First attempt at making paella. It was a fun challenge. Best part, is the social aspect of eating it. The process encourages everyone to participate on the preparations, and then, traditionally, you put the pan in the middle of the table and everyone eats from the pan, working towards the center.

This post is mostly about the pics. You don’t really need a recipe. But at the end of the pics, I’ll give you some pointers.

You can get the pans here: La Paella.

Get Bomba rice and real Spanish pimenton peppers, if possible. If not, roasted red peppers and a short grain rice will do.

Figure 1/2 cup rice per diner, and 4 cups of stock per cup of rice.

Cook over a hardwood fire if possible.

After browning the chicken, softening the veggies, you add the rice, stirring it to toast it a bit and spread it out in the pan. Then you add most of the stock all at once. No more stirring. Leave it. Just move the pan around to make sure the pan is evenly heated. Place shellfish on top of the rice.

You then adjust the heat to keep a steady simmer, aiming to have the rice become tender, absorb all the liquid and then just begin to crisp up on the bottom of the pan.

Remove from heat, cover with a towel for about 15 minutes. Then eat!

Enjoy.

We’re upgrading our kitchen and, as many of you know, have been planning to or doing so for over a year now.

The new Ikea cabinets are in, including a giant rainforest green granite-topped island in the middle of the room. We have a new Samsung refrigerator, a new shiny stainless hood, and a white subway tile backsplash.

But what we’ve been waiting for, planning for, shopping for, researching, and longing for since two Thanksgivings ago (when I killed our old, tiny, electric wall oven) is a new range.

It arrived this week, and you all will now pay the price of having to watch me post food pics for awhile, instead of landscapes.

The new range is a Capital Culinarian, a 36″ propane range with 4 x 23,000 btu open gas burners and a chargrill on the cooktop.

I will post pics of the kitchen when it is finished. Still some lighting, painting and floor refinishing to be done…

In the meantime, if you’re shopping for a range, I highly recommend this one, as well as the Boston area dealer called Eurostoves. Read more about it here: capital-culinarian.com

But what I will show you is FOOD.

The Culinarian has a rotisserie in the oven. Perfectly crispy skin and moist meat.

The super powerful burners and the extra wok grate makes stir-frying in a round bottom seasoned steel wok a game changer for me. I will be doing a lot this. Beef and broccoli above, lamb and shredded scallions below.

And, not having an oven for a while, what I have missed the most is baking. This is a loaf of bread from the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I strongly recommend this book, as well as the companion volume for healthy varieties of same bread. See links below.

Buffalo Bills no more!

Saturday was the Grilled Cheese Smack Talk Showdown at Bartlett’s Farm.

The first two years of this competition, I deservedly finished in second place. This resulted in a year’s worth of smack talk, focus groups, recipe trials, and more than a few superfluous calories.

This year’s competition was amazing. It has grown to the point of needing to move to their greenhouse. We would not have fit in the Hayloft, where it was held the past two years.

There were three categories of competition, all of which had unique funny names that I cannot remember but essentially boiled down to Plain & Simple (bread, butter, cheese only), Fancy-Enthusiast, and Fancy-Professional.

The results are in.

Renee Bistany and I teamed up to form Team Smack and won the Plain & Simple category, on the strength of an amazing James Beard bread recipe that Renee baked. The bread is tender but also has an open crumb. So as the sandwich cooks and the cheese melts the bread absorbs the cheese. This brings a new element to a grilled cheese sandwich because it isn’t two pieces of bread containing melted cheese, instead it is a single thick slice of bread suffused with cheese.

1 package active dry yeast
3 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 cup warm water (100F to 115F)
2 cups sour cream, at room temperature
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour

Combine the yeast, sugar, and water, and allow to proof for 5 minutes.

Put the sour cream, salt, and soda in a mixing bowl. Add the yeast mixture and combine.

Add 4 cups of the flour, cup by cup, to make a very wet, sticky dough, beating hard with a wooden spoon after each addition. Scrape out onto a lightly floured board.

Using a baker’s scraper or a spackling knife, lift the flour and the dough, and fold the dough over. Turn it clockwise slightly and repeat the lifting and folding process until the dough is less sticky and can be worked with your hands. Add only enough flour to prevent sticking. (This entire kneading should take about 10 minutes, possibly longer if you are inexperienced). Shape the dough into a ball, place in a buttered bowl, and turn to coat it with the butter. Cover with plastic and let sit in a warm spot to double in bulk.

Punch the dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured board and knead for a minute, then divide into two equal pieces. Butter two 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf tins. Shape the dough into loaves and fit into the tins. Cover loosely and let rise again until doubled. Bake in a preheated 375° oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped on top and bottom. Cool thoroughly before slicing.

In the final Fancy-Professional level of the competition, I went head to head against Renee (last year’s winner), Chef Neil Hudson (last year’s Pro winner), Barbara Gookin (local foodie and previous winner), amongst others.

