Category: On the Job

Hey! Chef Joshua here with your daily news flash! Paella is good.

Multi-sensory

Paella is and can be alot of things, but much of it has nothing to do with how good it tastes.  The communality it demands between guests provides this surrendering force that relaxes everyone, and excites them at the same time.

I don’t mean to be so dramatic about it but with most great and memorable gatherings there is always a certain je ne say quoi.

Cooking a whole pig or goat can have a similar feeling; or a labor party when all your friends come over for a big yard project and afterwards you party into the night and revel in your accomplishment. Effort I think is the key here, (I know I’ve gone down this path before).

Paella has this kind of magic; where everyone gets to tangibly feel a part of  an effort and a transformation.

Gettin’ it all together

There are three things involved that make a paella party fun and cool.  One is the pan, called a paellera; it’s what gives paella it’s name, which is a Spanish root word for pan.  Now I’ve made great paella on the stove top many times without this special pan, but if you want to have the experience I’m talking about, you’ve gotta get one.

Next is an outdoor fire.  Both words are important; outdoor, and fire.  Gatherings outdoors are great, but if everyone is communed around a fire pit, then the intrigue and anticipation for the dinner rises even higher.

Last is not the ingredients like you might think; but the common thread of all relaxing, fun social gatherings…booze.  I know, I know; I beat this horse to death sometimes, but it’s true!  Add a couple drinks to room full of silent people and BOOM!  Conversation.  As an added bonus–the combination of an outdoor fire and booze gets you a nice little peanut gallery that helps out with labor, un-needed tips and critiques.

Piled on top of all that, we’re finally to the pièce de résistance.  The ingredients are not the “third reason” because we are not in Spain and therefore have no traditional binding that limits us to which ingredients we use.  If anyone ever tells you your paella is not authentic because you didn’t have (insert unattainable ingredient here), tell them you canceled the party and there’s no reason to come over on Saturday.

Rice, saffron, a few veggies and meat are all you really need.  I like the complexity of using Spanish chorizo, chicken thighs and seafood.  Chorizo is spicy, earthy and full of wonderful fat and flavor, although probably the hardest ingredient to find.  If you can’t find the cured Spanish variety, don’t substitute with the soft Mexican chorizo.  Good butcher shops will usually carry it and I know Whole foods has it.  I like chicken for the fatty skin and it’s always my first step–browning and rendering the chicken skin provides your cooking fat for the rest of the dish.  Rabbit, and duck can also be used but it’s up to you.

After I remove the chicken I add the chorizo and veggies (sofrito).  Traditionally the sofrito cooks up to a paste but I tend stop before the veg looses it’s shape. Next is the rice–once again, tradition states not to use long grain rice, but if that’s what you decide to go with, no one will be the wiser unless they “know” paella.  I always use a medium or short grain rice, usually arborio.  It’s readily available at all supermarkets and has the physical make up we need.

Arborio and other short grain rices have an outer layer that melts its starch.  That starch (which so famously gives risotto its creaminess) is what helps form the socarrat.

The socarrat is the beautiful crust that forms on the bottom, adding textural variance and supreme richness.  When the rice toasts on the bottom of the pan the moisture inside the rice is replaced with the fats and spices– then fries crisp.  Ohm nom nom.

A Recipe

1tsp saffron threads, dried or lightly toasted
7-8c water
2T olive oil
2lb chicken thighs with bone and skin
kosher salt and fresh pepper
2c sliced or diced Spanish chorizo
2c finely diced onions
1c finely diced bell peppers
1c diced tomato
3c arborio rice
2-3lb assorted seafood
1c blanched peas or green beans
3T minced parsley
1tsp minced lemon zest

Heat the water and saffron in a pot to steep; set aside.

Prepare your fire and set the pan.

Once hot; season the chicken, swirl in the oil and place the chicken skin side down. Render the skin until browned and crisp, then flip. Move the chicken to the edge of the pan and add the chorizo and veggies. Stir and sauté until soft or mushy. Add the rice and sauté a bit to toast. Add the saffron water with a couple teaspoons of salt. Nestle the chicken into the rice and adjust the fire so it’s not at a raging boil.

Cook for 10 minutes and start layering on the seafood with the slowest cooking fish on the bottom. Cook another 5 minutes and flip any fish on the top that isn’t getting hit with heat. If your rice is starting to finish but the fish still needs a little time, lightly tent with foil or parchment to help steam. When everything looks cooked, wait for a crackling sound on the bottom which means the rice is frying. Garnish with peas, parsley and lemon zest.

Mount Kilimanacho  is the most badass nacho mountain I’ve ever had. Maybe better than the first time I did it in 2004.

Photos courtesy of Chrystal Cienfuegos

If you didn’t know, I love football.  I love sports in general, but football is all I have time for anymore.  Although my team will likely never win it all, my friends and family create great memories every season rooting for our perennial losers.   With football having a much shorter schedule than other sports, it allows fans to continually make “an event” out of most Sundays that would otherwise be delegated to housework.

Like most football fans, our fall and winter Sundays revolve around food and drinks. Sometimes the food is easy and sometimes it’s a lot of work, but it’s always delicious and usually centers around a grill.  This year’s Superbowl party was no exception.

Since I didn’t do much cooking during the regular season we tried to go all out this year and get everyone involved.  And everyone DID get involved, it was beautiful.  We weren’t rewriting the book on anything, but when you attempt to do things properly and there’s a bunch of hungry people, there’s just a lot to do.

