Poor Cook's Paella

Paella is one of my favorite things to make and eat. It has everything that I would ever want in a dish; tons of seafood, chicken, and sausage. The last time I made paella I made it with my father on Mother’s Day. It came out really great with a ton of flavor and ingredients. Now that the weather is getting nicer, I was craving a nice summer meal so I decided to make some bruschetta and paella. Since I have 3 part time jobs, it is not really in my budget to buy lobsters and all the wonderful seafood that traditionally goes into making paella. I decided to cut it down and just do shrimp and sausage paella. It came out really tasty and was pretty simple to make. It may look like a lot of ingredients but most of them are spices.

Paella

1 box of rice pilaf

3 Sausages (I mixed a few different kinds)

20 Shrimp

½ yellow onion

2 cloves of garlic

olive oil

1-1 ½ cups of frozen peas (depends on how much you like peas)

¼ cup homemade tomato sauce (jar is also fine)

pinch of saffron

Spices

-chili powder

-cayenne pepper

-paprika

-cumin

-pinch of curry powder

-salt

-pepper

I decided that it would be nice to grill the sausage and shrimp to add a smoky flavor to the dish. So I threw the sausages on the grill while I put the pot of rice pilaf on the stove.

While they cooked, I chopped the onion and garlic, then seasoned the shrimp. I used all of the spices that are listed above and just sprinkled them over both sides of the shrimp.

When the sausages were almost done, I grilled the shrimp briefly on both sides. I didn’t want to cook them all the way through, because I knew I would be adding them to the pot and they would continue to cook.

I then used a heavy pot to sauté the onions and garlic in olive oil. Once the onions were translucent, I added the rice, tomato sauce, pinch of saffron, cut-up sausage, and shrimp to the pot and covered it for 5-10 minutes. I then added the frozen peas and covered for another 5 minutes. I was not sure how much flavor I was going to be able to incorporate without all the ingredients of traditional paella, but it came out delicious. This served 3 and the leftovers were quite good cold the next day for lunch!

Bruschetta

1 French baguette sliced thin

3 chopped tomatoes

1 garlic clove finely chopped

½ shallot finely chopped

6 basil leaves chopped

1 tsp. balsamic vinegar

2 tsp. Olive Oil

sprinkle of salt

4 grinds of pepper

Mix together all of the ingredients and spoon onto fresh bread. If fresh bread is not available toasting it is a good alternative.

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Sunday Morning Muffins

What’s better than waking up on a Sunday morning having a glass of orange juice and a hot muffin right out of the oven? In my mind not much, especially when you have friends to share them with and help make them. That is exactly what I did this morning. It is one of those perfect mornings in San Francisco where the sun is shining on the hill behind my house and the sound of happy children fill the air from a neighboring yard. When you top that with the smell of banana crunch muffins all your worries for the week to come are put behind and you can focus on true Sunday morning relaxation. The recipe that I used for the banana crunch muffins is an Ina Garten, but I made a few adjustments to the recipe. The recipe that follows is the one with my adjustments made to it for the original recipe you can go to www.foodnetwork.com.

Banana Crunch Muffins

3 cups of flour

2 cups of sugar

2 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of baking soda

½ teaspoon of salt

½ pound unsalted butter (2 sticks) melted and cooled *

2 extra large eggs

¾ cup of lactaid milk but you may use regular

2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract

1 teaspoon of almond extract

1 cup mashed bananas (2 bananas)

1 cup granola

1 cup of sweetened shredded coconut

½ cup of chocolate chips

* the reason why the butter needs to cool is so when it is mixed with the egg it does not scramble it instead it just mixes with the egg.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

First Mike sifted the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer. While he siftted I melted the butter in a pan and then let it cool before mixing it into the dry sifted ingredients.

In a separate bowl we mixed together the eggs, milk, vanilla, almond, and mashed bananas. Once those ingredients were combined we mixed them into the flour-and-butter mixture.

Once both of those were well combined but not over mixed I folded in the granola, coconut, and chocolate chips. I then carefully spooned the batter into the muffin tin that was lined with paper. I only had one pan to I put the extra batter into a loaf pan, which worked out perfectly.

