Rosa's Paella

I tried to post this once before. I can't explain it, but I got teary and thought I would come back to it. I have been lucky enough have spent long hot Summers, chilly winters and beautiful Easter holidays over the last 25 years, here in my parents home. More recently I have been cooking out there for the family business and however stressful and tiring it can be, nothing beats shopping in the markets, picking fresh herbs from the garden and making people smile through cooking up an Andalusian storm. Cristie and I have such a laugh in the kitchen and I get the feeling the Spanish waiters think the way I run a kitchen is mad, but we all have a giggle together.

 

Out of the pool and onto the tractor for a bumpy ride around the farm with Pepe. 

Meet our Spanish Mum and Dad, Rosa and Joaquin (neighbours). I wrote here about Joaquin and my Spanish Easter before.

Well today's post is about this wonderful woman right here. My memories of Rosa from my earliest years are of running away from her! She used to hold one of my cheeks, hard in between her thumb and index finger and give it a good shake. It was a gesture of such affection but, I dreaded that.

I don't know when you'll next be cooking your 25 person paella or how useful this recipe will be to you but it is a fantastic dish for a family gathering but the tips really do translate for smaller paellas.



Rosa's recipe which I will translate at bottom of post

I have eaten more paella than I can count over the years and everyone agrees that nothing lives up to Rosa's. I felt genuinely honoured to have spent the afternoon watching her cook and note the little things she did that weren't easy to translate. It was after this memorable day, that I realised that it was only Rosa, standing behind that pan who pours her love into this dish for those who eat it, who can make it taste the way she does. A family rule is to add another handful of rice than needed to the pan for the 'unexpected guest' this just sums up what I love about the Spanish.

First things first. It's important to buy the shellfish on the same day as you are cooking and serving your paella. This is what makes cooking a paella a day long job! Rosa cooks all her shell fish seperately and keeps all the water that the mussels/prawns/clams have simmered in, to use as stock. Before the paella pan comes out, you need to make a sofrito. This is the flavour base. Saute peppers, onion, bay, garlic, tinned tomatoes, meat and squid until thickened.

Add the sofrito to the paella pan with the parsley mix below.

Yes, that is 2 heads of garlic in there. Blitzed with a cup of water, parsley, 3 stock cubes and whole black pepper corns. Blitz until you can't hear the pepper.

This is where I tell you that nothing, absolutely nothing is wasted. Just like you might swirl water around in an emptied tin of tomatoes and add it to your cooking, Rosa does this to every container that has had food in it. Here she scrapes every last bit of sofrito flavour out of the pan, and she then rinsed her blender that she had used for the parsley in this water before adding it as 'stock'.

Then all that shell fish cooking liquid is strained and added.

Another top tip is to sort your mussels. Pick out the most handsome, plump mussels for decorating the pan later on and put aside. Then pick the meat out of the remaining shells and add to the pan. This is wear I was told off for leaving those white suction pad things in the shells. I have always discarded that bit with the shells but, you guessed it, they get scraped in and put in the pan too!

 The mussels and clams have been added with saffron and given a good stir. Next, the rice. 100g per person.

This is where Javier, Rosa's son comes in and helps with the stirring, the smells coax everyone into the kitchen at some point for a stir! Here the peas are added. It is really important they are canned peas, they taste totally different to fresh peas. Also add a small glass of white wine here, not too much or apparently the rice goes soft.

I absolutely love this next pic. The light pouring into the cool kitchen, Joaquin has been waiting in his van, with the engine running outside ready to take the paella over to ours. He is wondering what is taking so long. Rosa ignores him and keeps talking to me. Javier's friend, on standby to help carry the paella out the house. The paella, bubbling away on top of this otherwise redundant washing machine waiting to be adorned.

After a while going untouched, Javi holds the handles and shakes the pan to level the rice. This means the socarrat goes undisturbed. The socarrat is the layer of toasted rice that gets stuck on the bottom of the pan which is a real treat!

 Everyone gets stuck in with the decoration.

If it's for a birthday Rosa will spell out FELIZ CUMPLEANOS with the roasted peppers.

  

Can you see the circle of pepper in the middle? That's for the lemon and parsley crown that gets put on just before serving. 

