Weeknight Paella

 I'm back, for this week anyway.
This is a quick recipe you can make during the week, it is not a true paella, but it has the flavors of paella. A great way to use up leftover rice and meats. The great thing about paellas is that you can use just about any meat, seafood or you can even do vegetable versions.

Weeknight Paella
2 spicy sausages, cut into 1/2 inch coins I used hot Italian Chorizo would be good
1 cod fillet, cut into bite sized pieces or any firm white fish
1 ham steak, cut into bite size pieces
12 shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 to 1 1/2 cup cooked rice
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
2/3 cup peas, frozen
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 pinch crushed red pepper
1 pinch of saffron, optional
1 large clove of garlic, minced
2 tbs olive oil
Parsley for garnish, I also used some saffron threads for the pictures

Heat olive oil in a pan over medium high heat. Sprinkle the saffron threads on the tomatoes, this will soften them and let the flavors combine. If you don't let the saffron bloom in liquid it will be stringy and the flavor doesn't develop. Add sausage and ham. Cook until they start to take on color then add the fish. Add the rice, tomatoes, garlic, smoked paprika and pepper. When the rice is warmed through add the shrimp. When the shrimp takes on color add the peas. Cook until peas are heated through.

Place on plate/bowl and garnish with parsley.

Mussels

Ok this makes the third week I've posted a Fathers Day recipe. This one was the winner, the one I celebrated Father's Day with. This was one of those recipes that I made up as I went along so measurements are estimates. The mussels are cooked in a wine and tomato broth. A love a big bowl of mussels all open and ready to be eaten. Open mussels remind me of venus flytraps, I am just waiting for one to grab my fork as I go to pull the meat out.
Note: You should make about 1/2 to 3/4 pound of mussels per person. The recipe below is for 2 people. Clean and de-beard mussels. If any mussels are open and won't close when pinched throw them out. After cooking watch for any mussels that don't open and discard. I like the spice of chorizo sausage any spicy sausage will work. Today I had a kielbasa sausage, which is mild. I added 1/8 tsp of crushed red pepper to the onions and garlic when I added that to give me the kick I wanted.
Mussels
1 chorizo sausage, cut into bite size pieces
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup onion, diced
2 coves garlic, minced
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper if using see note
2/3 cup white wine, I used Pinot Grigio
1/3 cup crushed tomato from can
1 tomato, diced
1 1/2 pounds Mussels

Heat large skillet to medium high. Add oil and the sausage and cook until it starts to brown. If using full fat sausage you might be able to cook sausage without oil, then add oil with onions. Then add onions, garlic and red pepper (if using). Cook onion mixture until onions are soft. When onions are soft add the crushed tomato and wine. When wine and tomato start to bubble add the tomato, shrimp and mussels. Cook until the shrimp are cooked through and the mussels are open. If you got good mussels most will open in under 5 minutes. Arrange mussels in bowl. then pour sauce and other goodies (tomatoes, sausage and shrimp) over the mussels. Garnish with parsley.

  

Lentil and Sausage Soup

My wife and I have given up going out for New Years, we just spend the evening at home. We have a nice dinner, usually lobster of some kind. Open a bottle of presecco with the lobster and finish it at midnight. Presecco is a sparkling wine from Italy. It is sweet and tastes very much like Asti if you have had that. Presecco is the traditional alcohol used for making Bellini's. My wife and I prefer it over champaign. This year only one of us made it past 10:30 PM, but I won't embarrass my wife by telling you she fell asleep at 9:00 PM slept until 10:00. Then she watched most of the news and then went upstairs to bed.
For New Years Day we had a bowl of sausage and lentil soup. Lentils and pork (the sausage) are both considered symbols of good luck in Italy. Lentils are also a symbol for money. I don't know anybody who doesn't want good luck and money so it just seems like a good idea to start the new year.

