Paella Food Cheer for Chilly Nights
Just because golden
summer and fall have given way to grey November, doesn’t mean
dinner has to be drab. This week, why not savour the cuisine of
sunny Spain with tasty tapas and a colourful paella and trick your
taste buds into thinking summer’s back?
Summer's gone, the glorious sunny fall days too. The days are getting shorter and colder. Cheer up! Here is everything you need to enjoy a taste of sunny Spain with a meal of tapas and Paella. Viva la movida !
Then, you need three or four slices of bacon, your favourite sausage, some minced garlic and thinly sliced onion, red and green peppers (yellow and orange too if you've got them) cut into strips, 2 or 3 big fat fresh tomatoes cut into wedges, 1 cup (250 mL) of rice, 2 cups (500 mL) of hot chicken broth, a little tomato or clamato juice and your favourite Irresistibles olive oil.
- Heat a bit of olive oil in a large skillet, add the bacon. When the bacon starts to brown, add the shrimps, removing them as soon as they're done.
- In the same fat, cook the sliced sausages, removing it as soon as it's done. Brown the chicken thighs, removing them after a few minutes.
- Still in the same fat, cook onion and garlic until glassy. Stir in rice and cook a few minutes until transparent. Add hot chicken broth and simmer, covered, on very low heat for 10 minutes or so.
- Add peppers, tomatoes, mussels (washed and scrubbed), chicken and a pinch of herbes de Provence. Add tomato juice as needed to cook rice. Cover and continue cooking.
- When mussels open, add shrimps and sausages, season with salt, pepper and paprika to taste. Add saffron if you wish. Leave on very low heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
On a serving platter, arrange endive leaf barquettes filled with Sardo antipasto, along with simple canapés consisting of thin slices of baguette topped with prosciutto or other deli meats, drizzle a bit of olive oil over everything and garnish the platter with dried black olives and cubes of some aged hard cheese.
And there you have it! A taste of sunny Spain on your table. Buen provecho!
Other related articles to read...