Gracias Rosa, BESOS XXXXX

Translation, Paella for 25 people
1/3 kilo olive oil
2 heads of garlic
2 kilos of chicken thigh
4 tins of chopped tomato
1 tin of tinned peas
1 kilo of green peppers for sofrito
2 red peppers roasted for decoration
1/2 kilo of squid
1 kilo mussels
1 tbsp black pepper corns
2 big pinches saffron
4 stock cubes. The best equivalent in UK would be Kallo organic chicken.
Handful of parsley, with stalk
6 bay leaves
Prawns for decoration
Paella rice 100g per person
There was probably 3+ litres of stock added made from shell fish juices etc. 

Please let me know if you have any family/authentic recipes from overseas you want to share!

Vegan Cashew and Berry Cake

I noticed this blog needed a splash of colour... ta daaa! So above you have the wrinkly impression of tin foil in what looks like a cheesecake. Below you see where I thought I might just smooth things out, I actually quite like the wrinkled effect, it's got character!

I promise this will be the last vegan post for a while, I know I have been a bit carried away of late. The science behind cooking and baking really does fascinate me so the idea of soaking cashew nuts overnight in water and then blitzing them up in the morning to make cashew cream just astounds me, it really does.

Again, this little cake got mixed reviews at dinner the other night. I'll let you know that it reminded one friend of her berry and coconut shower gel. Hmm, so not to everyone's taste. I, for one (or one of 3) really enjoyed it. I love dates and nuts and berries, so what's not to like?

I think you have to be very open minded when tasting food like this, welcome the new flavour combinations you haven't experienced before. The unprocessed, natural and clean flavours, the very fact it is raw, everything that is good for you, still good for you in it's natural, unaltered state.

I presented this as a 'Vegan Berry Cheesecake' which one friend said was a mistake. You say cheesecake and automatically something in your brain pings and your taste buds awaken, and everyone is expecting cheesecake... and it isn't cheesecake.
The next day I gave a slice to another friend and called it simply a vegan dessert. She loved it. 
The recipe is from the most fabulous blog called My New Roots See here
Sarah explains the health bit behind her recipe, I can only tell you that I will be making this again. 
The only alteration I made was adding a blueberry layer.
I have played tour guide today to a Uni friend visiting London. We have been to Buckingham Palace, walked up the glistening snowy blanketed Mall to Trafalgar; wandered around the Taylor Wessing Portrait Awards at the National Portrait Gallery (a must see); dined in China town; had cream tea in Sketch; popped by all the must see shops/sites before slumping into our chairs at the theatre to see Wicked. I'm zonked and there's so much more to come tomorrow!

Mini Chocolate Marshmallow Tea Cakes with Matcha

Like any job, catering has its niggles but can be so much fun and so rewarding too. One of my favourie things is coming up with new ideas for each job. Tomorrow I have a Japanese dinner party to cater (please pray the snow stops!) I'm most excited about the petit fours. I am serving Mini Red Velvet and Matcha sandwiches, Blackberry and Chocolate Macarons and Miniature Matcha Tea Cakes. I have a ridiculous colleciton of silicone bakeware (pls feel free to borrow if in SW london) and so love an experiment. 
Here I used Paul Hollywood's recipe for Tea cakes but made it to fit my mini moulds. 

-I would say it was a pretty good recipe, but if you want a neat base, make the biscuits a few mm smaller than the diameter of your moulds to allow for the chocolate covering. 
-I used the microwave to melt my chocolate and used couverture. If you want to ensure, totally glossy perfection, you should probably temper your chocolate. Tips here 
-Don't be put off my cutter measurements, I used an 1/8 of a cup measure for mine.
-I decorated mine with a little gold leaf, it's all in the detail for a fancy occasion. 

 This is the trickiest bit, listen to Paul when he tells you to let the chocolate cool down and thicken.

 Coating the biscuits and precariously balancing them on sink edge.

 This is where the real difference comes in to play between your tea cakes and Tunnock's, seriously delicious meringue.

 My Matcha is the real deal from Japan, the really vibrant green kind. You could mix any flavours or colours you like, I'm itching to do it all again and pop raspberries in the centre.

