Paella! Paella!

I love! love! to make paella, and do so whenever possible and there is a big crowd on hand - because it makes way too much for the three of us. The dilemma is, I invite people over and make it, and then feel i have to meet new people and make it for them, otherwise it would be the only dish my dinner guests would get! It's hard making new friends at my age, but luckily I managed do so recently and thus the paella in the picture. My recipe, or at least the recipe with my variations, came stuck to the paella (the pan, but we will get to that below) when I bought it years ago at Williams-Sonoma.There are many varieties of paella and mine could be described as a gringa version of the Valencia style. I use arborio rice (because it is easier to procure at my local Trader Joe's) and la famila demands that the chicken be deboned and skinned and the shrimp peeled and tails removed before cooking. But other than that, delicioso!

 

So, it turns out that in Valencia, Spain the word for "pan" is indeed "paella" - so every time I would say paella pan, I was really saying Pan! Pan!, just like the 1990's Little Caesar's guy. I found this out the hard way after years of always saying paella pan (or, pan pan) when I would refer to my paella making kitchen vessel, when the Julia child's Spanish teacher (who, ironically Julia refers to as Miss Senorita Roth) was here giving a lesson and I was cooking dinner! Needless to say, I felt like an idiot, you know the kind of person who says who says "ATM Machine" and "PIN Number". (Play the Video! Video!)

The Recipe:

5 cups chicken broth

1 bay leaf (which I often  don't have and life doesn't end)

1/4 tsp saffron thread (try not to go broke buying it)

1/2 c white wine

6 tblsp olive oil

1 red pepper, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

5 garlic cloves, minced

2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded & chopped (I often get the canned ones that are ready to go)

2 1/2 cup Arborio rice

4 links Andouille sausage, cut into 1 inch pieces (or more if you like Meatsa! Meatsa!)

1/2 # shrimp (peeled and deveined)

1 # cooked chicken breast, chopped

1/2 c frozen peas

In a small pot, bring to a simmer the broth, bay leaf,saffron and wine. Heat oil in the paella pan (pan! pan!). Ad peppers and saute for 3 minutes. Add onion, garlic, tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes. Stir rice into pan (paella). Pour in stock mixture. Boil over med-high heat, stirring for 5 to 10 minutes. Reduce heat and cook for additional 10 minutes, stirring while the liquid is absorbed. Stir in sausage, chicken and shrimp. Stir until shrimp is no longer pink. Add peas. Cover loosely with foil and allow to sit 5-10 minutes before serving.

Serves 6-8, and don't forget the crusty bread.

White Shadow BBQ Turkey Burgers

The best thing about going to the orthodontist's office (and the majority of the experience is financially painful for me and physically painful for the child) is reading all of the magazines in the waiting room. As a result, I have a few new recipes in my arsenal like this one. It comes courtesy of Gwenth Paltrow via Food & Wine and has pretty much replaced our routine of ground beef burgers. I use the dark meat ground turkey, as I think the ground turkey breast dries out - Gwenth does not weigh in on that issue, probably because she's too busy running around my favorite northern Michigan town of Northport with her BFF Mario Batali. The only other ingredient, beside a good bun (and I am in no way minimizing the need for nice buns, mind you), is barbecue sauce, so really it is about as simple as a recipe gets. I don't usually go in for these celebrity chefs, by which I mean celebrities who decide to cook, not chefs who become famous - those I like, but I must say Gwenth has done me a summertime solid. I like like to serve these burgers with a side of Asian broccoli slaw, which offsets the smokiness of the barbecue sauce. I suppose cheese is optional if you really need a dairy fix, but in my opinion, completely unnecessary.

Nothing says 1978 like the TV drama The White Shadow. Created by Bruce Paltrow (yes, Gwenth's father), and starring Ken Howard as retired NBA star Ken Reeves (yes, the era where certain "actors" could only have a character with the same name as their own), who takes a job as a high school coach in a tough, racially mixed L.A. neighborhood. A recipe for TV success, don't you think? Not since Room 222 had we seen a show set in an inner city high school that dealt with everyday issues like drugs, crime and social (in)justice. Only this time, there was no Karen Valentine for comic relief. In addition to Howard (Ken, that is), Kevin Hooks as Morris Thorpe and Timothy Van Patten as Salami rounded out the cast of Carver high school athletes.  And this was in the day of short shorts and tall socks, mind you. I mean this show was so good, The Harlem Globetrotters even appeared as guest stars on a very special episode when the team was on a wining streak and got too full of themselves and Coach Reeves had to bring them back down to earth ( how a visit from a world-famous basketball troupe accomplished that I am still unsure, but it happened nonetheless). Honestly, with quality like that, I am mystified how this show only lasted three seasons and 54 episodes.



The Recipe:

1 pound ground turkey
1/4 cup, plus 2 tblsp barbecue sauce
salt and pepper
4 buns

Light a grill or preheat a grill pan. In a bowl, season the turkey with salt and pepper and gently knead in 1/4 cup of the barbecue sauce. Shape the meat into four 4-inch patties, about 3/4 inch thick. Brush with oil and grill over moderate heat, turning once, until nearly cooked through, 7 minutes. Brush with the remaining 2 tablespoons of barbecue sauce and cook for 3 minutes longer, until cooked through and lightly glazed. Transfer the burgers to the buns.Serves 4. Or, a hungry one on one pick-up game.

