Paella with Snails and Pork on the BBQ

Paella originated in the fields and on the beaches of Spain: they cooked outside over open fires.  I  wanted to get away from the stovetop and oven-finishing of modern recipes and see if I could get a smoky flavor from cooking over wood on the barbecue.  I used some lump charcoal to start the fire, then fed it with wood and added dried stems of rosemary and other herbs from the garden.  It turned out rather well and it was fun to use the BBQ like as stovetop.

Dinner is served outside as night falls, with a Martín Códax Albariño wine.

Our paella pan is 9.5 inches in diameter at the bottom, 11.5 at the top. This recipe is scaled for that size -- you need plenty of surface area so the liquid evaporates.  It feeds two generously, or four at a push.  The pan is the traditional thin metal, not the bogus pricy ones you find at "gourmet" stores in the U.S.

This recipe succeeds also because of the restrained amount of "toppings". We use what we had on hand and in the garden, and like the snails; the pork we had wasn't very flavorful so we boosted it with the some porky fat (bacon fat works well).  You want to use as little fat as you can because you're trying to get a crunchy crust on the bottom.  If I were using squid, shrimp or other fish, I'd probably use a different fat and use fish stock.

It's critical to use the proper rice: Bomba. It absorbs the flavorful stock but unlike Risotto, doesn't turn creamy -- each grain should be separate. 

Bomba rice: note the short, round grain; spring onions from the garden.

Small heads of garlic from the garden.

Flat "roma" beans from the garden. "Dork" fat (duck and pork) we used to saute the pork.

Snails with proper breeding.

4 C Chicken Stock
1/2  Onion, chopped
1  Bay Leaf
1/4 tsp Thyme, fresh
1 sprig Parsley, fresh
3  Peppercorns

7 oz Canadian Bacon (Pork loin; could use chicken, rabbit, etc)
1 Tbs Bacon Fat (you could use olive oil)
1/4  Red Bell Pepper, finely chopped
1/4  Tomato, finely chopped
2 clove Garlic, minced
1 1/2 C Rice, short-grain like Arborio
1 tsp Smoked Paprika (pimenton)

1 pinch Saffron

1/4 Lb String Beans, cut into bite-sized pieces
24  Snails, from a can, drained and rinsed

6  Scallions, chopped, with some greens
1 stick Rosemary

On stovetop (I cheated here) bring Stock, Onion, Bay, Thyme, Parsley, Peppercorns to boil. Simmer 30 minutes, strain, reduce to 3 Cups; the ratio of liquid to rice is important.  Bring Enriched Stock to warm part of BBQ to keep hot.

Mise en place for ingredients by the BBQ.

On the BBQ, heat the paella pan over coals and wood; you'll be using this like a skillet on the stovetop.  Add the Fat and saute the Pork until it's cooked through and lightly browned. I closed the cover to keep in the smoke when possible. Remove and reserve the Meat.

Sauteing the pork in Dork Fat; the enhanced stock says warm by the fire

Add the Red Pepper and cook until softened. Add the Tomato and Garlic and cook to dry off most of the tomato's liquid. 

Stir in Rice and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes; sometimes I am able to get this translucency, other times not.

Cooking the rice a bit.

Add Paprika, Saffron, enriched Stock, Green Beans. This evening, I added the beans later, since they were so fresh, they didn't need so much time to cook. I also waited to strain the enriched stock until adding it to the rice mixture -- once less thing to clean, and a bit longer for flavors to develop.

You can strain the stock right into the cooking rice.

Bring to boil, season with Salt and Pepper, stir to evenly distribute everything.  

Simmer 7-10 minutes, until no longer soupy but some liquid remains; do not stir so you don't disturb the formation of a crust.

The liquid is starting to be absorbed.

Adding the fresh roma beans late, it all depends on how much time they need to cook.

