Pretty Good Pasta Salad

If you haven't noticed, we are entering summer and, hopefully, that means many picnics, barbecues and other outdoor eating events are awaiting. So what are you going to make to accompany all those grilled steaks and chicken? I suggest this rather decent pasta salad I whipped together. As with all salads the list of ingredients can vary totally according to your taste, but I will give you my choice plus a few hints on how to boost flavours. 

You (may) need:

500g multi-coloured pasta screws (or any other with good surface area)

2 cloves of garlic

150g of bacon

2 tbsp tomato concentrate

1 tsp dried oregano

Pinch of red pepper flakes or some cayenne

Extra virgin olive oil

Handful of cherry tomatoes

1 cucumber, diced

Handful of black olives

5-6 sun-dried tomatoes, soaked

Feta cheese cut in to small cubes

Handful of fresh basil

Handful of fresh chives

 Put the pasta to boil according to the package and drop two cloves of garlic with the skin into the water. Meanwhile, cut the bacon into small strips and fry until crispy. Remove from the pan, but keep the fat. When the pasta is done, rinse it under cold water and set it aside to drain and cool down. Remove the two cloves of garlic, which should by now be soft and easy to squeeze out of the skin. Crush them with the side of the blade of your kitchen knife until it becomes a paste. Add it to the rendered fat from the bacon, add the tomato paste, oregano and red pepper flakes. Fry it for a minute at medium temperature. Add a good glug of extra virgin olive oil. Finally, mix it in with the cooled-down pasta in a bowl.

 Half or quarter the cherry tomatoes, half the olives, cube the cucumber, chop the herbs and slice the sun-dried tomatoes. Mix it all with the feta cheese into the bowl of pasta. 

Leave the pasta covered in the fridge for at least an hour or more for all the flavours to develop and mix. It wil easily last a couple of days in the fridge. Only the cucumbers might go a bit soggy, so best add them not too long before serving. Have a great picnic.

Rhubarb and Strawberry Pie

Rhubarb and strawberry pie is really a pie of transition. There is a small overlap at the end of the rhubarb season when the first strawberries start coming out, and that's about now. So it's time to get cooking. I was inspired to this pie filling by the wonderful people at joyofbaking.com. If you are not familiar with that page but like baking, bookmark it now. You will come back, I guarantee that. I just made a few spice adjustments to their version. But really, it's a straight forward recipe, so I doubt anyone can really patent it. And then I made my regular pie dough.  To make the dough, make sure all the ingredients are well chilled. If you have a food processor, this is the easiest way to do it. Just whiz the butter and cold flour together until it has the consistency of wet sand. The slowly pour in the water while the machine is on. As soon as it forms to a ball stop, divide the portion in two two pieces (on which is 1/3 and one which is 2/3). Shape like a ball and wrap them in cling film and put the in the fridge for at least an hour before. Alternatively, make the dough with a fork and some elbow grease. Just make sure the butter never gets too warm. You'll need:

Pie dough:

280g flour

1tsp salt

150g cold butter

5-6 tbsp ice cold water

Filling:

500g Strawberries

500g Rhubarb stalks

150g Sugar

3-4 tbsp cornstarch (sifted)

1 tsp Chinese five spice

1 tsp vanilla powder

1 tsp orange flower water (optional)

Wash the stalks and cut them in equally sized pieces of about 2 cm long. Half the strawberries. Sprinkle the orange flower water over.

 In a separate bowl, sift the corn starch and mix in the sugar, five spice and vanilla. Mix well, reserve 2 tbsp and sprinkle the rest over the strawberries and rhubarb and give it a good toss. Set it aside in the fridge while preparing the dough.

Roll out the bigger ball until it's big enough to fit inside the pie form and go up the sides. I usually do it between a piece of oven paper and some clingfilm lightly dusted with flower. this makes it easier to lift it up into the pie form. Dust the base with the remaining two tablespoons of the sugar mix. 

