PRONTO PAELLA

A Paramount Preparation To Pamper The Palate

Paella, the colourful, internationally known Spanish dish is a triumphal culinary rice preparation that developed in the fields by laborers using local foods. It is named after the wide shallow pan it is cooked in and can contain almost anything, including chicken, pork, shellfish, beans and peas; in short, whatever particular vittles you care to use. So what defines a paella? Olive oil, rice and saffron is the heart of a paella. Ask a hundred Spaniards what goes in a paella and you'll get 100 different answers, or more if they tell you how their mom or aunt makes it.

 

When the Moors ruled most of Spain, they popularized rice eating with the casseroles they prepared and subsequently established the custom of eating rice on that Iberian peninsula

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In Spain, families like to take a paella pan and the paella ingredients and picnic by building a fire and cooking the paella al fresco. When cooked, they all sit around the paellera and eat communally.

If you have ever tasted a paella, you know what an extraordinarily delectable dish it is but were perhaps put off by the tedious time-consuming effort required to prepare this precious gustatory sensation. I thought about this and have actually prepared a stripped down recipe that still tastes like a paella should. This paella pronto compares with classic paellas taste-wise and takes little time to prepare.

Pronto Paella            serves 4

 

Ingredients:

 

2 Tablespoons highest quality olive oil

2-3 links of hot Italian sausage (about a half pound) casings removed

1 Cup of medium-grain rice (not long-grain)

2 cups of clam broth, seafood stock or water

½ Teaspoon salt (omit if using seasoning mix below)

½ Cup white wine (optional)

 

 

1 Sixteen oz can of stewed tomatoes

1 Cup frozen shelled edamame, cut-up green beans or frozen peas, partially thawed

1 Pound of large (15-25) shrimp, shelled and deveined *

1 Red bell pepper (capsicum), cleaned and chopped

1 Tablespoon paella spice mix (see below) OR:

½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon onion powder, ½ teaspoon smoked paprika. Less than 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves , ½ teaspoon saffron, and quarter teaspoon dried rosemary

 

Method:

 

 

• Heat a wide skillet (ten inch or wider) over medium- high flame and add the oil
• Put sausages in skillet and cook, breaking up as you stir, until browned
  • Remove the sausage to a bowl
  • Put the raw rice in the skillet, lower flame to medium heat
  • Stir the dry rice in the fat for a couple of minutes
  • Add the salt and broth,stock or water and turn up the flame
  • When liquid boils, lower heat, cover and simmer 10 minutes
  • Add wine if using
  • Add edamame or green beans and cook 5 minutes (if using peas, wait)
  • Add red pepper and tomatoes and spices and turn heat to boil
  • Add the shrimp, stir and when comes to boil, lower flame
  • Cook the shrimp three minutes only and then add the peas if using
  • Cook one minute, just to heat the peas
    * If you so desire, you could boil the shrimp shells in water to cover for ten minutes and make a lovely seafood shrimp broth.
  • I think this is pretty simple to prepare; a pretty paella made pronto. I hope you will try this paella soon and remember: once you have the olive oil, saffron and rice you can choose your own vegetables and meats or just vegetables only would be good.
  • Paella Seasoning Mix
    50 whole saffron stigmas
    4 Tablespoons paprika, Hungarian or Spanish or both
    1 Tablespoon smoked paprika
    2 Teaspoons onion powder
    1 ½ Teaspoons garlic powder
    1 Teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
    1 Teaspoon dried rosemary
    2 teaspoons salt
  •  
  • Thoroughly combine all and store in an airtight jar.
  •  
  • The Moors (Muslims originating from North Africa) did a lot of good in Spain. They encouraged learning and the arts. Although the rest of Europe was mired in the dark ages, the Moors studied and kept alive the works of the classical Greeks and Romans. The Moors are also responsible for the exquisite architecture to be found in Spain. Not only did the Moors introduce rice from Asia to Spain, they also started the cultivation of oranges and a complex system of irrigation that made Spain a prosperous group of kingdoms. They were expelled right before Christopher Columbus set sail for India. But you can enjoy the fruits of the rice they favoured
  •  
    Happy eating
     
    

Vintage Memories Jewelry Design:First Glimpse of my Wife's Jewelry Designs

Vintage Memories Jewelry Design: First Glimpse of my Jewelry Designs: Welcome to my first post on my new blog. Recently I was under the weather and bedbound for a couple of weeks. Since I love vintage and antiq...

ITALIAN SAUSAGE BEANS AND RIGATONI

 

 

 

 

A Righteous Rapid Rustic Rigatoni Recipe

There are hundreds of different Italian pasta (we used to call them “macaroni”) shapes. Of them all, one shape I have always particularly liked is rigatoni.

