Friday, March 19, 2010

Paella

I love Paella, and thought that I would never find a recipe that tasted as good as the stuff you get in Spain. But thanks to the BBC and Antony Worrall Thompson I have been proved wrong.




Eat and weep:


Description
A scrumptous traditional Spanish dish that is full of flavour.

Ingredients

170g/6oz chorizo, cut into thin slices
110g/4oz pancetta, cut into small dice
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 large Spanish onion, finely diced
1 red pepper, diced
1 tsp soft thyme leaves
¼ tsp dried red chilli flakes
570ml/1pint calasparra (Spanish short-grain) rice
1 tsp paprika
125ml/4fl oz dry white wine
1.2 litres/2 pints chicken stock, heated with ¼ tsp saffron strands
8 chicken thighs, each chopped in half and browned
18 small clams, cleaned
110g/4oz fresh or frozen peas
4 large tomatoes, de-seeded and diced
125ml/4fl oz good olive oil
1 head garlic, cloves separated and peeled
12 jumbo raw prawns, in shells
450g/1lb squid, cleaned and chopped into bite-sized pieces
5 tbsp chopped flatleaf parsley
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Heat half the olive oil in a paella dish or heavy-based saucepan. Add the chorizo and pancetta and fry until crisp. Add the garlic, onion and pepper and heat until softened. Add the thyme, chilli flakes and calasparra rice, and stir until all the grains of rice are nicely coated and glossy. Now add the paprika and dry white wine and when it is bubbling, pour in the hot chicken stock, add the chicken thighs and cook for 5-10 minutes.
2. Now place the clams into the dish with the join facing down so that the edges open outwards. Sprinkle in the peas and chopped tomatoes and continue to cook gently for another 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil with the garlic cloves in a separate pan and add the prawns. Fry quickly for a minute or two then add them to the paella. Now do the same with the squid and add them to the paella too.
4. Scatter the chopped parsley over the paella and serve immediately.

Pugs

I really want a pug, mainly so I can dress it up. 

Monday, March 15, 2010

Naoki Honjo

Naoki Honjo is an photographer who uses tilt-shift to take photos of famous scenes and make them look like very detailed models. 

It is a very impressive technique with equally impressive results. There is little information on the web about Honjo, but his book 'Little Planet' is available on Amazon. Some of his photos of London are shown here http://www.taigallery.com/naoki_honjo-2.html

The Walking Dead

At Christmas my brother Phil brought back the first 6 books of The Walking Dead, a comic series by Robert Kirkman. 

It follows the story of Officer Rick Grimes, the protagonist; his family and other Zombie survivors. I have never really been much into comics but with the spare time over Christmas I read these in one day, and am waiting for my brother to get the next 5. The story is still being issued and is not finished, but has been published since 2003 on a regular basis. 

If you go to the website the home page has a horrible sound effect of clamouring Zombies! I love it.

http://www.hiddenrobot.com/WALKINGDEAD/