 Put in the strawberry and rhubarb filling. Roll out the smaller ball of dough. Cut it into strips and start getting creative with your weaving. Turn on the oven at 200ºC. While the oven is getting hot, place the pie in the fridge. Brush the top with milk and then bake for about 45 minutes. Let cool down completely before cutting into it. And by completely, I almost mean over night.

As it's such brilliant weather I decided to add a scoop of my homemade ice cream on top and splashed it with some of the juices from the pie. Just heavenly, I have to say. 

Paella Mixta

When people think of Spanish food, one of the first thing that comes to their minds is probably the Paella. It's become synonymous with beach, sun and fiesta on the Spanish coast. However, I believe that the majority who have eaten paella in Spain has never eaten it properly prepared homemade style, but have been subjected to quickly heated, pre-cooked rice mix that comes from a frozen bag and added a couple of prawns for decoration. In fact, paella, which comes from the Valencia region in Spain, has many different varieties according to what has been added. I'm making a paella mixta, which combines seafood and chicken. Others use rabbit, seafood or vegetables only. Paella is more a way of cooking the rice than any final list of ingredients so feel free to improvise. I'm using my girlfriend's method, which she learnt from her mother.

Ingredients:

2 squids

1 glass of white wine

1/2 kg of fresh mussels, cleaned

1/2 kg of clams

1/2 kg of fresh prawns with shell and head

1 l. of fish/seafood stock

1 green pepper

1 onion

1-2 cloves of garlic

1/2 kg of chicken (upper thighs and drumsticks cut into smaller pieces, wings)

1 -2 tsp of sweet paprika

1 pinch of saffron

3/4 kg of round paella rice, preferably Arroz Bomba from Valencia 

Salt to taste

Olive oil for frying

Lemon

Green olives

 Start by cleaning the squids, remove the heads, pull out and throw away the guts and the plastic-like bone it has. Peel off the skin and cut the head off just above the tentacles. Cut the body into rings, leave the tentacles whole or half them. 

 Bring the white wine to a boil and steam the cleaned mussels in it under a lid for about 3 minutes. Shake the pot now and then so they move around. Discard any that hasn't opened. Remove the mussels, but keep the liquid.

 Steam the clams in the liquid from the mussels. According to my mother-in-law, it's best to do the clams and mussels in separate batches, in case one mussel is bad or full of sand. Then you won't spoil the liquid from the mussels. However, I am a bit lazy and in my case they were more boiled than steamed.  Again, any that hasn't opened after 3 minutes should be thrown away. Remove clams and keep the liquid. This seafood stock is the real secret to a great paella. Add the extra litre of stock. Remove the heads from the prawns and let them simmer in the stock at low heat while preparing the next step.

 First, turn your oven on at 180º. Then finely chop the onion and the green pepper. Fry in a bit of olive oil until the onion is translucent. Then add the chopped or minced garlic. Add the chicken pieces and fry until brown.

 Add the prepared squid and the prawns, fry for a couple of minutes, then remove prawns. Add a the paprika. 

 Put the pinch of saffron in a tbsp of the hot seafood stock. Let it soak for a minute before adding it to the pan.

 Add the rice and let it fry for 4-5 minutes with the rest of the ingredients before adding the stock. Just remember to keep stirring it so it doesn't stick and burn. Add the simmering stock until the rice is just covered. It's important that the stock is simmering hot. The rice shouldn't be cooled down once they start cooking. Traditionally, paella is made in a flat pan over an open fire or gas burner. I have neither, so I like to finish mine off in the hot oven. That way I compensate for the deeper pan by adding heat from all directions. A little more stock may need to be added depending on the type of rice you use.

 When the rice is almost cooked through, take it out of the oven, cover it and let it finish cooking by itself for a few more minutes. The rice should be tender, not mushy nor hard at the centre. The individual grains should be loose, but it's OK if there is leftover liquid. The paella will be what is called slightly 'caldosa'.

Stir in the clams and some of the mussels and prawns. Use the rest to decorate along with some green olives (you can also choose to cook the olives with the paella). Serve with a slice of lemon on the side. Buen aprovecho.