Bury the Snails and add the Meat.  If you were doing (say) rabbit and squid, or sausage and mussels, you'd do that now too. Pre-cook meats but add things that don't need much cooking right at the end.

Snails and cooked pork added to the pan.

Continue cooking until liquid absorbed/evaporated but rice not quite done (al dente).  Remove to a warm location, garnish with Scallions and Rosemary sprig,  cover with foil, and let stand 10 minutes to finish the rice.  

We've lost our light, but the rosemary kicks off a great fragrance.

Serve.

Smoked Squid with Arugula

We cold-smoked squid a while back and served it up with arugula which is proliferating in the garden. Irene based this on the recipe from The Guardian. 

She cooked the squid in olive oil, smoked paprika, garlic, lemon zest, with rosemary, thyme and oregano from the garden. The arugula was dressed with the lemon juice and the same herbs, a variation on a vinegarette. 

Served with some crusty homemade bread, this made a light, refreshing summer dinner.

Gnocchi with Arugula Pesto

Gnocchi are little dumplings, boiled up and sauced like pasta; they're cute. Like other small hand-made pastas, these can be a nuisance to make, but it's relaxing. The grooved shape helps sauce stick. You can use a fork to roll the little dough bits, and we found an old butter shaper that looks a lot like the actual gnocchi boards that our friend Michael used when he introduced us to gnocchi.

Cook potatoes then rice them, or you can mash them if you don't have a potato ricer. Ricing makes for a smoother texture. Knead in an optional egg to help it bind, then knead in just enough flour that you can roll the dough into snakes (or ropes, as you please). Try for a diameter of about a half inch: thinner means you have to roll a lot more individual gnocchi, fatter makes them a bit bulky. Knead as little as possible to avoid developing gluten which will make them tougher and chewy. Cut the snakes into about 1 inch lengths.

Roll each snake with the back of a fork against the counter. This embosses them with grooves all around the curling motion should create a little pocket in the bottom when they come off the fork. In the photos, I'm doing this against my "gnocchi board" to make them more groovy (dude). 

Check the video, my first attempt for this blog! (fingers crossed, didn't work directly from phone uploads, trying to  re-upload...)

Well, dammit, works in the preview but I'm not seeing it in the published post. Try this animated version instead.

Rack 'em up on a floured surface until you're done with the dough ball. You can freeze them at this point -- they boil from frozen, and it's better than cooking then freezing.

Boil the gnocchi in a pot of rapidly boiling salted water. They are done when they float to the surface.

These are great with pesto. Our basil hasn't come up yet but we're inundated with peppery arugula so we made arugula pesto, just like we'd make the classic. In a food processor, blend plenty of arugula, extra virgin olive oil until it just makes a paste, brighten it up with some lemon juice; then pulse in pine nuts (we used pecans because we had a surplus) and grated parmesan or pecorino cheese, and process until smooth but with a bit of chunkiness. If it's too thick you can add more oil or a bit of water. Combine the gnocchi with the pesto, reserving some of the cooking water.

Gently mix the cooked gnocchi with the pesto, and adding a bit of the cooking water to get it to the looseness we want -- we're looking for a rich sauce, not a paste.

In the photo at the top, we've garnished with more grated pecorino.

These ones came out too dense and chewy.  I think we added too much flour to the potato and probably overworked the dough. I suspected this when I was rolling the snakes as they were easy to roll and didn't stick to the counter too much: I didn't need to add flour to prevent stickiness.  If this happens to you, don't worry about it, just back out the flour next time.  The best gnocchi are light and delicate, not like dumplings, but they're a bit more difficult to work with as there's less structure. 

The best ones I've ever made I threw together when I came home after a long night of drinking. I suspect they were delicate because I was starving and not stressing about the dough -- I just quickly combined the ingredients and didn't overwork it. 

