Last night, Monday July 16th was the third meeting of the Astoria Book & Supper Club, and it was a great success! I was so excited to get my Barcelona on, here's how it unfolded: The first thing I knew I needed to get done on Sunday was: make the softrito for the paella and the romesco sauce for the third course. Both recipes, which are slow cooked tomato-onion-garlic type sauces came from Ferran Adria's amazing cookbook, The Family Meal. If you love to look at pictures in cookbooks more so than following the recipes, this is a must have. I think it also makes one hell of a gift. Moving on, Liza, my lovely sous chef came over and made the coconut flan, and other very helpful acts like slicing the manchengo and chorizo, grating the chocolate and roasting the peppers. Meanwhile, I had been soaking bacalao for a little over 24 hours, and it was time to boil it. I like to boil it in a half milk half water mixture for about 20 minutes. After I boiled it, the bacalao flaked beautifully, and I processed it with boiled potatoes, butter, my seasoned salt, my fresh windowsill herbs and some clam juice. I cleaned and trimmed the peppers, leaving the ones for the boquerones in some olive oil and white vinegar, and the rest as is for the paella. Then I called it a day.
Monday afternoon, after I dismissed myself early from work, I bought 3 dozen shrimp, a pound of calamari and a bushel of mussels, and got myself home for some much anticipated paella making! I had never made it before, and I was feeling pretty intimidated, but I rolled up my sleeves and got going. First, I sauteed some boneless, skinless chicken thighs with some chorizo, took that out and fried the roasted peppers for a few minutes. Then I fried up two serrano chilis in oil, added diced onion, then minced garlic. Once translucent, I added the chicken, chorizo, white wine and the sofrito from the day before. I let this all cook down and thicken, I tasted it and a-salted it. Once thick enough, I added the stock, a mixture of chicken stock with: lobster consomme from the FCI (YES!) and ground saffron. Next step was the one weighing on me, I had to evenly disperse the bomba rice throughout the paella pan, and NEVER TOUCH IT AGAIN. That's a lot harder for me than it should be, and also the reason why my rice making skills end at risotto. I let the paella do it's thing, paced around, cleaned, organized, prepared, stared at it, set the table...let's just say, good thing I had plenty to do to take away from just wanting to stir it. When it seemed like the stock was half-way soaked through, I began to assemble the calamari rings, shrimp, peppers and peas to make it really pretty. When it seems almost totally cooked through, I took it off the heat and covered it, knowing it still had a couple of hours before service. Me and Liza organized, finished up some odd jobs, and soon enough, the guests arrived!
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| The Table is Set, I was going for a "gothic" Barcelona theme |
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| The place setting and Shadow of the Wind menu and discussion questions |
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| First Course: Chorizo & Manchengo, Roasted Pepper & Boquerone and Jamon Serrano & Manchengo on Pan de Tomate |
The guests arrived and took their seats, and I poured them a glass of cava. They toasted, got to know each other, and then I presented them with the first course. These were some of my favorite little bites, or Pinxtos as they're referred to, in Barcelona.
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| Everyone seems to be enjoying their pinxtos |
The next course was the Bacalao and Potato mash, and I served it with some mashed up avoacado and lemon, a very refreshing course on such a hot day. My guests approved of my change, since originally they were going to be fried croquettes. It was a good change!
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| Second Course: Bacalao & Potato Mash with Lemony Avocado |
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| Third Course: Paprkia-Roasted Potato and Camarones al Ajillo with Romesco Sauce |
I was very happy with how the romesco sauce turned out, it was very cool and refreshing, and went very well with the potato and shrimp. This dish was simple, easy and delicious.
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| The Paella! I was very pleased... |
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| Fourth Course: Paella served w/ mussels steamed in butter, wine and herbs |
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| Don't you wish this was you right now? |
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| I just like this picture. I like to see my guests immersed in food and discussion! |
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| The coconut flan |
So, after the success of the Paella, the next stomach churner was to see if the flan would look good and hold up once free from the pan. Liza and I had over 24 hours to dwell on this, but, as you can see from the picture, everything turned out fine. Thanks Liza!
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| Cocnut Flan with Chocolate Toast and Raspberries |
The chocolate toast was fine, not anything to go crazy for, but the flan everyone loved. I'm not the biggest dessert person, so I don't always get what the big deal is, but people were definitely loving the flan!
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| The Aftermath |
So, the night came to a close, everyone was full, a little tipsy and they needed to go to work in the morning. I have to say they were very satisfied, they loved the food, they discussed Shadow of the Wind (almost) the whole time, so I too was very satisfied. They were great guests, and although I was stressed at some points, I'm already looking back on it as a very successful Astoria Book and Supper Club meeting that will actually be hard to beat. I mean, Shadow of the Wind is a pretty awesome book, and Barcelona is a very tasty place!
