Where my fellow cooks at???

[tifosi77]

So the family canceled on us while I was out shopping. Thankfully one of the wife's other good friends was able to come over. Only grabbed pics of two dishes.

Olivas Manzanillas
Marinated in extra virgin olive oil, sherry vinegar, garlic, rosemary, thyme, orange juice and zest and Marcona almonds


Jamón y Queso
Cheeses from left to right: Queso Murcia al Vino ('drunken' goat cheese that's soaked in local wine for a day or two before brining), queso Manchego (sheep's milk), and queso Valdeon (cow's milk, cheese wrapped in chestnut leaves while curing)

Jamón from left to right: jamón Serrano (aged 12 months), jamón ibérico loin and jamón ibérico de bellota Fermin (the grand poobah of hams, cured three years from pigs that were 100% free-range and foraged on acorns their entire lives.... the fat from the two ibéricos would render at room temperature, making your fingers a deliciously shiny mess as you ate)


Apologies for out-of-focus: New phone and I've not quite got the camera bit sorted.

[Letang Is The Truth]

that looks incredible

when i was in spain i always tried to find one of these where ever i went:

[the wicked child]

Is red x a traditional spanish dish? I never knew.

[BadHands71]

What's everybody eating tonight? I'm making coconut crusted mahi with almond basmati rice, mango curry sauce, and broccoli. Chocolate fudge cake with raspberries and vanilla ice cream for dessert.

[Rylan]

What's everybody eating tonight? I'm making coconut crusted mahi with almond basmati rice, mango curry sauce, and broccoli. Chocolate fudge cake with raspberries and vanilla ice cream for dessert.

PB&J with a side of potato chips (pringles to be precise)

[columbia]

I've been brining a pork shoulder all day and it will go in the oven tomorrow morning for NYD dinner.

[tifosi77]

Leftover paella.

[bh]

garlic and rosemary roasted pork loin tonight with sauerkraut!

[BadHands71]

garlic and rosemary roasted pork loin tonight with sauerkraut!

Nice. Heading to my parents in a few hours for a similar meal.

[blackjack68]

Enjoy your pork. Porterhouses, rice and corn here.

[Ben Klingston]

I'm taking my first crack at chicken and andouille gumbo as we speak. Coming out much soupier than I expected/wanted, even with the okra, though I have yet to add the roux.

[ExPatriatePen]

I'm taking my first crack at chicken and andouille gumbo as we speak. Coming out much soupier than I expected/wanted, even with the okra, though I have yet to add the roux.

Ben, sounds good. I think I'd like to give that a try. Please tell us how it turns out.

[Letang Is The Truth]

Leftover paella.

what do you put in your paella

[tifosi77]

This one was pretty basic: chicken, shrimp and mussels. Ordinarily I'd use rabbit and duck, but our guest doesn't like either.

The latter is much more traditional with paella's rustic roots among farm hands that needed cheap eats they could cook and prepare in the field. Rabbit, duck and snails were all very common in the early days of the dish, and only the better off could afford chicken..... never mind seafood. What we think of as 'traditional' paella (Valenciana, rich with seafood) is actually a fairly recent addition to the culinary world of Spain.

[BigMcK]

This one was pretty basic: chicken, shrimp and mussels. Ordinarily I'd use rabbit and duck, but our guest doesn't like either.

The latter is much more traditional with paella's rustic roots among farm hands that needed cheap eats they could cook and prepare in the field. Rabbit, duck and snails were all very common in the early days of the dish, and only the better off could afford chicken..... never mind seafood. What we think of as 'traditional' paella (Valenciana, rich with seafood) is actually a fairly recent addition to the culinary world of Spain.

Having just had the first Cuban paella from a well-regarded restaurant, I am confused as to what flavor the pricey saffron is supposed to add? From what I had read, it is supposed to add a 'wow factor' to the dish. This was made with all seafood, and listed saffron as an ingredient. The dish was great, but tasted like seafood, bell peppers, onions and rice. Did I get cheated?

[Shyster]

I'm taking my first crack at chicken and andouille gumbo as we speak. Coming out much soupier than I expected/wanted, even with the okra, though I have yet to add the roux.

