Arroz con Pollo

Inspiration:
A recent trip to Puerto Rico and a recipe from Martha Stewart's Living


Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry white wine
• Pinch of saffron
• 6 chicken thighs (6 ounces each)
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic (2 to 3 cloves)
• 1 large tomato, diced
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 4 1/2 cups homemade or store-bought low-sodium chicken stock, plus more if needed
• 3 cups short-grain rice, preferably Valencia (can substitute Arborio)
• 1 cup pimiento-stuffed green olives

Instructions:

1. Combine wine and saffron; let stand until ready to use. Season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large braiser or heavy-bottomed, straight-sided saute pan over medium-high heat. Cook chicken, skin side down, until browned, 4 to 5 minutes. Flip, and cook until golden brown, 2 minutes; transfer to a plate.
2. Reduce heat to medium, and cook onion and garlic, stirring often, until tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Add tomato, and cook, stirring often, for 15 minutes. Stir in wine-saffron mixture, 1 tablespoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and the bay leaves. Cook until wine is almost completely evaporated, 10 to 15 minutes. Add chicken, stock, rice, and olives; bring to a simmer.
3. Reduce heat to low. Cook, covered, stirring halfway through, until rice is tender, about 45 minutes. (If rice is not done, add more stock, cup at a time.) Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 10 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper.

Notes:

• I omitted the tomato because- well, I forgot to buy one!
• Make sure you use a large enough pan. Chicken broth overflowed onto my stovetop more than once- whoops!
• I used a pinch of saffron, but next time I'd use a really really large pinch.
• There was a lot more rice than chicken, perhaps because we used skinny organic free-range chicken thighs. Anyway, I took the leftover rice to work as part of my lunches, and it tasted great cold! So, enjoy the leftover rice if you have some.
  

Liz's Rating: 9/10
Tim's Rating: 9/10

Paella de Marisco

Inspiration:
A cooking class taken in Barcelona over Christmas 2006


Ingredients:

• 8 prawns, shells on, deveined
  
• 2 squids (or cuttlefish), in rings
• 1 pound mussels
• 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, peeled, crushed
• 1 tomato, peeled, minced
• 6 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 pound arborio rice
  
• 4 1/2 cups fish stock (I use Penzey's Seafood Soup Base)
  
• 8-10 saffron threads

Instructions:

1. Heat the oil in the pan and fry the prawns until slightly browned. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
2. Add the the tomato in the same hot oil and fry slightly. After some minutes, add chopped garlic and fry over medium heat.
3. When the tomato starts to burn, stir in the squid and the clams and mussels.
4. Stir in the stock and the saffron and bring it to a boil.
5. Add the rice and distribute it evenly. Rice can’t be touched beyond this point!
6. After some minutes add the prawns in a decorative pattern.
7. Increase the heat to medium-high and cook for (+/-) 8 minutes, rotating and swirling the pan to distribute the heat evenly. Reduce heat to minimum and cook (+/-) 10 more minutes.
8. Let it stand for about 5 minutes before serving.

Notes:
Our cooking class instructor was from Valencia, the birthplace of Paella. There are many, many varieties of paella, but according to my research, this recipe is pretty authentic. Here is an article if you are interested in paella history and proper preparation.

I thought there were way too many mussels, so next time I will use 1/2 pound. I will also double the amount of saffron.


Tim's Rating: 8/10
Liz's Rating: 8/10 (has potential, but it's difficult to execute)

Cooking in Barcelona

Mom, Ellen (my sister) and I took a cooking class in Barcelona with Cook&Taste.
Highly recommended!

