Plan B: Spanish Inspired Paella Stew

Over rice for Steve

Tested and updated February 3, 2018

My plan was to make paella yesterday, but frankly I got lazy and we had cheese and crackers while watching Final Four basketball instead. And today I had a tennis match planned for the late afternoon, so making the somewhat time intensive dish really was not in the cards.

Soooo - my solution? A Spanish inspired stew that I could braise in the oven for a couple of hours in the morning and then heat up in the evening when it was time for dinner.

Over spinach for me

The resulting one-pot Sunday dinner pretty darned good, if I say so myself. In fact, according to Steve, this was one of the best dishes I've ever dreamed up.

Here's how I did it:

Serves 6

Paella Inspired Stew

Comfort food takes a detour to Spain in this low and slow cooked stew, served over rice. 

Serves 8

Ingredients

• 3 boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into bite sized pieces
• 3 Spanish or Portuguese chorizo sausage links (or Italian if unavailable - just not Mexican chorizo)
• 1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 cup onion, chopped
• 2 ribs celery, diced (1/2 cup)
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 28 oz can whole Italian style tomatoes 
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 TBS tomato paste
• 2 TBS Worcestershire sauce 
• 2 large garlic cloves, smashed, peeled and left whole
• 2 TBS smoked Spanish paprika, divided
• 2 TBS olive oil
• 3 dried bay leaves 
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar 
• Kosher salt & fresh ground black pepper

For serving:  Rice cooked with chicken broth rather than water, and a pinch of saffron, if you have it. If you don’t and you really want yellow rice, you can aways add a 1/4 tsp of turmeric.  I’ll never tell!

Method

• Heat oven to 275 degrees
• Season the chicken with salt and pepper and 2 TBS of the smoked Spanish paprika
• Heat a Dutch over a medium flame and brown the chicken in two batches; remove and keep warm on a plate covered with foil
• Add the sausage, and brown it whole. Remove, let it cool slightly and slice into bite size pieces. (A serrated knife works well) It will not be cooked through. Add to the chicken and keep warm. 
• Drop the diced onion to the pot and sauté until soft before adding the final TBS of paprika and the tomato paste. Stir to combine and heat through. This will wake up the tomato paste and boost the flavor of the dish.
• Next add the chicken and sausage back to the pot along with the tomatoes, garlic, bay leaves and Worcestershire sauce, and chicken broth. Use a wooden spoon to break up the tomatoes, stir to combine and bring to a low boil. 
• Cover and place in the oven to braise, low and slow for 2 hours.

At the end of 2 hours, remove the lid and cook another 20 minutes to reduce a tad.  At this point you can cool and refrigerate until you are ready to serve.

• When you are ready to serve, skim off any fat (I lay a paper towel on the surface and lift it away), add the brown sugar and heat until bubbly. Then drop the heat down to Low, add the frozen peas and the shrimp, cover and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until the shrimp is just done. 
• Remove the bay leaves and garlic cloves, adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper if needed,  and stir in the balsamic vinegar right before serving over rice. 

Enjoy!

Happiness = Cooking Christmas Breakfast with my Boy (Mexican Sweet Potato Hash with Sunny Side up Eggs)

Merry Christmas!

If you’ve read my blogs, or know me well, you won’t be surprised to hear that all I wanted for Christmas was to spend time with my family – and cook with Will.  He’s been my culinary sidekick since he was a little guy, and we make a great team in the kitchen. 

Both Christmas wishes came true this morning.

 

Scatter and squish

The inspiration for this breakfast came yesterday as Will and I watched Bobby Flay’s brunch show.  Funny thing is, the only things that are the same as Bobby’s dish is only the use of sweet potatoes and serving family style with the sunny side up eggs atop the hash.  But his show got us thinking about how to make a sweet potato hash with the flavor profile we gravitate toward – the traditional flavors of Mexico – cumin, coriander, poblano peppers, and cilantro.

Oh yeah, slid on those sunny side up eggs

The dish also gave us a chance to try out the cast iron pan Steve and Will got me for Christmas – by far the largest and heaviest cast iron skillet I’ve ever used.  

Here’s how Will and I put that bad boy to use this morning:

Mexican Sweet Potato Hash with Sunny Side Up Eggs

(Serves 4 – or 3 Barnett’s with leftovers for Will’s breakfast tomorrow)

Ingredients

• ½ roll of Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage
• 1 ½ sweet potato, cut into ½ inch cubes, boiled until just tender and then placed into a bowl of ice and water to stop the cooking.  We did this the night before, strained and kept in the fridge.
• ¾ cup sweet onion, diced
• ¾ cup red bell pepper, diced
• 1 poblano pepper, diced
• ½ cup cilantro chopped
• Olive oil
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 4 eggs
• Kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper
• Spices – Note, you will add these into the spices 2 to 3 times throughout the cooking process.  Measurements are approximations.  The amounts below are the total you will use, but feel free to add a bit more to taste.
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp chili powder
• ½ tsp chipotle chili powder (optional – if you have it use it! But no need to make a special trip to the store.

