Paella Mixta

Paella is a traditional Spanish rice dish from Valencia. The original Valencian version involves rabbits, snails and beans but seafood varieties are also now popular. Then there is paella mixta, like mine, which is more or less the everything and the kitchen sink version. I overdosed on paella when I visited friends in Seville on Erasmus in university, as it was cheap and easily available, usually involving mystery meat whose origin (both part of animal and animal itself) was not discernible.

I had it again recently in London and remembered how much I loved it, and have been experimenting since. Since I tend to be cooking only for myself, buying ingredients for a specific dish mean then having to have that dish repeatedly until they are all used up. So I’d recommend Paella as a group meal (although it also reheats well as a packed lunch). It is not a difficult dish to make, it is just slightly time consuming and labour intensive (about 45 minutes of consistent work) but it is definitely worth it.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 red or yellow peppers
• 1 large onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 100g chorizo (or just the whole sausage if you prefer)
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons of sherry or white wine
• 1 pinch saffron
• 1 dried nora pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 100g peas
• 100g broad beans
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 250g paella rice
• 750ml chicken stock
• 1 lemon
• 1 handful chopped parsley (optional)
• Olive oil

Method

• Chop the peppers into 1cm dice.
• Finely chop the onions and garlic.
• Chop the chorizo into 1-2cm pieces.
• Heat a small amount of olive oil (more fat comes from the chorizo once it starts to cook) in a large frying or paella pan.
• Cook the chorizo for 2 minutes until starting to turn golden and a little crispy on the outside.
• Remove with a slotted spoon and keep covered.
• Cook the peppers and onion in the chorizo oil for approximately 10-15 minutes over a medium-low heat until soft and in the case of the onion, golden.
• Meanwhile, put the saffron and nora pepper in a small bowl and cover with hot water, crushing the saffron a little to diffuse in the water.
• Add the chopped garlic for 2 minutes, stirring well to combine with other ingredients.
• Add the tomato paste, paprika and sherry/wine and cook down for 3-4 minutes to form a small amount of sauce.
• Add the paella rice and toss well in the sauce.
• Cook, stirring frequently for 1-2 minutes to combine.
• Add the saffron and its liquid and leave to absorb for 2 minutes.
• Add the stock, bay leaf, frozen peas and broad beans and simmer for 10-12 minutes until the liquid is almost completely absorbed (paella should be quite dry, not as soupy as risotto).
• Do not stir, shake the pan occasionally (you will get a layer of crispy slightly caramelised rice at the bottom, this is the way it is meant to be, and the best part of the paella according to many Spanish cooks).
• Toss in the chorizo for the last two minutes of cooking.
• Serve garnished with parsley (optional) and wedges of lemon.

Photos courtesy of the lovely Holly Quinn-Kumar

Scallops with Salmorejo and Chorizo Crumbs

This is a quick, easy and elegant scallop dish that would make a perfect dinner party starter. The Salmorejo sauce is the most time consuming part (still only about 10-15 minutes) and should be made the day before and chilled in the fridge to allow the flavours to mix. Salmorejo is a traditional Spanish chilled soup, whose only difference from gazpacho seems to be the omission of onions. Unfortunately, due to the calibre of tomato available in London in early Spring, mine initially turned out a rather sludgy colour as the green pepper was clearly in control of the situation. This was remedied by adding tinned tomato puree, and a small amount of tomato ketchup, which I am fairly sure is a criminal offence in Spain, but which aesthetically did the trick. Mine was made with fresh locally sourced scallops from Rye Bay (which were sold to me with an extensive lecture about the evils of foreign scallops which are apparently pumped full of salt and chemicals to plump them up) so I sliced them horizontally to create two thinner discs, but if you are using pearl scallops, this step can be omitted. This serves 2 as a starter.

