Recipe: ¡Paella!

Hello and Happy New Year!

I hope you have had a wonderful holiday season!  I want to share with you the dish we made on Christmas Eve:  Paella! It is an absolute feast, worthy of any special occasion.

This is how my mother and my aunts make paella.  As many of you may know, there are many ways of making it -- from the most traditional Valencian paellas made with rabbit and snails -- to all seafood, all meat and vegetarian paellas.  This is a classic paella mixta (mixed paella) -- a mix of meat and seafood.  This was my first time making it, with my mother leading the way.  

Now this paella is enormous; it feeds probably 12-16, with leftovers.  You can certainly scale it down as needed.

I am so happy to share this amazing recipe and my family's tradition with you.  And let me tell you -- this paella is out-of-this-world. 

 ¡Buen provecho!

Quesada Family Paella

Ingredients:

Extra virgin olive oil

12 drumsticks (or you can do one per person)

1 rack of baby back ribs

1 pinch of saffron

1 huge onion or 2 medium, chopped

5-6 large garlic cloves

1 large red pepper; 1/2 chopped, 1/2 cut in strips

1 large yellow pepper; 1/2 chopped, 1/2 cut in strips

2 large tomatoes, chopped

24 mussels (approx)

12-16 large scallops (approx)

24 large shrimp (approx)

4 cups arborio rice

8 cups chicken broth

1 cup frozen peas

Flat leaf parsley, chopped (for garnish)

Garlic Powder

Cumin

Paprika

Adobo

Salt & Pepper

Method:

Begin by dusting the baby back ribs with garlic powder, cumin, paprika, adobo, salt and pepper.  My mother has the butcher cut the rack into long strips to make cutting them into bite size pieces easier later on.  It's not necessary but nice.

Put the ribs into the oven with the broiler on.

Now here's the thing that makes paella paella -- real Spanish saffron.  Expensive as all get-out, but for a feast it's worth it.

Add a pinch to the 8 cups of stock and set the stock to simmer.

Dust the drumsticks with garlic powder, cumin, paprika, adobo, salt and pepper.  Add 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil to the paella (paella is the name of the dish and the name of the pan) or whatever dish you are using.  (A 12-inch stainless steel pan would work well for a smaller batch.)  Heat up and add the drumsticks and whole garlic cloves.  Brown the chicken slowly so that you don't end up with burned skin and raw chicken inside.  Turn the pieces frequently.

In the meantime, chop your veggies:

Also, be checking and turning the ribs, when they're well browned, take them out of the oven.  Turn the oven down to 350F/180C.  Cut the ribs into bite-sized pieces. 

Add them to the chicken.  Take out the (by now well-browned) garlic cloves.

Add the onions, and cook a few minutes will they're soft:

Now add the chopped peppers:

 

Let them cook till soft then add the 4 cups of rice.  Stir the rice through the meat and veggies and saute for a few minutes:

Add all the stock:

Give the paella a good stir and cook it over medium heat until you see the rice begin to emerge out of the liquid:

At this point, add the seafood, right on top:

Pour some of the stock/broth over the seafood.  A turkey baster is a great tool for this:

And decorate the top of your paella, alternating the red and yellow pepper strips:

Now take a deep breath, gird your loins and hoist that baby into the oven.  Seriously, it's heavy, be careful!

The paella will take another 30 minutes or so to finish cooking and absorb all the stock.  After about 15 minutes add the frozen peas.  Be checking the rice.  This is one dish where you do not want the rice al dente, you want it soft all the way through.  If at any point it looks like the paella is drying out and the rice is still not done, you can add a bit of water (or stock, if you've got some extra.)  When all the water is absorbed and the rice is soft, the paella is done!

Sprinkle with the chopped parsley y ¡ya está!

From my family to yours ¡Buen Provecho!

Me and my mom, the master paella maker!

Chocolate Panna Cotta: Yummy, Easy & Healthy

Hi lovely people!

Christmas is almost upon us and although you might have all your cookies made, I thought I'd offer you an alternative treat for the holidays:  Chocolate Panna Cotta.  

I fell in love with Panna Cotta in South Africa.  I know it's originally an Italian dessert, but it was often on the menu in SA and I've been fiddling with different recipes since I got back to Minnesota.  This is my favorite so far, it tastes like a super smooth chocolate mousse but is a lot easier to make -- and a lot healthier!   It's what I like to think of as stealthily-healthy decadence.

It is super quick & easy -- no exaggeration, it takes 5 minutes total to make.  It's also very rich and chocolatey so you'd never guess how healthy it is -- which is kind of nice for the holidays!  I mean with so many full-fat, full-sugar desserts on offer, it's nice to have a yummy & healthy alternative!

