I made that!

The sun’s been shining (intermittently at least) and dammit I want paella! I’ve never made one (well, except for this one time 8 years ago, but all has been forgotten), so some research was needed. I went to my source of all things paella related, my architecture boss (and self declared paella aficionado) Joe. He hooked me up with the basic steps and traditional spices. I scribbled it all down like a mad woman, went shopping for a paella pan (because sometimes you just need a new toy), and promptly lost the notes. So I was mostly working from memory, but I think I got the gist of it right.

I wanted to keep it simple, since I was entering uncharted waters. Plus my dinner guests were pescatarian, so no crazy chicken/chorizo/every other meat you can think of combination for this little paella {insert sad face emoticon}. I decided to go with shrimp, along with a bunch of spring veggies.

First I fried up my sofrito, which is just the mirepoix (which is the soffritto (which is the sofrito of Italy) of France) of Spain: onions, garlic and red peppers. Basically the holy trinity of Western European/Mediterranean/Caribbean cooking. I cooked those down with some olive oil, paprika, cumin and cayenne.

Then I threw in my rice and let it toast for a while before adding some white wine. I let that cook for a few minutes and then added some saffron, veggie stock and clam juice.

Once it looked like the rice had about 15-20 minutes left, I piled it high with shrimp, English peas, artichoke hearts and asparagus.

I put a lid on it and let it keep going until everything looked all yummy and my shrimp were all pink. It was tasty! Most importantly, I got a delicious layer of crust on the bottom, pretty much what makes paella fabulous. Not bad at all for a first (though technically second) paella!

Last night was a light dinner, a mediterranean mezze if you will. I keep doing these lately, I’m gonna be burned out by the time summer rolls around and traditional mezze ingredients are actually in season. But they’re so goooooood… Anyways, I’ve been trying out different cracker recipes and this time I finally think I got it right. I REALLY want to conquer the cracker. Fresh crackers are just so lovely, way better than anything you could get packaged. And I like being able to spice them up to compliment whatever I’m serving them with.

I was being indecisive about which direction to take the flour in, so I ended up doing a mix. I just bought a bag of freshly milled (right in front of me!) local whole wheat flour from Eatwell Farm and knew that HAD to go in. And I saw a few recipes calling for semolina flour, so wanted some of that too. But I didn’t want it to get too crazy, so I wanted a bit of all purpose flour, as a base. I totally made that up, but it seemed to have worked, so I’m going with it.

Crackers are super easy. You literally mix your flour(s), water, oil and salt. Then you knead them until they’re nice and stretchy, like 5-10 minutes (depends on how gluten-ey your flour of choice is). I cut them up into some manageable chunks and let them rest for a while, to relax all that gluten I created.

Then I just ran each chunk through the pasta machine, until I got strips that were around 1/16″ thick. It was the simplest thing I’ve ever done with my pasta machine! Then I started loading my strips up with all the Mediterranean(ish) spices that I had: cumin seeds, ground coriander, ground paprika, sesame seeds, sea salt and fresh cracked pepper. I smashed them all in, to keep them from falling right off once baked.

Then I baked the dough for around 10 minutes at 400 degrees, just until they looked all browned and crispy.

And they were perfect (you know, in the way an ugly kid is perfect only to their parents). Not that they were ugly… I’m just saying that I’m glad someone invented the word “rustic”. I broke my strips into chunks and dipped them in Pantea’s fresh made hummus & some feta with fresh herbs. One word: Yum.

RECIPE:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup semolina flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup olive oil

1 cup water

2 tsp salt

– Mix it all up and knead it by hand or in a machine for 5-10 minutes, until it’s nice and stretchy.

– Cut it into 8 pieces and let sit (covered) at room temperature for an hour or two, to relax.

– Run each piece through a pasta machine, starting at the thickest setting and work your way to the 4th or 5th setting, depending on how thin you want your crackers.

– Lay the dough sheets on a parchment covered baking pan and spray with water to moisten. Then sprinkle whatever you like. Get crazy. It’s a cracker – it can do anything. At this point, if you are going for a more “refined” cracker, you an use a pizza wheel to cut out geometric (or not so geometric, who am I to judge) shapes.

– Bake at 400 for roughly 10 minutes, but keep checking after 8 minutes, because it goes from perfectly toasty to burnt really fast.

– Let cool completey before breaking up into hand dipping size.

In the fall I did an internship with Tartine bakery in the Mission district (maybe you’ve heard of it?). While I mostly worked in the pie & tart shells station, occasionally I worked what’s called “the morning bake” shift. It starts at 4.30am (ick) and among the things being made are the gougeres. Tartine does many many things well, and gougeres are one of them. Today I’m gonna try to remember how it’s done. Gougeres are basically a cheese puff, made from pate choux, same dough that’s used for cream puffs and eclairs. Tartine kicks up the eggs and fat in the recipe, to get the most tender puff I’ve ever tasted.

Pate choux is a crazy dough, and a super fun one to make. You start by melting butter with milk and salt.

Once the butter melts and it’s about to boil, you throw in some flour. You (using a wooden spoon if you’re following the rules) beat the mixture in the pan with the heat on, making sure it doesn’t burn. You do that for a few minutes, basically until your arm gives up.