Lentil and Sausage Soup
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 lb. Cotechino Sausage, or any pork sausage cut into small dice
1 medium carrot, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 large clove garlic, thinly sliced see note
1/2 pt cherry tomatoes, halved
2 14.5 oz cans Lentils or 1 pound dried
3 cups water
salt, to taste
crushed red pepper, to taste

Note: I don't use cherry tomatoes I use canned "small tomatoes from the hillside" from Italy. These tomatoes have been peeled and are grown on the mountainside in volcanic soil. So you can peel you cherry tomatoes or find pomodorini di collina on the internet or eat an Italian import store like I did. The brand that I have is Annalisa.
In a dutch oven over medium heat add the olive oil. When olive oil is hot add the sausage and cook for 3 minutes. Add the carrot, celery, garlic and tomatoes. Cook for 10 minutes until vegetables are soft. Add the lentils and water, bring soup to simmer, cook for 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Season with salt and crushed red pepper. 

The First Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving my oldest daughter, Lynn, cooked while I recovered from knee surgery. She did a fantastic job and the meal turned out beautifully. At the end of my story is the Cornbread Stuffing recipe that Lynn made. Now I think it is time to tell the story of my wife and my Thanksgiving dinner. We were young and not really into cooking at the time. I am not sure why we did not go to one of our parents houses, I guess turning old causes memory lapses. Here is the story as I remember embellish it.

My youngest daughter, Ashlyn, was born on Thanksgiving day. Now being young and foolish my wife and I decided to give her and small birthday party the day before Thanksgiving. We decided to make her a cake with some kind of cartoonish character on top. As we started to make the cake I turned on the water and the water faucet broke off in my hand. Now is a good time to tell you that the previous owners of our house were very frugal and when it came to repairs fixing things did not mean they did it correctly if they could save a buck. Water was spraying out of what was formerly a faucet handle with such force that it was bouncing off the ceiling and puddling in the middle of the floor. At this point I am pretty sure I let a few 4 letter words fly, which brought my wife and 3 children flying into the room. As they hit the wet spot on the floor bodies were flying in all directions. They looked like penguins sliding down a glacier until their bodies hit the cupboards on the other side of the kitchen and they collapsed in a heap on a floor. After what seemed like hours we managed to find the shut off valve and turn the geyser off. Now the fun begins. As my wife and children dry off, I head to the local hardware store to buy a new faucet.

When I arrive at the store I assumed I would be able to grab a faucet and come home. Nobody told me I had to know how many holes were in the sink. One thing that you need to know about my handy man capabilities is that I have none. So back home I head to see how many holes were in the sink. To count the holes in the sink you would have to remove the old faucet or be able to look at the underside of the old old. Well at the time I was the size of a small kitchen appliance and I had to contort my body to even get under the sink. This involved wedging my shoulder under a garbage disposal while lying on my back, squeezing my 3 foot wide body into an 18 inch opening. Turns out that I couldn't see the under side of the sink. Plan 2 remove the old faucet. I squeezed my body back under the sink, took a wrench and started to loosen the water supply. After an hour I gave up.

I went back to the hardware store humiliated as a man and with a look of defeat on my face. Now we lived in a very small town where everybody knew everybody. When I went back into the store and talked to one of the family members who owned the store he offered to loan me a faucet wrench as it was designed to get into tight spots. I took it home and 2 hours later went back to the hardware store again in total defeat. At this point the helpful store owner offered to come home with me for a mere $20. I took him up on that offer. He crawled under the sink and began the task of unscrewing the water supply. After a few minutes he came out from under the sink and headed to the store. He returned with a small flashlight that had a flexible neck and a tool box. Eventually we discovered that the previous owner had replaced the water supply not with a supply line but with 20 brass fittings that were all screwed together. As we would start to loosen one, you would stop and try again but land on a different fitting and start loosening the next one and tighten the previous one. Eventually we replaced the water supply and the faucet. It only took us 5 hours to do that 2 hour job. The cake was made just in time for the party and none of the pre-Thanksgiving preparation was started because we had a party to host.

