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Paella Night

Last night, Sara and I hosted 6 of our friends for a Spanish-themed dinner party. It was the biggest full-on dinner party we've had so far, and I had promised paella for the crowd. I've made paella several times, but this was the most people I've ever cooked a full dinner for, so it was a bit more intimidating than a normal Sunday dinner. We started cooking and preparing at about noon that day, and had everything in place by the time the guests arrived. 

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The night started with some appetizers -- Sara made her amazing bacon-wrapped, almond-stuffed dates. If you've had normal bacon wrapped dates, let me tell you, the almond is a revelation. Dipped in a tangy sauce made with apricot jelly and balsamic vinegar, these little rolls are heaven on a toothpick (Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of these, or Sara's equally amazing flan -- but if she starts a food blog, these should be the first entries). On my end, I made a tortilla española, or Spanish omelet. One of my go-to tapas, tortilla española is made with pan-roasted potatoes and onions, bound together in omelet form with beaten eggs. I topped it off with a dollop of garlic saffron aioli (piped through the corner of a ziplock bag) and finished with a shake of Spanish paprika. The creamy, saffron-spiked aioli and bright, smoky paprika went perfectly with the savory, salty goodness of the onions and potatoes, so if you make the tortilla, do the aioli too. We rounded out the first course with a delicious selection of Spanish olives, tomatoes and cheeses, courtesy of my friend Caroline. Along the way, we staved off thirst with crisp, bubbly Cava (courtesy of Chris, Mike and Jen-Jen) and cool, fruity, deep purple sangria (thanks JM2K).

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The main attraction was, of course, paella. There are a few things in my mind that make a great paella -- the occasional bite of smoky chorizo, the crispy rice (called socarrat) at the bottom of the pan, and the sweet floral aroma of saffron that hits you as you bring the rice to your mouth. 

My general procedure is to begin with spicy chorizo, sauteeing it until the sausage pieces turn a dark brown, almost black. Chorizo is a blood sausage, so it'll get nearly black when they're done -- wait for this stage, and you'll be rewarded with crisp, crumbly slices. From there, I add my onions and garlic, sauteeing them for about 5 minutes in the chorizo fat. Next comes the rice, enough to cover the bottom of the pan about a quarter inch. The next steps will be familiar to those of you that have made risotto. Toast the rice for a few minutes until it starts to get a bit brown, fragrant, and crackly. Then, add in your liquid a few ladlefuls at a time, allowing the rice to absorb it slowly. For my liquid, I combine chicken stock and clam juice, and add the shells from the shrimp. I simmer these shells for a while (about a half hour if you have the time, longer is fine too) to add a fresh shrimp flavor, and then remove them. About 5 minutes before you're ready to add the liquid to the rice, crumble a generous pinch of saffron into the broth and allow it to infuse, turning the stock a bright shade of yellow.

Continue to ladle the stock in until most of the liquid is absorbed -- I generally shoot for 1.5 cups of liquid for every cup of rice. When you've hit your target, start adding your seafood, peas and chicken. I take a more-is-more approach and add mussels, clams, calamari, shrimp, peas, and chicken. This time, I pre-cooked the chicken on the grill (but not all the way) to give it crispy, crackly skin before it went in the pan. Finally, I covered my pans loosely with foil and stuck them into the oven for about a half hour to cook the seafood and let the rest of the liquid absorb. Traditionally, paella is cooked entirely over an open flame, so the oven part was cheating; however, with guests over, I was happy to let the food cook hands free for a half hour or so while I chatted with my friends.

We finished off the night with an outstanding vanilla orange flan that Sara made. Flan is in my top three favorite desserts (with key lime pie and tres leches cake), so this capped off our fiesta perfectly.

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Recipes

I kind of just winged it for the dishes I made above, but I read these as a starting point. Use them as a start, but feel free to make modifications along the way

(Notes: used chicken stock, clam juice, shrimp shells as the liquid. No lobster, used shrimp. Used his spice rub for the chicken and it was good)

(Note: I didn't use anywhere near as much oil as they call for -- just add a few tablespoons and sautee the potatoes and onions until brown. Add more oil if you feel like the mixture is sticking. I also never flipped the omelet -- I cooked on the stovetop in a cast iron pan, and covered it for the last few minutes until the top set.)