 

Years ago in New York City, there used to be these Horn and Hardhart Automats. They were restaurants where everything was in individual compartments behind glass doors. You inserted a coin and opened a small door to obtain your selection. One of their most popular items was macaroni and cheese made with rigatoni. It was a best seller. In that succulent cheese sauce were little specks of red, which were tiny flecks of tomato, and the relatively large macaroni tubes were flush with luscious, molten, cheese goodness. Once tasted, you couldn't forget that luscious rigatoni.

Nowadays, a lot of folks' macaroni and cheese is rapidly made from a blue cardboard box with elbow macaroni and an envelope of orange-coloured “cheese” powder, which requires quite a bit of butter to prepare. But yes, that crafty boxed food is quick to make. Some people “doctor the dish” by adding grated cheese and maybe some breadcrumbs and then slide it under the broiler for a minute or two. Yes, it is swiftly prepared. However, a profoundly more substantial and delectable rigatoni can be rigged up, Italian style, almost as casually, by tossing in a can of beans, some Italian sausage and a few other items.

Quick to prepare and vastly more toothsome than that boxed mac 'n cheese, this Italian sausage and beans and rigatoni dish is something to keep in your kitchen repertoire for those days when you want a tasty, full-flavoured meal but lack extra time to create it. You can doubly savor this meal because its lovely taste belies its ease of preparation. If you have some Italian sausage, spinach and a can of beans you are almost ready already.

ITALIAN SAUSAGE, BEANS AND RIGATONI serves 4

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon Olive Oil

1 pound Italian sausage (hot or mild), put in the freezer for ten minutes, sliced lengthwise and then crosswise into half moons

½ teaspoon fennel seeds (optional but nice)

4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

8-10 ounces chicken stock or broth

10 ounce box of frozen spinach, partially thawed, or a 5 oz. bag of fresh baby spinach (so tender you can include the stalks)

1 can (10-15oz) great northern, cannelloni or pinto beans, rinsed and drained (I used pinto)

½ cup or more grated asiago, provolone or parmesan cheese

Parmesan cheese for individual diners to sprinkle on their dish

¾ teaspoon salt

¾ teaspoon oregano

Heaping ¼- teaspoon dried red pepper flakes or black pepper

1 pound rigatoni

Method:

• Heat the oil in a big skillet or large saucepan
• Put in the sausage slices and fennel ( if using) and fry, stirring until sausage is browned
• Add the broth and garlic, bring to boiling and then lower heat
• Stir in the spinach, beans, cheese and seasonings
• Stir in the rigatoni
• Cover and gently cook the rigatoni (about ten minutes) stir intermittingly
• If spinach and bean mixture appears dry, add some water to the saucepan
• Test rigatoni for doneness; taste for salt and adjust accordingly                                                                                                                                  
  There it is: Italian beans, sausage and rigatoni; a grand, pleasing, nourishing meal that is quick and easy to put together. We hope you will enjoy it soon.

CHRISTMAS VANILLA CRESCENT COOKIES (VANILLEKIPFERL)

Sweet treats are always very appealing at Christmas time. When I was young, my dad would bring home a stollen http://gritsandgroceries.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-stollen.html every year at this time. Another treat we would find when we visited neighbours were baskets filled with a special vanilla sugar cookie known as Vanillekipferl (va neel kip furl) These were delicious crescent-shaped cookies that originated in Vienna, then a part of Austria-Hungary.

There is an interesting story that goes with vanillekipferl. Since the thirteenth century, the Ottoman empire had been battling and conquering lands in Austria-Hungary. Finally, in 1683, German, Polish and Austro-Hungarian forces defeated the Turks and finally ran them out of Europe for good. After the joyous victory, the bakers mimicked the Turkish flag's crescent emblem by baking crescent-shaped sugar cookies. Also noteworthy is the Turks leaving behind sacks of coffee beans which led to the famous European coffee houses, one in Liepzig where J.S.Bach hung out and wrote his famous secular Coffee Cantata in the 1730's .http://youtu.be/z3s1qC3HqA4 Vanillekipferl, those vanilla crescent cookies with that historic crescent-shape, were served all over Vienna and today are beloved Christmas cookies not only with central Europeans but also by those descendants living here in the USA, who call them Christmas Vanilla Cookies. In the eighteenth century when the vanilla cookies were brought to Paris, bakers there took that crescent shape and created the flaky Croissant (French for “crescent”).

