Friday, August 14, 2009

A Spanish dish...

This month, for The Daring Cooks' challenge, we had to make Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes by José Andrés, one of the most important Spanish Chefs at the moment. The challenge was hosted by Olga from Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes At first this recipe made me very grumpy. I'm not always really adventurous when it comes to food from the sea, and last month, with the skate fish, and doing the challenge so late, I couldn't believe right away again I was going to be using another sea creature that I'd never heard of.

Well, quickly enough, I got past that. We bought the cuttlefish frozen. It was nothing like I imagined it to be after watching a little video on youtube. Cuttlefish is similar to squid, so it was quite easy to handle. I simply didn't deal with the tentacles portion. Discarded those and cut the main part into strips.



One part of the recipe that was new to me was making a garlic aioli. And I have to say, although it was lots of work, it was really neat to watch simply olive oil and garlic turn into something so tasty. It was incredibly strong however.

Making the sofregit was lots of fun too and the house smelled so aromatic as it was cooking.

I couldn't find any short grain rice so just used arborio rice, which I love because I love risotto so much.



It was a good challenge and the end result was an excellent dinner. If I make it again, I think I'd like to add a bit more in the way of spices. Just a thought though. Thanks Olga for introducing me and my family to an entirely new dish, and to making me push my culinary skills to a new level working with a new sea creature I never have before. I was impressed with the end result!!

2 comments:

Lauren said...

Wonderful job!! I'm glad you enjoyed working with this new sea creature. Your dish looks amazing!

Audax said...

Just love that finished dish. Great job!!!! Wonderful that the DK is expanding your cuisine choices. Cheers from Audax in Australia