We first visited Barcelona's famous market, La Boqueria. These are just a few of the many, many photos that were taken!
We then headed to the kitchen.
Our instructor, Pau:
We made the following items:

Cold tomato soup with fresh tomatoes (peeled and pureed) and topped with parsley, pine nuts, cheese, and aoli sauce:
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CHUPITO DE SOPA DE TOMATE AL AROMA DE IDIAZÁBAL
(tomato soup shot flavoured with idiazabal cheese)

Ingredients (4 servings)

• 4 tomatoes, peeled and seeded
• 20 gr idiazábal cheese, grated
• 20 gr of allioli sauce
• 2 spoons of balsamic vinegar
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 25 gr of walnuts
• 25 gr of hazelnuts
• parsley
• olive oil
• salt

Method

1. Peel the tomatoes, seed and blend them together with the vinegar and a pinch of salt.
2. In a mortar, pound the garlic cloves, the parsley and all the nuts. Emulsify with a little of oil.
3. Serve in a small cup and decorate with a teaspoon of what you’ve got from the mortar, a teaspoon of allioli and some grated cheese.

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Tortilla Española _______________________________________________________________

TORTILLA DE PATATAS Y PAN CON TOMATE
(potato omelette with tomato bread)

Ingredients (4 serves)

Tortilla de patatas

• 300 gr of potatoes, peeled, chopped (10 oz)
• 1 onion, peeled, in half rings
• 3 eggs
• olive oil
• salt

Pan con tomate

• 4 slices of farmhouse bread
• 2 red tomatoes
• 1 garlic clove (optional)
• olive oil
• salt

Method

Tortilla de patatas

1. Peel and rinse the potatoes; dice them thinly.
2. Peel the onion and cut it in half rings.
3. Fry the potatoes in plenty of hot olive oil. Add the onion into the frying pan when the potatoes are half done.
4. Leave over medium heat until both the potatoes and the onion are well done. Set aside over absorbent paper.
5. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and season with salt. Pour the drained potatoes and onion in the bowl and mix.
6. Remove excess of oil from the pan. Pour the mixture over the heated pan and cook until the bottom starts to brown. Flip it over, and gently slide the tortilla into the pan again so the uncooked part is face down and finish cooking.

Pan con tomate

1. Peel a clove of garlic and cut it in halves. Cut the tomatoes also in halves cross wide.
2. First rub the bread with the garlic with the cut side, and then with the tomato, squeezing gently. Sprinkle it with salt and drizzle it with olive oil.

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Paella de Marisco
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PAELLA DE MARISCO (seafood paella)

Ingredients (4 serves)

• 8 prawns
• 2 squids (or cuttlefish), in rings
• 500 gr of clams and / or mussels (1.1 pound / 17.5 oz)
• 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, peeled, crushed
• 1 tomato, peeled, minced
• 6 tablespoons of olive oil
• 400 gr of rice (1 pound / 14 oz)
• 1,1 l of fish stock (4.4 cups)
• 8-10 saffron threats or colouring

Method

1. Heat the oil in the pan and fry the prawns until slightly browned. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
2. Add the the tomato in the same hot oil and fry slightly. After some minutes, add chopped garlic and fry over medium heat.
3. When the tomato starts to burn, stir in the squid and the clams and mussels.
4. Stir in the stock and the saffron and bring it to a boil.
5. Add the rice and distribute it evenly. Rice can’t be touched beyond this point!
6. After some minutes add the prawns in a decorative pattern.
7. Increase the heat to medium-high and cook for (+/-) 8 minutes, rotating and swirling the pan to distribute the heat evenly. Reduce heat to minimum and cook (+/-) 10 more minutes.
8. Let it stand for about 5 minutes before serving.

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Crema Catalana

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CREMA CATALANA (Catalan cream)

Ingredients (6 serves)

• 6 egg yolks
• 200 gr of sugar
• 1 l of milk
• 40 gr of starch
• peel of one lemon
• 1 stick of cinnamon
• vanilla (optional)

Method

1. Blend the egg yolks and the sugar until it becomes a fine cream. Add 750 ml of milk and stir to get a good mixture. Add the lemon peel and the cinnamon.
2. Heat it over medium-high heat in a saucepan.
3. Meanwhile, dissolve the starch in the remaining milk and stir the mixture into the saucepan.
4. Bring to the boil, stirring all the time and set aside right before first bubble.
5. Let it cool for a while, still stirring, and distribute it in little earthenware dishes before it cools down completely.