Passionate for Paella

Mise en place!

Was that Spain or Portland I was visiting last Saturday? Must have been Portland, because I drove there. But let me tell you my sister and bro-in-law rocked some serious paella at their NE PDX bodega. Paella is one of my all-time favorite things to grub on. If you don't believe that, go to the archive tab on the right for November, 2006 and check out the top entry (with a great recipe!). I will never turn down an opportunity to indulge that hidden Catalonian that I discovered lurking in me last spring on my Spanish sojourn (May '06 on the archive tab), so accepting this dinner invite was a no-brainer.

We showed up 7-ish, and there was a great spread that sister Kathleen had set out. The requisite cheese, spreads, and crackers, and thankfully a couple of dozen fresh oysters that I shucked with much haste while enjoying one of Dave's perfect martinis. We absolutely inhaled some delicious Fanny Bay's and Cortez Island's from City Market (see entry below). Then it was on to paella making, and bro-in-law Dave fired up the Weber for some grill top goodness. Paella is one of those things that looks complicated, but is remarkable easy, and this one came off perfectly. Sauté your veggies, add some chorizo (Kathleen grabbed some great Fra' Mani product from Foster & Dobbs), then rice and saffron infused H2O, chicken stock, mussels at the end...almost that easy. Plus you can vary your ingredients to satisfy whatever particular food infatuation you are dealing with.

in process....

There is hardly anything more aromatic that a pan of paella, and as soon as we brought it in the house, the aromas of smoky paprika and spicy chorizo assaulted our senses and we couldn't get to table soon enough. Both w and I ate an embarrassing amount...not that we could stop ourselves...and it was all washed down with a bit of dry euro rosé, to me the perfect refreshment with paella, plus a bottle or so of some other red wine deliciousness. Major props to K&D for yet another satisfying evening well spent!