If It's Not Paella...

What do you get when you take rice, add some tasty ingredients to it, cook it on top of the stove until all the rice is tender and a crust forms on the bottom?

If you said paella, for sure you’d be right.  But you’d also be right if you mentioned the classic rice dishes from a few other places around the globe.

Take China, for instance.  While it might not have a specific name, you can get the popular rice dish at many restaurants in NYC’s Chinatown, and if a restaurant (most likely Hong Kong style) is offering it, it’s simply called rice in casserole on the menu. After trying a couple of versions around town, including an excellent one at a restaurant called A-Wah (recommended by a neighbor), I decided to make my own. 

To start, you'll need one of these...

It’s called a sandy pot, or clay pot, and it’s made out of - you guessed it - sand and clay. Usually just glazed inside and on the lid. Before using a sandy pot for the first time, you should soak it overnight; according to a few other sources, it’s also a good idea to cook a little rice in it to seal up any microscopic cracks and crevices.  I did both.

Wanting to make a version with chicken and mushrooms, which seems to be a favorite at the Chinese restaurants that offer the dish, I cut up a few chicken thighs, as well as 2 or 3 types of mushrooms which happened to be in the fridge. To punch up the flavor a bit, start by browning the thighs and mushrooms in a hot pan…

Then deglaze that pan before adding the thighs, mushrooms and deglazing liquid to the rice (medium-grain) in the sandy pot. For even more flavor, use a nice home made chicken stock, but water will work, and the standard ratio of rice to water (1 cup rice to 1 3/4 cups liquid) is fine too.  It all looked like this, before being brought to a boil and then covered and cooked at a moderate simmer for around 20 minutes…

I think it helps to turn the heat up to medium for the last few minutes in order to get the rice nice and crispy on the bottom. I did okay on my first attempt…here’s what the dish looks like when it’s done, before garnishing with some chopped scallions and cilantro leaves...

Happy Anniversary - Time to Eat!

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary, so Significant Eater and I decided that we should spend a good portion of the day involved with food and drink. Because after all, anniversaries are special, and we wanted to spend it doing something different…well, doing something that we both enjoy…a lot.

We were married in Las Vegas 14 years ago, and for dinner that night we wanted to eat at a Jean-Louis Palladin restaurant called Napa. Unfortunately, it was closed and we ended up at a restaurant called Fiori.  I don’t remember what we ate that night, and I don’t have any pictures from dinner, but I’m pretty sure it was good; and though we didn't get to eat Jean-Louis' food, rest assured - he was one of the greatest chefs on the planet.

These days, when the two of us head out for a special meal, we try to pick a place we know is good…often an old favorite, sometimes a new one.  And so yesterday for lunch, for the umpteenth time, we wound up at Momofuku Noodle Bar – the Momo that launched the career of another damn good chef.  And yes, this time a camera came along.

We started with a nice "pot" of kimchi; trust me, this will keep all the vampires away...

One of the earliest dishes to grab attention for David Chang - the pork buns.  Yesterday, a special bun made an appearance - this time it was brisket.  With horseradish, pickled red onion and cucumber, it was maybe even more delicious than the original...

Since we always try to get our veggies, we had to have the baby greens salad, with apple, radish, chestnut and yes, duck proscuitto...

One of Sig Eater's old faves, roasted rice cakes, was on the daily blackboard menu, so...

To top it all off, another of the daily specials, showcasing duck, this time the leg/thigh meat cooked into a ragu with poblanos, cilantro and a fried egg to top it all off...

With only minimal pouting, we passed on dessert. After all, dinner at Acme was a mere 5 hours away.  

I don't know that anything could be better than our 14 years together, but I'm sure looking forward to the next bunch of decades.  

It's (Almost) Winter - Time For Pizza

I’ve had it with this “winter”…alleged winter, that is. You see, every year I wait with baited breath for winter to come around – and the reason for that is because when winter finally comes around, I feel like I can at last crank up my oven without fear of becoming a victim of heat stroke in my own kitchen.

As much as I like to bake, it doesn’t happen much during the warmer months (which around here used to mean from June to October, but now appears to run from March to the following January), for the above reason. 

Now this whole philosophy of not baking when it’s too warm to turn on my oven applies especially to pizza.  Because when baking pizza, your oven needs to be heated as hot as it can go, and preheating for at least an hour before any baking is a necessity too…that way, the pizza stone (you have one of those, right?) in the bottom of your oven can get properly hot.  In this case, properly hot (for a home oven) means around 550°F.  Most home ovens only go up to 500°F or 525°F, but I’ve played around a bit with the electronics in my oven, and can push it to 550°F.  Yesterday, after an hour's worth of preheating took place, I turned on the broiler for an extra jolt, so that by the time I slid the pizza into the oven, the stone read 604°F, per my trusty laser thermometer.  Not ideal for pizza, but pretty hot nonetheless.

The dough was made using Jim Lahey’s no-knead pizza dough recipe. Fermented in the fridge for 48 hours, topped with San Marzano DOP tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and a few curds from Saxelby’s, and a sprinkle of Italian oregano. First, the upskirt…

From the top…

It's not as good as Totonno's and it's certainly not Keste. But who the hell wants to go out for those; after all, it's winter.