 I also made vanilla...

 Pop out carefully and gently!

 I took this pic of the inside when I suddenly realised it was the money shot - however it was dark by then so it looks a funny colour and a tad blurry, hey ho.

Notes-

-Of course you don't need a mould, I also came across these adorable tea cakes from the cake hunter if you want to go free style it.
 
-Whilst searching for recipes I also came across these cute homemade cushions by Nikki up in Scotland, know anyone crazy about biscuits? Have a look here at her site

Yuzu, tofu, chocolate mousse pots

Trust me, and you will love me forever. 
For I am bringing you another healthy but damn delicious dessert.
After the lemon cremes, I thought of making passion fruit pots, lime pie, tofu creme brulees! And then I thought of choc mousse and how good that could be. 
I tried this out on a bunch of friends last night, and I promise the bowls were scraped clean. 
You could add whatever you like to this recipe but I wanted to keep the ingredient list down so you could see how simple it was. It takes 5 minutes, and a couple of hours to chill. 
One friend said it tasted like the GU pots, I can't compare as I have never had one but you would NEVER guess this was made of tofu and compared to a GU pot of 199 calories, these have 96. That's pretty cool eh? Those of you who know me, may think I didn't know what a calorie was, well..it's January and I am on my best behaviour.

This is the stuff you are after- SILKEN tofu, and I love this brand. I made the lemon cremes with the Clearspring silken tofu from Waitrose which worked too.

You can make this with 100g of 70% chocolate and 1 carton of tofu and you will have choc mousse. I just added some more flavours which you can play around with. 

Yuzu, tofu, chocolate mousse (vegan)

80g 70% dark chocolate (Green and Blacks)
20g milk chocolate
1 carton of silken tofu 349g 
2 tbsp yuzu
grated zest of 1/2 orange
pinch of fine salt
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste 
cocao nibs and lime zest to decorate

Drain your tofu in a sieve lined with kitchen paper
Melt the chocolate (I do this in a microwave in a plastic bowl for 1 minute and then short zaps and stirring to make sure it doesn't burn) 
Blend tofu until silky in a food processor or with a hand blender in a tall container and add the chocolate which should be cooled.
Add the remaining ingredients and spoon out into small bowls or glasses.
Decorate and pop in fridge to chill.

 I'm really proud of this recipe, I hope you make it.

Vegan lemon cremes with oat-thyme crumble

If you're sneering at your screen at the thought of lemon posset without the cream and sugar, here's my recipe for the real deal. I promise you however, it can be done, it can be healthy and it is delicious made with blended tofu. 
My Christmas present to myself this year was The Sprouted Kitchen cookbook. It is beautifully shot and packed full of ideas for a more wholesome approach to cooking at home but with big, fresh flavours.
Now, the worry when I read a recipe like this (that should have sugar and cream in it and doesn't), is that the author may think something is tasty but perhaps they've forgotten how amazing the original calorific version is and have been lost in their tofu ways for too long... well I'm here to tell you that these desserts were loved by my family and they were all shocked when I told them they were made with tofu. The granola with the touch of salt and fresh thyme is to die for. 
I had to change the quantities slightly by using brown rice syrup, tweaking the lemon juice, and also I got 2 more cups of oats in this with a jar leftover which is just as well as everyone will want more.

 Just look at it. Mmmm.. crunchy, sweet and salty oaty crumble

 I could just snack on this all day, but saved enough for the puds..

Adapted ever so slightly from Sara Forte's recipe in The Sprouted Kitchen cookbook.

1 (12.3 ounce) package extra film silken tofu
1 tbsp cornflour
Pinch of sea salt
1/3-1/2 cup of honey (I used brown rice syrup)
Grated zest and juice of a lemon

Oat crumble 
2 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup natural cane sugar
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 cups of old fashioned rolled oats (I used 2 cups!)
1/4 cup of chopped raw almonds (I used hazelnuts)
1 tbsp of fresh thyme

Wrap tofu in paper towel and let drain for 10 mins in a sieve.
Blend tofu, cornmeal, salt, honey, zest and lemon juice in a food processor.
Divide mix between 4-6 small bowls and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 180C 

Melt coconut oil and mix into a bowl with vanilla, sugar, and salt.
Ad oats and nuts and stir well.
Rub half the thyme leaves between your fingers and add.
Spread out onto a baking tray and bake until toasted for 20 minutes.
Mine actually took closer to 35 mins with a bit of stiring midway. 
Let cool and top the cremes with crumble and the remaining thyme. 

