Half-eaten paella

For some inexplicable reason, I was feeling adventurous today. Part of the impetus was a recipe for paella in Jose Andres’ bible on Spanish Cooking: Tapas, a Taste of Spain in America. As a former D.C. resident, I can speak in reverence of Jose’s skills with Iberian ingredients in the kitchen. His flagship Jaleo restaurant is, in my opinion, the end-all, be-all tapas destination in the United States.

So I decided I wanted to cook paella, even though I have never cooked it before. Culinary suicide, I know. Paella can be a finicky dish. If you eff up the rice, for example, it’s ruined.

Undeterred, I made a trip this afternoon to The Spanish Table, an Iberian specialty shop located on Western Ave. near Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. The shop focuses on Spanish goodies, but there’s also ingredients with Portuguese and Moroccan flavors. Basically, my head exploded. I grabbed a basket and loaded it up with gazpacho (chilled tomato soup), sofrito (sauteed sauce with tomatoes), smoked sweet paprika (staple flavor of Spanish dishes), Valencian rice and some European candy. The hallmark of my haul, though, was a cazuela. It’s a terra cotta dish, perfect for cooking one-pot type meals over low-to-medium heat. 

Originally, I planned on picking up a paella pan, which is a large metal pan with a flat bottom. This is so the rice cooks evenly throughout. The problem is you can’t use a paella pan on a flat stove, which is what we have. Another problem is that it’s only good for cooking, you guessed it, paella. Not wanting to spend $150 on a specialty pan, I asked the lady at the counter what my options were. She recommended the cazuela, which is more versatile. Sold.

Now here comes the ingredients, which is where paella gets tricky. The dish is a freelancer’s dream, because you can essentially use whatever meat or vegetable is available/in-season. Andres’ recipe called for green beans, chicken thighs, jamon serrano and wild mushrooms. We decided to amp it up with fresh eggplant as well. All of which was available, btw, at both the Queen Anne Farmers’ Market, and the nearby Metropolitan Market.

Before hitting the markets, I soaked the cazuela for six hours in water. Because the dish is kiln-fired at 2300 degrees at creation, it needs to soften a bit before you toss it on a hot stove. But it worked perfectly. 

We made a few other slight alterations to the recipe. Andres uses homemade sofrito and chicken stock. Not wanting to waste several hours in the kitchen, I stuck with the store-bought varieties. 

We added the ingredients, one after another, according to the recipe, but the real test came when we were to let it sit, bubbling, for the rice to absorb all the liquid. Jose (and my mother) warn not to touch the rice with a spoon or finger while it’s cooking, or the delicate crust will break and the rice will cook unevenly. So we obediently let it sit until all the liquid was soaked up and the paella was finished, a cake-like crust on both the top and slightly-burnt bottom.

Success. It was delicious.

Chicken and mushroom paella

(Inspired by Jose Andres)

Serves 4, or 2 or dinner with ample leftovers

• 2 Tb. olive oil
• 2 chicken legs or boneless thighs, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 pound fresh mushrooms
• 1-2 cups other vegetable (we used 1 medium eggplant, cut into 1 inch cubes)
• 3 oz. green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 small garlic clove, pressed
• 2 slices chopped jamon serrano
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 cup sofrito
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 pinch saffron threads
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 Tb. salt
• 1 1/2 cups Spanish Bomba rice (or Calasparra or Arborio rice)

Heat the olive oil in a paella pan, cazuela, or 12-inch deep skillet over high heat. Add chicken and saute until browned on all sides. Set aside.

Add mushrooms and eggplant or other vegetable to the pan and saute until golden, about 3 minutes. Add green beans and garlic and cook 3 more minutes. Return chicken to pan, along with the ham.

Pour in the wine and cook about 1 minute. Add the sofrito and cook 3 minutes. Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Crush the saffron and add it and the bay leaf. Season with salt.

Now add the rice, and cook for 5 minutes over a high heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.

Reduce the heat to low and cook at a slow boil at least 10 minutes, until all the liquid is absorbed. DO NOT poke or prod at the paella during this time, or the top crust won’t form properly. 

Remove the paella from the heat and let sit 3 minutes. Then serve. Buen provecho.

Going into the weekend, Jeremy said we were going biking on Sunday, but would not disclose where. Lisa said if it was longer than 20 miles or included hills, she would not be happy. Sunday morning, we woke up early (too early for some of us, ahem) and after a quick breakfast at Fresh Flours in nearby Phinney Ridge, we drove up I-5 to Anacortes to catch the ferry to Friday Harbor for a “leisurely” bike ride around San Juan Island.

We made good time up to Anacortes (less than an hour and a half) and as we drove down the scenic cove to the ferry terminal where we saw a ferry waiting, we congratulated ourselves on making the 10 a.m. ferry.

Problem was, after paying for parking and walking our bikes over to the ferry dock, there was no 10 a.m. ferry. Whoops. 

“You can catch the 12:05 to Lopez and transfer to get to Friday Harbor,” the ferry employee told us, seeing our fallen faces.

We faltered momentarily at the thought of waiting two hours, as it would not put us into Friday Harbor until 2 p.m. We thought of calling it quits and going home, or trying to find an alternative bike ride. But then we decided that since the sun doesn’t set now until about 9 p.m., and it was 70 degrees and sunny, and we’d driven all the way, we might as well make the most of the day.

So we caught the ferry, hopped off at Lopez Island and quickly hopped back on the ferry to Friday Harbor. 

That’s the view from the deck of The Doctor’s Office, a small cafe where we had lunch — half a turkey club and half a veggie special, all melty with boursin cheese and carrots and zucchini. 

Properly fortified, we hopped on the bikes and headed to South Beach, at the southern end of the island. Here was where that whole “leisurely” bike ride was proven a bit of a misnomer. Let’s just say there were a lot of hills, a certain amount of sweating, some angry tooth grinding by Lisa, and ultimately gorgeous views of Mt. Baker, Mt. Rainier (a good 150 miles away) and a calm beach to relax upon. 

After an hour of lazing about, we got up to leave, with visions of pints of beer at the end of all those hills back. But as we started up the hill, Jeremy’s gear caught on something and bent halfway out of joint. We started a sweat a bit, realizing we were almost 10 miles from Friday Harbor, with no cell phone service to call a cab.

Fortunately, we had Canadians. A convoy of British Columbian firefighters (really!) were on their way back from the beach, and we hailed them to ask if their cell phones worked. Instead, they poured out of their pickups, circled Jeremy’s bike, discussed animatedly how to repair it, and did just that with a rock and a screwdriver and a bit of elbow grease.

So we biked back to Friday Harbor and rewarded ourselves with microbrews from the San Juan Brewing Company at the Front Street Alehouse, as well as a tasty seafood chowder highly recommended by the waiter, with big chunks of yam and salmon.

Comfortably sated, we made our way back to Anacortes and home — with a deuce-deuce (22 oz.) of San Juan Brewing Co. pilsner in tow for our efforts. Next time, we’ll know the ferry schedule better, and perhaps try Lopez Island, which is supposed to offer some flatter terrain for biking.