make | SPAIN | paella

For our Spanish finale, we've made paella! 

Paella is probably my all-time favourite food to cook.  I love it.  It reminds me of holidays and cooking outdoors on the barbeque on the terrace in Spain.  I love the smells of seafood and saffron and paprika and deliciousness.  I love the colours.  I love that it's impressive.  (And I love that it's really easy to make too!)  I love that you can change up the ingredients to suit whatever you have on hand at the time.  It's just one big plate of love.  

Paella, however, is apparently not all that Spanish - instead, the Spaniards tend to view it as a Valencian dish, which is where it originated from.  For those of you who, like me, had no idea that Valencia wasn't actually properly part of Spain, Valencia is actually an autonomous community within Spain, kind of like the relationship between Wales and England.  Anyway, there are three kinds of paella - the traditional Valencian variety, which is made with meat, beans, rice and green veg, and the more common seafood paella and mixed paella.  Basically, this all translates into meaning you can make a paella with whatever you've got and it's still going to be yummy and true to the 'real' recipe! 

Now, the one thing that is totally important that you get right is the rice.  It is vital you get bomba (paella) rice, for this.  It's got a really big grain - a bit like Arborio risotto rice.  Try and use basmati, or (God forbid) American long-grain and you will get an unexciting plate of stodge.  

The other thing to bear in mind is that the better the quality of your fish stock, the better the taste of the paella.  So invest in some mega stock-cubes, or make your own next time you've got seafood lying around! 

Finally, you're going to want a paella pan, or, if you haven't got one (we don't!) you can use any heavy wide-based frying pan you have.  You want it to be about 30cm circumference for a paella that will feed 4.  

This is so yummy.  Seriously, I ate three helpings.  

Enjoy today!! 

- rosinaviolets    x

Seafood Paella 

Serves 4 (or 1 if you're me) 

2 x 200g packet prawns (or you can use chicken if you don't like seafood, or half and half if you want a mixed paella, or you can just go veggie!) 

1 onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, smooshed 

225g fine green beans, sliced

1 red or green pepper, cut into cubes 

pinch saffron 

salt 

2 tsp smoked paprika 

250g bomba rice 

1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes 

900ml fish stock 

2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh parsley 

1 lemon, cut into wedges, for serving 

• Make up the fish stock and combine with the smoked paprika, pinch of salt and pinch of saffron.  

• Heat a little olive oil until really hot in the paella pan or frying pan.  If the prawns or chicken are not yet cooked, cook them until they are done and then remove them to a plate. 

• If the pan is a bit dry, add a splash of water before throwing in the onion, garlic, pepper and green beans.  Reserve a few of the green beans for a garnish on the top when you're done! Cook everything over a low heat for about 10 minutes until soft.  

• Now it's time to pour in the rice.  You've got to pour it in in a cross shape - no messing with tradition here! Then stir it up to combine.  

• Add the tin of tomatoes and the hot stock.  Bring it all to the boil and then lower to a simmer and cook for 10minutes.  

• Arrange the prawns and chicken around the edge of the pan and cover the whole thing with a couple of big sheets of foil.  Cook for another 20 minutes.  

• Take the foil off and add the reserved green beans to the middle before cooking for another 5 minutes.  Take a listen - it should be crackling a little - this is the absolute best bit to eat! It's called the soccarat and it's a crust on the bottom of the pan.  If you eat a paella out and it doesn't have a soccarat, it's not a great paella! It may be good, but it's not great! 

• Remove the pan from the heat and sprinkle with parsley.  Leave some extra for people to add to their servings.  

• Don't forget the lemon - it's absolutely vital and just makes the whole thing zing.  Encourage everyone to squeeze over loads.  Yum yum.  

live | brain food: nut granola

Anybody out there still struggling with exams? I still have another one to go, and so has Emily.

What I most dislike about this time of the year is the 'same-ness' of each day.  Get up, revise, eat lunch, take a break and watch some YouTube, maybe do some yoga, do some more revision, eat dinner, read a book, go to sleep.  Repeat.

So Emily and I have tried to mix things up a bit by finding the fun in whatever it is that we happen to get to do each day!

For example, Mum is at the moment really excited about doing up the garden.  We are having a party in late June so she wants it to look nice.  Until the weather gets beautiful, neither I nor Emily bear that much attention to the state of the garden.  Of course, once the sun comes out all you want to do is be out there planting things and reveling in the state of nature.  (I am reading DH Lawrence at the moment, don't mind me!)

