Paella

Tonight, I made paella. It's wonderful and easy and cheap and it makes everyone happy. I used shrimp and andouille sausage, but lots of things work. Combinations of seafood are common (like, maybe shrimp, clams and mussels) and they look really striking. I think having a few shrimp (maybe like 2 or 3 per person) and a decent amount of sausage is a good way to stretch it out. Chorizo or spicy Italian sausage are good as well. Or, you could do chicken and sausage, or chicken and shrimp. A quick epicurious search pulls up vegetarian paella (white beans and swiss chard, asparagus and sugar snaps), a turkey paella, even rabbit and artichoke. Snails are another traditional component.

Paella is a Spanish rice dish that is supposed to be cooked in a very thin, some would say very cheap, pan. Purists will insist that the title "Paella" requires a crunchy, almost burnt crust on the bottom of the pan. It's become a recurring theme in Top Chef (the TV show) for a contestant to make what they call paella. In most cases, they've used the high quality pans provided for them, and thus have produced a nice, evenly heated, perfectly cooked pan full of rice. This angers Chef Tom Collichio. In a few cases, the contestant has pulled this off (see: Ilan, Season 2, individual paellas, cooked in serving dishes, and not actual cookware. Clever, or lucky?). When this has happened, all the judges basically get off on this magnificent burnt rice. Padma Lakshmi, judge and host, delights in proding the crunchy bits with her fork, like an ethnic, stoner version of Amelie cracking the top of her creme brule, and she looks up and informs the viewers at home "the rice is soooo crunchy, you guys!"

But anyways. My "paella" did not have the crunchy bottum. I don't care for burnt rice, myself. I chopped up about 1 cup of onion and sauteed that till it was a little browned. I added in minced garlie (2 cloves), a big pinch of saffron and about 1/2 teaspoon of smoked spanish paprika. I used roasted red peppers from a jar, so I diced them and added them after the spices. (You'd add diced fresh bell pepper with the onions.) I poured in 2 cups of chicken broth (fish stock is good too), 1 cup of short-to-medium grain rice and an andouille sausage, halved and sliced. You bring the broth to boil, then lower the heat and cooked with the lid on for 15 minutes, till the rice is mostly cooked. Then I added the shrimp- I just layed them on top of the rice and pushed them into it so they were in the rice but not covered. If the rice looks dry, add more broth. Cover again and cook on very low heat till the shrimp are pink.

If you were using chicken, you would brown in in the pan before doing anything else, cooking it about halfway. Then, you'd add it with the rice and broth, letting it cook the rest of the way. Clams or mussels you'd add with the rice and broth. If you're using uncooked sausage, cook it with the onions and peppers. If (like I did) you havve cooked sausage, just add it with the rice so the flavor will infuse.

Saffron and Spanish Paprika are pretty strongly associated with paella. Saffron is amazingly expensive, and if I hadn't helped myself to my mom's supply, I'm sure I would not be using it in my own kitchen. I've made this with a little tumeric in place of saffron and been quite happy with the results. I think I even called it "Paella", not "Seafood and Sausage Rice Dish with Eclectic Blend of Spices and Without Bottom-Crust". It's very flexible- a 2:1 liquid:rice, as much meat or seafood as you like (or, as much as you have), and whatever vegetables seem appropriate (red or green bell peppers, tomato, green bean, peas, artichokes, asparagus...) This is a good dish for using vegetables that maybe aren't as great as they could be, whether they're canned or frozen or just leftover, because they'll be cooking in a really flavorful broth.

Roasting

I love making roast chicken, especially when it's cold outside. It looks gorgeous and it makes my apartment smell yummy. And you can do plenty of stuff with the chicken, including making stock. I got a chicken at the Christmas farmer's market yesterday. This is my first local chicken. I've been buying the organic free range chickens at the grocery store, even though it's a little more expensive, but considering I get like 4 or 5 meals out of it, it seems worthwhile to start with better quality chicken.

