All Things Chill

I had some time to cook a meal for Liana and her co-workers a few days ago and I went to my cupboard and found a big bag of love: RICE. I’ve had a lot of friends that have done great things with one pot dishes… wonderful herbed polenta that Ryan cooked on Easter in SF (along with the most ridiculous leg of lamb) and noodle casseroles that Jacqui) is all about. I still had a link or two of linguica that miraculously survived being cooked these past weeks, so I thought chicken & sausage + rice = paella! The picture above was a “the morning after” breakfast shot (with the obligatory egg). Friendly potluck service hardly ever makes food sexy! Hee hee.

I used the Epicurious recipe for Spicy Turkey Paella as a base and went from there. Adaptation below:

Linguica, Chicken and Shrimp Paella

Software:
12 ounces linguiça, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1/4 cup olive oil
2 large yellow onions, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups long-grain white rice
1/4 teaspoon saffron
4 cups homemade chicken stock
32 oz. can of San Marzano tomatoes, quartered
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 chicken thighs, roasted and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 lb. shrimp, deveined and shelled

Fabrication:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Brown linguiça in large dutch oven (or large skillet) over medium-high heat to render oil (you’re making a base of flavor here). When golden, remove from skillet and set aside.

2. Preheat the oil in the dutch oven and add onions until golden brown. Add red pepper and garlic and cook for 3 minutes, making sure that the garlic does not burn.

3. Add rice, saffron, chicken stock, the tomatoes, oregano, salt and cayenne pepper.

4. Stir well and bring to a boil. Let cover and cook for 15 minutes.

5. Add linguica, chicken and shrimp. Stir gently and bake for 10 minutes.

Serve and enjoy! Baking the paella adds a sexy “socarrat” (crust) on the top and bottom of the pan that is seen as the tastiest part of the dish. The Epicurious recipe didn’t really give me as much as I wanted, so before I drove the paella to its final destination, I threw it in a 450 degree oven for about 5 minutes to achieve crustiness. I served it with some lemon wedges and parsley. Scoop n’ serve!

Lovin’ me the socarrat!

~Spec

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 9:53 am and is filed under Cooking Culture, Cuisine, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.