(Note: instead of roasting the garlic, I deep fried it in about 1/4 cup of canola oil. When it cools, you can then use the garlic-infused oil to add more flavor to the aioli. Also, this recipe makes WAY too much -- I used one yolk, 1 Tbsp of lemon, a pinch of saffron and the added oil as necessary to create the immulsion. Even with 1 yolk, it was a HUGE amount)

Cool Ingredient: Romanesco Broccoli

There aren't a lot of ingredients as visually stunning as Romanesco broccoli. Its shape is a fractal -- a self-repeating collection of florets that seem to swirl on, tinier and tinier, forever. I don't often see it at the store (we get it from time to time in our weekly farm box), but I'm sure if you look hard enough at Whole Foods you'll see it every once in a while. 

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The texture is much like cauliflower, but the flavor is unquestionably broccoli. We got a bunch last week, and made veggie pizza with it. Give it a shot next time you want to jazz up traditional broccoli with something a little trippier. 

We ended up stumbling upon a winner with the broccoli pizza, so I've added the recipe below.


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Recipe: Broccoli Veggie Pizza
Ingredients:
1 batch of homemade or store-bought pizza dough
1 bunch of Romanesco broccoli (or regular broccoli)
1 container of white button mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 ball of fresh mozzarella (torn or cut in pieces), or 1 bag shredded mozzarella
1 canned whole tomatoes, drained (diced or crushed will work too)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic
Dash or two of red wine vinegar
Coarse salt and pepper
Additional olive oil for brushing crust

Heat oven and pizza stone as hot as you can get it. Mine goes to 550 degrees or so if I set it to broil.

Sauce:
Combine canned tomatoes, garlic, tablespoon olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt and pepper in a food processor. Process until the consistency of sauce. Simmer in saucepan over low heat for about 20 minutes, or until sauce thickens and garlic is fragrant. If you don't have a food processor, just use crushed tomatoes and dice the garlic up very finely before simmering. 

Onions and mushrooms:
Sauté mushrooms in a bit of olive oil until they've released most of their liquid. Add a bit more oil and onion slices, sauté everything until caramelized.

Broccoli:
Steam for 6-7 minutes until tender but not mushy.

Pizza:
Toss the pizza crust and place on a peel or baking sheet. Lightly brush crust with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Spread cooked sauce on oiled crust. Sprinkle onions and mushrooms and then add pieces of broccoli. Top with mozzarella pieces or shreds. 

Cook pizza on stone until crust is golden brown and top is bubbly.

A Need for No-Knead

At this point, it's almost cliche in the world of food blogs to dedicate another page to Jim Lahey's no-knead bread (a recipe popularized by Mark Bittman of the NY Times). It's "easily the most popular recipe ever published in the New York Times" according to the New York Times Cookbook, and probably the most popular recipe on the internet. With that said, it is also one of my favorite recipes, and since this is my blog, I'm going to add a few more bytes to the topic.
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The beauty of no-knead bread for me is not the simplicity -- I love cooking really complicated things, so I would have no problem kneading, punching and proofing bread if it yielded great results. Instead, it's the irresistible flavor that comes from the day-long fermentation and crisp, crackly crust provided by the steam from the wet dough inside the dutch oven. I've burned my tongue on many occasions (OK...every occasion) of this bread leaving the oven, too impatient to let it cool.

Eat it right out of the oven (well, give it a few minutes) with just a little bit of butter -- ideally unsalted. I've had it with olive oil and herb butter too, but unsalted fresh butter is my favorite, since the others cover up the taste of the spongy interior.  If you have any left, it makes a great sandwich, just be sure the slice at an angle so that the crust doesn't cut the roof of your mouth. 

Whip up the dough the night before, and it will be ready to go around dinnertime the next day. 

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No-Knead Bread Recipe (from NY Times):

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

Beef Tenderloin Stuffed with Roasted Red Peppers, Goat Cheese, Basil and Spinach

Yesterday was my mom's birthday, so I wanted to cook something a bit nicer than usual. Many years back, my dad made a beef tenderloin from a recipe in Bon Appetit (at least he says that's where it was from -- I found no record of said recipe on the internet). It was spectacular -- buttery soft tenderloin with the earthy sweetness of red peppers and the tang of goat cheese. I've asked him a few times since to make it, but to no avail -- it is quite a bit of work, so not necessarily an everyday recipe.

