Boston 1: MFA, Fenway, Walk & Chinatown

So, a couple of weeks ago Aaron and I went to one of my favorite cities ever, ever, ever: Boston!

I went to Harvard as an undergrad -- which I don't think I've ever talked about on this blog.  It always seemed an odd thing to mention amidst bread recipes and lion sightings.  I have lots to say about going to Harvard, but I think I'll just save that for another post.  Sufficed to say for now that it was -- and still is -- a complex experience.  But whatever my Harvard life was like, I always adored Boston.  I loved it from the time my sister (who lived in New York City) took me to visit colleges there the summer between junior and senior year.  In fact, I loved it so much that I only applied to schools in Boston!  Crazy, now that I think of it.  

And what drew me as a 16-year-old still draws me hhhmmmmlalala years later: being able to walk and walk and walk and always see something interesting; great public transportation; the huge range of cuisines; the mix of high-brow and down-home cultures; and more than anything, the history that you can see, feel and touch all around you.

The first few days I was attending the AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) annual conference.  It's essentially the biggest writer's conference in the country, and I was there to perform/present at one of the panels on behalf of The Loft.  I don't have any pics of the conference itself cuz I'm a loser, but it was a fantastic conference -- got to meet amazing writers, get some very sound, practical advice and was left open-mouthed by some of the poets who performed.

Aaron then joined me and we had a jam-packed 4 days of enjoying the city.  It was really special to me to be able to share Boston with him -- it is the place where I began to grow into the woman I was to become and I wanted to take him to all my favorite spots, my favorite restaurants and -- oh hell -- I guess revisit my misbegotten youth.

First up was the Museum of Fine Arts:

Much like the Harvard experience, I could say a great deal about my conflicted feelings about museums.  Of course they serve a hugely important role in preservation and education, but the politics of repatriating (or not) national treasures, etc. always bugs me.  Still, it is a stellar collection, brilliantly curated that spans from modern weavings to Mayan masterpieces to Monets and so much more.  If you have only 2 days in Boston, take one whole day just for the museum, it's that stellar.

Amid all the treasures like the Olmec mask above and the rows of Velazquez paintings and such, I found what I think was the most hilarious thing I have ever seen in a museum:

YES!  A good museum trip is never complete without copulating rats, I say.

Then, a beer break:

Those are blueberries in my beer! (That's the awesome Bunker Hill Bluebeery Ale at the Boston Beer Works.)

And post-beer, what are you gonna do?  Go to Fenway Park of course!

Aaron is a huge baseball fan, so he had a blast standing on top of the "Green Monster."

And there's me reliving my journalism days in the press box:

Then we took a really long walk through the heart of the city:

This is what I love about Boston; look at that gorgeous old architecture right smack dab between glass and steel.  No other American city does it better.

We were exhausted -- and famished -- by the time we hit Chinatown:

We ended up eating at Hei La Moon, which a friend from college who still lives in Boston recommended.  It is Hong Kong food at its best!

We staggered home to the studio we rented to get some sleep, rest our weary feet and get ready for even more intense walking the next day ...

Recipe: 4 Days, 3 Feasts and One Leftover Special

Mid-February is always a busy time for the Armstrong-Duartes.  Within the space of 3 days we have to celebrate Valentine's Day, my mother-in-law's birthday and my dad's birthday!  And this was an especially important birthday for my dad -- he turned 75!

So, loosening our belts, we prepared for the onslaught ...

First up, Valentine's Day.  Now I get that a lot of people feel that Valentine's is a Hallmark-consumer-driven-cheesefest.  Got it.  But I still like it.  I like taking one day out of the year to show a little extra love.  We don't do presents or boxes of chocolate or overpriced chi-chi restaurants.  What we do is cook ourselves a feast at home!

Now I wish I could say that I had developed all these recipes on my own, but let's be honest: I don't cook 10-ounce lobster tails on the regular.  I followed recipes.  And they were brilliant, I highly recommend all of them.  Here was our menu:

We started off with Tyler Florence's Steamed Mussels.  LEKKA!  Amazing.  We ate an entire pound-and-a-half between the 2 of us (with lots of toasty bread.) 

Here's the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/steamed-mussels-recipe/index.html

Next up:  Broiled, stuffed Lobster Tails.  The stuffing was garlicky and buttery and complemented the luxuriously tender meat.  SIGH.

This recipe is easy & genius: http://www.food.com/recipe/baked-stuffed-lobster-tails-174936

With the lobster we had roasted root vegetables.  No recipe needed for this one, just a mixture of beets, sweet potatoes, small Yukon Gold potatoes and whole garlic cloves tossed in olive oil, fresh rosemary, salt & pepper:

Then for dessert we wanted something lighter, simple, but apropos ... we did poached pears, one of our favorite desserts:

This recipe is so delicious: http://wine.about.com/od/howwineismade/r/poachedpears.htm

One down, 2 to go!

