Once again it’s time for an episode of Cooking with Almost Dr J. Now tonight we are going to kick it up a notch, and attempt to make a classic spanish Paella.

For those of you without access to fancy spices, You can find substitues for most of these things at your local market. The entire process including preparation time will take approximately 2 hours

Let’s begin with the ingredients

3 cups jasmine rice (or any short to medium grain rice)
1 tsp pimenton (smoked paprika, can use regular)
1 tsp ancho chile powder (just ignore this if you dont have it)
1/4 tsp saffron (up to 1/2 tsp if your saffron is not fresh)
1 can marinated artichokes
1-2 cans sliced, pitted olives
3-4 chile peppers (or 1-2 sweet red bell peppers-i like my food spicy)
6 cups chicken broth
1 small onion peeled/chopped (not pictured)
4 cloves garlic, diced (not pictured)
1/2 cup spanish olive oil (or any)
20-30 uncooked, tail on raw shrimp, located at your nearest costco or fish-mongerer
3 bay leaves, crumbled
1/2- 3/4 cup dry white wine for cooking (can be ignored if you dont have)

1.Heat the broth with the saffron, paprika, chile powder, and onion. Cover and simmer 15 minutes on medium-low heat

2. While the broth is heating, saute the shrimp in a little bit of olive oil and a dash of white wine, until the shrimp barely turn pink. dont worry, you will be cooking it more later. Set the shrimp aside. If you are adding chicken or other meat, lightly cook them as well

3. In 1 tbsp of olive oil and 1 of the garlic cloves, fry the uncooked rice on high heat for 1-2 minutes until all the rice is coated in the oil…transfer to a cooking pan

4.At this point i added the chile peppers, but mostly this step is to ensure your pan can hold all the paella and to lightly grease the cooking pan with the oil covered rice so it wont stick later. It also mix the ingredients together a little. Remember, the rice will expand once we have added liquid to it

5.Add the rice, shrimp and chicken to the broth, along with bay leaves and remainder of the white wine

6. Your pot should look like this by this point. Now bring the mixture to a boil and cook uncovered for about 10 minutes on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.  Add the olives and artichokes about halfway into this cooking time

7.The liquid will be absorbed and the paella should look something like this

The golden color, a hallmark of paella is from the saffron and paprika

8. Transfer the paella back to your oven safe pan. If you are adding seafood like clams or mussels to the paella, bury them in the rice uncooked at this point with the edge that will open facing up. Then bake at 325, uncovered for 20 minutes

Voila! Enough Paella for 4-6 people, depending on the appetite. Be sure to let the paella sit lightly on top of the stove to cool down for about 5 minutes. Garnish with lemon slices and enjoy!

A nice accompanying desert can be easily made with brownies and strawberry gelatin

Remember, while good taste is important, a truly wonderful meal should appeal to ALL the senses. So ends my food snobbery for the day.

Until cooking with Almost Dr J returns…

So i while back i believe i promised to reinstitue my attempts at foodblogging every now and again. Mostly so Aytch wont starve without access to the food network So here is a seared ahi tuna recipe

Almost Dr J’s recipe for three flavor seared tuna

Ingredients

1 lb of ahi tuna

Citrus marinade: 1 lemon, 1 lime, and 1 nectarine (i normally use oranges, but the nectarine was really good in the supermarkert…yum) Add juice of 1 fruit each to ziploc bag with 1/3 of fish

Oriental Marinade: Teriyaki Sauce and white cooking wine (soy sauce w/mirin can substitute for teriyaki sauce) Mix about 1/3 cup teriyaki sauce to 1/4 cup white wine. Adjust as desired and add to ziploc bagith 1/3 fish

Spicy Marinade: 1 tbsp Paprika, 3 cloves garlic and 3-5 habanero peppers. blend in food processor or chop finely and add to ziploc with 1/3 of fish

Preparation:
1. Place fish marinades in frigidaire for at least 4 hours (can be done overnight if desired)
2. Upon time to cook, remove fish from marinade and place on skillet on high heat, flipping every 2 minutes depending on thickness of fish
3. Ideally, do this about 4-8 minutes per fish piece, so when you remove fish from flame it is cooked almost all the way through with only the center still pink and raw. Your cooking times may vary
4. Arrange on plate and eat!

Voila! I tried to organize it in the shape of a little fishy on a seabed of brown rice. Because I am a nerd and that stuff makes me happy. I prefer to end with the habanero marinade piece because if you make it too spicy, it kills your ability to taste the subtle nuances of the other two marinades.

I hope you all enjoyed this session of cooking with Almost Dr. J Join me next time when i remember to document my food making process, and let me know what you think