Saturday night Spanish Supper (eaten at 10:00 p.m.!)

Paella

Hi, y’all.  Whew!  I’ve been working really long hours at the new job and last week I was sick with a super vicious cold, so I haven’t been writing much.  Truth be told, I haven’t been cooking much, either.  I was working on doing a series of posts about salads and salad dressings, but I got bored and frustrated with it.  I may get back to it one of these days, but in the meantime, I’m back to writing about life in Naptown, our garden and what’s on the table. The garden is winding down, although we still have the herb garden and some tomatoes and there’s a new batch of mixed greens, as well as the wild arugula and parsley that are popping up all over. It is definitely fall here.  The leaves are well into their transition from cool greens to fiery yellows and reds.  Having grown up in New Orleans, the changing seasons are thrilling to me, even knowing that a long cold winter is ahead. 



 So, what have I been cooking lately?  Derek worked all day yesterday, so I lounged around the house most of the day, took a nap and did a little internet shopping.  I made Brown Rice Paella for dinner – one of my favorite dishes.  I use Cook’s Illustrated’s recipe as a guideline for technique and quantities, since cooking brown rice can be a little tricky if you’re not used to it.  I like to believe that using brown rice makes the dish a little healthier!  I start off with four bone-in chicken thighs that I brown in one frying pan while prepping everything else and browning the chorizo.  You’ll also need chicken broth (low sodium store-bought is fine for this, since the dish has so many flavors), dry white wine, red and green bell peppers, fresh onion and garlic, a small can of diced tomatoes, some saffron (has to be the real thing), bay leaf, fresh parsley, frozen green peas, shrimp, a dozen fresh mussels in their shells, and of course, Spanish dry cured chorizo.  You don’t want to use the Mexican fresh chorizo in this dish if you can possibly avoid it.  Much of the flavor of the dish comes from the dry cured chorizo and the better the quality, the better the paella will turn out.  I use 1/3 cup of wine to de-glaze the pan I use to brown the chicken thighs, and add that to the rest of the mixture; it adds some lovely color and depth of flavor.  I’ll add the complete recipe at the bottom of this post.





Ensalada de Espana with Orange Sherry Vinaigrette

 I like to make my salads a real prelude to the meal, so in this case, I wanted to use ingredients typically found in Spanish cuisine.  I had some lovely Artisan lettuces (I still don’t really know what "artisan" means in regards to lettuce, but whatever).  I added a perfectly ripe avocado, segments of fresh orange, red onion, black and green olives, and then garnished the salad with toasted almond slivers.  I dressed my Ensalada de España with a vinaigrette made of Sherry vinegar, a little fresh-squeezed orange juice, Spanish Extra Virgin Olive Oil, fresh-ground black pepper and salt/garlic paste.  I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s my favorite way of getting the taste of fresh garlic into your salad dressing without any unpleasant overpowering bites of garlic.  Take a small toe of fresh garlic and mince it.  Add a couple of pinches of sea salt, and with the flat of your knife, mash the two together until they form a smooth paste, which you whisk into the vinegar/citrus before you add the oil. It may seem like a lot of trouble, but it will take less than five minutes and it will improve your salad dressing 300%, I promise!

Here's the recipe, as promised:

Ingredients

• 1pound extra-large shrimp (21/25), peeled and deveined
• Olive oil 
• 8-9medium cloves garlic , minced or pressed through garlic press (about 2 tablespoons)
• 4 chicken thighs , each thigh trimmed of excess fat
• 1 red bell pepper and 1 green bell pepper , seeded and cut pole to pole into 1/2-inch-wide strips, so that you have about 14 strips; chop the rest and add to the onions
• 6 ounces Spanish chorizo , sliced 1/2 inch thick on the bias; remove the casing so that the sausage won't curl up
• 1 medium onion , chopped fine (about 1 cup)
• 1 can (14 1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes , drained, minced, and drained again
• 2 cups long-grain brown rice
• 3 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads , crumbled
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 dozen mussels , scrubbed and debearded
• 1/2 cup frozen green peas, slightly thawed
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 1 lemon , cut into wedges, for serving (optional)

Instructions

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Toss shrimp, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, 1 tablespoon oil, and 1 teaspoon garlic in medium bowl; cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until needed. Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper and brown on both sides in a large skillet while working on the peppers.  When the chicken thighs are evenly browned, remove from the pan and set aside on a plate to cool.  When cool, remove the skin and eat it as a tasty treat - it gets soggy and unappealing if left on anyway!
2. While the chicken is browning, heat 2 teaspoons oil in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering but not smoking. Add peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, until skin begins to blister and turn spotty black, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer peppers to small plate and set aside.
3. Reduce heat to medium and add chorizo to Dutch oven; cook, stirring frequently, until deeply browned and fat begins to render, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer chorizo to bowl with chicken and set aside.
4. Drain the oil in the Dutch oven, leaving about 2 tablespoons; heat over medium heat until shimmering but not smoking. Add onion and chopped peppers and cook, stirring frequently, until softened, about 3 minutes; stir in remaining garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes; cook until mixture begins to darken and thicken slightly, about 3 minutes. Stir in rice and cook until grains are well coated with tomato mixture, 1 to 2 minutes.  De-glaze the pan from the chicken with white wine, scraping up all the brown tasty bits at the bottom of the pan.  Add to the Dutch oven along with chicken broth, saffron and bay leaf; increase heat to medium-high and bring to boil, uncovered, stirring occasionally.
5. Cover pot and transfer to oven; cook until rice absorbs most of liquid, about 20 minutes. Remove pot from oven; add chicken and chorizo, cover pot, and transfer to oven; cook for 25 minutes. Remove pot from oven; scatter shrimp over meat and rice, insert mussels hinged side down into rice (so they stand upright), arrange bell pepper strips in pinwheel pattern, and scatter peas over top. Cover and return to oven; cook until shrimp are opaque and mussels have opened, about 12 minutes.
6. Let paella stand, covered, about 5 minutes. Discard any mussels that have not opened and bay leaf, if it can be easily removed. Sprinkle with parsley and serve, passing lemon wedges separately, if desired.  Serve with a green salad and a nice dry red or white wine.  I like a Spanish Tempranillo with this.