Next up was my darling mother-in-law's birthday.  We actually went out for dinner, at a South Minneapolis Italian place called Al Vento -- really lovely Southern Italian cuisine.  But we came back to our house for cake and presents.  Behold:

That is the patented Armstrong-Duarte birthday candelabra.  I think a touch of Liberace should always be with us, dontchathink?

Two down, one more!  ¡Si se puede!

When I asked my dad what he wanted to do for his big birthday, he was very clear: a lunch at your house with shrimp, rice and salad.  OK, then, here we go!

The star of the show was this:

I actually found the recipe in a little pamphlet-like cookbook that I got in South Africa:

It's called "Let's Braai" and is Published by Media24 Weekly Magazines and edited by Izelle Venter.  I altered the recipe a bit, so, here's my version:

Swakopmund seafood potjie (ala Salvadoreña)

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large, or 2 small/medium onions, chopped
6 garlic cloves, crushed
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or to taste)
1 red, 1 yellow and 1 green pepper, seeded and cut into strips (I used one whole bag of Trader Joe's raw, frozen peppers)
3 celery sticks, chopped
1 cup red wine
1 large can chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup pitted Kalamata olives (or to taste)
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 pound large shrimps (prawns), cleaned & rinsed *
2 pounds mussels, cleaned & rinsed *
Chopped fresh parsley and cilantro (coriander/dhania) to garnish

* You can use any combination of your favorite seafood to equal roughly this amount.

Method:
In a large Dutch oven, sweat the onions in the olive oil till translucent.  Add garlic and cook 1 minute, till fragrant.  Add tomato paste to brown a bit.  Add all the spices and cook them a few minutes, till they are fragrant.  Add peppers and celery, turn heat down a bit and let the natural moisture of the peppers andcelery come out.  Cook the mixture down.  You should have a very fragrant sludge.  Add wine, tomatoes, olives and simmer 15-25 minutes.  Add salt, pepper and sugar to taste.  (The sugar helps balance out the acidity in canned tomatoes.) 

Turn the heat up, add the lemon juice and zest, stir, then add all the seafood.  Cover and steam about 5 minutes till the prawns are no longer translucent and the mussels open (discard any that don't open.)  Serve with rice and bread to soak up all the juice!

Speaking of bread ...

I made a loaf of the New York Times "No-Knead" Bread -- and I realized again how ridiculously simple it is.  Everyone loved it and assumed I had slaved for days kneading and coaxing starters.  I almost didn't disabuse them of that notion, but my inner Catholic won out and I confessed how stupid-easy it really is. 

We also had rice and salad, but in the midst of feeding and feasting, I didn't get any pictures.

I did, however, make sure that I got a picture of this:

Isn't she cute?  It's my dad's birthday cake.  He specified: vanilla with whipped cream & strawberries.  Now the challenge is that my dad has diabetes and he is very careful with his diet.  So I had to -- you know -- make sure he could eat his own cake.

I searched and searched and finally decided on a recipe using Truvia Baking Blend.  It's a mixture of sugar and stevia (an all-natural sweetener that I've loved for years.)  And here's the one womp-womp of this whole marathon of feasting.  I used a recipe from the Truvia website and it was OK, but too dense and too dry.  I mean, it was passable, but not great.  Sad-sigh.  Truvia people, can you please test your recipes a little more carefully?  I had a feeling as I was pouring the batter in to the pan that it was too stiff, but I thought, well, maybe the Truvia acts differently than sugar does ... No.  No, it does not.  Anyhoo, it was still pretty good and ice cream helped moisten it a bit ;)

And a beer always helps dry birthday cake go down!

(Note the candelabra again!)

And to top it all off, and as a light, cleansing meal, the next day I whipped up a yummy rice salad using leftovers from my dad's lunch:

The real secret here is the vinaigrette, which is my own version of a classic French one.  I use way more vinegar and more mustard -- I guess I like it zippy!  Here's how I do it: 

    1/2 cup red wine vinegar
    1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
    1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
    1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
    1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup any light-tasting vegetable oil (grapeseed, canola)
    2 shallots, finely chopped

This will make lots of salad dressing, just keep it in the fridge, it's really yummy!  I just mixed a couple of tablespoons of this dressing with rice (white basmati, which had been cooked with chicken stock, bits of carrot, one onion and one garlic clove -- but you can use whatever you've got), some leftover chicken breast, both lemon and lime juice, chopped cilantro and parsley, grape tomatoes, chopped scallions and chunks of avocado.  It was really delish!

So there you go, 3 feasts in 4 days!  Hope you are all well and that the year has started off great for you!

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!