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I've never made a tenderloin before, and I did find myself intimidated -- as far as meat comes, tenderloin is pretty expensive and relatively unforgiving. Cut it wrong, and it will be very difficult to stuff properly. Overcook it, and there is very little buttery fat to hide the sin. After unwrapping the package I got from my local butcher, I stared down at it for a good three or four minutes, trying to figure out how I was going to butterfly it. The tough part is the thicker end, where the loin is basically two pieces, so one cut won't butterfly both.
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I ultimately opted to give each part its own cut and stuffing (although I left them connected). The next step was stuffing it with the red peppers, basil and goat cheese mixture. Layering these ingredients over the butterflied meat (which I also pounded to about 3/4" thin) was easy -- tying it all up, however, was more of a challenge. The thing that really saved me was the butcher's knot, which I had come across earlier that day as I investigated the best way to tie up a roast. A butcher's knot is designed to allow the cook to cinch tighter by simply sliding the knot up the string. 
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I cooked it to a beautiful medium rare, and served it with bay-scented domino potatoes and garlic sauteed green beans. 

Recipe:

[If you look at the recipe -- I made the port wine sauce, but ended up not serving it. The sauce recipe as it stands was too tomato-y for me, so if you make it, I would suggest starting with only a spoonful of tomato paste, and adding more as you see fit.]

Boxed wine?!

Ok, I'm going to go out on a limb here, and hope that my wine-loving family and friends don't completely write off my judgement after this post. The subject, which is obvious from the title, is boxed wine. 

I'm a big fan, in theory, of wine from a box (well, technically a BiB, or bag-in-box, but you already knew that). I like the idea of being able to have a single glass on a weeknight without worrying about finishing off a bottle -- the opened boxes last for about a month. I like the efficiencies of distributing wine in compact, lightweight, energy-saving packaging. About the only thing I don't like is losing the ritual and anticipation that you get as you uncork a long-awaited special bottle. But on a normal night, when I just want an easy glass of above-average wine, a box is perfect.
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I've read a few articles (in Wine Spectator and elsewhere) about rising quality in boxes, so I've set out to try a few lately. My first one was a California Cabernet by way of a Bota Box. Overall, not bad, but not really what I like in a wine -- it was too fruity for me, with a bit of cloying sweetness. Not a "dump the rest in the sink" failure, but not something I'll likely buy again. However, if you like a lot of juicy, berry fruitness and not a lot of tannic acidity, this might be the right one for you. 

The next time I was in Binny's, I asked one of the guys what he thought about the boxed wines they carried. Having talked to this particular person before, I trusted what he had to say, and was interested to hear him recommend "any wines that aren't made in California". The rationale here was that many other countries don't ascribe the same stigma to wines that come in a bag, and therefore feel like they can box some of their decent products. This in mind, I chose a Tempranillo (the grape from Spain that is used in Rioja) called Charla.

I'm drinking a glass now, and I'm very happy with the choice. Charla has much less of the fruity sweetness that I didn't care for, and more of the back-of-your-tongue, balanced tannins that I really like in a wine. It's exactly what I look for in an everyday bottle, and it comes in the vastly superior (at least for weekday wine) bag format. It pairs perfectly with some casual stemless wine glasses for some no-nonsense, "I'm in it for the wine, not the snobbery" drinking.

Give boxed wine a shot. I'm tossing around the idea of throwing a wine tasting party, and I might sneak in some Charla and try to win a few converts. As more people buy into the format, more good products will come. At the very least, the research is far from grueling.

Sardines, or the Most Aggressive Thing I've Cooked

I cook a lot of different foods from a lot of different cultures. I've made paneer cheese for saag paneer, stuffed sausage for brats, and cleaned squid for grilled calamari. However, up until very recently, I'd never cooked a whole fish from start to finish. Something about the process of cleaning, preparing and figuring out how to eat it always struck me as something to leave to the pros. 
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One of my recent go-to favorites is sardines. Unfortunately, many people have an instant negative reaction to sardines -- they think of the smelly cans of fishy-tasting fillets that are usually considered low-class food. I sprinkle some herbes de provence, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice and then broil them for a few minutes. Voila! A delicious, healthy and very sustainable food devoid of any fishiness or negative stereotypes (if something called "herbes de provence" doesn't elevate the status of sardines, I don't know what will -- I don't have anything in my spice rack with a more pretentious name :-).

With the canned variety under my belt, the next step was fresh. Several recipes caught my eye, and the glimmering pile of fresh sardines at my local fish market seem to beckon to me. I went there once or twice, resolute on picking up a batch, but wimped out. Finally, a day off of work and a determination to conquer whole fish brought me back to the market, bag in hand. Not even the fish market's refusal to clean fish that small could break my spirit; I bought 8, and brought them home, ready to do some gutting.  
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The gutting and scaling, while not hard, is relatively time consuming. There are a ton of videos and guides online for gutting sardines, so I won't bore you with the details. The one thing I'd recommend very strongly is to avoid the sardines that have a rough spine-like bone along the side of the tail (you can see this "spine" in the front fish in the top photo). They are typically yellow around the edges. These are much, much harder to clean due to their bone structure.

