Paella and Pork

So after the SF Chocolate Salon, Alfred Susan Ngoc and I all tag teamed dinner the next evening. Ngoc and I cooked an old standard, our Paella. Alfred and Susan brought to the table a great 7 lb. pork shoulder braise.

Braising is so phenomenal. EVERYONE should be braising ALL the time, it's THAT amazing and simple. If I haven't said it before, you need (a) meat, (b) moisture, (c) acid, and (d) sustained low to medium heat. In this case, the braise was in a white wine / stock sauce. The meat was also treated with a simple salt and herb rub (thyme, a little coriander if i remember correctly. But you can do any combination of whatever, really). Then, 5 hours covered at 350, and viola. So tender, so juicy, so delicious.


The Paella is something Ngoc and I have done many times before, with great success I might add. However this time it just lacked that saffron punch. I attribute it to an extra step I added, where I soaked the saffron threads beforehand. This is actually unnecessary, since they normally just go straight into the paella soup as it starts to boil down.  The soak is a redundant step. Never again!

Paella Valenciana

4-6 drumsticks

2 heads of garlic

15 clams OR mussels

1 dozen shrimp, shelled and veined

16 oz. diced tomatoes, in juice

16 oz. garbanzo beans

2 large red peppers, sliced

2 yellow onions, chopped

1/2 lb green beans, halved

3 1/2 cups chicken stock (homemade, preferred)

2 1/2 cups valenciana rice

10-15 threads saffron, crushed

1 tsp dry paprika

4 tbsp olive oil

1 lemon, cut into wedges

In a paella pan (16"+), heat 2 tbsp oil and saute red pepper and garlic until peppers are soft.  Remove and set aside.

Heat remaining oil and fry chicken until golden on all sides only.  Add onion and saute until translucent.  Add back in peppers and garlic.  Add broth, tomatoes, saffron, and paprika and simmer for 25 minutes.  Add valenciana rice, stirring gently to evenly distribute all ingredients across pan surface.

Allow rice to absorb paella soup.  Keep stirring to a minimum, disturbing rice as little as possible.  Rice should become crispy on the bottom most layers and be just barely fully cooked on top most layers.  

As rice is cooking, add remaining vegetables.  With 10 minutes left, add shellfish, gently pushing clams and shrimp into mixture.  Serve immediately

SF Chocolate Salon

Big weekend for food. Alfred and Susan, our wonderful friends relocated to Seattle, are in town for the week to blitzkrieg the bay area and pilfer all its offerings. Alfred and Susan are no strangers to food, so we kicked things off right and dived into the weekend with a Saturday morning trip to the SF Chocolate Salon.

The Chocolate Salon is an annual event where more than 50 chocolate retailers, wholesalers, artisans, entertainers, etc. gather for an anything-goes tastefest in Fort Mason. We crowded in with the masses and learned, among other things, that our weak stomachs unfortunately cannot eat infinite quantities of chocolate.





After the Salon, we checked out Shanghai Dumpling King in the outer Richmond along with a visit to the best restaurant supply store in the universe. Forthcoming, keep your eye out for a post about the meal we cooked the NEXT day.

classic beef stew

My latest find has been the $10 enamel coated cast iron dutch oven (mini-sized) that I found at an estate sale a couple weeks back.  Have you ever been to an estate sale in Albany?  It's no joke.  Want a crack at any of the good items, and you're lined up with 30 other people at 8am waiting for the front door to open.  Kind of sad, really.  

But you'll agree it was worth it after making this beef stew recipe.  This was adapted from an oxtail stew recipe out of an old cookbook my grandmother gave me.  Not wanting to shell out the $$ for oxtail, I bought a simple 2 lb. beef chuck (shoulder) roast and cubed it for this recipe.

Classic Beef Stew

2 lb. beef roast (chuck, round, tri-tip even), cubed

1 cup flour

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

16 ounce can diced tomatoes

3/2 cups beef broth

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup red wine (the dryer, the better)

1 onion, chopped

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon thyme, dry

1/2 teaspoon black pepper, ground

1/4 teaspoon red pepper powder

4 medium carrots, halved and sliced

4 medium parsnips, halved and sliced

1 cup frozen peas

Add oil to dutch oven and heat over medium high flame.  Add onions and saute until onions begin to caramelize.  Remove onions, add more oil if necessary, and add meat.  Cook meat until brown (3-4 minutes).  Add onions back in, along with tomatoes, beef broth, water, wine, salt, thyme, pepper, and sugar.  Bring to boil.

After boil, reduce to simmer on very low heat and cover for two hours.  

Skim off fat from stew and add carrots and parsnips.  Cover again and simmer for 25 minutes.  Stir in peas and cook an additional 5 minutes.