Perfect, pleasing paella or I have no brain cells left for clever titles

Of course my favorite place in the house is the kitchen! Whenever I need a little stress relief it's the first place I head.  This weekend, trying to reestablish the calm I'd been denied for most of the prior month, I spent a happy hour and a half making this delicious Paella dinner.  Based on Tyler's Florence's recipe, like most recipes I blog, it's changed up a bit to meet the flavor profile I want.  The ingredients and recipe follows (with lots of pics, I got a little camera happy once I found my battery!).

But first and more importantly, is wine.  Once the tasty and delicious paella is a reality, what to drink with it?  To answer this question, I strolled into my favorite wine shop, the Vienna Vintner, plugged so many times in this blog you'd think I had stock in the store.  As usual, Victor, one of the owners, produced two perfect options to pair with the shellfish delight.  Traditionally, the Spanish like to drink Albariño, a crisp, fresh white often reminiscent of Viognier.  But a little more interesting is a Verdejo.  Also, Spanish in origin and with some of the same notes you find in a traditional Viognier, this more aromatic wine frequently boasts honey and peach notes that create a nice balance to the spicy kick of the chorizo while still pairing well with the shellfish.  And that's what I chose - an Austum 2009 Verdejo, a great addition to our meal.

And now, on to the Paella...

Ingredients

4 bone-in chicken thighs with their skin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 lb Spanish chorizo,
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 Spanish onion, diced
1 green onion, diced
1 leek, cleaned and cut into strips
1 (16-ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained and hand-crushed
1 cup Spanish rice, short to medium grain
1 teaspoon saffron threads
3 cups chicken stock, warm
4 jumbo shrimp, peeled with heads and tails on or 8 extra large shrimp without heads and tails, peeled and deveined
8 littleneck clams, scrubbed
12 mussels, debearded and scrubbed
1/2 cup sweet peas, frozen and thawed
Fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, for garnish
Lemon wedges, for serving

Directions

Rinse the chicken pieces and pat them dry. Mix the oregano, paprika and cayenne with some salt and pepper in a small bowl. Rub the spice mixture all over the pieces of chicken; marinate for 30 minutes so the flavor can sink in.

Heat the olive oil in a paella pan or wide shallow skillet over medium-high heat. Place the chicken in the pan, skin-side down and brown on all sides, turning with tongs. Add the chorizo and continue to cook until the oil is a vibrant red color.

NOTE: It can be really hard to find good chorizo without going to a Latin Market.  Whole Foods sometimes carries a dried chorizo that is the best choice I've found locally, but they also make a fresh chorizo that is a possible second option if you can't find the more authentic version.

Remove the chicken and sausage to a platter lined with paper towels. After most of the fat has been absorbed by the paper towel, cut the chorizo into bite sized pieces and set aside.


Return the pan to the stove and lower the heat to medium. Make a sofrito by sauteing the garlic, green pepper, leeks, onion, and tomatoes.

Cook until the mixture caramelizes a bit and the flavors meld; season with salt and pepper.

Fold in the rice, stirring to coat the grains. If you can't find Spanish rice, arborio will work just fine.  Stir the saffron into the rice.

Pour in the chicken broth and simmer for 10 minutes, gently moving the pan around so the rice cooks evenly and absorbs the liquid. Do not cover or constantly stir like risotto.

Add the clams, the reserved chicken, and the chorizo. Give the paella a couple of good stirs to tuck in all the pieces and just let it simmer, without stirring, until the rice is al dente, about 15 minutes.

Add the mussels, shrimp and scatter the peas on top and continue to cook for 5 minutes, until the shrimp is cooked through, the mussels are open and paella looks fluffy and moist.

Discard any clams or mussels that did not open (this is important, bad shellfish can really make you sick!). The ideal paella has a toasted rice bottom called socarrat. Allow to rest, off the heat for 5 minutes, and garnish with parsley. Serve with lemon wedges.

Oh Pancake, My Pancake...

How fluffy and delicious you are. 

Ben made breakfast this morning.  This is always a double edged sword.  He's a fantastic cook. In fact, he's better than me, as painful as that is for my alpha personality to admit.  So breakfast a la Ben is bound to be delicious.  However, he is male and maintains a metabolic rate that makes me both jealous and a little angry as my metabolism seems to slow a little more with every passing day.  As a result, he often chooses to cook things that neither Weight Watchers nor my bathroom scale can reasonably endorse.  Not that it stops me from eating what he offers. 

Breakfast today was a perfect example of this conundrum.  Not really healthy, but extremely tasty, classic buttermilk pancakes.  If you want a weekend splurge, this is definitely the way to go.  The recipe itself is from Fine Cooking Magazine - yum!

