Palella

It's Summer!!! Officially, and I have the sun burn to prove it. Do your eating habbits change in the summer? Mine definitely do. Something about the warm weather, makes me want to switch up everything I eat. So while all winter long, when I needed that saffron fix, I made risotto, now it's Palella time! Now that I have a grill, I would like to figure out how to grill this (because what doesn't taste better on the gril?!), but in the mean time, here is a quick palella that you can make in the oven and tastes just like your on the beach in Spain!

Palella:
2 chorizo style sausage links, raw
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
3 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1/2 vidalia onion
1 bell pepper
1 garlic clove
2 cups of rice, medium grain
4 cups of chicken stock
1/2 tsp of paprika
1 tsp saffron
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 bay leaf
1 medium tomato
1 can of artichokes, drained and washed
1 lb of mussels
1 lb of shrimp, peeled and deveined
Salt, pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees and position rack in the center. Grease a stone or metal baking dish with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and put in oven while pre-heating. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Slice the chorizo into 1/2 inch slices and put in the pan. Cook until edges are charred and the chorizo is fragrant, about 2 minutes, set chorizo asside. Add remaining olive oil to the pan. Cut chicken into small chunks and season with salt and pepper. Add to the hot pan and brown on all sides. Lower heat to medium. Dice the onion, garlic, and pepper and add to the pan and cook until onions soften slightly, about 3 minutes. Add rice to the pan and "toast" until slightly opaque, about two minutes. Add stock, paprika, saffron, and sherry vinegar and stir. Pour the contents of the pan into the prepared baking dish. Cook for 15 minutes. Dice tomato, and cut the artichokes in half. Add the tomato, reserved chorizo, artichokes to palella, and gently stir to combine, trying not to disturb the very bottom layer of rice (so a crust forms). Cook until the all the stock is absoarbed, about 10 minutes longer. Season the shrimp with salt and pepper and add to the pan. Add mussels to the palella as well. Cook until the shrimp turn pink and the mussels open, about 3-4 minutes. Enjoy! (adapted from epicurious)

Happy Eating.

Malted Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches

The long weekend is here! Hooray! And the official start of summer. I am looking forward to a long, hot summer, full of weekends at the Jersey Shore, wearing white, and summerizing my desserts. These cookies, plain, are hands down 100% the best chocolate chip cookie I have ever tasted. I seriously had trouble sharing them, which is very unusual for me (I am usually a feeder). The malt powder is like magic, there is no other way to describe these cookies besides malty magical amazingness. Then, if that is not insane enough for you, we can spread some delicious french vanilla ice cream inbetween, and make the most delicious icecream sandwich ever. So, if your still not sure what to bring to your weekend BBQs, trust me, and make a batch these amazing ice cream sandwiches.

Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies:
2 sticks of butter, softened
3/4 cups of brown sugar
3/4 cups of white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp malted milk powder
2 cups of flour
12 oz of semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, place a rack in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Cream together butter and both sugars until smooth and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mix until incorporated. Add in vanilla and mix in. Add baking soda, salts, and malted milk powder, and mix until just combined. Add 1 cup of flour and mix until just combined, repeat with remaining cup of flour. Fold in chocolate chips. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop cookies by rounded teaspoons, giving them ample room to spread out (12 cookies per sheet). Bake until golden brown, 10-12 minutes; for best results cookies should spend no more than 1/4 of the baking time (about 3 minutes) on the bottom rack. I started the cookies on the bottom, towards the end of the previous dozens baking time, and then moved them to the top rack as soon as the other cookies were done. Makes about 4 dozen cookies. (adapted from the Pioneer Woman)

To Make Ice Cream Sandwiches:
Malted chocolate chip cookies
French vanilla ice cream
Mini chocolate chips, or mini chocolate chunks

Let ice cream stand at room temperature for about 5 minutes to soften slightly. Pair the desired number of cookies by size. On one cookie, spoon about 1/4 cup (you can eyeball) of ice cream, and spread it fairly evenly. Press second cookie on top, until ice cream expands almost to the edge of the cookie. Run a knife or your finger around the ice cream to smooth. Sprinkle with mini chocolate chuncks, repeat with remaining cookies. Wrap the assembled sandwiches in wax paper and freeze until firm, at least 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Happy Eating.

