Pollo a La Española

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Our Growing Paynes

If you are a parent you know watching your kids grow is fascinating, sometimes frustrating, and most of the time a wonderful thing to watch. You also know it isn’t a continuous curve of growth. They’ll tick a long and suddenly there is a leap forward.

Our daughter tried out for the Honors Band for our state. They pick the best 8th graders to participate. Last week they had the day of rehearsal and they practice all day long before the concert. A lot of hard work went into the pieces they performed and I was blown away at how well they did. The music was very technical and sounded excellent. I was sitting there thinking how far she has come in just a few years. She is really coming into her own on so many levels. It is a joy to watch.

Our son has been making leaps of his own. We had a great parent teacher conference last week. He’s seeing the result of hard work in his report card and his teacher is encouraging him to speak up for the class. Apparently a student at school was wiping the white board and posters have gone missing. So the principal made an announcement to the whole school that the 5th grade can no longer move about the school without a teacher. My son thought this terribly unfair so his teacher is encouraging him to meet with the principal to discuss this. What a great opportunity! His teacher said to us that he was confused about the way the issue has been handled so we are all curious what the answers are going to be.

On to the food! 🙂

I bought some chicken thighs to do a Spanish dish called Pollo a La Española that I found in a cookbook I found at our library sale. It’s called The Complete Spanish Cookbook by Pepita Aris.

It’s a mild but flavourful dish and relatively easy to make during the week when it is hectic.

Preheat the oven to 350F/175C.

In a large skillet heat up a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Rub paprika on all sides of the chicken thighs and season with salt and pepper. Pan fry both sides to brown.

Place in the oven to finish cooking. In the skillet add about 3/4 cup of finely chopped onion, 3-4 cloves of garlic chopped, and a 1/2 cup of pancetta. I use uncured pancetta and sometimes it doesn’t have the full saltiness. Just something to keep in mind when adjusting the seasoning.

Cook until the onions soften then add a 14 oz can of diced tomatoes and a few teaspoons of fresh thyme. I added this because we didn’t have any parsley like the recipe called for.

Stir and bring to a simmer. Add about a cup of chopped bell peppers. I love how colourful this dish is.

Adjust the seasoning with paprika and the salt and pepper.

Serve with rice of your choice and enjoy!

On a side note, it seems I can no longer do my posts in the classic mode. Not thrilled with that and I’ve noticed that pictures I post are showing as smaller than they showed before. The files sizes are the same as before. Any idea on how to fix that?

Please Spear Me Some Risotto

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Our Growing Paynes

I’m being an optimist. Officially it’s 19 days til spring and my fingers are crossed that spring will arrive. It’s turning out to be a lovely day today with barely a cloud in the sky. This afternoon snow should be wandering through for the next few days again.

The kids have enjoyed their downtime this past week being off from school and it’s been relatively quiet which is nice. We’re not those parents that schedule their kids within an inch of their lives but it is nice to have a break in routine.

There was a request for risotto as we haven’t had that recently so I decided to switch it up a bit. We had some asparagus that needed to be used up and I thought pancetta would be a great pairing.

For risotto I always prepare the ingredients before I start cooking to keep it easy. I sliced up half a red onion, chopped 4-5 cloves of garlic, and cut up the asparagus. While I am doing this I heat up the stock for the risotto. The ratio I used is 5 cups to about 1 1/4 cup of risotto.

In a large pan melt a couple of tablespoons of butter and saute the onions until softened. Then add the garlic and chopped up pancetta. I found this pancetta at the co-op that was uncured and thinly sliced. I think next time I will get thicker sliced pancetta because while this was tasty the flavour wasn’t as bold as I was hoping for.

After a couple of minutes add the risotto. Stir well then add about a third of a cup of white balsamic vinegar.

Gradually add the heated stock stirring well. As the liquid is absorbed add more.

While this is simmering I grated parmesan, asiago, and fontina cheese until I had just over a cup. In the last five minutes of cooking or so add the cheese.

In the last few minutes add the asparagus. You still want it bright and crunchy. Nothing worse than overdone asparagus. Also the risotto should be on the slightly al dente side. Not crunchy but firm.

With the three cheeses this was really creamy. And it is hard to go wrong with a bit of bacon. And the plates were cleared quickly so that is always a good sign. 🙂

I may have asked this question already so if I did I apologise but with new tablets out now I was wondering for those who use their tablets to blog, what do they use? I need one that I can easily transfer pictures from my camera to the tablet then put watermarks on. I think the big sticking point is getting the pictures from the camera to the tablet so I can blog on the go. Thank you for any advice!

Tuscan Potato Kale Soup

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Our Growing Paynes

I used to subscribe to Cooking Light magazine and clip recipes. I have a ton of them. There was one that looked really good but boy were there a lot of steps! Not only were there a lot of steps but it required a food processor, a blender, and several pots and pans. I hate doing dishes. So I retooled the recipe, so to speak. I wanted something tasty and simple to make. My daughter loves what I came up with. 🙂

To begin with I roast two bulbs of garlic. This should be done earlier and allowed to cool so it is easier to work with.

Dice about a cup of onions and saute about 3/4 of that in olive oil in a large saucepan. I use the olive oil from the roasted garlic. Cube about 6 cups of potatoes and saute for a few minutes with the onions. Add some salt and pepper to taste.

Add 4 cups of chicken stock and bring to a boil. Then simmer for about 10 minutes. Add a cup or so of chopped kale and cook another 10 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.

In the meantime, take two Italian sausages out of their casings and place in a hot skillet to begin browning. Also add 1-2 oz of pancetta to the pan. Once the fat begins to render add the rest of the onion to the skillet.

As this begins to brown I turn my attention back to the saucepan and add a cup of milk. This can be cream, fat free milk, chef’s choice basically. I add in the roast garlic and then bring it back to a simmer.

We have an immersion blender and it’s a great tool to have for soups and things. I remove the soup from the heat and blend the ingredients together.

Once it is completely blended I add in the meat and a cup or so of grated pecorino cheese. At this point I check the seasonings as the cheese and pancetta can be quite salty. Add more salt if needed but not before you check at this point. The consistency should look like this:

At this point it is ready to serve! I always make sure there is plenty of pecorino on the table for people to grate the cheese over the soup.

While not difficult to make this soup does require a bit of time to bring it all together but it is worth the effort. A very healthy and tasty meal!

Our Growing Paynes

A journey about cooking, traveling, gardening, and crafting.

Tag Archives: pancetta

Pollo a La Española

Please Spear Me Some Risotto

Tuscan Potato Kale Soup