Raw Cauliflower, Spicy Peanut Salad

 

Having eaten a lot of meat this Christmas I'm making a conscious effort to star some veggies in my upcoming meals. In a big cheesy, creamy, bubbly cauliflower cheese, the veg has a loyal following from us Brits, but other than being sidelined to a lowly accompaniment to your roast it doesn't seem to get much love. I prefer it raw. It has a nutty taste and the crunch is perfect in salads if chopped up like rice and I'd love you to try it even if you don't like cooked cauliflower. 

I know this is pointing out the obvious, but keeping your meals 'raw' saves quite a bit of time and money and feels so great for a healthy start to the new year. I'd be lying if I said I made this today. No, today has been a whirl of Bloody Marys, Baked Camembert, Fish & Chips and banana and peanut butter on toast, desperately seeking that something to cure my hangover. I've never thought it wise to start resolutions on the 1st of the month. Let's stick with tomorrow as our starting block.

I played around with some Thai inspiration for my salad

2 heads of cauliflower, chopped
Mix the below and stir in (couldn't be easier)
2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter
3-4 large, juicy limes
3 tbsp chopped coriander
1/2 red chilli chopped
1 stick celery finely diced (optional)
A few shakes or more of chilli sesame oil 
A few drops of fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 bunch of spring onions sliced

 

I hope you celebrated in style and/or comfort last night. I had a fab night dancing my feet off without a care in the world. I couldn't look at another Champagne bottle today so excuse me as I raise my smoothie..

Here's to a Happy and Healthy New Year to you and yours! Love Milli XXX 

Bourbon Brownies by Dan Lepard

I love making a mess in the kitchen. I like balancing bowls on other bowls and spoons on precarious edges. As I chuck another bowl in the sink I know that I'm getting that much closer to the end result. 

If you prefer baking with one or two bowls then brownies is for you.

I used to bake brownies every day in my cafe. If there weren't brownies and savoury muffins on the counter there would be unhappy regulars. The other cakes were just a bonus but people would brave stormy weather for a brownie, and its because it took me a fair while to realise what the majority wanted. Turns out, most are brownie purists. Whilst my favourite have white choc chips in them and others like nuts, most people just want plain chocolate, squidgy, thick, but not cakey. A thin crust that crackles once cut, that can be eaten with ice cream when warm out the oven or with tea once cooled. 

After a chat with Dan Lepard on twitter a couple of days ago, I asked him if I should bake one recipe from his book 'Short and Sweet' what should it be? It was as if he'd had a quick rummage in my cupboards and seen I had everything to bake his suggested Bourbon Brownies.

It was the first thing I did when I woke up. They are special. The pecans go so well with the Bourbon and a glass of cold milk. The best thing about these brownies is you don't reach for one for your breakfast, the alcohol is quite pronounced, it's an elevenses treat at the earliest!

200g dark chocolate
125g butter
2 eggs
125g light soft brown sugar
100g caster sugar
75ml bourbon
2 tsp vanilla extract
175g plain flour
1 tbsp cocoa
125g pecan nuts, roughly chopped
Heat the oven to 170C (fan assisted)/325F/gas mark 3. Line a 20cm square cake tin with foil.
In a saucepan, melt the chocolate with the butter, then set aside somewhere warm on the stove-top. Beat the eggs with the sugars until the sugar has almost dissolved and the mixture turned creamy and a light beige colour. Next, beat in the chocolate and butter until evenly combined, then beat in the bourbon and vanilla. Sift the flour and cocoa twice, then beat this into the chocolate mixture. Finally, beat in the chopped pecans.
Scrape the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 25 minutes (mine took 20), or until a toothpick poked through the sugary crust comes out barely clean - the hot chocolate will carry on cooking for at least five minutes after you've taken it out of the oven.