I think it’s been mentioned before, but I think the best way to make roux is to bake it like Alton Brown does in this recipe. You can get a great brick roux with little effort and little risk of burning.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alto ... index.html

[tifosi77]

Having just had the first Cuban paella from a well-regarded restaurant, I am confused as to what flavor the pricey saffron is supposed to add? From what I had read, it is supposed to add a 'wow factor' to the dish. This was made with all seafood, and listed saffron as an ingredient. The dish was great, but tasted like seafood, bell peppers, onions and rice. Did I get cheated?

Not quite sure what a 'Cuban paella' is, but saffron is a key ingredient in Spanish paella. It's an interesting ingredient, because it's flavor can be perceived differently from taster to taster. People sitting side-by-side eating the same dish may report is tasting salty (like the sea) to sweet to even bitter. It's just a wacky thing. But saffron and the ubiquitous and copious use of pimentón is what gives paella its characteristic reddish orange hue.

It takes time to fully extract flavor from paella threads as well; a famous restaurant in Alicante (Spain) adding just 1 gram of saffron to a full liter of warm water to infuse for four hours before using that liquid in their paella. I don't quite go that far, but I will give the threads a quick poke in a hot oven for 10-15 seconds before steeping them in warm water for 20-30 minutes before use. If you don't steep the threads and simply add them to your dish, you'll end up with a clumpy mess and some diners will be in for a rather pungent surprise.

[viva la ben]

Taking an hour and a half to make a freaking roux?

[Shyster]

Yeah, but you only have to stir the roux every half hour or so, and you get a wonderful dark roux without worrying about it burning. I've made the same sort of roux on a stovetop and I had to stand there and constantly stir it.

[tifosi77]

An hour and a half to make a brick-red roux is actually quite normal. The big advantage to this technique, as Shyster points out, is it's effectively 'fire and forget'. You don't have to spend that 90 minutes standing over a piping hot vat of fat and grain, constantly stirring and worrying that at any second a giant blop of the stuff is going to burp up on your forearm and leave you a permanent reminder of the meal you were preparing that night.

I do not enjoy making roux.

[columbia]

You certainly don't want to rue making a roux.

[tifosi77]

Har har har har har

[columbia]

A very interesting interview, which covers the culinary history of The Lowcountry:
http://www.scetv.org/index.php/walter_e ... y_cooking/

[Ben Klingston]

I'm taking my first crack at chicken and andouille gumbo as we speak. Coming out much soupier than I expected/wanted, even with the okra, though I have yet to add the roux.

Ben, sounds good. I think I'd like to give that a try. Please tell us how it turns out.

It was a learning experience, and came out respectably OK, but not great. The roux gave me fits. If I had to do it again, I'd probably just do the andouille and leave out the chicken. The recipe had me dredge and brown the chicken in legs and thighs, but to not cook it through, then to put it into the pot with the gumbo. I am always afraid of undercooking chicken and getting sick due to an incident several years ago, so I probably cooked it close to done in the pan before adding to the pot. By that time, the gumbo was still very liquid-y, and even after adding the roux, I probably ended up letting it simmer for a good hour after that (recipe called for 25 minutes). Well, it worked to thicken it up, but by that time all the veggies were overcooked - my sliced lengths of peppers ended up looking like toothpicks by the end. The overall taste was not bad, but a bit sweeter than I'd like. I may have overdone it with the pickling spice.

[ExPatriatePen]

I'm taking my first crack at chicken and andouille gumbo as we speak. Coming out much soupier than I expected/wanted, even with the okra, though I have yet to add the roux.

Ben, sounds good. I think I'd like to give that a try. Please tell us how it turns out.

It was a learning experience, and came out respectably OK, but not great. The roux gave me fits. If I had to do it again, I'd probably just do the andouille and leave out the chicken. The recipe had me dredge and brown the chicken in legs and thighs, but to not cook it through, then to put it into the pot with the gumbo. I am always afraid of undercooking chicken and getting sick due to an incident several years ago, so I probably cooked it close to done in the pan before adding to the pot. By that time, the gumbo was still very liquid-y, and even after adding the roux, I probably ended up letting it simmer for a good hour after that (recipe called for 25 minutes). Well, it worked to thicken it up, but by that time all the veggies were overcooked - my sliced lengths of peppers ended up looking like toothpicks by the end. The overall taste was not bad, but a bit sweeter than I'd like. I may have overdone it with the pickling spice.

Good info. Tif and others may disagree, but I never expect my first attempt to be anything like the third or fourth (you learn so much about what parts cook faster than others etc...)