Welcome to Spain! It's hard to believe it was the beginning of November since the last time I updated this blog...the holidays are always so busy! We did one country (you guessed it...Spain!) since November. But, now that the New Year is here, we can start at it again! Spain has been a place of interest to me - it's never been on the top of my bucket list, but I am intrigued by it. I would love to visit someday! Spain gets more than 58 million tourists a year, which makes it the 4th most visited country in the world! I also learned that Spaniards own more cars than cell phones - who knew?! According to Google, their population is 47.5 million people and their capital is Madrid. Their national dish is...
Paella!
It's a rice seafood dish. Since my family loves seafood, we decided to do this dish when we were all together during Christmas. To go with paella, we also made Spanish Crema Catalana, which is basically a creme brulee. It was fun going to the different grocery stores to try and find all the ingredients for this dish, especially all the seafood! Here's what I did:
- In a large skillet, heat avocado oil over medium-high heat.
- Add onion and garlic and sauté for 2 minutes on medium-high heat.
- Add red bell peppers, parsley, saffron and paprika.
- Continue to sauté on medium heat for another 5 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper and stir occasionally.
- Move all the vegetables on the side of a skillet and sauté chicken thighs and chorizo sausages in the same skillet, about 2 minutes each side.
- Remove chicken and sausages on a small plate and set aside.
- Add chicken stock, rice, tomatoes, frozen corn, and green peas. Stir all to combine.
- Bring the rice to a boil and immerse the chicken thighs, sausages, shrimp, scallops and mussels inside the rice.
- Cover the skillet with a lid and let the paella cook on medium-low heat for 15 minutes. Do not open the lid.
- After 15 minutes, all the liquid should be gone. Check for unopened mussels, and discard those immediately. Keep only opened mussels.
- Once paella is cooked, sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley and drizzle with fresh lemon juice. Serve immediately!
- Dissolve the cornstarch in a splash of water to make a slurry and set aside.
- Pour the whipping cream into a small, heavy-based saucepan and set over medium heat.
- Add the citrus peels and cinnamon stick, then bring to a simmer and remove from the heat.
- Beat the egg yolks and sugar with a whisk until turns pale yellow.
- Beat in the cornstarch slurry and a splash of the hot milk.
- Remove the citrus peels and cinnamon stick from the hot milk, and slowly pour in the egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent the eggs from scrambling.
- Turn the heat to low and whisk constantly until the mixture has thickened to a pudding-like consistency.
- Remove from the heat and divide the mixture among six 6-ounce ramekins.
- Press a piece of plastic wrap onto the surface of each custard to prevent a skin from forming.
- Chill the crema catalanas overnight.
- Once the custards have chilled, remove the plastic wrap and sprinkle a thin layer of sugar on top of each custard.
- Spread the sugar out by tilting the ramekins in all directions.
- Use a blowtorch to caramelize the sugar.
- Let the sugar cool slightly, and enjoy!
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