Lemony Zest :: Kim Lewandowski

A few years ago, my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas a wonderful gift for a foodie like me – a paella kit. It included a paella pan, Spanish rice and olive oil, and some saffron.

Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world, because harvesting it is so labor-intensive. Saffron threads are the stamens of a variety of crocus. There are three stamens per flower and each must be picked individually by hand. It has a delicate flavor; liquids are generally infused with saffron and then used in recipes.

Paella is a classic Spanish dish of saffron-flavored rice with seafood, chicken and sometimes chorizo, or Spanish sausage. I made this dish for a dinner party and it was a big hit. Serve with a nice green salad and a vinaigrette made with sherry vinegar.

Ultimate Paella with Seafood, Chicken and Chorizo

The term comes from the Latin patella, a flat plate on which offerings were made to the gods. The prepared dish is placed in the middle of the dining table, as it is traditionally eaten straight from the pan.

1/2 tsp. sweet paprika (preferably Spanish smoked paprika)
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. kosher salt
3 chicken thighs, cut in half
5 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 Spanish chorizo sausage, thickly sliced (about ½ cup)
1/3 cup coarsely chopped roasted red peppers
1/2 cup Spanish onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped (reserve some for garnish)
2 medium ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and finely chopped
3 cups short-grain Spanish rice, preferably Calasparra
5 1/2 cups strong chicken broth
Generous pinch saffron threads (about 1/2 tsp.)
1 dozen littleneck clams, scrubbed
1 dozen mussels, scrubbed
1 pound jumbo shrimp, peeled and de-veined
1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
2 lemons, cut into wedges

Combine paprika, oregano and salt. Rub spice mixture all over the chicken, cover and refrigerate for one hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 325*.

Warm chicken broth in a saucepan to just below a simmer. Crush saffron slightly and stir into broth; keep warm.

Heat the oil in a 14-inch paella pan or large skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté the chorizo until lightly browned; remove from pan and set aside. Add chicken skin-side down and brown well on all sides; remove from pan and set aside. Sauté onions in the same pan; when the onions start to brown, add red peppers, garlic and half of parsley. Cook for 3 minutes over medium heat. Add tomatoes; cook until mixture caramelizes a bit, stirring occasionally.

Fold in the rice and stir-fry to coat the grains with the onion mixture. Pour in the chicken broth and stir gently to loosen browned bits from the bottom of the pan. The broth will almost fill the pan. Bring the mixture to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring the mixture a couple of times.

Press the clams into the rice. Simmer for 5 minutes more, occasionally moving the pan on top of the flame so the rice cooks evenly and starts to absorb the liquid. You should still have a lot of liquid in the pan.

Press the chicken (with any accumulated juices), chorizo, mussels and shrimp into the rice. Place the pan into the oven and bake, uncovered, for 25 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven. Place the pan on the stovetop and sprinkle with peas and parsley. Cover with foil and let rest, covered, for 10 minutes. Garnish with lemon wedges and serve.

We have some fennel plants in the herb garden. A couple summers ago, I was weeding the garden and noticed that there were dozens of ladybugs in the fennel fronds.

We got our order from TomatoGrowers.com a few days ago and today, Dan will start the seeds in the sunroom. It should be quite a crop, and we may even have some extra plants to share, even though we’re thinking about expanding the square garden.

After this cold, snowy winter, I can’t wait to get the garden going. Some of the lettuces we planted last fall are starting to come back with the warmer temperatures we’ve had this last week.

So here’s what we got:

Tomatoes

• Kimberly – early season, 1-2 oz. red fruit
• Margherita hybrid – mid-season, 5-6 oz. red paste tomatoes, great for pizza, pasta and roasting
• Oaxacan Jewel – late season, bicolor – yellow with ruby streaks, 6-16 oz.
• Purple Brandy – late season, deep pink-purple beefsteak, 8-16 oz.
• Rose de Berne – late season, Swiss heirloom, dark pink, 6-8 oz.
• Virginia Sweets – late season, heirloom, gold-red bicolor, at least 1 lb. each

Peppers and Tomatillos

• The Big Early Hybrid – bell peppers, 8″ long by 4.5″ wide
• Ancho 101 – used for Mexican stuffed peppers; can be dried and ground into chile powder
• Ixtapa Hybrid – 4-inch-long jalapenos
• Golden Greek Pepperoncini – great for pickling and in Greek salad
• Purple Tomatillos – We will probably have dozens of green tomatillo volunteers, so we thought we’d try the purple ones this year.

We’re also planting yellow and red onions, green beans and peas. Later we’ll add cucumbers and maybe some melons. We got one edible cantaloupe last year, so I’d like to try again and see how it goes. And I have some garlic cloves in the kitchen that started sprouting, so I need to get those in the ground, too.

Barbara and I had dinner at Rajput last night. It was pretty good, although service was slow. They seemed confused about whose table it was.

I’m not as familiar with Indian foods and flavors as I am with some other cuisines, so I generally end up ordering the same thing: chicken tandoori. And that’s what I had last night. The chicken was nice and tender and the tikka masala sauce was tasty. There wasn’t a lot of heat, though. Next time, I might ask for some hot sauce. I also ordered garlic naan – that was delish!

Barbara had lamb biryani and offered me a taste. It was very good, with a bit of heat. Nice flavor. I forgot to bring my camera in, though, so no pix. This post is primarily a reminder for me, so next time I go out for Indian, I can look back and see what I liked.

I’ve been watching the new show Aarti Party on the Food Network, to learn more about basic Indian cooking. Now I need to actually try some of the recipes And I already have all five of her basic Indian spices.

When we were in Florence, Italy, in September 2009, we went to the Mercado Centrale, or Central Market. I’ve never seen anything like it – all kinds of fresh and preserved foods, wines, vinegars, oils – it went on and on and on. Took my breath away to think about being able to shop in a place like that every day.

This is my entry in the weekly photo challenge at Photo Friday. Last week’s topic was Breathtaking (yeah, I’m late posting again).

Time flies when you’re freezing half to death. I can’t believe it’s been so cold here in January. So that’s my excuse for not blogging more That and my micro-studio fell apart and I haven’t found a suitable new box for it yet. Anyway …

This week’s Photo Friday challenge is Travels, and those of you who know us know we love to travel. So for this challenge, I went back to the photos from our 25th anniversary trip to Europe in 2009. We had purchased train tickets for traveling from Rome to Florence and then from Florence to Zurich to Frankfurt to go home, and we had an extra day of travel on the tickets. So while we were in Florence, we took a side trip to Pisa.

This is when you find out how important prior planning is Since the tower isn’t stable (it’s leaning, after all), they limit the number of people who can climb it at one time, and you have to buy tickets in advance. We had no tickets, so we spent a beautiful afternoon wandering the grounds and taking pictures of the tower, the cathedral and the baptistery.

I was hungry after we traveled to Pisa and walked several blocks from the train station to the grounds, so I bought a local specialty as a snack – marinated seafood salad – and ate that as we sat and admired the beautiful marble that comprised the buildings.

Marinated seafood salad and Pisa guidebook

The popular thing to do in Pisa, apparently, is to hold your arms as if you’re preventing the tower from falling over. I can’t tell you how funny it was to see dozens of people from all over the world all posing the same way.

“Holding up" the Leaning Tower of Pisa

The tower *is* leaning to a frightening degree. It was definitely worth the side trip to see it again (for me – Dan had never seen it before).