The muffins baked for 25 to 30 minutes until the tops were brown and a toothpick came out clean. The loaf stayed in for about 5 minutes more.

The muffins came out really well and not too sweet, which I like. An additional thing that you might serve with the muffins is a butter marmalade. All one would do for this is whip together some unsalted butter and whatever flavor marmalade you enjoy (I would use apricot). Once the butter and marmalade or jam are combined put it in a little dish and serve alongside these delish' muffins.

I hope you enjoy these muffins as much as we did. Happy Sunday!

Don't PASS it OVER

When thinking about Passover and Jewish holidays in general, food seems to be a major theme. Maybe it's because Jews love to eat or maybe because food is a way of coping with hardship. The story of Passover is told with food. The Seder is the retelling of the story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. Eating certain dishes represents the hardships that the Jewish people went through. Parsley is dipped in salt water to represent the tears. Haroset is eaten to represent the cement used to the lay the bricks that the Jews used to build pyramids. Unleavened bread or matzah is eaten because the Jews had no time to let their bread rise.

There are many more foods and dishes that are served throughout the dinner that are traditional to eat in many Jewish households. It has become a tradition in my family that my mother and I prepare all the dishes together and my father organizes and leads the Seder.

We have been having a Seder at our home for as long as I remember. It has only been in the recent years that I have taken over cooking some of the dishes on my own. The two main dishes that I prepared were the brisket and the chicken. I have changed the recipes slightly so they are not exactly how my grandmother used to prepare them. I slow cooked the brisket with onions, carrots, celery, and tomato juice and it came out very tender. My uncle Alan, who has been in charge of slicing the brisket for many years, said it was the easiest brisket to slice. He even let me try slicing some with his very special knife that seemed longer than I am tall (an exaggeration, but it is the longest knife I have ever used).

The chicken I made was a new recipe that I had never tried before, and I was very pleased with its outcome. So pleased in fact that I am making it again tonight, and that is where the photos came from. There was not much time for photography on Passover, with the chaos of cooking and entertaining 28 people.

The chicken recipe is as follows (for one chicken):

I chicken cut into 10 pieces

6 cloves of garlic

½ Jar of apricot preserves (6 oz.)

1 tsp. red wine vinegar

¼ cup of olive oil plus a little extra

10 sage leaves

a few pinches of salt

10 grinds of black pepper

Mix all the ingredients together and let the chicken marinate in the fridge for several hours or overnight. Lay the chicken in a pan skin side up and pre heat the oven to 400 degrees. Cook the chicken for 30 to 40 minutes or until chicken juices run clear.

For dessert I made coconut macaroons. I used Ina Garten’s recipe. She is my all time favorite, and I am slowly trying to make it through her French cookbook. The macaroons were so easy to make and people seemed to really enjoy them.

Ina’s Macaroons

14 ounces sweetened shredded coconut

14 ounces sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 extra-large egg whites, at room temperature

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat oven to 325. Then mix together the shredded coconut and sweetened condensed milk. Then in an electric mixer, beat the egg whites and the salt until they form very stiff peaks. Gently fold in the egg whites so they are dispersed into the coconut and condensed milk mixture. It is very important to not over stir, unless you want hard smushed cookies. I use an ice cream scoop to form the cookies and then dropped them on a sheet pan that was covered with parchment paper. Bake the macaroons for 25 to 30 minutes or until brown. This should make 15 to 20 cookies depending on how large of a scoop is being used.

The other dish that I made for dessert was poached pears. I poached them in a sweet wine called Moscato. I mixed the wine with a vanilla bean, honey, cinnamon sticks, and ginger. When the pears were done poaching I reduced the liquid to make a syrup that was poured over the pears. They were also really easy to make and I made them a day ahead of serving, which saved some time.

Passover was a great success and many people helped my mother and me prepare. I would like to thank Karen my aunt for slicing many potatoes so early in the morning and keeping up with the dirty dishes that my mother and I were creating at a steady pace. Also, we couldn’t have done it without the help of my best friend Emily. She had the longest list of tasks and completed all of them even though the matzah might have almost gone out too early. Hope you’re all ready for next year!