Recipes - Chorizo and Prawn Paella

Paella is known as being the national dish of Spain, however it is actually exclusively Valencian.  Mine is in no way traditional, just something I threw together after limited research that seemed to work pretty well. 

Ingredients

2 chorizo sausages, sliced

500g green prawns

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 spanish onion, diced

1 red capsicum, sliced

1 green capsicum, sliced

1 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp ground chilli powder

3 cups chicken stock

1 quantity roast capsicum dip

2 cups rice

fresh coriander and sliced red chilli to serve

Step 1 - Heat olive oil in a large frying pan.  When hot, add garlic, onion and chorizo.  Fry off until golden then add the sliced capsicum. Fry for 1-2 minutes, until just tender then add the paprika, cumin, corriander and chilli.  Stir constantly for about 1 minute until toasted and fragrant.  
Step 2 - Add rice and toss to coat, then add capsicum dip and chicken stock and season well with salt. Stir well, reduce heat to low and seal pan with a tight fitting lid.  Cook, without stirring, for 25-30 minutes.
Step 3 - With 15 minutes to go, lift lid and quickly distribute prawns over top of rice.  Work quickly as you do not want to lose too much steam.  Replace lid and continue cooking for reaming time.  After the 25-30 minutes, check rice is cooked and if necessary, add a little more water, replace lid, and check again after 5 minutes.  
Step 4 - To serve, sprinkle with fresh corriander and chilli. Place pan on a wooden board and place in the centre of the table.  Enjoy!

Recipes - