que haciendo gala de nuestros mejores encant, digo, capacidad de negociación, esperamos un poco y nos dieron mesa (porque atender sería mucho decir) y después de como hora y media –y una paella bastante regular– nos fuimos a registrar al hotel, mismo que quedaba a unos 15 ó 20 minutos del centro, justo a un lado de la Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, otro punto obligado de cualquier visitante. Sólo que levantarse temprano y caminar por media ciudad tiene sus consecuencias y al tomar un descanso… se nos fueron como 3 horas y se nos terminó el día temprano, puesto que a las 10 de la noche dejan de venderse vinos y licores, así que el brindis tuvo que ser descartado. Y como mi amiga es de las pocas mujeres que conozco a las que les gusta el futbol y no sólo cuando está el novio, pues nos entretuvimos (o más bien ella y yo la acompañé) con un partido del Barça.
Al día siguiente fuimos a la Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. Complejo futurista en el que se incluyen y fusionan los más diversos artes y placeres. Junto a paseos y estanques, podemos encontrar museos, exposiciones, una gran sala de cine IMAX, representaciones, acuario, etc. (sí, sacado del wikipedia). Así que paseamos, vimos, tomamos fotos, nos divertimos… y nos volvió a dar hambre… a las 4pm. Cerca había un centro comercial en el que fuimos a buscar una paella que resarciera a la del día anterior; caminar a la playa –que era parte del plan– ya no era opción, puesto que nuestra salida era a las 6pm, la distancia un poco larga y las fuerzas casi inexistentes. Y entonces nos volvimos a topar con “cocina cerrada”, y de nuevo a ir de restaurant en restaurant con cara de hambre. Dimos con un bufet en el que nos advirtieron que debíamos servirnos de una sola vez puesto que ya recogerían las bandejas de comida (esa mesa terminó como servida para un banquete de cuando menos 4 personas). Pues de allí fuimos, sobre la paella… que nos volvió a decepcionar.
El tiempo era perfecto cuando terminamos de saborear el postre; el transporte público que nos llevaría a la central de autobuses pasaba frente al centro comercial y teníamos… 40 minutos para llegar! uff, no supimos qué pasó y de pronto ya era tardísimo, el bus no pasaba y los taxis tampoco, y si pasaban estaban ocupados. Veinte minutos antes de las 6pm pasó el autobús y preguntamos si era posible llegar a tiempo, y aunque no nos convenció su cara de puede ser, tal vez, igual y sí, tuvimos que tomarlo, pues era la única opción.
Mapa en mano medíamos tiempo y distancia, rezábamos porque no subieran o bajaran muchas personas en el trayecto. En la parada anterior a la nuestra no se detuvo y apenas se abrió la puerta frente a la central salí disparada cual gacela amenazada por su vida hasta llegar a los andenes, preguntando por nuestra salida y cuando por fin llegué el operador ya estaba por cerrar la puerta. De panzaso pero llegamos. Afortunadamente tuvimos la previsión de comprar un viaje en un vehículo muy cómodo y de mejor categoría (además en oferta) así que después de tantas emociones y aventuras, calladitas y dormiditas nos veíamos más bonitas.
…Y así fue nuestra patoaventura por la ciudad de los jardines, naranjas, paellas y artes.

Triple weekend got under way at Lakefront Brewery on Friday night.

The polka action must have made me dizzy because I forgot my debit card at the bar.  [I called today to inquire about the green Associated card with the corner torn off.  Classy.]    Rachel, luckily, did not forget to be tall and Jeremy brought his boyish good looks.   So boyish, in fact, a bartender at a subsequent drinking establishment, after checking his license muttered “way off” to himself.  I think this was the same door guy who welcomed Whitney back as a regular even though we’ve never been there before and he still doesn’t live in Milwaukee.

Other than losing Shelly, nothing major stood in the way of having 3x the fun so we headed to Chicago on Saturday.  It marked my first Amtrak ride since the 42 hour death ride of ‘06.  The train was Rastafarian/Amish-free but I still couldn’t relax until crossing the IL border.

From that point on, the only two things that could calm my nerves were a trip to a bar filled with dogs and tons of tiny tapas bites.

Step one: find a bar with lots of random dogs in it; pet them.  Check.

This dog is giving me the stink eye because he likes me.   He and his basset hound friend were accompanied by at least three other random dogs.  No leashes, no explanations, no regrets.   The owners were nowhere to be found when they started howling at us for our cookies but I didn’t mind.

Step two: drink Sangria by the bushel* while waiting for a table at Cafe Iberico.  Then eat things like “grilled sea scallops with saffron sauce” and “baked goat cheese with fresh tomato basil sauce.”  Check.

We also stumbled upon a new game.  It was nameless until now, so I’ll call it “El Pulpo.”  Here’s how you should play — go around the table and say any spanish word you can think of.  Keep it up until someone can’t go and then try it with French and German.  The erratic results are hilarious — Sacapunta!  Gato!  Autobús!  Finish by scraping the pan and yelling “paella!”

*1 Bushel = 4 Pecks, 1 Peck = 2 gallons

*

Last Saturday was my last AUCP-organized excursion of the semester, which had us in Arles and St. Remy de Provence. The theme of the day was “Van Gogh,” meaning we saw a lot of sites that inspired his paintings and that were important in his life.

We started with a visit to a Roman cemetery, which was used as a meeting place during Van Gogh’s time in Provence. The tombs (all empty) were strewn about and the overall ambience hovered somewhere between ‘enchanted’ and ‘quite creepy.’ Weird to think that it was a place of courtship during Van Gogh’s time.

Throughout the day our tour guide – an AUCP art professor – did a great job of informing us while keeping us attentive. Even if we’re all practically adults now, it’s amazing how being in a field trip setting can make 19 – 22 year olds revert to some junior high habits

We got to see the cafe that inspired Van Gogh’s “Cafe Terrace at Night.” Now it is an overpriced tourist trap. C’est la vie…We then saw a few other places that he painted as well. After that, it was on to the main event: lunch.

Arles has a huge food market on Saturdays, and we took advantage. Rotisserie chickens, fresh bread, cheese, olives, spices, salads, sausages and much more. But I knew what I was holding out for: paella. Even though it’s a Spanish dish, it’s very popular here in Provence, probably because of the shared Mediterranean culture.

I made a good choice. Even if my serving was a little cold, the flavor and quality of the mussels, prawns and chicken was awesome. The merchant even gave me a metal fork to use since she had run out of plastic ones. Very nice.

After that we saw more of the Van Gogh sites, including the building where he famously cut off his own ear and the asylum where he spent a year as a patient…for cutting off his own ear.

The other thing that really puts Arles on the map is its Roman vestiges and ruins. Outside of the cemetery we didn’t get to explore many of them, so hopefully I’ll be back again. We did walk past the Roman Arena, which is still in use today for…wait for it…bullfighting. Capacity of 20,000, unfortunately summer is bullfighting season.

Great day, comme d’habitude.

Paella is a flexible rice dish to which I add whatever food I am in the mood for. I took these ingredients outside to a block party and fired up the grill. Cooking paella on charcoal (or wood) best exemplifies cooking from the gut. The fire is way too hot and you must move quickly. Indeed it seems out of control at times. You have no choice but to proceed. Not coincidentally, the paella I make outside always tastes better than when I make it on the stove.

The Ingredients

Homemade sausage (this is easy to make: get some ground pork shoulder and add stuff and mix around; mine has some ground pig heart and liver along with dried currants, orange zest, and few spices), red and yellow onion, fennel, parsley, garlic, eggplant, bell peppers, zucchini, rice (use short grain Spanish rice or Italian arborio or other rice for risotto), tomatoes, chicken, saffron.

Chicken

Cut the chicken into pieces. I cut everything across the grain and through the bone, except for the wings which I sever at the joints only. The back I leave in whole. Set into the hot pan with plenty of olive oil.

Brown the chicken on all sides. Remove and set aside.

Sausage

Form the sausage into balls. Brown on all sides. Remove and set aside.

Onion

Add the chopped onion. Stir to keep it from burning. Your pan should be very hot. Add the chopped garlic after a couple minutes. Don’t worry if some of the onion turns pretty dark.

Zucchini and Eggplant

Add the chopped zucchini and eggplant and stir fairly often for a minute or two. During preparation, salt the eggplant liberally after chopping so it will sweat.

The Grill

The grill was not level so I kept the food down where the oil was ponding. I also left the chicken back and neck in the pan the whole time so that the bones and fat would cook. Continue cooking until the eggplant is quite reduced. Have a hookah handy.

Fennel

Add the chopped fennel. Cook for a few more minutes. Keep stirring regularly.

Tomatoes

When the food in the pan can’t take the heat for another second, add the chopped tomatoes.

They should bubble vigorously and reduce to a pulp in a few minutes.

Pepper and Parsley

Add the chopped pepper and parsley.

Stir and cook for a few minutes. Return the chicken to the pan here. Cook until it is more than halfway done. Be mindful that the rice will go in next and both ingredients will need to finish at the same time.

Rice

Add the rice and stir well to fully incorporate into the other food. Return the sausage to the pan.

Broth

Add some dry white wine and some broth (put the saffron in the broth and have hot and ready on the stove inside or on another grill). Add salt. Stir to incorporate. Add enough broth to just cover the rice. Cover the pan with foil (I used another paella pan) and let simmer until the rice is done. If your fire is still very hot then you may burn a little rice in the center. A kind of sacrifice to ensure that the great majority of the rice is cooked perfectly. However, keep 3 or 6 pieces of brick handy to raise the pan off the fire if you believe the rice will burn too badly. If your fire is too cool then none of the rice will develop a desirable crust.

Ready to Eat

I flipped the finished paella over in a few sections to see about the crust. Nothing was burned and I did achieve good crust here and there. Taste and correct for salt. Add pepper.

Sunset Dinner at El Faro by PDXFirefly

  While in Spain, My girlfriend and I ate many wonderful meals. In fact , I don’t think that we had a bad meal while there.   But the one that keeps showing up as my favorite is the Paella that we enjoyed at our local restaurant on the Spanish Mediterranean Costa del Sol.  The restaurant sits atop a rocky point and serves local fare.  We ate there three evenings and each meal was better than the previous one.  

   The first time we ate there, I chose my Dorado fish out of the cooler.  It was so tender and flaky and cooked to perfection.   The second evening we ate there we both ordered the same thing – a wonderful kabob with salad and potatoes. 

Paella by Portland Firefly

  But we saved the best for the last visit there.  We ordered their Paella.   I think that our owner/waiter  made our meal himself and outdid his creation.  It was incredible;  there were large muscles, tiny little clams, scallops, langostinos, shrimp, and tuna all swimming in the delicious creamy saffron rice.

Courtesy of pipa-nyc.com

Pipa is a delicious and wonderfully visual experience. It is one of the best tapas restaurants I have been to in New York City and mixes an amazing sangria. It might even be the best sangria I have ever had. For dinner we dined on:

Baby chorizos dusted with sherry, chillies and olive oil-You can’t go wrong with chorizo
Crispy calamari with paprika aioli-We polished this off, the aioli was a perfect dipping sauce
Ham croquettes-Crispy on the outside, yummy on the inside
Blue cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon-There is so much flavor in these tiny bites
Mini paella-When I think of a good paella, I think of this one. Succulent seafood and a crusty bottom
Charcuterie-Good meat, good cheese, even the bread was tasty

Walking into Pipa is definitely a trip. Luxurious chandeliers cover the ceilings (literally, cover as much of the ceiling as they can) and even have price tags on them. Don’t forget, Pipa is owned by ABC Home and Carpet so it’s a little gimmicky, but still very pretty. The one problem that I had was that it was a very crowded restaurant and hard to maneuver around people. Even getting out of my chair was difficult because of the tight squeeze. Definitely make a reservation if you plan on going!

8 out of 10

-Juice

Pipa
38 East 19th St
Between Broadway & Park Ave S

It’s kind of funny how much this part of Georgia looks like Maine right now. What leaves that are left on the trees are mostly yellow and brown, and there is a similar mix of deciduous and pine, although a closer look proves them to be different varieties than I am used to. I left Maine during a surprisingly warm spell, and went from my pleasant 50s to what Atlanta considers somewhat chilly 50s. It’s supposed to be closer to the 70s tomorrow though, so that will be lovely. There is more wildlife still roaming about here, while in Maine most of the birds and small animals are mostly hidden away, so that’s a nice difference. I don’t know why I expected a more exotic local, but my mental picture is adjusting and I’m enjoying all the aspects of my visit.

Today we spent a lot of time outdoors, visiting Panola Mountain State Park. There is a 12 mile multi-use trail that winds through a wide variety of different woodsy habitats as well as swamp, field, and river areas. The 2 year old was a good little hiker and we had fun helping her pick out the perfect leaves and acorns to put in her pink, leopard spotted purse. I got a kick out of seeing a lizard, three small snakes (thank goodness!), a beautiful raptor of some type, several butterflies, and a whole handful of snails!

Not too long after we got back (via the circuitous route of getting lost – my friend is a newcomer to the area!) my friend’s husband came home and we all went into downtown Atlanta to meet up with other friends for dinner. I got to see the lit up skyline, and drive through Cabbagetown. We ate at La Fonda Latina, an old favorite haunt of the Atlanta-raised husband, where I consumed an astonishing amount of delicious paella. On the way out of town we stopped at The Varsity for an F. O. (frosted orange yummyness) and listened to the folks behind the counter call “What’ll ya’ have, what’ll ya have?” as they have done since 1928.

We have all kinds of things planned for tomorrow, but all I want to do right now is curl up with my food baby and my book – my camera batteries are charging, and it’s time I did the same. Good night!

Nick, me and Mimi

Homey, Cozy, relaxing, good food, what else? I don’t know anymore what else to describe this Spanish Restaurant in Fairlane Village, Guadalupe, Cebu City.