Basically these Christmas Vanilla Crescent Cookies include ground nuts, usually almonds and/or hazelnuts, along with the vanilla for flavour. Often they are dusted with powdered sugar and sometimes dipped in chocolate.

Here is a fine vanillekipferl recipe, from Saveur magazine which uses walnuts for the nut flavouring.

Christmas Vanilla Crescent Cookies              Makes 4 dozen

Ingredients:

1 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more for finishing cookies
½ pound. unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ½ cups walnuts, finely ground in food processor
2 1/2 cups flour, plus more for rolling

Method:

Heat oven to 325F

Beat together sugar, butter, and vanilla in a bowl; mix in ground nuts and flour.

Flour and roll into a cylinder.

Divide into 48 pieces.

Roll each piece into a sausage shape.

Taper ends; bend into a crescent.

Transfer to parchment paper-lined baking sheets, spacing cookies 1" apart.

Bake until golden-coloured, about 12–15 minutes.

Sift with confectioners' sugar. Let cool

Enjoy these wonderful, historic cookies, served at Christmas for more than 300 years.

The Education Tipster and I wish everyone everywhere peace and love this Christmas season.

LEFTOVER TURKEY

 

We visited our daughter in Florida for Thanksgiving and her spouses' mom put on a big spread. All the traditional foods were on the table and there was plenty of it. So when we left that beautiful home on the water, we brought back a huge bag of turkey including the carcass.

The next day my BW picked through the bag and separated all the meat. We decided to prepare a casserole using items already on hand. Everyone raved about the casserole so I thought I'd mention it here. It is not difficult to prepare and is a taste sensation. I know because we all finished the casserole that night. My daughter had these cans of soup in her cupboard and they became the flavour base.

Turkey Pasta Casserole           serves 8 normal people

Ingredients:

4-5 cups chopped cooked leftover turkey

1-pound of macaroni, I used Ziti
¼ pound of butter
½ cup flour
1-teaspoon of seasoning salt, such as Lawry's. I used Tony Chacherie's Creole Seasoning

2-cups milk
 

2-18.5 ounce cans of soup, I used Progresso brand Bacon, Potato Soup but there is a wide variety of these prepared soups to choose from.

1-2 cups grated cheese, I used mostly Asiago with Parmesan directly on top but Mozzarella, Monterrey Jack and Provolone would also be good.

Method:

Put on a pot of water to boil the macaroni. When boiling, add a little salt and macaroni

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F/175C
2. In a large saucepan, melt the butter on medium heat
3. Heat the milk almost to boiling in microwave or stove-top saucepan
4. Add the flour and seasoning to the butter, stir to combine, cook a minute or two
5. Pour the hot milk into the flour/fat roux and stir to make a white sauce
6. Drain the cooked macaroni
7. Grease or spray non-stick on a 13inch by 9 inch baking pan
8. Spread the macaroni in the pan
9. Add most of the cheese to the white sauce and stir thoroughly. Reserve some cheese.
10. Add the cans of soup to the cheese sauce and combine
11. Pour into the macaroni and combine
12. Place in middle of oven and bake 20-30 minutes
13. Shut oven, turn on broiler
14. Spread some grated cheese atop the casserole. Optionally, shake black pepper all over.
15. Place under broiler a minute or so to make top golden.

And that is a wonderful way to deal with leftover turkey. Quite frankly, if it wasn't for tradition, I would serve turkey this way on Thanksgiving day, but of course it wouldn't be the same, would it? But the next day? Oy, what a treat. Deja vu never tasted so good.

ZWEIBELKUCHEN - GERMAN ONION TART

 

 

 

An Onion Tart, known as Zweibelkuchen (onion cake) in its German birthplace, is always popular in the fall and winter. Alluding to the Reese's candy metaphor, what if a quiche collided with a pizza? Or what if a quiche and a pizza got married and had a baby? Or... well you get the idea. Zweibelkuchen shares genes with both a quiche and a pizza but is just different enough to be interesting. Bacon and sour cream and caraway seeds marry (A menage a trois?) on a nice onion-laden crust and form a delicious tart rendering a delectable luncheon treat, or a nice snack on a cool windy afternoon. Aw shucks, it would be welcome 'most any old time.

Zweibelkuchen is like a German cousin of the Gallic Pissaldiere, only the toppings above the main event, the onions, are different.

Zweibelkuchen is most often made with a yeast dough but can be made with pie pastry. You could even make the filling and use store- bought pastry. There was a lady who made this tart with frozen bread dough from the market. If you have a Kitchenaid or a Cuisinart, a yeast dough is easy to make, should you be so inclined. Use whatever crust you fancy. Early TV star Molly Goldberg used a prepared pie pastry for her Jake's Zweibelkuchen, so you certainly can too. Pre-heat oven to 450F/225C.

