Spanish Ayes

I love paella although I make it all too infrequently. I guess it has something to do with getting enough people together to finish it in one sitting … since, due to its seafood content, it doesn’t keep. Let me first list the necessary ingredients: one small high-quality kielbasa (or chorizo), one good flavorful small chicken, a dozen mussels, a dozen littleneck clams, a pound of jumbo shrimp, a small jar of sliced pimento, a good-sized pinch of saffron, two cups of short-grain rice, a package of frozen Le Sueur peas, a half cup of good olive oil, a chopped up Spanish onion, four crushed garlic cloves, a teaspoon of smoked Spanish paprika, salt and pepper, lightly chopped Italian parsley, the wedges of one lemon, one cup of dry white wine, and two cups of water.

The process: Clean the shrimp and de-sand and clean the shellfish (soaking in cold water with a good handful of cornmeal). Then start with a paella pan (preferable) or a very large frying pan. Add the olive oil and heat it up. Cut the chicken up into 11 or 12 pieces (including cutting the breasts in two). Salt and pepper the chicken liberally. Fry the chicken until golden brown and place on a plate. Slice as much of the kielbasa or chorizo as is your taste (to me, kielbasa is preferable to chorizo) into ½ inch pieces and also fry it until slightly darkened. Also place this on a side dish.

Now to the remaining oil (augmented if need be) add the onion and garlic and sauté until transparent. Add the rice and cook until it gets a chalky white. Add the wine, water, saffron and paprika, stir briefly, and bring up to heat. Then stuff back the chicken and kielbasa into the rice and cover for about 15 minutes (or a little longer if uncovered). Next add the pimento, the peas and tuck in the shrimp, mussels and clams into the meat/rice mixture. Cook until the clams and mussels open (easier if covered) and the shrimp are pink. For a flourish you might top this off with a cut-up pre-steamed lobster. Take off the heat and sprinkle with the parsley and arrange the lemon wedges around the pan’s periphery.

Place on a good trivet in the center of the table next to a large pitcher of ice-cold, fruity red or white (my preference) sangria and a basket of crusty sour-dough baguette bread. This dish should easily feed (serving-oneself) eight to ten hungry people.

Generic Asian Stir-Fry Hints

There are some things that I have learned over the years cooking a variety of Chinese and Asian wok dishes. They are:

  - Always prep (including cleaning and scraping if necessary) all your ingredients first as you won’t have time once the stir-frying begins. This means mincing (garlic, ginger root), grinding (pork, turkey), match-sticking (pork, beef, lamb, chicken), shelling and deveining shrimp, cross-cutting (beef, pork, scallions, asparagus, scallops, carrots, onions, celery, fish, peppers, scallions), de-sanding shellfish, and soaking in hot or boiling water (noodles, dried mushrooms, etc.)
  - Start cooking or steaming your rice as you prep your ingredients as this will take a good twenty minutes.
  - Your main ingredients should include a meat (pork, beef, chicken or even lamb or turkey) or fish/shellfish (carp, clams, shrimp, crab, scallops, lobster, flounder, etc); a vegetable or two or three (string beans, asparagus, broccoli, bok choi, baby bok choi, carrots, peppers, onions, cauliflower, celery, mung bean sprouts, baby corn, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, spinach, watercress, water chestnuts, peas, etc.); scallions; garlic, ginger root, sauce(s), and maybe noodles such as lo mein, cellophane (bean thread) noodles, egg noodles, rice noodles, or wheat noodles … and sometimes even fruit … such as pineapple in sweet and sour dishes.
  - Don’t be afraid to use exotic ingredients (snails, sea cucumber, cilantro, wood mushrooms, etc.) if you can find them … and get some advice on how to prepare them.
  - Strive for at least three or four contrasting colors (e.g., white meat, green asparagus, red pepper, and a brown sauce).
  - Strive for contrasting textures -- crunchy as in water chestnuts, soft as in noodles, chewy as in beef, hard as in peanuts or sesame seeds, etc. Don’t overcook everything so that it is all soft and mushy.
  - Strive for contrasting flavors – hot as in pepper flakes, sweet as in Hoisin sauce, salty as in soy sauce, bitter as in bok choi, sour as in lemon juice or vinegar, and umani (protein taste) as in soy sauce or MSG.
  - Strive for contrasting temperatures such as a hot stir-fry situated on top of cool watercress or chopped lettuce.
  - Don’t make everything in a brown sauce. Occasionally use just a clear sauce (chicken broth) or a red sauce (ketchup-based) or a yellow sauce (lemon chicken).
  - Always start with a hot wok. If you need to steam a vegetable first, add it to the wok and season it with a little soy sauce, then add a little water and cover for a few minutes and remove to a side plate. Then add to the hot wok just enough oil (peanut or safflower) to get the job done. I usually start by adding the minced garlic and ginger root and then the meat. You can coat the meat in corn starch if you want to get it crispy on the outside (if your wok is hot enough).
  - Then add the steamed and remaining vegetables and cook briefly.
  - Then add the sauce(s). Oyster sauce goes best with beef. Hoisin sauce goes best with pork. Black-bean sauce goes best with clams and fish. Ketchup-based sauce goes best with shrimp. If you want some heat, augment these sauces with Szechuan or Hunan sauces or red pepper flakes. And then use white pepper, MSG, salt, and sugar sparingly.
  - Thicken the wok sauce (as needed) with a cornstarch slurry made with a teaspoon to a tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with some water, soy sauce, dry sherry, or chicken broth. This slurry needs to come to a boil before it will thicken.
  - I usually finish wok dishes with any bean sprouts (to keep them crunchy) and a good handful of chopped scallions ... a few seconds before stirring well and turning off the heat. Then, after the heat is off, I drizzle on about a teaspoon to a tablespoon of toasted sesame oil.
  - You can place the finished stir-fry on a bed of cool chopped iceberg lettuce, watercress, frisee, baby spinach, etc. to create a contrasting presentation (and better taste).
  - Finally, if handy, sprinkle with chopped peanuts, black sesame seeds, toasted sesame seeds, honey-coated walnuts, etc. depending on the dish. Not really necessary though.
  - Serve with cooked or steamed rice.

Yes, you will make mistakes experimenting with these guidelines, but keep trying until you get a repertoire of dishes you like. Freely consult Chinese, Korean, and Thai cookbooks to get specific combinations that work well together. (Notice, I didn’t say “Japanese” as it is generally a water-based cuisine as opposed to the oil-based wok cuisine of other Asian cultures.) Even try to duplicate dishes you have enjoyed from your favorite Asian restaurant. I did with my Shrimp in Hot Spicy Paste dish. (See: Szechuan Taste)