After the cleaning, I was left with 5 decent sized fillets ready for the broiler (I basically had to discard the yellow bony ones). I layered the insides with fresh lemon slices and drizzled a mixture of olive oil, herbes de provence, salt and pepper inside and out. They then went under the broiler for about 10 minutes, until the outside skin started to brown.

The verdict? Not bad, but not all that much better than the canned ones. Given the amount of work that went into the prep, I'll be sticking with Brunswick canned sardines from now on. The bright side of the endeavor is that I'm now no longer hesitant to make whole fish -- I've done the hardest ones. 

Puffy Oven Baked Apple Pancake

Perfect apple picking weather requires about 55 degrees, clear sky, and bright sun. Yesterday was perfect, so Sara and I headed to Kane County and harvested about 15 pounds of fruit, mainly Jonagold. About half of the bounty immediately went into apple sauce to be frozen and eaten over the next few months. The rest will be split up between pies, smoothies, regular ol' eating, and apple pancakes. It is apple pancakes that I came to speak of.
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I'm a huge fan of light, airy, eggy foods like crepes, popovers, and Yorkshire pudding. Baked pancakes, at least the ones I've had and the ones I make, are basically crepe batter with some cinnamon poured into a skillet (cast iron ideally) with apples and baked until lofty and golden brown. The result is better than any normal, boring buttermilk -- crispy, a bit chewy, and cinnamon-y. They're great with just a bit of maple syrup (don't disgrace them with Aunt Jemima), lemon and sugar, or, best of all, the juice left over after you toss the apples in lemon, brown sugar, and cinnamon. It's a perfect Sunday breakfast, and actually comes together surprisingly quickly -- about 10 minutes of prep and 20 minutes of baking. Try it now, while the apples are still delicious and the weather is crisp.

Puffy Oven Baked Apple Pancakes (serves 4)

Ingredients
  • 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 apple, sliced thinly
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 or a bit more cinnamon
  • about 2 tablespoons lemon juice (either fresh or bottled is fine)
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. 

Put your skillet on the stovetop and let it get hot. Turn off the heat, and add the butter so that it melts and coats the bottom. Set aside.

Whisk together the brown sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon in a large bowl. Add the apple slices and toss until they're all thoroughly coated. Leave them in the bowl.

Add milk, eggs, salt and vanilla together in a blender or food processor. Start it up, and gradually add the flour. Turn it up high for 5-10 seconds -- the goal is to whip air into the mixture to cause it to puff up more when you bake it. If you are mixing by hand, whisk vigorously for about 30 seconds. Don't blend for more than 10-15 seconds or it could cause the batter to over-stiffen.

Pour the just-mixed (if you've let the batter sit for more than a few minutes, whip it up for a few more seconds) batter into the skillet coated with melted butter. Arrange the apple pieces on top. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the pancake has puffed and the middle is beginning to turn golden brown.

Serve with some butter on top and drizzed with maple syrup, brown sugar, or (best of all) the juice left over in the bowl from the apples.

Seared Ahi Tuna on Arugula

Sometimes Pizza Fridays needs a bit more than just pizza. Tonight I seared some Ahi tuna before my pesto, buffalo mozzarella and cherry tomato pizza.

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If you can find a great piece of tuna (look for Atlantic Ahi tuna, it's not horribly overfished like many species out there), this dish is super easy but a huge crowd pleaser. Simply combine equal parts toasted sesame oil and soy sauce, and add a minced clove of garlic, some minced green onion, and grated ginger. Whisk it all together with a drop of dijon mustard (it will emulsify the oil and soy sauce without really changing the flavor). Feel somewhat free to substitute -- if you only have powered ginger or raw sesame oil, it will work, since the quality of the fish is the real star. Marinade for at least an hour -- a ziplock bag is perfect for getting the marinade in contact with all of the fish.

Now, get a pan screaming hot -- crank up the heat as far as it goes. Don't put any oil on it until the last minute, since there's going to be a lot of smoke. Use a cast iron pan if you have one, since they're ideal for the best sear. Right before you add the tuna, add a small amount of cooking oil to the pan. Sear each surface of the fish for about 1 minute (or possibly more if you like a bit more doneness), and then remove from the heat. Take your sharpest knife and slice into quarter inch pieces.