Ingredients
3 Tbs unsalted butter; more for serving
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs
Vegetable oil for the griddle
Pure maple syrup for serving 

Instructions
Heat the oven to 200°F. Melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave or in a small saucepan on the stove and set aside to cool briefly.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk the buttermilk and eggs. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Whisk gently until the dry ingredients are almost incorporated; stop before the batter is evenly moistened. Add the cooled melted butter and mix just until the batter is evenly moistened (there will be lumps). Let the batter rest while you heat the griddle.

Heat a griddle or a large skillet over medium heat (or set an electric griddle to 375°F) until drops of water briefly dance on the surface before evaporating. Lightly oil the griddle. Working in batches, pour 1/4 cup of the batter onto the griddle for each pancake, spacing them about 1 inch apart. Let cook undisturbed until bubbles rise to the surface and the edges look dry, 1 to 2 minutes. Check the underside of each pancake to make sure it’s nicely browned; then flip. Cook until the second side is nicely browned, about 1 minute more. Transfer the pancakes to a baking sheet and keep warm in the oven while you repeat with the remaining batter.

Serve hot with butter and maple syrup.

Crepes Redux - Bananas & Salty Caramel

The beauty of being a couple for nearly 8 years is that you can choose whether or not to observe Valentine's Day without the pressure of new coupledom or social convention.  Ben's opinion on the big VD (go ahead, snicker, I did when I wrote it), has always been something along the lines of "Shouldn't I just do nice things for you all year instead of just on a given day in February?"  And mostly, he lives that opinion so I don't mind.  My opinion on the day centers more on a childish chant of "I want flowers."  Flowers, I should add, I usually get, except the weekend before or after, never on the day, in keeping with Ben's theory of year-long generosity and kindness.

Theoretical snubbing of the holiday aside, I think the social pressures still set in because inevitably we find ourselves doing "couple" things we'd do throughout the year, but packed in densely around the VD holiday.  This year was no exception.  Having both complained since December about needing a massage, we spent the Saturday after VD being anointed with oil by masseurs at the Ritz Carlton.  And, getting to the crux of this post, I got up early the Sunday before VD to make homemade salty caramel and crepes.

Now I make breakfast for Ben from time to time on the weekends and he returns the favor (tasty Ben breakfast post is in the queue, coming soon!). But it's February, which means budget season in the bureaucracy.  I'm working ungodly hours, waking up in the middle of the night panicked I forgot to add in escalation for inflation into our latest future year budget build, hyperventilating over the time constraints associated with requirement gathering, blah, blah, blah for the nearly an entire month.  That means weekends in February, if I'm not working, find me collapsed on some soft surface drooling and trying to repair what is really irreparable brain damage caused by stress and too many hours spent staring at spreadsheets.  It gets so bad that the cat even gives up on me and goes to spend her weekend mornings in Ben's lap rather than perched on the sofa arm begging for my attention.  I even captured a photo of her looking at me disdainfully from the safety of her man's lap. So the fact that I hauled my exhausted behind down the stairs at 7AM to get cracking on the caramel should tell you that I clearly fall victim to the social pressures of VD (hehe, again).  But in the end it was worth it, because I produced a breakfast that was about as good as I could hope to get outside of a real (and glorious!) French creperie.  Both of the recipes you've seen before and recently, but this time with a twist or two.

To make the marvel that is Crepes with Homemade Salty Caramel and Bananas simply make the salty caramel recipe I debuted in January, courtesy of Ina Garten, but instead of heating it to 248 degress F, heat it only to 240 degrees F to keep it syrupy for crepe consumption.  This can be made a day or two ahead and refrigerated, you'll just need to warm it in the microwave for use in the crepes.  When you're ready to actually make the dish it's easy. First, peel a ripe banana.  Slice it into bite size pieces and toss in a bowl with a 1/2 tsp rum (adds a nice little touch of flavor and keeps the bananas from turning brown).  Make your crepe according to the recipe I posted in January or another preferred recipe.  After you flip the crepe, and just before you're ready to take it off the heat add the bananas and warm caramel to the center of the crepe, fold it over, remove from the heat to a plate, drizzle with a little more salty caramel and consume!  These crepes could make even the most long standing couple believe in the romance of VD.

 (My pretty, pretty non-VD hydrangeas, quite poorly photographed courtesy of my cell phone cam)

(Proof of the cat's weekend disdain, she has given up on me)

Cymbeline Redeems

As you may recall, the last Shakespeare Theater production Nicole and I saw was Candide at Harman Hall.  And my review wasn't exactly glowing. But the season has been redeemed by Cymbeline.  The story of a king, but really of a king's daughter, from the opening scene you wonder is it a tragedy? A comedy? A romance? It really knows no classification.