The method

Create the hash

• Pre-heat a large cast iron skillet (or other pan of your liking), lower the heat to medium
• Drizzle a little olive oil in the pan to get things going, then add the sausage, breaking it up with a wooden spoon
• Sprinkle about a third of the spices, but no salt or pepper
• Cook until browned, remove from the pan and drain on a paper towel
• Now add a bit more olive oil to the pan and add in the onions, red pepper and poblano pepper – in that order, sautéing each one before adding the next.  Add the next third of the spices and keep sautéing.  You can add some salt and pepper at this stage, but go easy.
• Now add in the sweet potatoes – and yes, you guessed it, the rest of the spices.  Scatter them into a single layer, squish them down with a spatula and step away.  You want this to cook low and slow to form a nice crust.
• When you’ve started to see some crust formation, drizzle a tad more olive oil if necessary and flip, scatter and squish again.  This is best done with a spatula so you can get up those yummy crunchy bits.
• Continue to follow this method until the right level of doneness is reached – then add the sausage back in, gently stirring as you go.
• Now add 1/2 the cilantro and stir
• Then pile up the hash into the center of the skillet….
• Right about now you should lower the heat to the lowest setting an start the eggs

Cook the eggs

• This is best served with a sunny side up egg, but if you like your eggs cooked longer, I won’t judge.  
• To cook ours, Will heated a non-stick pan, added some butter (heck, it’s Christmas!), cracked in the eggs, added a bit of salt and pepper, lowered the flame and topped the pan with a plate, cuz my pan lacks a lid.  
• The heat and steam cook the eggs to just the right doneness, no flipping required.

Assemble and serve

• Once the eggs are done, slide them on top of the hash, divide into portions and serve, with a sprinkle of cilantro. 

Enjoy.

Po-tay-toe; Po-tah-toe (Farmers Market Tapas)

I think I just tasted a potato for the first time. Of course, I’ve had potatoes before – in fact (as my business travel companions know) one of my favorite “go-to meals” is a salad and baked potato. But last night we had a simple dinner featuring a number of the goodies I found during my first trip to the Carrboro Farmers Market, and low and behold the star of the show was the lowly potato.

I hardly recognized them as Yukon Golds ; still covered with earth, and hardly picture perfect. A good scrub, a thick slice, plus a little olive oil, salt and pepper rendered a crispy yet fluffy bite reminiscent of tapas you might have in Spain. Without the jet lag.

The Saturday morning Farmers Market in Carrboro, which is just outside of Chapel Hill, is like no other market I’ve been to. I had to circle it once, just to get my bearings. The little stands are staffed by farm families and what appear to be their employees. Most tend to specialize in one type of item – cheese from local cows and goats (unbelievable), late season tomatoes, root vegetables, etc. Everyone is knowledgeable, friendly and takes pride in what they are selling.

As late summer merges with fall, the colors of the market are particularly vivid this time of year. Our simple dinner last night reflected this fact. The following is not so much a recipe, but a demonstration of what can be done with amazingly fresh ingredients, a little olive oil, and a grill pan. I hope it inspires you to visit your local farmers market sometime soon, and create a meal that comes from the soil near you.

Enjoy.

Grill-Pan Yukon Golds:

Depending on size, for two people you’ll want two or three Yukon Gold potatoes. Wash, slice to about ¼ inch rounds, toss in olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh thyme. Grill on an inside grill pan until crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

Local Sausage Bites

Keep in mind, we are living in the “land of the pig.” Two stands carried their own version of sausage. The one I bought was slightly spicy. I formed small balls and simply grilled them off on the same pan as the potatoes, keeping them separate so the fat didn’t intermix with the potatoes. Not that it wouldn’t have been tasty, but potatoes in pork fat is not exactly the healthiest thing in the world. Once the balls were browned, we drained them on paper towels. Just a few per person added the spicy bite the meal needed.

Grilled tomatoes

I found the coolest little tomatoes – the shape of a Roma tomato, but abut the size of your thumb. We sliced these in half, dusted with a scant amount of salt, pepper and fresh thyme and placed them cut side down on yet another part of the grill pan. These were cooked until they were slightly caramelized.

Caramelized onions and peppers

In a separate pan I sautéed slices ½ of a red onion and ½ of a roasted red bell pepper (I’m sure I’ll post more about these later – they roast them up for you as you wait!) with a scant bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and yes, fresh thyme. I kept this going until the mixture was very soft and slightly caramelized.

Arugula salad

I found a vendor with the youngest and most tender arugula I’ve ever seen, so I bought a bag. Rinsed and patted dry, these spicy leaves were tossed in the juice of half a lemon and a very slight drizzle of olive oil. This was a great complement to all of the dishes.

Dust over the top of all of the dishes

A light grating of locally made asiago cheese.

To serve

Create a plate with a bit of this and a bit of that. Crusty bread would have been nice, but we didn’t have any and it really was not necessary. For true tapas, you’d also make a garlicky mayonnaise for the potatoes.