And, with a complete lack of humility, THIS was the winning sandwich…

From the bottom up, what you see is…

Cinnabon Cinnamon Bread, cut in to rounds and grilled in homemade butter
Homemade Dulce de Leche
Homemade Mascarpone cheese, blended with vanilla bean
Homemade blackberry jam (Thanks Grandpa Weikle!)
Topped with drizzles of dulce de leche thinned with cognac and blackberry coulis and a sprinkle of Maldon sea salt flakes (thanks Natasha!)
Served with whipped cream, fresh blackberries and garnished with a mint leaf

Here are the recipe cards I gave out that show how to simply make these wonderful ingredients:

It was a blast to make, and I am very happy to have a ton of leftover ingredients that are going to have to be used up in the week!

Renee’s Sandwich deserves mentioning here, because it was an amazing bite as well and, as seen above, won the People’s Choice Award!

Un sandwich de queso cocido

Freshly baked, homemade cheddar and onion bread (it was still warm from the oven even!)
…filled with farm made chorizo sausage
cheddar, manchego, and mexican melting cheese
spread with a compound butter made from homemade butter, salt, pepper, cumin, and chili powder

And served with a Mario Batali inspired cream of tomatillo dipping sauce, made from tomatillos, Serrano chili peppers, garlic, lime, cilantro, chicken broth, and Mexican crema.

So pleased to be the guests of Laura Simon and Jim Gross, at their garden/orchard for Cider Day. Nothing beats the taste of apple cider, right out of the press!

Forgive me for licking my fingers too much to make it safe for me to take pictures of this recipe, but I have to write it down quick before I forget it. Being slightly addicted to Corazon del Mar’s aptly named Green Chili Krack sauce, I decided this weekend I would try and crack the recipe. I think I got it. Tonight’s dinner is an appetizer of Duxbury oysters*, followed by a ceviche of Wild Sockeye Salmon, fresh from Glidden’s.

Here’s the recipes.

Green Chili KrackED Sauce

2 bunches of cilantro
4 serrano peppers (with or without seeds)
4 cloves of garlic
4 tblsp of Agave Nectar
Juice of 4 limes
Fish Sauce to taste
Sea salt

Instructions:

Place the cilantro, peppers and garlic in the food processor and process to paste. Add the lime juice and agave nectar, adjusting the amount of lime juice up or down to achieve the proper thick liquid texture. Then add fish sauce, tasting until you find just the right amount of umami. I added about a tablespoon, but your tastes might vary. Lastly add salt and process until smooth. Save in a squeeze bottle in the fridge.

Salmon Ceviche

1 lb fresh salmon filet, with skin
1 shallot, diced
1 serrano (or 2 jalapeno peppers), diced (with or without seeds, depending on desired heat)
1/4 cup of lime juice
zest of 1 lemon (go ahead and use the juice too)
1 tblsp of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Mix all of the ingredients save the salmon. Using a sharp filet knife, slice the salmon as thinly as possible on the diagonal (like you would smoked salmon), removing the flesh from the skin. Lay the slices in a thin baking dish, cover the first layer with some of the sauce. Layer salmon until all prepped, covering with the citrus mixture. Refrigerate for at least 2.5 hours (and up to 12 hours) before eating. Serve with the Green Chili KrackED Sauce, with toasted baguettes if desired.

Enjoy!

*I’ve yet to do the oysters, and have never shucked oysters. I’m trusting this video to help me pull this off.

Second place. Two years in a row.

I’ll take it. There was some incredible competition this year.

This was my recipe.

Queso a la Plancha del Diablo

Ingredients:
Something Natural Portuguese bread
olive oil
salt, pepper
tomato paste
chipotles in adobo sauce
agave nectar
Manchego cheese
Gruyere cheese
sharp cheddar cheese
parmesan cheese
milk
eggs, beaten
flour
cornmeal
tomatillos
red onions, sliced thin
cilantro

Process:
Cut the tomatillos a little less than a half inch slices, salt them, and put them in between paper towels to sit and dry out for about 15 minutes. Make the spread. 6 oz can of tomato paste, 3 tblsp of chopped chipotles, with some of the sauce, and 1 tbslp agave nectar, processed until smooth in the food processor. Dip the tomatillo slices into milk, into flour, into the egg, and then in to a mix of cornmeal, parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Fry them just until brown and crispy in about 1/4″ of peanut oil at medium heat. Set up to drain on paper. Pre-warm a cast iron skillet to a low-medium heat. Assemble the sandwich as such: olive oil on one side, and the tomato-pepper spread on the inside, place a piece oil-side down in the skillet; then working quickly, add a handful of the above cheeses (less the parmesan, grated and mixed), two slices of tomatillo, a few slivers of onions and chopped cilantro leaves, more cheese, then another piece of bread, similarly coated on the inside with the spread, and oiled on the outside. Cover (because it helps the cheese to melt more quickly) and cook until the bottom side is browned as you like. Carefully flip and do the same for the other side. Cut in half and serve with a sweet or bread-and-butter pickle.

