My my my my my paella!
Esoteric late 70s pop music reference . . . hint, "The Knack."
So a couple of days ago I was bemoaning that I had bits and bobs of food needing to be used up in the fridge but not enough of anything to make a complete dish. Then John Liu's paella post came to mind. Normally I don't make paella because it is more of a meat eater's dish and also I rarely have the right kind of rice, but yesterday I had the perfect combination . . . I used a recipe from Mark Bittman's "How To Cook Everything Vegetarian" except I added meat. Didn't do it over an open fire. Been there, done that, have the t-shirts, (Literally, I used to run a wilderness outpost and teach open fire cooking for a camp and I have a collection of t-shirts from my summers there). Not feeling the need to revisit those days. Plus we are in a drought here in MI and are under wild fire warnings so no go. Instead, I followed the recipe for making it in the oven.
I am a brown rice fan, so instead of using Valencia rice, which is the paella rice, I used short grain brown rice, which I had and love. I followed Mr. Bittman's advice that it could be parboiled. I then finished the dish in my braising pan that is fairly similar to a paella pan, at least similar enough for me to not get another pan to store in my tiny kitchen. The bits of meat were one boneless chicken breast, 1.5 spicy Italian vegetarian sausages, and a cup of shrimp. The vegetables were onion, green pepper and a handful of kale for color and tomato, both fresh and sundried. Spices were garlic, saffron and smoked Spanish paprika and dried parsley. Plus I put some Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning on the chicken as it was frying. 2 TBLSP of tomato paste browned a bit. The veggies and chicken and sausage sauteed in EVOO. Then add the parboiled rice and sundried and fresh tomatoes and shrimp. Cover with tomato soaking water mixed with rice water and some added chicken broth to make two cups. (Recipe called for 3.5 but that seemed like too much.) Bake covered at 450 for 30 min.
It was still soupy at that point so I evaporated more water out of it by cooking it on the stovetop with the top off for 10 min. Here's the finished photo. It was good, a little too tomato heavy due to me going overboard with the sundrieds, but they tasted good. No soccarat, even though the pan had browned bits on the bottom when I put it all in the oven. Nice consistency to the rice though.
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my votts, my votts, my votts, talkin' 'bout my votts!
Comments (18)Susan, I love growing in containers. Even in a non-drought year I get more consistent production from plants in containers because it is easier to keep them well-watered and as long as the soil-less mix drains properly, they won't get won't get waterlogged like plants in the ground can. That's why I have so many containers. This spring I expect to have about 150 containers, and they range in size from 2 gallon pots to a 4'-diameter metal stock tank to similarly-sized (though not as deept) wading pools (I have three of them). I am toying with the idea of growing lettuce in a cattle feed trough that sits up high on legs. That might solve my problem with small critters like baby bunnies, field mice and voles nibbling at greens in the spring. Baby bunnies are very tiny and can get into my garden either through the fence or by squeezing under the gate. It is hard to get mad at a baby bunny because they are just so cute, but I don't like having them eating the lettuce and their othr two favorite plants--pea seedlings and bean seedlings. The current La Nina did not affect our place the way it normally does in summer/fall, so I'm not sure we'll have the usual La Nina drought in 2011. That's sort of irrelevant, though, because we always have long drought periods in summer in southern OK even when it is fairly rainy elsewhere in the state. Even this summer had lots of drought periods although a brief rainy spell in July and then again in September kept the garden going pretty well, although I had to water very heavily in between those two rainy spells. About the only veggie I can think of that is really difficult in containers is medium- to large-sized pumpkins. While it is easy to grow the very small pumpkins or the bush pumpkins in containers, to get nice, big pumpkins you have to have a very large container because large pumpkins have massive root systems, and you have to water heavily daily because the plants guzzle water as the pumpkins get bigger and bigger. I'd love to have my entire garden in containers because it cuts weeding time down to nothing, but with all that I grow, that's never going to happen. Another problem with containers in drought is that the non-stop heat and sunshine heat up the containers and the soil. I get around that by lining up all the containers close together and then piling hay around them as