Black Squid Ink Fettuccini

We make fresh pasta, probably a couple times a month. Irene makes the dough, it rests to hydrate in the fridge, then I roll it out into sheets, angel hair, or fettuccini. I find the rolling and cutting to be almost therapeutic, relaxing. It's not hard, something I'll do on a weeknight after a stressful day at work.

Squid ink pasta with highly-reduced fish/cream sauce

This time, Irene mixed black squid ink into the dough and it makes for a stunning -- and a little bit creepy -- presentation. I'll write another post showing how I roll and cut the pasta. This one's just about the dramatic look of the dish. 

For two people, my usual pasta is 100 g AP flour, 100 g coarse semolina, 2 eggs; for this, I add 20 g Squid Ink which is like a thick gel. Whiz in food processor until it comes together in a ball, wrap in cling film to hydrate, then roll and cut. 

Below, there's an unrolled lump and next to rolled and cut strands. The lump looks almost like coal.

Strands next to a sheet of rolled but uncut dough. It looks nothing like food -- more like black died leather, or a fruit roll-up made out of tar.  The noodles are white with flour because I have to dust the sheet before putting it through the cutter to prevent sticking.

Look at the texture of those noodles after cooking, you can see a roughness, almost like sand paper or a cat's tongue; this helps the sauce adhere. After cooking the noodles, we sauced this one with a contrasting cream sauce made from heavily reduced cream and fish stock -- it's intense, and complements the slight fishiness of the squid ink.

In the top photo, we garnish with parsley and a gratuitous zucchini blossom from the garden.

Aviation Cocktail (layered)

The Aviation is a classic cocktail but uses a couple of unusual ingredients. The
Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur may not be in your liquor locker, but it's readily available. The
Creme de violette is a more unusual, and wasn't available in the U.S. until 2007 but without it you don't get the deep sky blue verging fading to purple. I make this as a layered drink to mimic the sky, just throwing it together tastes fine, but is monochromatic like a Blue Moon cocktail.

This recipe is based on ColdGlass.com which discusses various gins and that the higher amount of
lemon is more suitable for hot days; sweet lemons are not as intense as tart ones. I've tried upping the Violette and it becomes overpowering very quickly. Use the real Maraschino Cherries from Luxardo: they're pricey but worth it; the kiddie ones and even the natural ones from Tillen Farms don't do the drink justice. I ended up making my own from farmers market cherries when they were in season; they're tasty but not as meaty as the definitive Luxardo ur-cherries.

Some folks I've served this to find it a bit too intensely lemony. When layered, the top is going to be mostly gin and lemon. You might suggest stirring the creme de violette through the drink to balance the tartness.

Layer this drink into a martini glass -- it's stunning.

2 oz Gin
1/2 - 3/4 oz Lemon Juice, freshly squeezed
1/4 oz Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
1/4 oz Creme de violette (Rothman and Winter)
1 Maraschino Cherry (not clown-nose colored ones)

Combine the Gin, Luxardo Liqueur and Lemon and shake on ice. 
Strain into martini glasses.

Drop a Maraschino Cherry through the drink to the bottom of the glass; I like to dribble a few drops of the thick liquid that clings to them for color.

Carefully drizzle the Creme de Violette through the drink slowly and let it settle to the bottom as a layer.

Tichi's Gazpacho, chef Jose Andres

When the farmers markets and our garden have fresh, heirloom tomatoes, we make gazpacho. Heirloom varieties have intense flavors that make this cool soup stand out. I prefer the tart varieties, but the acidity is adjusted with sherry vinegar, so any flavorful variety will do. Don't bother with store-bought varieties, they only taste like wet red cardboard.

This recipe is from chef Jose Andres' book, "Tapas: a Taste of Spain in America", which is fun, imaginative, and tasty -- authentic while using ingredients available in America.  This gazpacho is excellent and easy.  We halved the quantities to fit in our conventional home blender, and reduced the oil because the original seemed a bit heavy.