Ingredients

• 3 Large scallops, cut into 6 discs
• 3 large plum tomatoes
• 1 green pepper
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tablespoon of breadcrumbs
• 1 tablespoon of sherry vinegar
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 tablespoon each tomato puree/ketchup (entirely optional)
• 50g chorizo
• Toasted pinenuts (optional)
• Olive oil

 Method

• To make the salmorejo, finely chop the tomatoes, pepper, and garlic.
• Mix in a large bowl or pot and blend with a stick blender.
• Add the breadcrumbs, vinegar, paprika and some water and blend further.
• Strain through a sieve, and if necessary add the tomato puree/ketchup to enhance the colour (I feel bad even writing that).
• Add some olive oil (1-2 tablespoons) to taste, store in an airtight container and chill overnight.
• Finely chop the chorizo (after removing the casing) and fry in hot oil, stirring constantly, until quite crispy around 3-5 minutes.
• Leave to cool slightly, then chop and basically bash into crumbs using a sharp and heavy knife.
• Use the chorizo oil to pan fry the scallops with seasoning (this should be around 45 seconds on each side, until the edges have turned golden brown but the middle still has a little bit of bounce if pressed down).
• Serve in a shell or small bowl filled with salmorejo and topped with the chorizo crumbs and toasted pinenuts.

Pork in Salsa de Almendras

This is another recipe from Rick Stein’s fantastic Spain book. It is a book I keep coming back to (and reading on the train home from work) over and over again. It is visually beautiful with fantastic recipes and local stories. It also makes me feel spectacularly inadequate due to my inability to clean and dismember a squid (and lets be honest,my unwillingness to try anything that involves having to engage with the eyes of something I will eat). I made this last Summer, but am only posting it now as I did not get very good photos. I made it for a friend who had just returned from eight months living in Cambodia and was distracted by her stories, and my jealousy. It is a rich, tasty dish which allowed me to completely overlook my usual apathy to pork. I served it with lemon roasted potatoes and a warm beetroot salad. Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1kg diced pork( preferably shoulder)
•  1 slice of crusty bread
• 1 spanish onion
• 8 cloves of garlic
• 75g toasted almonds
• 1 tablespoon mix of chopped parsley and lemon thyme
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 200ml white wine
• 200ml chicken, veal or vegetable stock
• 2 bay leaves
• olive oil
• 1tbs plain flour

Method

•  Heat 2 tbs oil in a large deep pan.
• add 4 whole cloves of garlic and the slice of bread and toast until golden and crisp on both sides.
• Remove from the heat.
• Season the diced pork and toss in the flour.
• Add some more oil to the pan over medium high heat and fry the pork until lightly coloured on all sides.
• Remove with a slotted spoon and leave to one side.
• Add the onion, some thyme, bay leaves and paprika and cook gently for ten minutes or so until the onion is soft, adding 4 cloves of chopped garlic for the last two minutes.
• Add the wine and stock.
• Bring to the boil and scrape the pan to deglaze a bit.
• Add the pork, and lower the heat so the liquid is gently simmering.
• Cover and cook for 1.5 hours.
• Remove most of the sauce from the pan and blend with the almonds, bread, and fried garlic cloves to get a paste.
• Add the paste back to the pan and cook for 5 or so minutes until you have a thick coating sauce.
• Add the remaining parsley and thyme, season and serve.

Scallops with Black Pudding, Caramelised Leeks, and Tarragon and Paprika Dressing

I swore blindly this day would never come. I have spent my life avoiding fish with such meticulous care you would swear the smell of them would push me into anaphylactic shock. In the past few years, I have managed to gradually acclimatise myself to some shellfish if they were a) deep fried into oblivion or b) served to me by a guy I was trying to impress (I’m not sure if it was this that worked, but something did). I am not sure how, but sometime recently I managed to get talked into scallops, which seem like they would be the sidekick of the obvious fish hater archnemesis, oysters, but somehow managed to be delicious.  I realise saying they taste like chicken is cliched, but they do, a little, except much richer, and ok, a little seafoody. I’m not sure who in the world came up with the concept of pairing them with miscellaneous rich pork products (bacon, chorizo, black pudding) but I take my hat off to them, it is an unlikely, and wonderful combination.

This dish was kind of an improvisation, based in part on a Gordon Ramsay scallops + leeks recipe, on a previous seafood +black pudding combination, the fact that I had tarragon and yoghurt in my fridge, and finally, my belief that smoked paprika goes with everything. Fortunately, it worked. I have a sneaking suspicion that black pudding is a UK/Irish thing. It is similar to morcilla and also to boudin (although boudin tends to be softer). If none of these can be sourced, chorizo would be lovely too. Serves 4.

