Paella

Back when I lived up in Glasgow and Anna was down here in Oxford, Anna came up with the idea of "food challenges", basically making food that we didn't previously know how to make that seemed a little bit out of our cooking comfort zone. Anna's first challenge for me was paella. I'd eaten paella before but hadn't really thought of making it because it seemed really difficult. I found a reasonable looking recipe somewhere on the internet, followed it, and the results were pretty good. I've played around with the recipe since, and often made the rice on its own, as it's a fantastic fragrant and spicy accompaniment to a lot of meals.

Anyway, I was going through my cupboards today and found some saffron that I'd bought to use in a shakshuka and had since forgotten about. My repertoire of recipes involving saffron includes only two recipes, so I decided to make some paella.

Since saffron is really expensive, it's tempting to use a substitute such as turmeric to give the paella rice that rich yellow colour (Anna tested such a recipe for the BBC's Good Food magazine) but while the results are decent, it isn't a match for saffron. It's worth keeping in mind that despite the cost, saffron is used rather sparingly in most dishes and so a little bit goes a long way.

Paella is a reasonably quick recipe, and it didn't take much longer than half an hour to make tonight. That includes allowing the rice to cook, so it's not all labouring over a hot stove either.

We had the paella with a 2005 Ribera Del Duero by Altos de Tamaron. I don't know much about wines but it seemed fitting to eat this with a Spanish wine and this one won a silver award from Decanter magazine and was reasonably priced.

Two large paellas I made for the family on Christmas Eve 2005.

The Recipe:

Short grain rice
Enough chicken or vegetable stock for the amount of rice you're using
Onion, chopped
Garlic, chopped
A pinch of saffron
Crushed chili flakes (I suppose fresh chilis would also work)
The zest of one lemon
Chopped parsley
A bay leaf
Salt and pepper

Skinless and boneless chicken breasts
Chorizo
Whatever seafood you can get your hands on
Paprika

An authentically Spanish paella recipe will call for a paella pan--basically a large and somewhat shallow pan, but I've found that a large saucepan or even a wok works well.

Brown the onions and garlic and add the rice. Fry the rice until it's a little bit translucent and then add in the stock. Add a bay leaf, the crushed chilis, the lemon zest, and the saffron, stirring occasionally. When the liquid is almost gone, stir in the chopped parsley and season to taste. I added some chopped tomatoes and some green peppers into the rice tonight, but those aren't necessary.

While the rice is cooking, chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces and coat these with paprika. Fry up the chicken and chorizo. How you do the seafood is up to you. Tonight I used one of those precooked seafood mixes from Tesco and threw it in the pan when the meat was done just to warm it up. I used really good seafood in those two large paellas and I steamed it with white wine. In any case, when both the rice and the meat and seafood are finished, arrange the meat and seafood on top of the rice and serve.

What is healthy about this recipe: The glass of red wine accompanying it.

What is seasonal about this recipe: It's mostly rice so this doesn't really apply.

What I learned from this recipe: Saffron is great and I should learn more than two recipes that involve it.

What I will change next time: I'll check my cupboards and plan things better next time. For example, I thought that I had much more short grain rice than I actually had and so the paella was a mixture of short and long grain rices. I likewise didn't have a lemon on hand for the zest until Anna got back from work with one and so I added the zest right at the end. Planning things really isn't my strong suit.

Shakshuka

Here's another recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi's 'The New Vegetarian' column in the Guardian's weekend magazine. This is an aromatic North African dish and it seems to be a real 'kitchen sink' type of dish that a lot can be added to--Ottolenghi suggests preserved lemon or feta, but I think that even some meat like lamb, especially if it was tender and falling apart, would go really well with it.

One of the joys of this dish was the scent in the house as I was cooking it. The herbs and saffron filled with air with a mouth-wateringly fragrant scent and it was hard to not pick too much from it while it was cooking.

The Recipe:

(Reproduced without permission from the Guardian's website. The recipe given is for 4, but I halved the quantities when I made it.)