First of all, I used dark chocolate, which in small amounts is very good for you (all those antioxidants and such.)  Also, instead of sweetening it with sugar I used stevia, which is all natural and calorie free -- you can find it everywhere now -- I even found it in South Africa.  I also used almond milk, but that's just because of my lactose intolerance.  You could certainly use cow's milk.  I'd use 2%.  Oh, and this would be an easy recipe to veganize, using vegan chocolate and agar-agar in place of the gelatin.

The recipe below is for 6 servings.  But you can double, quadruple it easily.  And if you want to make a bunch, silicone muffin cups (like these) would be ideal.  This Panna Cotta would be great for Christmas of course, or a New Year's dinner, or you know, on a random Tuesday night ... what?  I had to test them for you right?  

ENJOY!!!  and ... FELIZ NAVIDAD!

Healthy Chocolate Panna Cotta

6 servings:

• 1 package Knox unflavored gelatine (or 1 Tablespoon unflavored gelatine)
• 2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk (or milk of your choice)
• 2 ounces (57 grams) dark chocolate -- chopped -- use your favorite
• Stevia to taste -- I used about 1/16 a teaspoon, but I don't like things too sweet.  Here's what I recommend: add a teeny bit at a time and keep tasting till you like it.  Remember that stevia is much, much sweeter than sugar.  The total amount you add will depend on how much sugar was in your dark chocolate and, of course, your preference.

1.  In a saucepan, sprinkle the unflavored gelatine over 1/2 cup of the cold almond milk.  Let stand for 1 minute.

2.  Place over low heat; stir constantly until granules are completely dissolved -- about 3 minutes.

3.  Add the rest of the almond milk and whisk till hot and combined.  Add chocolate and stir constantly till it just comes to the boil.

4.  Add stevia to taste, anywhere from 1/16 - 1/4 teaspoon; whisk well.

5.  Pour into six 1/2 cup ramekins/molds or muffin cups.  Chill till set; I left mine overnight.

6.  Top with fruit/fruit sauces/sauce of your choice.  You can unmold it as I did above (run a knife around and dip the mold in hot water for a few seconds) or you can just leave them in their ramekins.

Note:
This recipe makes a very soft gelatin -- it is indeed, mousse-like -- which I love.  If it is too soft for you, add another packet of unflavored gelatin. 

BUEN PROVECHO!  ENJOY! 

Chumpe: An Authenticity Update

Hiya folks!

So I have a bunch of posts I'm working on, what we've been up to since coming back to Minnesota, lots of South African reminiscing pictures and posts, etc.

But before I post all those -- and in the holiday spirit -- I wanted to revisit one of my favorite recipes, Salvadoran Turkey, or Chumpe.  I originally posted this back in the day, and I mentioned in my post that this is how my family does Chumpe.  But just today I got a comment on the post where a lovely lady said she was going to make this for her Salvadoran husband.  Which got me thinking ...

See, most Salvadorans will add a special mix of spices & nuts to their chumpe.  For one reason or another, my mother never did.  Now, I LOVE the chumpe the way she makes it, but if someone makes this recipe and serves it to a Salvadoran person, they might say, "Hm.  Good, but not quite ..."

So I wanted to update this recipe to add the spice mixture that gives it a more traditional Salvadoran taste.  One isn't better than the other, I love the chumpe both ways.  But this way you have the option!

If you're making this for Christmas, let me know!  And FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!

The updated ingredients and method are in bold below.

Here is the Pan con Chumpe, a saucy, drippy sandwich packed with Salvadoran turkey, veggies and delicious sauce.

Ingredients:

Turkey (I used about a 14 pounder)

Rolls

Romaine (Cos) lettuce

Slices of tomatoes

Slices of peeled cucumber

Thin slices of radishes

Watercress

Marinade:

1/4 cup of softened butter

1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup of yellow mustard

1 Tablespoon coarse salt (or 1 1/2 teaspoons fine salt)

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh cracked ground pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons Adobo or other favorite savory spice blend, I used cajun this time

Sauce:

2 medium green peppers, whole

2 medium onions, quartered

2 large cans chopped tomatoes

1 small can tomato and onion mix

1 very big handful cilantro/coriander

1 very big handful flat leaf parsley

2 celery sticks, chopped

3 bay leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 - 1 teaspoon sugar (optional)

Lots of olives, whatever style are your favorite.  I use Kalamata. 

* Spice mix: 

1/3 cup raw sesame seeds
1/4 cup raw peanuts
1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds 

1 dried mild chile, destemmed and deseeded
2 teaspoons dried thyme

* Adapted from http://www.whats4eats.com/poultry/pavo-salvadoreno-recipe

Procedure:

Wash turkey well inside and out.  Pat dry.  Mix all marinade ingredients together into a liquidy paste.  Don't worry if it's not a perfectly smooth mixture (I often forget to leave the butter out to soften and end up with little lumps of cold butter in the marinade.  Not to worry.)  Bathe the turkey in the marinade, inside and out and between the skin of the breast and the meat.  (The skin really isn't a big deal with this recipe, so don't worry if it rips.)  Then take a very sharp, small knife and poke holes in the turkey, all over, front back, breast, thighs, etc.  Leave to marinade overnight in the fridge.