Zweibelkuchen             Serves 6

Ingredients:

Topping

2 lbs onions, peeled cut into half and sliced into half-rings

Four slices of bacon, diced
16 oz/473 ml sour cream
4 eggs

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon caraway seeds

Fry the bacon but do not brown it, using a large skillet or a pot over medium heat.

Add the onions to the bacon and fry, stirring from time to time, until the onions are transparent, and soft, but not caramelized. This will take about 15 minutes. OR: You could put the bacon and onion mixture in a crockpot (sprayed with cooking spray) and leave untended for 5-8 hours. Slow cook them overnight if you wish.

In a separate bowl, mix the sour cream, eggs, pepper and nutmeg.

Dough

¾ teaspoon baking yeast 1 cup warm milk

½ teaspoon sugar
3 cups flour
4 tablespoons butter
1 egg
½ teaspoon salt

Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk, add the sugar and a dash of the flour, stir, cover and keep in a warm place for ten minutes.

Add this and the remaining dough ingredients to your dough-hook mixer or food processor or bench board. and mix .Knead about ten minutes by hand, 5 minutes by dough-hook or one minute in food processor.

Cover and keep in a warm place for 45 minutes to let the dough rise.

Roll the dough out and place into a flat, large roasting pan. Two separate 9 inch square pans are good too. Just divide the dough in half. You want a ridge on the sides to provide a wall to hold the filling. The ridge should be about 1/2 inch high, then pour the onion and bacon mixture over the dough and spread it out to cover evenly. Optionally, you could sprinkle a little grated Swiss cheese over this if you like.

Pour the egg-sour cream mixture over the top, sprinkle the caraway seeds evenly and put it in the oven for 30-40 minutes, at which time it should be a lovely golden brown.

If you like pizza and/or quiche/pissaldiere and you know your onions, Zweibelkuchen is a pleasant, tasty diversion. Enjoy.

HURRICANE SANDY, UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

My spouse, the education tipster, taught for years on Long Island. This is an open letter written by one of her former students in Long Beach on the island, who is impacted by the terrible storm up there.

Please read this letter from a former student of Kathy. He has lost his home, business and two vehicles! Please consider donating to his fund at this site: http://www.indiegogo.com/sean-newman?c=home

To my friends and family,

Thank you all for your well wishes and your prayers I deeply appreciate them. My friend Lisa has been good enough to post on here for me and today I'm in Rockville center for some Wifi, to post this.
So everyone understands, I'm appreciative of FEMA, the National Guard, and the Red Cross but the reality of the situation is that when this type of disaster happens the first responders, neighbors, and yourself are what will get you through. My day begins at 5:30 am when I get up and get myself, my son, and my dog ready. I power my cell phone on the car charger while we drive to get online for gas two towns away and fill up our gas cans and the car we are using. My car was submerged by the bay on Monday night. My mother is letting me use her car after the cars at my parent’s house were miraculously left untouched. After an hour wait for gas we see if we can grab a guilty luxury of hot coffee somewhere and maybe a newspaper to see if anyone can tell us when the power could be back.

My father will be at city hall at 9am. His usual routine is to ask questions and be told to talk to FEMA officials. When he asks where they are no one knows. The FEMA volunteers are giving out water and food today by the schools but anyone with answers will be available at some point later. I sat outside Starbucks in Rockville center to get WiFi and filled out my FEMA application on their website for my home and my business both of which are ruined. The house I will clean out on Monday but it is 17 miles away and I don't want to drive out there until I know gas will be easier to obtain. The business will only be given a loan at 4% and only after I go through my insurance. My insurance broker has been unreachable for the business and when I drive to Rockville center tomorrow for cell service I will try the main company. At best they will look at my store in 2weeks and most likely a month, not sure when FEMA will or what either will do or what I will qualify for, it's mostly just about waiting when it comes to either of them. I stop by home depot to try and get a kerosene space heater but they are sold out. I'm bummed. I wanted to buy one for my grandmother and my friend who have no heat other than their gas stoves. I stop at ACE and they are out too but just got kerosene fuel in so I buy two gallons just in case I get heater later.