I served it on top of a bed of arugula (my favorite leafy green) lightly dressed with a vinaigrette made of sesame oil, lemon juice, a drop of mustard, and freshly ground pepper.  

Bruschetta Lasagna

Sara and I recently moved into a new place, so, of course, a housewarming party was in order. We've thrown parties in the past, mostly casual BYOB affairs with some chips and dip on the table. This one, however, we wanted to take up a notch and provide food and [of course] alcohol for all of our guests. We sent out the invitation a few weeks in advance, got back about 20 "yes"-es, and set the shopping list. One of my biggest fears is running out of food or alcohol, so I ended up buying 14 bottles of wine, 60 bottles of beer, and lots of hard liquor. Food-wise, I made bruschetta, and bought cheese, dips, and raw materials for 48 slider mini-burgers to whip up on the grill.


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Ok, so maybe a little overboard. One of my critical oversights was that several of my friends are still "college partiers", which means an RSVP of "Hey, I'll be there with my 3 roommates" really means "Ya, we'll probably show up, but who knows, we might end up hanging out at our place watching South Park instead". All in all, we ended up getting about 14 people -- a perfectly fine turnout. Except when you have food and drinks for 30.

The alcohol isn't really a problem -- it won't go to waste as football season gears up. Bruschetta, 5 lbs of ground beef, toasted bread and tons of cheese, on the other hand, doesn't have much of a shelf life. Rather than throwing out huge quantities of perfectly delicious food, I tried to think of a great dish that would use these ingredients and keep for at least a few days. Eggplant Parmesan Lasagna fit the bill perfectly -- bruschetta mixed with the ground beef sounded about right for the sauce, toasted bread turned into crumbs would make for delicious crispy eggplant, and leftover cheese could top it all off.

The sauce was really the standout rock star of the dish. I started with last night's bruschetta, a combination of tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, basil, olive oil, parmesan, garlic and balsamic vinegar (just keep adjusting until it tastes good). I pureed about 2 cups in the blender until it was the consistency of pasta sauce and added it to a few patties-worth of ground beef that was browning in a saucepan. I cooked that for about 10 minutes, and then added the last cup of the bruschetta to create a flavorful sauce with chunks of juicy tomatoes and ribbons of fresh basil. 

I thinly sliced the eggplant, salted it and let it drain for about an hour. I then lightly coated the slices with flour, dipped them in beaten egg, and coated them with bread crumbs from last night's toasted baguette. I arranged the slices onto a sprayed cookie sheet and baked them at 425 until the tops were golden brown and crispy, about 20 minutes.

The middle cheese was simply a mixture of cottage cheese (which I prefer to ricotta), spinach (optional, had some in the fridge), parmesan and an egg. 

Now, I just made a few layers -- sauce on bottom, then eggplant (or lasagna noodles), cottage cheese mixture and more sauce -- until I filled up the pan. Topped it all off with shredded cheese (mozzarella or whatever you have), and baked it for about 30 minutes or so, until the top got just a little bit golden brown. Don't brown the top too much, or the cheese won't be as chewy and delicious.

A huge leftover win, if I say so myself. Most importantly, I learned some valuable lessons -- bruschetta sauce is awesome, battered and baked eggplant is way better than noodles, and aim for enough food to feed about half of the RSVP'ed guests. The alcohol -- well...who knows. You'd hate to run out. 

Grilled Peaches with Blue Cheese, Toasted Walnuts and Honey

Make this now.

Nothing screams nice weather like fresh farmstand fruits, grilling, and lighter meals. We just came back from Michigan with a huge bag full of ripe peaches that we bought right at our favorite U-Pick farm, Twin Maple Orchards. Most of the fruit (meticulously peeled and pitted by my wonderful wife) went into either canned preserves or jam, ready to be opened on a dreary January day. However, a few particularly ripe fruits came home with us for what might be the ultimate use of fresh peaches.
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The assembly is as simple as could be. Get the grill nice and hot and throw your peach halves on there. Give it about 5-10 minutes to let some of the sugars in the peach caramelize and the flesh get warm and soft. Take it off, top with blue cheese crumbles, walnuts, and a drizzle of honey. I toasted the walnuts in a skillet on the stovetop for a few minutes, but you don't even need to do that. Eat voraciously and contemplate making another helping.

The best part about summer cooking is just how easy it is to make things taste great.
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