The next day:

Take turkey out and in a deep roaster, put it in a hot oven (400F/200C).  Let it brown, probably about 30-40 minutes, start to check it after 20 minutes.

Then turn it to brown the other side.  This can be a bit tricky.  As you can see, it took lots of weird kitchen utensils and three of us to do it:

Now, as the other side browns, you can make the sauce.

 Add the sesame seeds, peanuts and pumpkin seeds to a dry frying pan over moderate heat.  Toast them till fragrant and golden, constantly stirring and shaking the pan.  Don't walk away -- this only takes a few minutes and the nuts will burn easily.  When done, put them in a large bowl to cool as you prepare the rest of the sauce:

 

Put the quartered onions and green peppers in a dry pan over high heat.  Blister the heck out of them:

When good and charred, split the peppers in half and take out the seeds.  Peel them lazily (as in, rub off whatever falls off, leave the rest.) Add the peppers (in rough chunks) along with the onions into a big bowl (where you have the roasted nuts) with all the other sauce ingredients, except the bay leaves and the olives.  Also add the thyme and the dried chile.  Blend, blend, blend till smooth:

Then pour over the browned turkey:

Add olives and tuck in the bay leaves:

I usually wait till it's cooked a couple of hours before I add salt/pepper as the marinade will flavor the sauce.  I will also add a half to a full teaspoon of sugar if the tomatoes aren't very sweet and the sauce tastes a bit "acidy."

Lower the heat (350F/175C) and bake the turkey for approximately 3 hours or until it's basically falling off the bones.  If it starts to get too browned at the end, cover with foil.

You can have the chumpe with rice and salad, or as "Pan con Chumpe," which is my favorite way, like this:

Basically, you just stuff a lovely roll (Ciabatta, french, etc.) with lots of turkey meat, romaine (a.k.a cos) lettuce, slices of tomato, slices of cucumber, thin slices of radishes, watercress (if you like it).  Then top it with tons of sauce and ... curtido! (Here's the recipe.) It makes for a pretty huge sandwich.

ENJOY!

Notes:

Making the Day Before:  Since the chumpe is stewed, it's even better made the night before, which can make planning a big feast a heck of a lot easier.  If I do make it the night before, I leave it to cool all night in the oven, then in the morning take it apart, slice the breasts, and chunk off the dark meat.  Put the slices/pieces into baking dishes, cover with some of the sauce and put in fridge.  Then, when you're ready to eat, reheat them gently in the oven (covered with foil) and the leftover sauce can be quickly zapped in the microwave.

Making Pieces: While this is a recipe for the whole bird, you can easily adapt it to just make a turkey breast or a couple of thighs or drumsticks for a less fancy dinner.  A couple of thighs make a great Sunday dinner.

Recipe: Streamlined Mother-of-All Pumpkin Pies

So back in the summer I posted a pumpkin pie recipe and I was all like, hey, Northern Hemisphere folks, just pull this out come November ... so guess what I'm doing?

Actually, I'm also updating this recipe, streamlining it, and including a much simpler (but just as delicious) pie crust recipe.  So here you go my darlings.  The best dang pumpkin pie you will ever eat, just in time for Thanksgiving!

The Mother-of-All Pumpkin Pies
Makes 2 pies

Crust:

• 2 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
• 20 tablespoons of butter (280 grams)
• 4-10 Tablespoons of ice water
• 1 egg, well beaten

Filling:  (Tweaked from this original recipe)

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract 
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves -- if you can, use fresh ground.  I use a mortar and pestle and it's SO much better than pre-ground
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice -- again, I grind this fresh in a mortar and pestle
  
• 1/4 of a nutmeg (freshly grated)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 large eggs (to reduce fat/cholesterol, you can use 8 egg whites instead)
• 1 1/2 cans (12oz each) of evaporated milk (Low fat is fine)
• 2.2 pounds (1 kg) peeled and cubed butternut squash/sugar pumpkin *

*  You have to trust me on this one, use the cubed, peeled butternut squash you find at the store, unless you have the luck to find a sugar pumpkin.  The behemoths we carve don't taste nice at all.  You CANNOT tell that it's butternut squash and not pumpkin and it will taste SO much better than if you use canned pumpkin.  Trust me!

Method:

Begin with the crust:  Mix sugar and salt into flour. Cut butter into flour. Add just enough water to bind it together.

Wrap in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge while you make the filling.

Now, the filling.  Steam your squash for approximately 10-15 minutes in the microwave until it is very soft. No need to add water.