We've used various peppers from our garden including Spanish padrons -- I like the hint of heat they provide, but suggest you remove the seeds to keep it in check. It's easy to seed the cucumber: cut it in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds and gel with a spoon. Use a tasty Olive Oil, you'll really notice it in the finished product.

1 pound Tomatoes, cored, cut coarse (red, yellow, heirloom, cherry)
4 ounces Cucumber, peeled, seeded, cut coarse
1 1/2 ounces Green Bell Pepper, seeded, cut coarse (red, or spicy work too)
1/2 clove Garlic, peeled
1 Tbs Sherry Vinegar
1/4 cup Water (or 4 Ice Cubes to help it chill faster)
1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tsp Kosher Salt

Turn on the blender and add ingredients individually so they liquefy instead of sitting in a mass above the blade.

Add Tomatoes chunks, one at a time, then Cucumber chunks, the Pepper, then Garlic, Vinegar, Water (or Ice Cubes), and finally Oil. The order's not really that important, but this reduces the chance you'll have to poke things down in the blender.

Make sure you let it run a while with the Oil -- creating an emulsion gives you the big mouthfeel.

Taste and adjust Vinegar and Salt for balance. If you want more richness, add more Olive Oil and blend again.

Run the soup through a fine strainer (not a Chinois, it's too fine) to remove seeds and any bits of skin. This makes for a much more elegant presentation.

Straining the soup

Seeds and skin removed, less distraction, more elegant

Chill for at least an hour.

Serves 4, about 3 Cups

Thai Dinner at the beach, 9 courses

Lemongrass sausage finishing on the BBQ

Cooking for foodies is hard, especially if there's a lot of 'em. We treat it as a challenge. For this year's beach week, we settled on Thai as we've been doing a lot of cooking from the Pok Pok book and testing our work against local traditional Thai restaurants. Unfortunately, it's hard for us to decide, so we don't: we just include everything we can think of; this time it was 9 dishes, including a substitution for a friend who's a swimming-vegetable eater.

We're pretty comfortable on the cooking side, but realize that timing, sequencing, and menu balance are things that require just as much attention. You can't fry food and hold it, you can't be running to the kitchen during dinner, and things that require long lead times might require starting hours or days ahead.   Unfortunately, we were so busy cooking that I didn't take as many pictures as I should have -- I really should have had one per dish :-(

We went with cool appetisers so we could largely make them a bit ahead, buying us some time. These were served with Bill's "Hokkaido" cocktail:

• Spring rolls with local shrimp, cellophane noodles, cucumber, carrot, cilantro, mint, and a peanut dipping sauce
• Shrimp laab (larb): minced shrimp cooked in shrimp stock, flavored with fish sauce, lime juice, parched rice, served in lettuce "boats". Zingy, crunchy, chewy, and refreshing.

Irene soaking spring roll wrappers

Spring rolls, half gone

While folks drank cocktails and nibbled on the apps, we had a couple hours to finish the main courses to be served at the big table:

• Chicken and coconut cream soup (Gaeng Dom Yam Gai): rich but a complex flavor from a balance fish sauce, lime, cilantro and a touch of hot chilis.
• Lemon Grass Sausage, from the Pok Pok book: pork shoulder, pork belly, lemon grass, cilantro, and other fragrant seasons, stuffed into a natural casing; cooked sous vide to set the spiral shape, then finished on the BBQ for color and crisping.
• Grilled corn with salty coconut milk flavored with mint and bay leaves
• Neua Naam Tok steak salad with lime, cilantro, crushed dry roasted local peanuts -- really fresh tasting and vibrantly flavored, this was devoured almost before I got to take a seat, definitely popular. We cooked the flank steak sous vide all day at 130F to tenderize it but keep it rosy red inside, then seared in a bit of coconut oil on a bitchin' hot cast iron pan to develop a crust, then sliced thinly for service.
• Stir fried local greens with shitake mushrooms, fish sauce, black pepper, and a hit of liquid smoke to emulate the "wok hay" that only serious heat can deliver.
• Jasmine rice

Neua Naam Tok: steak salad

Local veg with shitake stir fry, with some sneaky liquid smoke

For dessert:

• Coconut cream ice cream -- no actual cream at all, just canned coconut cream, a bit of sugar, a bit of corn starch to provide the right texture, blended to prevent grittiness, chilled and churned. It didn't last long, I'd definitely make this again.