A lesser performed and infrequently read play of Shakespeare's written near the end of his career (or so it is believed, there is still question as to when it was actually penned), it weaves a tale of virtue, forgiveness and redemption set against the back drop of treachery, maliciousness and war. Highlights of the production includes what I can only describe as a "Jersey Shore"-style Cloten, the egocentric, lustful and ridiculous son of the Queen, who seeks the hand and virtue of his step-sister, Imogen, our pure and true protagonist.  Deliberately written as the comic relief, the artistic director took tremendous anachronistic license to underscore the character's impotence by exchanging a slow-moving red motor scooter for the valiant steed you know the self-impressed Cloten pictures for himself. 

Other stand outs from this performance were the unwitting sons of King Cymbeline, raised as mountain men with the kind of social skills that provide for moments of pure hilarity. But more potent than their comedic value, is the almost child-like innocence with which they view the world.  They live without complication and see the world in the same way.  They are the "set of clear eyes" through which the audience can experience the characters in their most unfettered forms.

Last, but certainly not least, was Gretchen Hall, the extremely talented actress that played Imogen.  Her portrayal of the heroine, around who's virtue the entire plot turns, was sweet and tender as the character requires.  Yet her tenacity and grit come through even the tenderest of moments, making her a force to be reckoned with as both Posthumus's devoted wife and King Cymbeline's wandering daughter.  All in all, her performance was stellar.

Running through March 6th, Cymbeline is worth every penny.  Check it out.

P.S. This post marks my 100th! Sort of like the 100th episode of a long-running TV show, I feel like I should have a cake to celebrate. Maybe I'll make a new cake I've never tried and blog about it. Thoughts?

Pan Fried Chicken & Spinach, White Bean and Bacon Salad

In my continued efforts to feed us different, interesting and/or comforting food, I went on a serious e-hunt last weekend for some new, healthy recipes.  I found both the main and the side dish for this post courtesy of Cooking Light.  As usual, the pics leaves something to be desired since I still can't find my camera battery charger.  Really you wonder? We moved in May 2010, you'd think I'd have found everything by now, but no, there's a considerable list of things I'm still looking for without success (to date, I'm sure they'll turn up eventually).  And also as usual, I've tweaked the original recipe for more desirable results, at least in my opinion. As a heads up, the recipe for the chicken is time consuming in that you have to refrigerate the chicken quite a while, but at least that's inactive time for the cook.

Pan Fried Chicken 

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon hot paprika
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutme teaspoon fine sea salt
2 bone-in chicken breast halves, skinned
2 bone-in chicken thighs, skinned
2 chicken drumsticks, skinned
1/4 cup peanut oil

Sift together first 6 ingredients; place mixture in a large zip-top plastic bag. Sprinkle salt evenly over chicken. Add chicken, one piece at a time, to bag; seal. Shake bag to coat chicken. Remove chicken from bag, shaking off excess flour. Place chicken on a cooling rack; place rack in a jelly-roll pan. Reserve remaining flour mixture. Loosely cover chicken; chill 1 1/2 hours. Let chicken stand at room temperature 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

While the oven is preheating, line a 13x9 inch casserole dish with paper towel at least three sheets thick.  Return chicken, one piece at a time, to flour mixture, shaking bag to coat chicken. Discard excess flour mixture. Heat peanut oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan.  Brown the chicken on all sides to a rich, golden color.  Remove the chicken from the frying pan and place in the casserole dish.  Bake until the chicken is cooked through, about 25 minutes. Serve with Spinach, White Bean and Bacon Salad.

Spinach, White Bean and Bacon Salad

1/4  cup  maple syrup
3  tablespoons  cider vinegar
1  tablespoon  extravirgin olive oil
1  tablespoon  Dijon mustard
1/4  teaspoon  salt
1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
1  (15.5-ounce) can Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained
1/2  cup  thinly sliced green onions
1/2  cup  finely chopped red bell pepper
5  bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
11 ounces fresh baby spinach

Combine first 6 ingredients in a small microwave-safe bowl, stirring with a whisk; microwave at HIGH 1 minute or until hot. Place beans in a 2-cup glass measure; microwave at HIGH 1 minute or until hot.

Combine onions, bell pepper, bacon, and spinach in a large bowl. Add syrup mixture and beans; toss well to combine. Serve immediately.

I would also recommend that if you have a Whole Foods or some other source of decent store bought corn bread, this is a great chance to enjoy that too!