Paella

main courses

From Victor Vargas-Vincent at GDS

Serves 25 people

Ingredients

  • 12 half chicken breasts
  • 1 cup olive oil
  • 1 large green pepper, sliced
  • 1 large yellow onion, chopped
  • 2 tsp of Spanish paprika
  • 6 cups of Risotto rice
  • 1 can of sweet peas
  • 1 pb can of crushed tomatoes
  • 12 cups of stock
  • 1 tsp of saffron
  • 5 lb raw shrimp, shelled and cleaned (reserve the shells)
  • salt
  • lemon, sliced

Preparation

Bring the water to a boil in a pot and add the shells of the shrimp.  Let it simmer for about 30 minutes, adding more water if necessary to make 6 cups of stock.

Cut the chicken breasts into one-inch cubes and fry them in the paella pan with olive oil until golden. Add onion and green pepper.  When onion is transparent, add the shrimp, crushed tomatoes, peas, paprika, saffron and salt. Mix everything and immediately add the stock (use a metal colander to strain shrimp shells from stock).

Bring to boil for one minute and add the rice. Without stirring, shake from time to time. When rice is boiling, reduce the flame to low medium and cook until stock is gone (about 20 minutes).

Put the lemon on top, turn the gas off and cover with kitchen paper for about 10 minutes before serving.

Hot Chocolate Fudge Cakes

dessert, winter

From Cooking Light

These hot-from-the-oven desserts are ideal for a holiday celebration and can mostly be made up to two days ahead.
Yield 10 servings (serving size: 1 cake)

Ingredients

  • 3.4 ounces all-purpose flour (about 3/4 cup)
  • 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
  • 5 teaspoons instant espresso powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 cup egg substitute
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 (2.6-ounce) bar dark (71% cocoa) chocolate (such as Valrhona Le Noir Amer), finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Preparation

1. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Sift together flour, cocoa, espresso powder, baking powder, and salt.

2. Place butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed 1 minute. Add granulated and brown sugars, beating until well blended (about 5 minutes). Add egg substitute and vanilla, beating until well blended. Fold flour mixture into sugar mixture; fold in chocolate. Divide batter evenly among 10 (4-ounce) ramekins; arrange ramekins on a jelly-roll pan. Cover and refrigerate 4 hours or up to 2 days.

3. Preheat oven to 350°.

4. Let ramekins stand at room temperature 10 minutes. Uncover and bake at 350° for 21 minutes or until cakes are puffy and slightly crusty on top. Sprinkle evenly with powdered sugar; serve immediately.

Rice Cooker Bibimbap With Salmon and Spinach

Uncategorized

From The Week

Here’s another nutritious, easy-to-make dish featuring steamed fish, said Julia Moskin, also in the Times. To make this meal, you’ll need an inexpensive rice cooker.

Ingredients

  • 10 oz leaf spinach, fresh or frozen
  • Roasted sesame oil
  • Rice vinegar
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 8 oz salmon fillet, sliced ¼-inch thick across the grain
  • 1 cup rice, preferably medium- or short-grain, rinsed
  • 1 long hot green pepper, thinly sliced
  • 3 tbsp kimchi, finely chopped
  • 2 eggs
  • Kochujang or another Asian chili paste such as sambal or chili bean paste
  • Sesame seeds and finely chopped scallions, for garnish

Preparation

Using steamer function, steam spinach in rice cooker until tender, about 8 minutes. Remove to kitchen towel, wring dry, and thinly slice into bowl. Season to taste with sesame oil, rice vinegar, and salt. Sprinkle salmon with salt and pepper; steam until just cooked through, about 15 minutes. Break into large flakes.

Clean cooker; cook rice according to instructions. When done, quickly stir in sliced pepper and kimchi, making sure to scrape and scoop up bottom layer of rice. Smooth top. Drizzle 2 tsp sesame oil over rice; gently break eggs on top, placing one on each side of cooker. Cover and put cooker on “cook” function for 5 minutes. Switch cooker to “warm”; arrange salmon and spinach next to eggs; cover and let steam just until egg whites are opaque (yolks should be runny). Place 1 teaspoon chili paste in center.

At table, stir dish together. (A toasty crust may have formed on bottom of rice cooker; scrape this up and mix into dish.) Scoop into serving bowls, sprinkling each with sesame seeds and scallions. Pass sesame oil, rice vinegar, and chili paste for seasoning. Serves 3 to 4.

Quick Steamed Flounder With Ginger-Garlic Mustard Greens

Uncategorized

From The Week

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp vegetable or peanut oil
  • 1 tsp roasted sesame oil, more for drizzling
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • One 1-inch-thick slice of peeled fresh ginger root, minced
  • 2 small bunches mustard greens, cleaned, stemmed, and torn into pieces
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce, more for drizzling
  • 2 flounder fillets, 12 ounces each
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

Heat oils in very large skillet. Add garlic and ginger; sauté until fragrant and translucent, about 2 minutes. Add mustard greens, soy sauce, 3 tablespoons water; sauté until greens start to wilt, 2 minutes longer.

Spread greens out in pan. Season flounder with salt and pepper; place on top of greens. Cover pan, reduce heat to medium, and let fish steam until just cooked through, about 6 minutes. If pan dries out before fish is cooked through, add a little more water, a teaspoon at a time. Uncover pan and transfer fish to serving plates. If greens seem wet, turn heat to high to cook off excess moisture. Serve greens on top of fish, drizzled with a little more sesame oil and soy sauce, if desired. Serves 2.

Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies

dessert

from epicurious.com

Makes about 24

Made without butter or flour, these dense, chewy cookies will satisfy even the most intense chocolate craving.

Ingredients

  • Nonstick vegetable oil spray
  • 1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips (about 9 ounces), divided
  • 3 large egg whites, room temperature
  • 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, divided
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation
Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray 2 large baking sheets with nonstick spray. Melt 1 cup chocolate chips in glass bowl in microwave, stirring twice, about 2 minutes. Cool slightly.

Using electric mixer, beat whites in large bowl to soft peaks. Gradually beat in 1 cup sugar. Continue beating until mixture resembles soft marshmallow creme. Whisk 1 cup sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt in medium bowl to blend. On low speed, beat dry ingredients into meringue. Stir in lukewarm chocolate and 1/2 cup chocolate chips (dough will become very stiff).

Place 1/2 cup sugar in bowl. Roll 1 rounded tablespoon dough into ball; roll in sugar, coating thickly. Place on prepared sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until puffed and tops crack, about 10 minutes. Cool on sheets on rack 10 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool.

fruit and nut chocolate chunks

dessert

Active time: 15 min
Start to finish: 35 min
Servings: Makes 36 candies.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 lb fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), broken into small pieces
  • Vegetable oil for greasing pan
  • 2/3 cup dried cranberries
  • 2/3 cup raisins
  • 2/3 cup salted roasted shelled pistachios (3 oz)
  • 2/3 cup salted roasted cashews (3 oz)

Preparation
Melt chocolate in top of a double boiler or metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth.

While chocolate is melting, line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang, then lightly oil foil.

Remove chocolate from heat and stir in fruit and nuts, then spread evenly in baking pan. Freeze until firm, about 20 minutes. Lift candy in foil from pan using overhang and transfer to a cutting board. Peel off foil and cut candy with a long heavy knife into 36 pieces.

Cooks’ notes:
If you have more time, chill the candy in the refrigerator (instead of in the freezer) until firm, about 1 hour. Candy keeps, wrapped well in foil and chilled, 2 weeks.

Coconut Date Nut Balls

dessert, easy

Gourmet | March 1992

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.
Servings: Makes about 32 confections.

Ingredients
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 pound (about 1 1/2 cups) pitted dried dates
1 1/4 cups sweetened flaked coconut, toasted and cooled
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped fine

Preparation
In a food processor blend the graham cracker crumbs, the dates, 1/2 cup of the coconut, and the honey until the mixture is just combined. Add the walnuts and blend the mixture until it forms a ball. Have ready in a shallow dish the remaining 3/4 cup coconut, form the date mixture into walnut-size balls, and roll the balls in the coconut, pressing the coconut slightly to make it adhere.

Walnut-Date Torte

dessert, tastes scrumptious

Serves 8
Active time:30 min
Start to finish:1 1/2 hr

Ingredients of Sephardic cooking—dates, cardamom, and orange zest—bring a mosaic of Mediterranean scents and textures to the Passover table. The cake has a coarse crumb yet is incredibly moist and chewy, thanks to the dates.

1/4 cup boiling-hot water
1 1/2 cups pitted dates (1/2 lb), finely chopped
1 1/2 cups walnuts (5 oz), toasted and cooled
3/4 cup sugar, divided
2/3 cup matzo meal
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, separated, at room temperature 30 minutes

Garnish: Passover powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Generously grease a 9- by 2-inch round cake pan with softened butter or vegetable oil and dust with some matzo meal, knocking out excess. Pour hot water over dates in a large bowl and let stand 15 minutes to soften. Pulse walnuts in a food processor until chopped, then add 1/4 cup sugar and pulse until nuts are finely ground. Add matzo meal (2/3 cup), zest, cardamom, and salt and pulse until combined.

Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt in a bowl using an electric mixer at medium-high speed until they just hold soft peaks. Add remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a slow stream, beating until whites hold stiff glossy peaks.

Whisk yolks into date mixture. Fold one third of yolk mixture into whites, then fold in remaining yolk mixture gently but thoroughly. Fold all of nut mixture into batter.

Spoon batter into cake pan and bake until golden and springy to the touch and cake just begins to pull away from side of pan, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 30 minutes, then invert onto rack and cool completely.

Cooks’ note: Cake can be made 2 days ahead and kept, in a sealed bag or wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, at room temperature.

Recipe by Melissa Roberts

Apple & Fennel Roasted Pork Tenderloin

easy, fall, main courses, tastes scrumptious

Roasted apples, fennel and red onion are the perfect foil to roasted pork tenderloin. Make it a meal: Stir sauteed broccoli rabe into quick-cooking barley to serve alongside.

Makes 4 servings

ACTIVE TIME: 45 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 45 minutes

EASE OF PREPARATION: Easy

2 large sweet-tart apples, such as Fuji or Braeburn, sliced
1 large bulb fennel, trimmed, cored and thinly sliced, plus 1 tablespoon chopped fronds for garnish
1 large red onion, sliced
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons canola oil, divided
1 pound pork tenderloin, trimmed
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons cider vinegar

Continue reading Apple & Fennel Roasted Pork Tenderloin →

Tahini Dressing

easy, quick, sauces

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup (60g) tahini (sesame butter)
  • 1/2 cup (120mL) water
  • 1 tsp (5mL) freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • Dash salt
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced (more to taste)

Directions

Mix all ingredients well. Tahini may be solid and take some time to become mixed with water. Add more water if a thinner sauce is desired.

Serve at room temperature over vegetables, rice or pasta.

Makes about 1 cup (240mL) sauce or about 4 servings.