Black Risotto with Smoked Squid

I used to struggle with risotto, and even took a class at L'Academie de Cuisine where I learned it's really about the texture. Don't worry about the exact measurements and time: get the "bite" and creaminess right; taste periodically as it's cooking so you know what to look for. It's not a hard or time-consuming dish, probably 30 to 45 minutes start to finish; this is a weeknight meal.

Using the proper rice is critical, but I've got no strong preference between Arborio, Carnaroli, or Vialone Nano. But it's gotta be one of those, that absorb the flavorful stock, retain a bite in the center, and release enough starch to develop a creaminess. This rice is available at Italian markets, but seems common in basic supermarkets these days, usually in rectangular boxes with the rice vacuum-sealed in thick plastic. It's easy to find, so don't bother with regular medium grain rice, jasmine, sticky, or basmati; save the bomba for paella.

For two people, I use 1 cup of rice and 2 cups of stock; I always end up adding more stock (or water) after I've used the stock, slowing adding until the balance between toothsomeness and creaminess is right. Depending on the risotto, you can use any stock you like: we always have fish, chicken, duck, and beef stock in the freezer; for this, fish was the obvious choice. If your stock is really rich (gelatinous at room temperature), dilute with water to avoid it developing a stickiness as it concentrates. 

I then add a bit more water before serving -- not because I want a more "al onda" (wavy, loose) texture, but because I find the risotto firms up after plating and I don't want it too firm on the plate.

In this serving, I used some squid ink we brought back from Spain years ago.  I heat the broth in one pot, adding the ink, and hold it at just below a simmer so it doesn't have to heat when added to the rice pan.

We recently cold-smoked some squid, so we used the tentacles for this dish. The aroma intrigued the nose long before the dish hit the table. Definitely worth repeating.

I start by sauteeing shallots with olive oil, then when starting to soften, add minced garlic and saute a bit more. 

Then add the rice and saute a bit: I look for a bit of translucence just like when I make paella. 

Then add the inked fish stock, maybe a half cup at a time and stir well. Contrary to myth, you don't have to stir continuously, or always in a clockwise direction (or was it counterclockwise?), or even use a wooden spoon handed down by your grandmother. Give the rice time to absorb most of the stock: it's a balance between absorption and concentration from evaporation. Add more stock when there's not much loose liquid remaining in the rice pan. In the picture below, we're probably about 2/3rds the way through --- you can see the inky broth is starting to get a glossy thickness in the middle right.

I then add the uncooked, cold-smoked squid tentacles, stirring them through to cook for just a few minutes. I ended up adjusting the thickness by adding a bit more hot water, just until it was a bit looser than I'd want it on the plate. Make sure to taste and adjust for salt, it's your last chance.

At the end, I added a few red peppers from the garden for color, plated and garnished with parsley and a gratuitous zucchini blossom we pulled off our plant.

In the top photo, it's hard to distinguish the squid and red peppers -- they got colored by the inky broth. Next time, I'd probably poach the squid briefly in the uninked stock to retain their color, and reserve the red peppers for garnish to preserve their brick-red color contrast. 

You don't have to use exotic ingredients: we frequently do a simple blond risotto with chicken stock and add some peas at the end.  A basic fish broth risotto is elegant topped with three seared scallops each. You can stir in some pesto at the end, or some grated parmesan right before serving, if it works with your other flavors. Just ensure your rice retains a bit of a bite in the center and you've developed creaminess by slow additions of the stock.