Pork Chops (No Applesauce)

This week marks two anniversaries: the first, and most significant, is the one year since the passing of my funny friend and brother-in-law Denni. The other, and certainly less important,  is the one year mark of my food blogging. Yet, one begot the other, so now they are forever entwined. Denni and I, as readers of Cooking with Alice know, had a running joke about pork chops and applesauce, which ironically, I don't particularly care for. So today, I share with you my favorite way to serve pork - thin boneless chops sauteed in butter with a red wine and rosemary pan gravy reduction. I got this recipe six or seven years ago from a magazine (I want to say it was Saveur, but I am not certain) while visiting my BFF Anne. It sounded delicious on paper, and is truly scrumptious on plate. The trick is to use very thin chops. If your Sam the Butcher doesn't have them, ask if he will slice regular boneless pork chops thin. And instead of apples, the sauce is enhanced with red grapes. I like to serve it with garlic mashed potatoes and truly savor every bite. I even like to lick the pan afterwards, it's just that good. I am sure if Denni were here, he would enjoy it too, sans the applesauce, of course.

The quintessential Brady Bunch episode entitled "The Personality Kid". When someone at a party actually tells Peter that he has no personality, he takes the dis to heart and begins searching for the "new" Peter Brady. The girls plot to make Peter feel better by complimenting and flattering him in an overt manner that any dummy could see through the transparent scheme. And of course once it is revealed, he feels even worse. (Meanwhile, Cindy and Bobby are on a home safety kick, forcing surprise fire drills). Mike and Carol tell him to stop feeling sorry for himself and improve his personality if he thinks it's so bad. Peter takes this advice to the extreme and begins adopting the personas of famous leading men, most noticeably, Humphrey Bogart. He then proceeds to talk like Bogie, and when he sees what they are having for dinner, he repeats that like Bogart too. "Pork chops and applesauce" over and over. This too fails and he resorts to a joke book to amp up his wow factor. Everyone in the house guffaws at his jokes, giving him a false sense of humor. He asks to have a party to try out his new act. Sadly, the kids at the party have heard them all before and Peter is even more deflated, as there is no punch in his line. A few of Peter's girl friends gather round him to convince him that he's anything but dull and things are finally looking up. Peter finds solace and popularity in his dullness and the girls who feel sorry for him. Here's looking at you, kid.

The Recipe:

1 butterfly chop per person, sliced thin (in case you didn't get the message above)
kosher salt & fresh ground pepper
3 tblsp unsalted butter ( 1 + 2)
1 c seedless red grapes, cut in half
1/2 c red wine
1 tsp chopped rosemary (although, it is my favorite herb, so I often use more. I mean I LOVE rosemary)
1/4 c chicken broth

Season both sides of the chops with salt and pepper. heat 1 tblsp butter in a large pan over medium high heat. When the butter has stopped foaming, add the chops and sear until the edhges are browned and the middles are just beginning to brown (1 1/2 to 2 minutes). Flip and cook until just cooked through, 30 to 60 seconds. Transfer to a plate and cover with foil. Repeat until all pork is cooked and transferred. Add grapes, wine and rosemary(did I mention how much I love rosemary?) to the pan and bring to a boil, scraping the pan with  a wooden spoon to incorporate the browned bits into the sauce. Boil until syrupy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the juices from the pork plate and the broth and boil, stirring occasionally, until reduced by about half, another 3 to 4 minutes. Reduce heat to low and add 2 tblsp butter. Swirl the butter around in the pan until melted. Serve the chops topped with the pan gravy. Savor and enjoy! Serves 4.

Blogger note: Thanks to my faithful readers, who in my two blogs combined have racked up almost 5,000 hits this year. For Denni, yesterday, today, and always....

Six Million Dollar Man-icotti

So manicotti, not exactly my favorite Italian food. I am a less than avid fan of the cheese and pasta in a pool of red sauce. However, I did make it for the first time last summer (see Cooking with Alice "Own Room Manicotti") and I have to admit it wasn't half bad. Speaking of half, and parts left over, that blog left me with lots of half used packages and bottles in my pantry. For instance, four manicotti shells, a third of a box of lasagna noodles (which I will never use, because I always make my own), half of a bag of lentils, and three-quarters of a bottle of Cream Sherry. Someday, I'll concoct a recipe to use them all, for sure. Meanwhile, ricotta and mozzarella cheeses stuffed in cooked manicotti shells (which is harder than it sounds, the stuffing, not the cooking, btw). Layered with tomato sauce (you could use Nonie's Sauce, Pomodoro Sauce, or a tomato basil as I did). Really, parts are parts and you can't ruin this one - use what you have on hand.

In the immortal words of Oscar Goldman: Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster. The Six Million Dollar Man was the cornerstone of what I consider the golden age of television – the 1970s. Astronaut Steve Austin suffers a life-ending crash, but secret big government intervenes and keeps him alive with electronic parts (American made parts, I might add). Steve Austin (aka Lee Majors) gives an arm and both legs and an eye for an eye to become the first cyborg government agent for the OSI. You can just see him running around (in slow motion) in his red Adidas track suit with the sound effects that moved a generation. The show aired on ABC from 1974-78 (when the network always won the Battle of the Network Stars competition, I might add – coincidence, I think not) and spawned the spin-off Bionic Woman – but that is for another day and another post. I loved him then and I love him now, although I have to admit that six million dollars seems kind of cheap by today's standards. Adjusted for inflation, Steve Austin would be about a 30 million dollar man today. Now that's my kind of guy.

The Recipe:

2 tblsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 1/3 c tomatoes, crushed
1tsp chopped basil
3/4 tsp salt
Manicotti shells
15 ounces ricotta cheese ( I use fat free, and you should too)
1/2 c shredded mozzarella
1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese

In a saucepan heat the oil and saute the garlic. Add the tomatoes and salt. Bring to boil, reduced heat and simmer for one hour.
Meanwhile, cook the manicotti according to package directions. Drain well.
In a large bowl, mix cheeses. Stuff the shells. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Stir basil into the sauce and remove from heat. Layer sauce, then shells, then sauce again in a baking dish.
Bake for 45 minutes.