The village is just right before the famous CNT Lechon in Guadalupe along V Rama Street. Taxi cab driver may not be familiar with the name of the village but if you mention CNT Lechon in Guadalupe, rest assured you are on the right way.

Fairlane Village is not really hard to find. The entrance is right across Guadalupe Elementary School. The Village is really small and the road is just like letter O One way only to the right. As soon as enter the village, firth turn right to enter the O Road, then to the first going to the left you will see the signage of the place. Arano.

Spanish Restaurant - Arano

The house specialty:

Paella Madrillena, Callos, Lengua, Baked Chicken. They also served Quality Red Wine at a very affordable price. Too bad I am the only wine drinker so not a good idea for a bottle.

Lengua, Callos and Baked Chicken

Lengua, Callos and the Baked Chicken. Very Yummy!

Paella Madrillena and Baked Chicken

Must have at Arano!

Call them in advance at least two hours prior to your meal time. Paella and Baked Chicken will be cooked for more than an hour!

Right after a hefty meal, we met the owner, Mr. Arano himself. Speaks Spanish, English,  Cebuano and Tagalog. Vey nice and wonderful person. Gave us a warm welcome in his humble home style restaurant.

Dinner last Octoebr 27, 2009

Prato típico da Espanha, a paella combina com  rosés…

Paella valenciana com frutos do mar

I like friendly! Friendly everything; shop assistants, teachers, car drivers. The world is so much better when people take the time to be friendly! I rather like this friendly reindeer too – mainly because of his googly eyes, but his antlers are rather splendid don’t you reckon?

I know, You’ve spotted it too. Her and her swirl stamp again (oops). You have to give it some credit though. I’ve never used one stamp in sooo many different ways. I just thought it would make nice antlers, so forgive me!! This  stamp is very popular though; so popular that one of my friends bought the whole stamps set JUST to get that stamp. It does include some other really beautiful ones too!!

This is the topper on some reindeer food. There are so many variations out there- but I think I’ve found my favourite so far and here are the words for those of you that want them;

While you are fast asleep Christmas Eve night,

Your magic dust will sparkle in the moonlight.

This will help guide Santa’s way

bringing gifts from his sleigh!

I’m supposed to be cooking tea now. I think its supposed to be paella, but Steve is much better at paella than I am and I’m not sure he’ll think my version is passable. Oh well, I just might have to wait for him to cook his superior version (he he he!). The prawns and chicken will just have to wait patiently in the fridge til he arrives. He’s sounding like Santa now!!

Happy Monday, and happy crafting!xx

Recipe. (apart from the magic reindeer food!)

Cardstock, whisper white, real red, old olive and close to cocoa. Season of Joy stamp set. Certainly celery ribbon. All from Stampin’Up!

Beads and bell from my stash!!

Grått, grått och återigen grått. Idag är en pysseldag. Har bytt möbeltassar på matsalsstolarna, ska sätta ihop en byrå och sätta upp hyllor vid sängen. Är nu inne på www.easyart.se för att beställa lite ny “konst ” till hemmet!

I går gjorde en fantastisk god Paella som vi sköljde ner med några goda flaskor Pata Negra. Förrätt; vitlöks frästa räkor och calamares med aioli, mmmmmm
Idag blir det rester från i går…

Njut av den här underbart mysiga dagen, Och glöm inte att tända ljus!

This was a while back, but we took a night off after a day of studies on a beautiful Saturday evening to Center City. We wanted to check out the Oktober Fest stuffs around 13th and Sansom. Unfortunately, the festival was kind of a bust featuring food from shops sitting under lamps in outdoor tents and tons of people flooding the streets. There wasn’t much to do aside from drinking, but we were hungry. So we walked over to nearby Mixto over on Pine St, a restaurant specializing in Spanish, Cuban foods for dinner. The paella here isn’t on par with the one’s we had in Barcelona, but it was full of seafood and pretty good.

Outdoor seating

Paella bursting with all sorts of seafood.

Jeannie’s flank steak with plantains was also goodness.

Hoy he estado en el merendero de Alborache, y tengo que decir, que la comida ha sido bastante malita. Uno que ha pedido chuletón, le han puesto lo mismo que a mi, que había pedido entecot. Además, la carne estaba pasada, pero pasada, pasada, y con olor. La tapa de rabo, “le faltaba el rabo”, sólo habia grasa. La paella de los niños, era lo que sobra de la paella. Para que empiecen aservir, casi una hora, y cien mil moscas acompañan a los comensales.

Espero, que si vamos el próximo día, algo haya mejorado. Desde luego, nosotros paella de antemano, y sin emplatar.