We drop newspapers and gas off to my parents and then meet the kids They know I can't pay them for awhile and they still show up, to say I'm thankful would be an understatement, and their parents should be proud of the kind of kids they raised. My store is ruined. The floor and roof caved in the back and the floor is sinking in the front. The water rose past any barriers and flooded out the store, destroying

all the inventory including the early inventory we brought for Christmas. The florist case is destroyed and the flowers are rotting in the case. Every plant in my greenhouse was flooded with salt water, every bag of soil, and fertilizer is ruined. We put a forklift and Gerard's motorcycle in here for protection and both appear to be dead. The front of the greenhouse was smashed when the rising water brought pallets of soils from the back of the store to front, crashing them in to the benches that then pushed in the front wall of the greenhouse. The heating systems were destroyed and the pickup was flooded as well. Today we will work cleaning out the store till 3. I speak to my friend who owns the repair shop across the street. He asks me if he could buy some fire wood but I refuse his money and tell him to take what he needs. He lost everything in his shop. All his tools and equipment are gone. He got in touch with his insurance broker who told him he is covered for hazard but not flood. He doesn't want a loan to get back in business so he will take his own savings to reopen. He is a good man and I'm sorry for him. We had some people come in to buy firewood even after I warned them it needed days to dry out from the salt water and wet sand covering it. They didn't care. It broke my heart to turn one guy away when he didn't have cash, but there is no power for credit and we are down to three chords of wood. If I knew I could get more wood I would have given it to him but I can't get a hold of my wood guy. We finish cleaning and as we head out, I thank everyone.

While there is still light out I walk Nula through the town. The pictures I saw in the paper don't do it justice and they don’t describe the smell of oil and gasoline that had been everywhere. There is a 12' section of the boardwalk on top of a red Nissan a half of a mile from where the boardwalk used to be. It’s quiet too, with just the sounds of generators or clean-up crews breaking the silence, but the liveliness that was this town is gone. The bull dozers have been pushing the beach out of the streets round the clock for two days now and the west end of long beach is obliterated. All the apartment buildings have been vacated except for the supers who are pumping water out. I bump into my uncle who is back from the rockaways and tells me they are worse. His neighbor’s house in belle harbor is missing the front. He tells me the Hess in Island Park opened one pump an hourago and the gas line is 2miles long already. He told me state troopers are there to keep it in order. My beautiful beachside town I grew up in and love has its sidewalks lined with the contents of people's homes, all just ruined. There are so many abandoned cars that they have been slapped with stickers so the tow companies know which to get later. I walk by my friend Carlos's clothing store. It's boarded up but I already know he must have lost everything there. I remember reading that Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen are doing a benefit concert for the devastated areas. I think it's kinda funny that they think they will help anyone when they really need it. If they didn't do the concert and sent some generators here that might be of help, but I'm not a fan of either so I'm just a little jaded. I have to get home before curfew starts. The National Guard will arrest anyone on the street after 7pm. 5 days of this and I'm exhausted, I just have to hold out till it’s back to normal.

I would like to say I talk to my parents but I'm so mentally tired I just nod a lot and tell them I don't know. I try not to speak because I want to keep level headed and focus on what I can do. When I think of what I can't control I start to lose it. I tell my parents LIPA might have the power on by November 10 or 11th by what the paper said but I don't think we will have before Thanksgiving because of a nor'easter that might hit next Wednesday. They say we might have water by Monday or Tuesday and we shouldn't use the tap to even wash. My son brings firewood in and I am thankful for him. He has been my right arm since he moved in with me and I try to keep strong for him. I don't know where we will live when the power comes back. The house I have I had just rented out was destroyed, and the apartment that I was renting most likely will be condemned. The foundation shifted in the flood and until they get a structural engineer they can't pump the water out of the basement for fear it might collapse. Apartments will be hard to find because there won't be that many livable ones available and most of my savings will be used up just living without any income coming in from my store. I spend my night watching my son play with my nephew. My nephew runs through the house laughing the way only toddlers can. It has become my greatest joy watching them and spending time with my parents, my sisters and my nephew. God can show you how important the little things you take forgranted are. I try not to let everything else worry me and just dwell on these things, letting them become my most important memories. I thank the Lord that so far everyone I know is ok. I thank him that my parent’s home was ok and they have heat and room for my son and I. I am fortunate compared to most. I hope I can find some heaters for my grandmother and my friend. It’s going to be chilly at night now and they could get sick. I know my uncles will take care of my grandmother but they are in the Rockaways and if thats worse then here then I have to help them. We might get assistance by the end of the month but I can't think that far ahead. I just need to get through tonight and get ready for tomorrow, where I will get up at 5:30am and start over again. Keep us in your prayers and if you choose to help someone find out what they need and fed ex/ups it. They will get it from you before any government assistance will get there, and it will go directly to them. I love you all, God Bless you.

Sean Newman, Long Beach, NY