½ tsp cumin seeds
190ml light olive oil or vegetable oil
2 large onions, peeled and sliced
2 red and 2 yellow peppers, cored and cut into 2cm strips
4 tsp muscovado sugar
2 bayleaves
6 sprigs thyme, picked and chopped
2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1 bunch fresh coriander, chopped
6 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
½ tsp saffron strands
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper
Up to 250ml water
8 free-range eggs

In a large saucepan, dry-roast the cumin on high heat for two minutes. Add the oil and sauté the onions for two minutes. Add the peppers, sugar, bayleaves, thyme, parsley and two tablespoons of coriander, and cook on high heat to get a nice colour. Add the tomatoes, saffron, cayenne, salt and pepper. Cook on low heat for 15 minutes, adding enough water to keep it the consistency of a pasta sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning. It should be potent and flavoursome. You can prepare this mix in advance.

Place four saucepans on medium heat and divide the mixture between them. Break two eggs into each pan, pouring into gaps in the mixture. Sprinkle with salt, cover and cook very gently for 10-12 minutes, until the egg just sets. Sprinkle with coriander and serve with chunky white bread.

What is healthy about this recipe: Since the recipe is mostly just vegetables, herbs, and spices, it's actually pretty good. The usual caveats about eggs apply, but everything in moderation...

What is seasonal about this recipe: Not that much, to be honest. If you're focused on seasonal eating, it's best to leave this dish to the late summer.

What I learned from this recipe: I'm usually a lot stingier with herbs than I was with this recipe--this one uses handfuls of chopped coriander and parsley--but I think that it's worth trying to use more herbs with other dishes because the results can be spectacular. I should also make an effort to incorporate more saffron into my cooking.

What I will change next time: I'd like to try the same dish but with different vegetables and maybe some meat.

Cauliflower and Saffron Bake

Because we all need a few light pink vegetables every once in a while.

So yes, I do actually make things other than cakes. A couple of weeks ago, Graeme shoved a copy of the Guardian's Weekend supplement in my face, exclaiming, "I know something you're going to want to make!" Because it turns out that I am totally food predictable, he was right. I love cauliflower, and the idea of a fragrant cauliflower dish tinted a nice light pink was too much for me to resist. I attempted it last night, as a perfect side to Heidi's 101 Cookbooks recipe for curried noodle patties (which is, by the way, an awesome idea for an "I love comfort food and have lots of stuff to use up!" dinner). We were very happy, spice-filled, campers. I really recommend this as a vegetable side dish for when you're bored with your usual steamed veggies and the like. We both liked that the cauliflower was well-cooked but still retained some crunchiness and was not at all soggy.

The only major change I made to the Guardian recipe is that for some reason I was majorly NOT in the mood for olives (which is a weird freak incident for me) and so I used marinated artichoke hearts instead. So I'm mostly reposting the original recipe, written by Yotam Ottolenghi, here with my minor changes:

The Recipe:

Cauliflower and Saffron Bake

1 medium cauliflower, divided into florets
1 red onion, sliced
70g sultanas
Bunch of marinated artichoke hearts (maybe 100g?) sliced slightly
½ tsp saffron strands, infused in 3 tbsp of boiling water
3 tbsp olive oil
2 bayleaves
Salt and pepper and paprika (I add paprika to most things)
4 tbsp parsley, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Toss together all the ingredients except the parsley.

Tip the contents of the bowl into an oven-proof dish, shake to even out a bit, cover with foil and bake for around 40-45 minutes. Halfway through the cooking, remove from the oven, lift off the lid, give the contents of the oven dish a thorough stir, cover again and return to finish off cooking. The cauliflower is ready when tender but not too soft.

Remove from the oven, lift off the foil covering and leave to cool down a little before stirring in the chopped parsley. C'est si facile!

What is healthy about this recipe: Everything! Finally a recipe where I can say this.

What is seasonal in this recipe: The cauliflower, parsley, and red onion, were all purchased from the friendly organic farmers at our local farmers' market. Their produce is always seasonal and lovely and a pleasure to use and eat. I am so psyched to see all the herbs sprouting up from the ground these days.

What I learned from this recipe: Be more adventurous with herbs and spices!

What I will change next time: Maybe a bit more saffron actually, but I am not one for subtle flavours. And I might actually try it with the olives on a day when I'm feeling more olive-friendly.