Ingredients

• 12 large scallops (or about 24 little ones, as pictured)
• 4 leeks
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 4 large slices of black pudding (or 8 of the narrower girthed pudding)
• 3 tablespoons yoghurt
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• Handful chopped, fresh tarragon
• 1 clove garlic
• pinch of cayenne
• Olive oil

Method

• Finely chop the leeks.
• Saute over a medium heat until soft.
• Add the vinegar and sugar and cook down for 3-4 minutes, or until the edges of some pieces are starting to crisp.
• Remove and keep warm.
• To make the dressing mix the yoghurt, paprika, cayenne, garlic and most of the tarragon (leaving a few pieces to sprnkle on top) with a little bit of olive oil and a bit of water to thin it down. Season.
• Cook the black pudding in a little oil in a frying pan as instructed on the pack (usually 6-8 minutes, turning occasionally).
• Remove and keep warm.
• Meanwhile, if using large scallops, slice in half into two thin discs. If using small, cook as is.
• Season the scallops with salt, pepper and a tiny amount of caster sugar.
• Fry in the oil leftover from the black pudding, over a medium heat, one minute on each side (the edges should be golden brown, the scallops still a bit bouncy when pressed).
• Assemble as desired and serve immediately.

Warm Beetroot Salad with Cumin

This recipe has kind of evolved from one for a dish from Le Reminet restaurant in Paris, one of my favourites. It is one of the first dishes I mastered, owing to a teenage boyfriend who eschewed all vegetables with the exception of beetroot .All dishes put in front of him were dissected with all the precision of the state pathologist.Thus, I cook this from memory and am not entirely sure how far I have deviated from the original.It is an unusual dish, in that in can fit in as part of a Spanish tapas menu (I had something very similar recently in Brindisa), as part of a mezze (Moro also have a similar recipe) or as a Scandinavian side dish to accompany gravad lax (I am told, I have never actually managed to bring myself to eat gravad lax). It can be made with yoghurt, creme fraiche or sour cream, and a variety of herbs , such as flat parsley for Middle Eastern, dill or chives for Scandinavian, tarragon for Spanish, really whatever is to hand. I have also used it as the base for a stir fry with cashews and kale. It is also lovely with some goats cheese and salad leaves ,omitting the yoghurt/creme fraiche/sour cream. It is a genuinely versatile, easy dish, with a fairly spectacular colour. If you are a messy eater, you may want to stick to dark coloured clothes for this one.

Serves four as a side.

Ingredients

• 200g cooked beetroot, in 1cm cubes
• 2 teaspoons roasted ground cumin (or just powdered cumin)
• 1 hefty tablespoon of selected dairy product
• 1 tablespoon wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic
• olive oil
• 1 bunch herbs of your choice

Method

• Saute the beetroot over a medium heat in a saucepan in some oil.
• Once the beetroot turns bright pink (3-5 minutes), add the vinegars, and cook until reduced completely
• Add the cumin and garlic, toss, and cook for 30 seconds.
• Remove from the heat, stir in the cream/creme.
• Season and serve warm.

Turkish Poached Sweet and Sour Leeks

I am not going to lie, I did expect something a little bit punchier from this recipe than these turned out to be. They are yet another recipe from my beloved Moro (from the Casa Moro cookbook). I was thinking these would have more of a biting agrodulce type taste or even a bit of a pickled dressing but no. Being brutally honest, these are very mildly flavoured poached leeks, and I would not subscribe to the cookbook’s suggestion of them as a light meal in themselves. What they were wonderful for, however, was as part of a tapa’s menu, to offset the inevitable smokey, porky flavours you will get with a decent selection of traditional tapas.They are mild, sweet and melt in the mouth. If you wanted to liven them up a bit as a side, some aioli or romesco drizzled on top would go down a treat. Serves 6-8 as a tapa.
Ingredients

• 600g leeks, preferably the smaller, thinner ones
• 3 garlic cloves
• 3 teaspoons caster sugar
• juice of 1 lemon
• 300ml water
• 1 bunch chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1 bunch chopped fresh dill
• olive oil
• greaseproof paper

Method

• Chop the garlic and saute in te oil i n a large saucepan.
• Add the leeks, sugar, lemon juice, water and salt.
• Cover with greaseproof paper, then a lid and simmer for 15 minutes or until soft, with the lid slightly ajar so a small crack of parchment paper is visible.
• Stir in the herbs and season.