insulation to help keep them cool. And one wonderful advantage of containers is that they can help you get a head start in spring. I usually put my first tomato plants into containers in mid-February and am harvesting tomatoes from those plants by the end of April. Having those first few plants setting fruit helps me stay patient and not transplant my main crop into the ground too early. You also can carry a few plants into fall/winter if you can get the containers into a warm spot at night. Today or tomorrow, I'll be harvesting a couple of handfuls of cherry tomatoes, one bell pepper and a handful of hot peppers from the five big containers I drag into the garage every night. That means I'll have harvested tomatoes and peppers in every month of 2010 from April through December, and that's not too bad. I also grow strawberries in containers. In the ground, strawberries don't stand a chance here because there's too many wild critters who want to eat them, including the ever-present sow bugs and pill bugs. In containers, though, they're easy. I grow them in wading pools, and it is surprising how many strawberries you get from those container-grown plants. I still have trouble with snakes....they like to hang out in the shade of the containers and sometimes in the containers themselves, but in our very rural, very wild part of the state, that's unlikely to change no matter what we do. Dawn...See MoreMy mistakes, my triumphs & my thanks!
Comments (28)Good job! Memories of when I first started growing in containers! Watch out, it's addictive... A couple of points for next year. If your soil get saturated in the rain, consider using 5-1-1 mix from the container forum. My plants get tons of rain at times, but never get saturated from it, and in fact, seem to thrive after a long spell of rain. You may be able to leave your plants out of the greenhouse more, which will give them more sunlight. I never worry about leaving them out in the rain. I too have a greenhouse, but only use it in spring and fall for warmth and hardening off. Also, epsom salts is something you should only have to use once or twice a year, not constantly. If you have a properly made soil, it likely has lime in it, and also if your water is pH 8.5, it likely has lots of magnesium in it. Good to correct the pH though when it's that high. All in all though, great to see you succeed!...See MoreI love my cats, I love my cats, I'm going to strangle my cats
Comments (35)I feel for you bpath. They can be such little stinks. Some of by cats never scratched a thing, but into adorable Siamese tore into everything. I tried catnip on scratch posts, catnip on cardboard -- you name it. I see a couple of solutions. Along the artsy lines, you could take some strands of yarn and attach them to a sort of header to hold them together and then I fix that to the areas that are already gobstoppers (I spoke the word gouged up, but out came gob stoppers – whatever they are). Then the cats can just enjoy the rest of their days playing with already cut sections of yarn and he could be a conversation piece. Yes, another conversation piece. Or you can take something like plaster of Paris or wax and form a sort of shell over that area - like a cast, but in color. You can paint it or add different colors of wax or clay. I just saw one of these amaryllis bulbs in a clay-like "pot" molded over the bulb. It looked great. I bet something like that could actually look kind of cool along the edge of your couch -- like a molded pottery patch. Then there is another solution....See MoreMy sink faucet is dead center of my sink on my island.
Comments (3)On which side of the sink will you prep? Put the filler faucet on the opposite side for easy access for anyone wanting a drink of water. Other than proximity to the GD, I don't know if the switch location matters....See More
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3 years ago- 3 years agolast modified: 3 years ago
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoYes, to achieve soccarat, you need to finish on the stovetop. I make a dish like this, as well, though it doesn't have any parboiling. I've used bomba rice or Calrose rice, which is a medium grain. I have a Le Creuset paella, but I've also used an oven-safe non-stick skillet when I don't want to make so much. The last step is to take the pan out of the oven and put it on a low burner for like 8-10 minutes. The heat regulation is done based on sound mostly with smell as a safeguard on time.
This wasn't my best soccarat, but it was okay, and it's the picture I have on this device. My burner should have been a bit cooler.
I don't have the recipe on this device ... I can add it later.- 3 years ago
- 3 years agolast modified: 3 years ago
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- 3 years agolast modified: 3 years ago
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BlueberryBundtcake - 6a/5b MA