This should yield you about 3 cups of pumpkin/squash mush, add all the other filling ingredients.  Blend everything together in a blender or with an immersion blender:

Now flour your counter well.  Separate your dough into 2 pieces and roll out 2 pie crusts. If there are gaps/rips in your crust you can always fix it with your pieces and/or with additional pieces.

Line your pie tins with your dough, and then add your filling.  Crimp the crust and brush with the beaten egg. It should be just perfect for 2 pies. 

Bake at 180C/350F for one hour, but start checking at 45 minutes.  The pie is done when a toothpick comes out clean out of the center of the filling.

And there you go, best pumpkin pie you'll ever taste!

ENJOY!  BUEN PROVECHO!

AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Home Sweet Home: The Perfect Apple Pie

But what is this?

Is Lorenita blogging again?

Yes, I know.  It's been a while.  But folks, let me tell you, Transatlantic moves are no joke.  It has been a crazy couple of months since we left South Africa.  The jet lag, the endless unpacking, the welcome homes, the malaise, the getting life back in order, the trying to find work, the birthdays, etc., etc., ad nauseum.

Oh, and then, just as I was beginning to get a little settled I decided -- like the crazy person I am -- to embark on this thing called National Novel Writing Month wherein you attempt to write 50,000 words in the month of November.  In my case, I took it on in the hope of trying to hush my very loud inner editor.  Also, I think I have a bit of a masochistic streak (but that's just par for the course as a writer.) Anyhoo, it's been a great challenge that I'm still in the midst of.  So when I'm done with that, I do promise to get some more posts up with more frequency.  I still have to show you those beautiful Addo elephants!  And I know that our friends in SA wanted to see what life is like here in Minnesota.  So there will be all that.

For now, I am going to gift you with 2 of my all-time favorite pie recipes -- just in time for Thanksgiving! 

This first one is the one I'm most proud of since I created it using ideas from 3 different recipes and makes the yummiest and most crispy-crust-apple-pie ever.  I'll post the second (a streamlined version of my Pumpkin Pie) soon.  For now, enjoy the appley goodness!

It really is easy and is the foolproof way of avoiding a soggy crust, but a word of caution:  read through the whole thing before you start as I have notes about the timing and filling in the crust section ...

FILLING
Ingredients:

• 8-9 medium apples, sliced medium-thick (the key here is to take the pie pan you'll be using and fill it with the raw apple slices. Fill it until it's almost overflowing because they'll cook down a lot.)
• 1/2 cup of sugar (raw is great)
• a bunch of shakes of cinnamon
• dots o' butter (about 1 Tablespoon total)

Here's what you want your raw apple slices to look in your pie tin, just about to overflow.

METHOD:

The method here is very important.

Put sugar in heavy pan with a little water. Cook till it caramelizes (keep a close eye on it and stir every couple of minutes, especially at the end). Add apples to caramel:

 Stir together quickly, add cinnamon to your liking (I shake a bunch in and taste -- probably about a teaspoon or so) and cook a few minutes till apples are soft (kinda "wilty" but not mushy):

Put apples in strainer (put a bowl underneath) and let them strain at least 5 minutes:

Collect all the strained juices:

See all that juice?  That's what would have made your crust soggy & puffy!

Take all those juices, put them back in the pan and cook down till it's almost a jelly.  Mix reduced juices ("jelly") back in with the apples:

Pour into prepared pie crust (raw), dot with butter, top with latticed crust (brushed with one beaten egg.)

Bake at apx. 350F/175C till golden on top. (About 30 - 40 minutes.)

CRUST:
(MAKES 1 CRUST -- THIS RECIPE IS EXCELLENT FOR ALL PIES)

• 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt
• 10 tablespoons of butter (141.75 grams)
• 2-5 Tablespoons of ice water
• one beaten egg

Mix sugar and salt into flour. Cut butter into flour.  Add just enough water to bind it together. At this point I usually make the filling, so I let the crust rest in the fridge. Then flour your surface and rolling pin (or old wine bottle like I had to do in South Africa!) very well and roll out your dough. If it breaks/cracks, no worries, it patches easily.  Fill and brush with beaten egg before baking for a nice, golden, shiny crust.

Note that for apple pie I make one and a half of this recipe -- I like a latticed crust because you see all the apple slices, plus it lets even more steam come out of the apples, once again, trying to avoid the dreaded soggy pie. So you need 1/2 the recipe to make a latticed crust. Or you could just double it to make a full top crust.

Here are the amounts for the 1 1/2 recipe:

• 1 7/8 cup all purpose flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoons sugar
• scant 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
• 15 tablespoons of butter (141.75 grams)
• 3- 8 Tablespoons of ice water
• one beaten egg (you still just need one egg!)

 ENJOY !

P.S.:  A scoop of vanilla ice cream with this is heavenly!