Patatas Bravas

This is adapted from yet another Moro recipe. Patatas bravas are probably my favourite of all Spanish dishes (insert obvious Irish potato joke here). On a visit to Barcelona a few years ago, with some vegetarians, the patatas bravas rule to eating out was developed, which worked along the lines that we could only go to restaurants which served them. This was in part due to one of the vegetarians then reluctance to actually consume things not made of tofu, and the fact that Spanish people do not understand or accept vegetarianism. When asking if a dish contains meat, they tend to consider whether or not there is a large slab of meat involved. Thus, a steak will be met with a yes, while, lentejas, a lentil stew flavoured with pieces of chorizo will be deemed vegetarian, because it only has small pieces of meat.

Traditionally, patatas bravas are fried, but in this recipe I roast them. This is because a) its easier to make large quantities of roast potatoes, b) it’s a little healthier and c) you get the exact same crispy coating if you parboil them before roasting as you do when frying. For the aioli, make a homemade mayonnaise with 2-3 cloves of crushed garlic stirred in, or add to some good quality bough mayonnaise.This is a great tapas dish, but I could literally eat these at a meal, and know plenty of others who have. If you have tomato sauce left over, it can make a nice pizza topping, or pasta sauce with some parmesan.

Serves 4 as a racion or 6 as a tapa

Ingredients

• 1kg of roasting potatoes
• 2 red peppers
• 2 Spanish onions
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 small glass of white wine
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 400g tub of passata
• 4 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 fresh chilli or a teaspoon of cayenne
• Olive oil
• 1 quantity aioli

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
• Peel the potatoes and parboil in salted water for five minutes.
• Remove, allow to cool and chop into medium sized chunks.
• Place the potatoes in a roasting dish, and toss in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 teaspoons of smoked paprika.
• Season, and roast for approximately 40 minutes to 1 hour, until they are golden and crispy.
• Finely chop the peppers and onions and sauté in a little olive oil over a medium heat for approximately 5-8 minutes, until soft and the onions are golden.
• Add the wine and sugar, and cook down until the wine has reduced to a syrup and the onions and peppers are gently caramelised.
• Meanwhile, finely chop the garlic cloves and chilli and sauté in a separate pot.
• Add the passata, paprika and a pinch of sugar and bubble gently for 10 minutes until thickened.
• Add the onion and pepper mixture and continue to cook for another 5-10 minutes until you have a nice thick coating consistency.
• When the potatoes are cooked, reheat the sauce if necessary, and pour over them.
• Top with aioli and serve.

Chorizo Stew

This is the recipe that kind of started the whole blogging thing for me. I got asked for this recipe pretty much every time I made it, and putting it up somewhere that people could easily access it seemed like a good plan.This stew is rich, spicey, and Spanish inspired (seems to be a theme on this blog at the moment). It features proper smokey Spanish paprika heavily (the kind that comes in very pretty and brightly coloured tins )which is one of my favourite ingredients. I was told by a Spanish friend that it was just like what her grandmother used to make, which is a pretty good recommendation. It is also a great thing to make for large groups of people. In my previous life in Holland, I lived in a house with a beautifully large dining table, that would happily accomodate 20 or 30 people. This made pot luck dinners a fact of life, and this can easily be upsized to feed 15-20 with minimal effort. It works well with with flageolot or butter beans, or what in Holland were just called white beans (still not entirely sure what they were). Chickpeas are also good. It is lovely served with some creme fraiche and some good  bread to mop up the sauce with.

 

Ingredients

• 2 Red Bell peppers
• 2 Red Onions
• 100g of Chorizo
• 1 Clove of garlic
• 2x 400g tins of either Cannelini beans or chickpeas
• 2x400g tins of chopped tomato
• Spanish smoked paprika
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Red wine

Method

• Dice the peppers and onions. Saute the peppers on a low heat for 5 minutes. Add the onions, stir together.
• Dice the chorizo and add to the peppers and onions.
• Saute for another 5 minutes
• Add one tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and one of red wine.
• Cook until the red wine/vinegar have reached a syrup consistency.
• Add the tins of beans, and stir.
• Add the tomatos, and a good whack of paprika (2-3 teaspoons) and stir.
• Simmer for approximately 30 minutes, or until reduced to a thick consistency.
• Check seasoning and serve. Serves 4-6 as a main course.

