What colossal-culinary-creation could provoke this return?
Well, a combination of things: the christening of Ben's birthday gift - the family size paella pan and the last Sunday dinner of 2009 for one of our kitchen soldiers - Phil. The money ingredients in this paella were: chicken (on the bone of course), chirizo, shrimp, scallops and mussels (we'll add lobster tails once my corporate sponsorship deal comes through). To keep it authentico we did it outside on the grill.
now that's what I call Smokin Hot!!!
The chicken and pork go in first, which explains how the rice soaked up so much tastiness, and the seafood comes in at the last minute as the icing on the cake. ( shrimp only takes about 30 seconds to cook )
About halfway in, the chicken and rice still a bit raw while the sauce reduces...
Ben expressed some apprehension over the cooking of the mussels probably due to the difficulties we had with a cioppino about a year and a half ago during the Opera-man era. This time around the mussels worked perfectly with only on or two bad ones out of the bag and maybe 7 or 8 that didn't cook properly. (thanks Whole Foods, I guess I can stop hating you... for now...)
What's more exciting than watching mussels open up? well, maybe eating them...
We all dug in family-style, forgoing the use of plates. The flavor and texture was spot on and every last morsel was devoured. This truly was a proper send off for Phil. (don't worry you can keep tabs on Sunday dinners from Italy, just hit me up on smokinhotnyc.blogspot.com )
The first of many Pimped out Paellas to come from Ben's pan...