Classic Gazpacho

Ahh Summer. Well not quite yet, but the weather and produce is making a turn for the warmer. In Whole Foods this week (I am a Whole Foods gal now, because my move put me a touch too far from my beloved Wegmans), I found cherries, apricots, and beautiful tomatoes. They may not be Jerseys yet, but they were so delicious, they just had to become my absolute favorite tomato dish. When I lived (lived being the loose term applied to the summers I spent there) in Spain, particularly Madrid, I ate Gazpacho every single day. I could not get enough, and I never got sick of it. I would have it for lunch, or stop on my walk home from class. I loved the cool and refreshing soup, and the little plate of mix ins it came with. Making this made me so happy, and eating it out on my deck this weekend brought me right back to my favorite little neighborhood joint in Madrid, where I would sit outside, enjoy the weather, the company of good friends, and a delicious bowl of cool, refreshing Gazpacho.

Classic Gazpacho:
2 inch long piece of baguette, without the crust
2 garlic cloves
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp of Sherry vinegar
1 tsp of sugar
2 1/2 lb of tomatoes
1/2 red bell pepper
1/2 jalapeno
1/2 cucumber
1/4 vidalia onion

Fixings:
1/2 a tomato
1/2 cucumber
1/2 bell pepper
1/4 vidalia onion
1/2 lime
2 inch piece of baguette

In a food processor, minch the garlic and salt together. Soak the bread in a some water for 1 minute, then ring out as much water as you can and add to the food processor. Core and quarter the tomatoes, peel the cucumber, and remove the seeds and ribs from the bell pepper Add in sherry, sugar, half of the tomatoes, the peppers, cucumber and onion. Blend until no large pieces remain, while the motor is running, and the rest of the tomatoes, until everything is liquified and combined. Taste and adjust seasonings. Pass soup through a strainer into a large bowl. Reserve the solids. Cover the gazpacho and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to overnight. Serve with the fixings: dice the tomato, cucumber, pepper, and onion into small squares. Slice the lime into thin wedges. Slice the baguette like you are making bruscetta (into thin strips). Toast the bread and then cube that as well. To serve your soup (in the classic Spanish fashion), serve the gazpacho plain, with the fixings on the side and let people stir in their own amounts of each to the soup before eating. Use reserved solids to make pan con tomate (see below).

You could discard the solids, but it's much tastier and less wasteful use them for pan con tomate (a favorite treat of mine from my time in Barcelona). It's like a Spanish version of a extra garlicy bruscetta. Slice 2 inch pieces of baguette and then cut those in half. Toast them lightly, then rub them with a garlic clove that has been cut in half. Drizzle the toast with extra virgin olive oil and top with the reserved tomato solids from the soup.

Happy Eating.

Brown Sugar Blueberry Muffins

Happy Monday everyone! I both love and hate Mondays. On the one hand, to me it's always felt like the begining of the week. It's a chance to start over, and have a great week, erase whatever went wrong last week. But, on the other hand, it means the lovely and relaxing weekend is over. Either way, Monday morning sure looks brighter with a deliciously cinnamony blueberry muffin, especially when it has a streusel topping. Muffins are fantastic because it is a socially acceptable way to have dessert for breakfast. Tell someone your having cookies for breakfast, they look at you like your crazy, but a muffin, totally fine. So whip up a batch for breakfast this week!

Brown Sugar Blueberry Muffins
Muffins:
6 tbsp butter, melted
3/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of white sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups blueberries

Topping:
3 tbsp butter, melted
1/4 cup of rolled oats
1/4 cup of flour
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt

Pre-heat the oven to 375 with a rack postinioned in the middle. Make the topping: Mix together the oats, flour, sugars, and spices. Pour melted butter over the mixture and stir until topping is clumpy and combined, set asside. Make the muffins: In a large bowl mix together the butter and sugars until well combined and smooth. Add milks and egg and mix until just combined. Add in baking powder spices and 1/2 cup of flour and mix until just combined. Add remaining flour and repeat. Gently fold in blueberries. Line a 12 muffin pan with liners and spray with non-stick. Divide the batter evenly amonst the muffins, each should be full to about the top of the liner. Top each with the topping, dividing it evenly amonst the muffins. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. (adapted from epicurious)

Happy Eating.