Spanish Croquettas with Chorizo and White Wine

There are very few things the Dutch and the Spanish have in common. Croquettes, and the 2010 World Cup Final seem to be about the extent of it. Croquettes were, along with mustard soup and the aforementioned frites/mayo combination, the other Dutch food item I could get on board with.

For those not in the know, croquettes are small tubes of breadcrumb coated deep fried flavoured bechamely dough. They are a very divisive food among foreigners in Holland, due mainly to the fact that they are sold from vending machines. This disturbed me at first. Vending machines, to my mind, were suitable only for food which could be used to stock a post-apocalypse bomb shelter. The first time I went to order one, I decided to avoid the vending machine and go and order one from the nice person behind the counter. He went over to the back of the vending machine, opened it, removed one, and handed it to me. Lesson learnt.

They were dangerous food for me, as they are essentially snack sized, and thus justifiable on the way home from work in a way that chips just weren’t.Croquettes are also pretty ubiquitous tapas everywhere in Spain, tending usually to be made from chicken and ham (the Dutch ones also feature cheesy ham, or ground up mystery meat, or my personal favourite, satay). This recipe is a slightly more elegant, Spanish inspired one, but that doesn’t make me love or miss the Dutch variety any less. The day I made this, due to a particularly obscure craving, I served them with tartare sauce but aioli with a little lime zest is usually a better plan. If that seems like too much effort, some seasoned creme fraiche is pretty nice too.

Ingredients:
For Croquettas (makes 25-30)

• 60g of butter
• 65g of cream flour
• 150 ml of white wine
• 85ml of vegetable stock
• 85 ml of milk
• 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 120g of chopped chorizo
• 60g grated hard, mature cheese, eg parmesan, cheddar, oude gouda
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 200g of breadcrumbs
• 9 Tablespoons olive oil

For Lime Aioli

• 100g good quality mayonnaise
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 small garlic clove, crushed

Method:

• Melt butter with 5 tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat.
• Add flour and stir for 2-3 minutes, until a roux (sticky paste consistency) forms
• Stir in wine, milk, stock, nutmeg and paprika.
• Stir until the mixture thickens, approximately 1 minute.
• Add chorizo and cheese, and cook for five minutes, stirring every 30 seconds or so for 5 minutes, or until the mixture is thick.
• Spread on a plate and refrigerate for 2 hours.
• Place egg and breadcrumbs in 2 separate bowls.
• Form a thick cylinder with the refigerated mixture, about twice the length and width of your thumb (unless you have unusually large hands)
• Dip in egg, and then breadcrumbs, until coated
• Heat remaining oil in a pan, should be a depth of about 1/2 inch, and fry over medium heat until golden, turning occasionally. This should take about two minutes
• Drain on plate lined with kitchen paper.
• To make aioli, mix ingredients together.

Jamie Oliver’s Fantastic Glazed Chorizo

This is a rich, easy to make tapas dish from Jamie Oliver’s website. The sweet glaze and the salty smokey chorizo go perfectly together. Its the typical tapas dish, as in its rich, flavourful, and you definitely could not eat too much of it. The recipe is slightly adapted as I did not have red wine vinegar, and so used a mix of white wine and balsamic.I also used chestnut honey for an added kick.This is an attempt to recreate a dish I had and loved in a bar in El Born in Barcelona last year, and its pretty damn close. This serves 4 as a tapas dish or something to nibble on with a glass of wine.

Ingredients

• 250g chorizo sausage
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon chestnut honey
• 3 tablespoons wine vinegar (I used white)
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil

Method

• Chop the chorizo into 2cm rounds, peeling off any coating skin (chorizo usually comes in with a plasticy type skin that you are not meant to eat. Learnt that one the hard way courtesy of Dutch labelling).
• Saute in olive oil until crisp and golden on both sides.
• Add two crushed garlic cloves, stir, and cook for 1-2 minutes.
• Drain off all but 1 tablespoon of the cooking oil.
• Add the honey and vinegar and stir until combined.
• Cook until the liquid has reduced to a nice syrupy consistency and serve immediately.