We had fried chicken bites with dipping sauces and grilled carne asada nachos.  Fried chicken is fried chicken, no real need to discuss that one, other than stating how ridiculous perfect fried chicken is. Ohm nom nom.

Back to Mnt. Nacho

What pictures cannot show is the depth of flavor achieved from the charcoal.  The BBQ smoke flavor permeates, and the bottom gets all cheese fried crusty.  We of course fried our own chips, grilled the meat, made the beans and made the salsa.  The second batch was going to have some nacho cheese swirled in, but we never got there.  I think this was all done during halftime.  How we pulled ourselves away from another mind-blowing Super Bowl halftime show…I’ll never know :-|

Chrystal is a Local photographer and does an amazing job for any event.  http://chrystalcienfuegos.com — I highly recommend her boudoir shots for any woman wanting to give their husbands whiplash.  My wife took some and I’m still cleaning drool off the keyboard.

Mmmmm beef fat…

Not suet…which is clean, easy melting fat that’s obtained from  just outside the kidney of a bovine. But beef fat trimmings.  Not only is rendering fat kinda cool, but it’s a deeper flavor that reaches juuuust outside our norm.  Easily obtained from a serious butcher shop, suet and fat is inexpensive, easy to render and gives you a clean, savory cooking oil.   On new years eve I set out to make traditional carnitas.  Slow cooking pork butt in pork fat until tender, then raising the temp to fry and crisp.  Cooking meat in its own fat compounds the flavor and rings in that authentic bell.  Unfortunate to those classic carnitas plans, my sister in law was coming over and like always, I forgot she doesn’t dig on the swine.  So I switched it up a bit and decided to try beef carnitas instead.

Getting The fat

Went to the local butcher and asked ’em about getting some suet.  They didn’t have it and I didn’t want to drive across town to get it, so I asked them if they had any fat trimmings.  They didn’t right then, but would later in the afternoon.  Cool. I went back later and got 10 pounds, came home and chopped it up into fist size chunks. Beef carnitas, here we come.

All it takes to render fat is a heavy bottom pan and a heat source on low.  It took about 3 hours to render and I didn’t really do it to perfection.  Towards the end my impatience got the best of me and I got it a little hot.  It didn’t damage the oil to detriment, but it took away the clean purity of perfectly melted fat.  I put it through a strainer to remove the fried pieces of crispy fat and any particulate matter. In went the lime soaked beef to a long slow bubble, bubble, bubble.

Chewing The Fat

Towards the end of cooking and several cape cods later, I over-cooked the beef a bit.  The result was extremely delicious buuuuuut, a bit chewy.  Not to jerky standards but still jaw wearing.  You’d think I’d have learned my lesson at the family reunion, (referenced in my engagement story). Oh well.

Earlier that day when I got the fat, I realized I was gonna have a fry station ready to rock for midnight munchies, so i picked up some yukon gold potatoes and flour tortillas. Around 11pm I fried the potatoes and they were salty and luscious…and needed at that point. But what came next was an experience no one saw coming, and no one will forget. Well…it was NYE, so a couple people might forget.

The Next Fatty Level

2012 Mud Bug Chug quote at every 30 minute mark. “Did you suck the head?  Did you get any juice when you sucked it? Huh huh huh.” Yep, it was that kind of day, and it was perfect.

You might be asking. What is a mud bug chug? Apparently, it’s a crawfish boil. I’ve got a buddy named Doug. Doug, (who is on loan from Louisiana), just threw his 2nd Annual: San Diego Mud Bug Chug. Although the party followed the needed party norms. Good food, good drinks and good people. The food was a first for me, and epically fun. The drinks were illegally good, and the people were all lucky. 

Hoppy SD

As hop heavy beers gain in popularity, it still isn’t the standard for American beer drinkers. San Diego has seen heavy growth in the craft beer world. In the meantime, the city has made a name for itself. Synonymous with quality, craftsmanship and originality, it’s climb has been steady and consistent. Hop heavy brews have become the distinct calling card in craft beer. “San Diego style Pale Ale” has become an actual term used to reference double IPA’s. This movement toward full-bodied flavor has made many casual beer enthusiasts accepting of bitter, complex brews.

To reiterate

A crawfish boil with 3 outstanding home brews is a culinary delight. All 3 flavors gave their own story to the day. The first beer was hi flagship IPA, coined Matrimony Ale. Originally created as a wedding beer for a friend. Matrimony Ale is classic, balanced, refreshing, and smooth. The other two beers had specific flavors geared toward the boil. They were a spiced ale and a smoked lager.

Gochugaru was the secret spice in the chile beer. Gochugaru is a distinct Korean chile pepper which gave a perfect amount of heat on the back-end. When I say back end, I mean on the finish, lol. The other brew was a smoked lager that tasted exactly like it was intended. Nice and smooth, with a bite of smoke that begged for a bug.

Pairing

To the unfamiliar, a food and alcohol pairing is deemed successful when both the food and drink are elevated. The intermingling unlocks hidden flavors, or, pulls known flavors to the forefront.

It was a classic San Diego summer day. Happy, people gettin’ down and dirty on a table of authentic American cuisine. Also, the communal savagery of ripping bugs apart for sustenance, is beautiful.

I get fired up when I know someone took the time to prepare something artisanal. Something with passion that can’t procured. The effort lets your guests know that you care about quality and happiness. Here’s some pics until next year, woot woot!