But Mum's enthusiasm for growing has led to numerous trips to the garden centre.  Seeing as Emily doesn't have a car, and we are half an hour away from all forms of public transport (well, twenty minutes at least!) we can't get out all that easily so if Mum's going anywhere, we're going, and we're going to find the fun in the Morrison's food shop or the trip to the garden centre to pick up (another!) 4 bags of compost.  (They are on offer.  And you know we are suckers for a good offer).

So on the last trip to the garden centre, Emily and I set our eyes on the cactus section.  Being the avid Pinners that we are (Pinterest is amazing - go and try it while you're taking a break over your cup of tea!) we had seen this growing trend of cactus house plants and we were really loving it.  Also, my friend Chloe had bought one from the very same garden centre and it just looked so nice!

So - I present - my latest acquisition for my bedroom...

Ta Dah! Isn't it so cute!?

Anyway, in terms of the recipe I'm adding today - this is a great snack for in between revision when you feel the four-thirty slump.  Packed full of nutrition but also really yummy too.  Nuts are a great source of the essential fats you need for your brain to work properly.  And we all know we want our brains working properly at this time of the year, right!

So - I basically had a look online at lots of different granola recipes and then went downstairs to check out what I had in the store cupboard.  Then I decided I would make my own nut granola!

Here's what I used...

But you can basically use whatever nuts and dried fruit you have in the same proportions.  

What you do, is mix all the ingredients listed above in a medium sized bowl, and chuck in only some of the cranberries - I put in about a quarter of that which is already in your cup. Make sure the liquid ingredients are fully incorporated into all of the ingredients when you stir it all up. Then you just plonk it all on a baking tray lined with a baking sheet, spreading it out so you have it relatively even - just so every nut and seed is baked to perfection! Bake your granola mix for 15-20 minutes or until your desired level of crunchiness at 240 C. When it's done, just leave it to cool for 10 minutes before tossing in the rest of your cranberries - the combination of baked and non-baked cranberries I find adds the right amount of bite and sweetness. 

And that's it! 

What do you think? Looks yummy right? Enjoy today!! 

- rosinaviolets    x 

make | SPAIN | fabada asturiana, seafood style!

So, fabada asturiana is a Spanish dish that is normally eaten when it's a bit colder outside.  Seeing as the weather appears to have turned a bit (after that glorious flash of sunshine, which I am sure was a prelude to a wonderful summer ahead), we decided we'd try this recipe.

It's a really simple hearty little dish - perfect comfort food.

Traditionally, fabada asturiana is a rich bean stew.  Similar to French cassoulet (which we made in March), or American Boston baked beans, you normally slow cook bacon and pork in a stew of white beans and saffron until you get a heavily flavoured, unctuous, comforting hug in a bowl.  In Spain, you can buy it in tins in supermarkets - kind of like our fondness for a tin of Heinz baked beans!

Seeing as summer is nearly upon us, and also as we had a glut of prawns to use up, and also because we just love fish, we decided we would mix up our fabada asturiana and give it a bit of maritime style.

We think we hit the nail on the head.

Enjoy today!!

- rosinaviolets    x

Fabada Asturiana, Seafood Style
Serves 4 generously

- 2 rashers bacon
- 200 - 250g prawns, cooked
- 4 fillets white fish
- 1 can cannelini beans or butter beans (410g)
- 1 onion
- 2 big cloves of garlic, mashed
- 700g passata (or the same amount of chopped tomatoes, pureed!)
- 200g shredded cabbage (serve the rest on the side)
- 1 bay leaf
- sprig of rosemary, leaves finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- small pinch of saffron threads
- lots of black pepper (as usual!)

• Cook the bacon, onion and garlic in a big pan until the onion is transparent and the bacon is cooked.

 

• Add the bay leaf, smoked paprika, saffron and black pepper.  

• Tip in the beans (trained and rinsed before hand), cabbage and passata.  Stir it up and let it bubble away for about 10 minutes until the tomatoes have reduced a little.  

• Now tip in the cooked prawns and stir them through.  Leave to simmer on a low heat for another 5 minutes or so.  

• Add the fish fillets to the pan, leaving the tops of the fillets showing through.  Cover the pan and cook for about 10 minutes on a low heat or until the fish is cooked completely.  

• Meanwhile, steam the remainder of the cabbage to serve on the side with some crusty bread.