Here are some pictures from today’s event:

Renee Bistany won the Wicked Fancy category, and People’s Choice with a grilled asiago cheese, with oven-roasted tomatoes, pancetta chips, & baby arugula on portuguese bread crusted with truffle butter, parmesan cheese and fresh rosemary. Served with a balsamic roasted-tomato soup for dipping! Yep. It was good.

The Winners:

Plain & Simple:
1: Dave Berry
2: Liliana Dugan

Wicked Fancy:
1: Renee Bistany
2:Greg Hinson
3:Dave Berry

Professional:
1: Neil Hudson
2: Barbara Gookin
3: Liliana Dugan

People’s Choice: Renee Bistany

Special Category: “Spirit Award”
Bob and Donna (Don’t have their last name yet)

I was at the Box Tuesday Night for Greg and Joy Margolis’ going away party. The place was full of little kids. I watched a kid dropped a cookie on the floor, bend down, pick it up and eat it. This was the floor of The Box! My first thought was, “yep, I’m sure no one has ever, ever thrown up right there in that very spot.”

Today, I found this online at the Serious Eats blog:

Earlier this year, food writer Michael Pollan asked his NYTimes readers to send in their food advice. These were his favorites:

“Don’t eat egg salad from a vending machine.” David Wilson

“Both of my parents were from Italy, and one of our family rules was that you could not leave the table until you had finished your fruit: ‘Non si puo lasciare la tavola fino che hao finito la frutta.’ It was a great way to incorporate fruit into our diets and also helped satiate our sweet tooths, keeping us away from less healthful sweets.” Marta Larusso

“You don’t get fat on food you pray over.” This is from a friend who points out that meals prepared at home, served at the table and given thanks for are more appreciated and more healthful than foods eaten on the run. Carol Jackson

From my Romanian grandmother: “Breakfast, you should eat alone. Lunch, you should eat with a friend. Dinner, you should give to an enemy.” Irina Dumitrescu

“Don’t eat anything that took more energy to ship than to grow.” Carrie Cizauskus

“Make and take your own lunch to work.” My father has always done this, and so have I. It saves money, and you know what you are eating. Hope Donovan Rider

“If you are not hungry enough to eat an apple, you are not hungry.” Emma Fogt

The Chinese have a saying: “Eat until you are seven-tenths full, and save the other three-tenths for hunger.” That way, food always tastes good, and you don’t eat too much. Nancy Ni

“Eat foods in inverse proportion to how much its lobby spends to push it.” Kirk Westphal

“I am living in Japan and following these simple rules in preparing each meal: GO HO — incorporate five different cooking methods (steamed rice, simmered vegetables, grilled tofu, sauteed vegetables, raw fish, etc.); GO SHIKI — incorporate five colors (red, white, black, green, yellow); GO MI — incorporate five flavors (sweet, sour, salty, spicy, bitter). While it might look like a lot of work, it is actually very easy and helps with menu planning and shopping.” Yukari Sakomoto

“Avoid snack foods with the ‘oh’ sound in their names: Doritos, Fritos, Cheetos, Tostitos, Hostess Ho Hos, etc.” Donna David

“One of my top rules from eating comes from economics. The law of diminishing marginal utility reminds me that each additional bite is generally less satisfying than the previous bite. This helps me slow down, savor the first bites, stop eating sooner. It also helps get plenty of variety in my diet, because this rule also makes a meal of small plates more enticing: 3 bites of 5 plates is better than 15 bites of 1 plate at maximizing satisfaction and nutritional variety.” Laura Kelley

“Don’t eat anything you aren’t willing to kill yourself.” Lorene Lavora

“No second helpings, no matter how scrumptious.” Karen Harmin

“When drinking tea, just drink tea.” I find this Zen teaching useful, given my inclination toward information absorption in the morning, wen I’m also trying to eat breakfast, get the dog out, start the fire and organize my day. I believe it’s so much better for our bodies when we are present to our food. Perhaps a bit of mindfulness goes a long way first thing in the morning. Of course, some time ago I came across a humorous anecdote about a hapless Zen student whose teacher taught him this aphorism and then was discovered by the same student, drinking tea and reading the paper. When confronted, the teacher said, “When drinking tea and reading the paper, just drink tea and read the paper!” Michelle Poirot

When you’re eating, don’t talk about other past meals, whether better or worse. Focus on what’s in front of you. Good meals are more thoroughly enjoyed this way, and lousy meals can yield their own useful information (”I’ll never cook that way again”). It’s also more polite, to food and cook alike. Miles P. Finley

After spending some time working with people with eating disorders, I came up with this rule: “Don’t create arbitrary rules for eating if their only purpose is to help you feel in control.” I try to eat healthfully, but if there’s a choice between eating ice cream and spending all day obsessing about eating ice cream, I’m going to eat the ice cream! Laura Usher

“It’s better to pay the grocer than the doctor,” was the saying my Italian grandmother would frequently use to remind us of the love and attention to detail that went into her cooking. John Forti