Now Thanksgiving morning we got up early and began cooking and everything seemed to be going fine. The smell of turkey was in the air, the pies were cooling, the stove top was filled with side dishes in various stages of doneness. We went to add the dressing to the oven and the second disaster hits us full on. We opened the oven door and the turkey was white and the oven was not hot. Sometime during the first hour of cooking the oven had died. Instant panic sits in, what are we going to do? We can't afford to try to have it repaired on Thanksgiving day, the stores are closed so we can't go buy a precooked one. Yes 20 years ago the stores actually closed on Thanksgiving day.

Since the bird was partially cooked and started to take on some color we decided to... are you ready for this...microwave it. We had turkey for Thanksgiving that year, it was barely edible but it was turkey. It was dry and tough and tasted the best when completely covered in gravy. The kids didn't seem to mind and we had accomplished making our first Thanksgiving dinner. Over the years we have had numerous successful Thanksgiving dinners, but this is the one I will always remember.

Cornbread Stuffing with Bourbon, Sausage and Apples
based on recipe by the Neelys from Food Network

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 pound Italian sausage, casing removed
• 1 medium onions, chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and chopped coarsely
• 1 teaspoon freshly minced thyme leaves
• 1/2 cup bourbon
• 1 1/4 pounds cubed and dried cornbread stuffing, store-bought
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 2 cups turkey or low-sodium chicken stock
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Put olive oil in large skillet and heat to medium high.

Brown sausage. Add celery and onions and cook until softened. Salt and pepper to taste. Add apple and cook for 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat and add the bourbon. Simmer until bourbon almost completely evaporates.

Put cornbread, parsley, chicken stock eggs and pecans in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly. Add the Sausage, apple mixture and combine all ingredients. Spread mixture out evenly in a 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Bake until cooked about 30 to 40 minutes.

Lynn and Rouz

White Bean Soup

This is a recipe I decided to make today so I could use up some spinach, so don't look to closely and notice I forgot the spinach. It is only coincidence that my brother Bob asked that I post a bean recipe on the day I make bean soup. Everybody knows if he would have asked for it before I decided to make it I never would have made it, that's what brothers are for. I am submitting this soup to Souper Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen. Watch for it there along with many other delicious soups.

White Bean Soup

1 tbs olive oil
1 cup carrots, cut into coins
1 cup celery, cut into 1/2 moons
1/2 cup onion, diced
1 15 oz can white beans
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 oz spinach, chopped
Optional
2 turkey sausages, removed from cases and broken up into small pieces
1 zucchini or yellow squash, diced

Add olive oil to a dutch oven or other deep heavy pot heated to medium high. Then add carrots, celery, zucchini or squash if using and onion heat until onions are transparent. Add sausage if using and cook until browned. Now add beans, tomatoes and garlic let this cook for 2 or 3 minutes. Add the chicken or vegetable broth and bring to boil. Turn down to low and add spinach. Let soup simmer until ready to serve.

Sausage and Cannellini Bean Crostini

This was not originally a crostini recipe but we always ate it with a crusty bread. Eventually I started serving it on the bread when we had Italian "tapas". My first couple of posts will feature some of my other Italian "tapas" By using turkey sausage you can make this a fairly healthy meal/crostini.

Warning teaching moment. A crostini is a thinly sliced piece of bread, usually a baguette, toasted with olive oil or butter and garlic. Bruschetta is sliced thicker, and generally grilled, then rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil.

For the Crostini

1 baguette sliced into rounds, about 1/4 inch thick about 16 pieces total

Olive oil for drizzling

For the Sausage and Cannellini

2 tsp. olive oil, plus some for drizzling

1/2 small white onion, diced finely

1 Italian Sausage, 4 to 5 oz cut into a small dice

2 cloves of garlic minced

1 can (15.5 oz) of Cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

Preheat oven to 325°.

Drizzle olive oil lightly over the baguette slices. Then put the slices on a baking sheet and put in oven for 5 minutes. Remove from oven, they will not be browned but they will be lightly toasted. Set aside so they will cool.

Saute the onions in the olive oil until they are translucent. Add the sausage pieces, cook until browned. Add the beans and garlic and cook until they are heated through. Drizzle olive oil over the bean mixture. Take a scoop of the beans and place on top of the crostini.