Okay, so I'm not totally sure how I feel about this, but I seem to be the one cooking these days. Given, Liz is slaving away at work and I seem to be stuck in neutral as I try to shift gears and start working on article revisions. Cooking = finite tasks. Writing = being smart. I currently can't seem to muster up the latter. Anyway, here I go. While perusing one of our issues of Cooking Light (see base recipe here), I came upon a clam paella recipe. As we did not get our act together in procuring the clams, this will be sans seafood and including some Trader Joe's chile-lime chicken. Liz is now making me call it arroz con pollo. Apparently I'm easily bullied.
What do you need:
3T olive oil
2 decent size yellow onions - diced
2 pablano peppers - diced
4 garlic cloves
1/2t black pepper
1 1/2t salt
1/2t saffron threads - crushed
1t dried pepper flakes (it asked for 1/8t, but live a little)
3/4c halved cherry tomatoes
2 ears of corn - de-kerneled
1/2c chunks of Trader Joe's chile-lime chicken strips
Per Cooking Light:
1. Preheat oven to 450°.
2. Heat oil in a 12-inch ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, poblanos, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper; sauté 3 minutes. Add rice and saffron. Cook 2 minutes; stir constantly. Add 2 cups water, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, and red pepper; bring to a boil.
3. Bake at 450° for 50 minutes or until rice is done. Stir in corn and tomatoes. Nestle clams into rice mixture. (NOTE: i only needed to bake this for about 30 minutes. By then the rice was finished. The liquid was gone. Another 20 minutes would have been a disaster, at least in my oven.) Bake at 450° for 12 minutes or until shells open, and discard unopened shells. (NOTE: you don't have to wait for the chicken to open.)'
Ok, so as it turns out, the fact that I made this dinner did not lead to it sucking. It was delicious. The timing was perfect. The garlic baguette was just crisped the moment that Liz walked into the house from work. I was officially a perfect 1950s wife. My heels and pearls had been replaced with an Austin t-shirt and camouflage shorts, but nonetheless.
I firmly look forward to making this again with the clams. Really, we inhaled it. Look at Lizzie and the clean plate club. My only regret is that I don't have more leftovers. For those who fear spice, this had a nice heat, but was not inedible if you like heat. It was perfect for us.
ELIZABETH * JULY 12 * DINNER
I know how I feel about this. Great. I don't mind at all walking in the house from slaving over a hot Internet all day to a cold glass of wine, a hot meal, and a doting K, pearls or no pearls. Just the kind of meal to set me right up for an evening of fierce eBay competition. Look out hat block buying millinery dorks.
This recipe is definitely a keeper. I think you could make it with anything: clams as suggested, a nice piece of fish, chicken was great, some pork loin pieces... And you could throw whatever veg you wanted in there. It has a great flavor, the corn was crunchy and fresh tasting, the poblanos flavorful, and those Trader Joe's people are clever bastards.
Again I say, no complaints when the little lady puts on her ruffly apron and gets out her home ec recipe file.
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