Once it’s time, you start beating the eggs in. If you’re feeling hard core you can do this in the pan, using the aforementioned wooden spoon. I prefer to do it in the kitchenaid mixer. I just run the mixer with the paddle attachment and beat the eggs in one by one, until it’s smooth and shiny.

Then I mixed in some cheese, fresh thyme & black pepper.

Then it’s off to the piping bag! At tartine the gougeres are these intimidatingly large bowling ball sized monsters (oh yes, and they’re good), but I’m gonna make little bite sized ones. A little egg wash and a sprinkle of cheese, to give them a nice crust.

And then I bake them until they puffed up and got all crispy.

Now that’s what I’m talking about.

Don’t judge, but I’m just not really a fan of  St. Patrick’s Day. Maybe because I’m not much of a drinker, or maybe because San Francisco turns into one giant frat house. Probably both. So this year I decided to cook. And I was thinking lamb. My feelings about lamb are mixed (alongside the fact that I have mixed feelings about eating meat in general. Well, except pork maybe). When I lived in Australia it seemed like the only thing I ever ate was lamb cutlets, and I loved it. But since being back, I’ve slowly lost interest in the taste. Now the flavor just seems incredibly intense. So tonight gave lamb another shot. And what better way for lamb to prove itself than a humble Irish stew.

I bought what looked like a very large pile of lamb shoulder meat and threw it in the pot with some cooked onions, garlic, thyme and stock.

I covered the stew and popped it in the oven for an hour, then added some carrots, potatoes, barley & cream. Then it baked for another hour. In the meantime I made a loaf of whole wheat Irish soda bread. Since I was also baking a dessert, I had to borrow my landlord’s oven to get all this baking done. I really like Irish soda bread, possibly because it’s the only bread I do well. Which could be a sad thing, since it doesn’t even have yeast in it, but it’s so yummy!

Shane brought a bunch of Irish cheeses and it was a great starter. And then there was the stew.

Definitely a stew to show off some lambiness. So straightforward, and yet…I still don’t love lamb. My favorite part of the whole dish was how the potatoes and carrots were cooked perfectly, nice and soft, but still had their shape. Does this make me vegetarian? That all I cared about were the vegetables floating around in all that meaty juice? Possibly. But I suspect I would have felt differently if it had been a beef stew.

Now it’s official. Spring. I got my first batch of asparagus in my veggie box this week. Only took me about 3 hours to decide what to do with it.

One of my favorite discoveries this year was this: souffles are easy. Super easy. I spent many years intimidated by their quirky ways. It probably doesn’t help that the first time I attempted souffle it was for a surprise birthday party with 19 guests.  If you think serving a souffle to a friend before it falls is scary, try doing it to 19 people. It was an intense night involving an oven that didn’t quite close (or get very hot) and a trip to Walgreens to clean out their supply of toaster ovens. There were a few different recipes on the menu, and only one kicked ass. And it’s the one I still use today. Martha Stewart – that lady knows what’s what. That night I learned that if you have a good base recipe, souffles can absorb any flavor you want. Tonight I wanted my asparagus, and I wanted a quick dinner, so asparagus souffle it was.

First I blanched the asparagus for about 90 seconds to soften it up a tad. Then I sliced it into thin rounds (since it needs to get held up by some egg whites in a bit, the pieces need to be a manageable size).

I prepared some ramekins by coating them with butter and bread crumbs. This may seem like an unnecessary step, but the bread crumbs act like little steps to help the souffle hoist itself up as it gets hot.

Then I prepared my souffle base by making a quick roux and mixing it with egg yolks, spices, cheese & the asparagus rounds. Traditionally souffle’s involve Gruyere, but I usually just throw in whatever cheese I have in the fridge. Tonight was a mix of Dubliner, Parmesan & Goat cheese. Get crazy, it’ll taste good as long as it’s tasty cheese.

I whipped up the egg whites into an  almost stiff meringue and folded that into the base.

17 minutes in a hot oven and we had perfect little souffles of cheesy asparagus heaven!

RECIPE (adapted from Martha Stewart):

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 teaspoons dry breadcrumbs
12 ounces of any cheese you like, a good mix is always a good idea.
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons Dijon mustard
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons whole milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
6 large egg yolks
12 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
– Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place rack in center. Generously butter bottom and sides of 6 small ramekins with 1 1/2 tablespoons of unsalted butter. Sprinkle bread crumbs in dish, swirling to thoroughly coat the bottom and sides.
– Grate cheeses into a small bowl and combine. Set aside.
– Melt the remaining 2 1/2 tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Whisk in flour and mustard, and cook, whisking constantly, for 3 to 5 minutes. Slowly whisk in milk, and cook until thick and smooth, an additional 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat, and season with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper & nutmeg. Pour souffle base into a large bowl. Whisk in egg yolks a few at a time until smooth. Stir in cheese until well incorporated.
– Use a whisk (or whatever machine you have) to whip 12 whites until you ALMOST have stiff peaks form.
– Quickly mix about 25% of the meringue into the souffle base. Then gently fold in the rest into the souffle base just until incorporated. Pour into souffle dish, and bake for 17 minutes. Serve fast before it sinks.