I rubbed the inside and outside of my little chicken with salt and sat it in my fridge all day. I rubbed it with canola oil and roasted it at 425, upside down for half an hour, then flipped back over for 15 minutes.

I also love roasting vegetables. Someone reminded me that, maybe a few months ago, I said cauliflower was the last thing I had yet to developed a taste for. I love roasting cauliflower; I love the browned, slightly caramelized outside that brings out that nuttiness. At the farmer's market, there was a spread of broccoli, white cauliflower and purple cauliflower. I am a sucker for heirloom-y, different looking vegetables. In the summer, this mostly concerns tomatoes- I love the wonky looking ones with weird protrusions and stripes. But i absolutely had to get a little of each, so I'd have a pile of green, white and purple roasted veggies. Thanks to my P.O.S oven, they ended up a little more roasted than planned. Still delicious, still kind of awesome looking-


I mean, seriously! That purple is insane! I was worried the color wouldn't be vibrant and awesone after blasting the shit out of it in a 450 degree oven, but that weird Cauliflower From Neptune color just got better.

(Random aside- on Top Chef, four teams had to prepare dishes based on "Old", "New", "Borrowed" or "Blue". Obviously blue is the hardest. How bad ass would it have been if they'd found piles of purple cauliflower and made some blue-violet cauliflower puree, and maybe a blue-cheese stuffed piece of meat? Really, they should have called me)

Oranges! So many oranges! 400 ORANGES!!!

I have, somehow, managed to acquire a huge box of oranges, the kind sold by high school fundraisers. There are So. Many. Of them. In 10 days, I'll be going home for about 3 weeks. It is my goal to make as big a dent in this stockpile of citrus before then. One orange has about 65 calories, some fiber, and all your vitamin C. I don't think it would be possible to eat too many oranges. I guess I'll find out.

First up, my new favorite drink- the Bronx Cocktail
1 1/2 oz gin
1/2 oz both dry and sweet vermouth
1 1/2 oz fresh orange juice
dash orange bitters

Next, some kind of salad. I really love cutting oranges or grapefruit into sections (or "supremes") and I'm going to get a lot of practice. I want to make a salad of orange supremes, mache, sliced radicchio and toasted pecans. I'll make up a dressing of orange juice, sherry vinegar and olive oil.

I've also found an interesting salad on Fine Cooking- thinly sliced red onion, fennel bulb, and orange segments are tossed with olive oil, lemon juice and mint. Or, stacking in pretty little layers could make for a glamorous presentation. Stay tuned.

Next I'll try this recipe where you throw whole slices of oranges, pith and peel and all, into a pot with chicken thighs and broth, where they cook down and thicken the broth.

This weekend, I'm going to make some version of duck a l'orange. I'm pretty excited about it. It's such a classic, and I don't think anything can go wrong with duck.

Another wonderful thing to do with fresh oranges is Orange Chicken, the fried food-court staple with the syrupy coating. When this has just been made, and the coating is still crisp and hot and the sauce has that fresh-squeezed goodness, it's pretty mindblowing.

I just can't think of any desserts....

caramelized onions

So, yesterday, I made one of the tastiest things I've made in a while. I made a personal pizza with caramelized onions, baby spinach, gruyere and parmesan, and prosciutto. No I'm really serious, it was the best pizza that I can remember having. And I used some shitty store bought crust, and my grocery store doesn't even have Bobili.

Caramelized onions are fucking amazing and they make everything better. It's especially nice when you cut the onions radially. Peel, cut in half, cut of the ends, and cut parallel to the core at different angles to make lotrs of long thin strands. Cook with just a little bit of oil and some salt over medium-low heat, stirring a lot. Don't be afraid of carring them a little as long as they don't actually burn.

And seriously, they make everything better. Dice them up and stir them into rice or pasta, even. Every sandwich is improved with caramelized onions. My brother loves homemade philly cheesesteaks with caramelized onions. Grilled cheese with provolone, mustard and caramelized onions is the greatest drunk food ever.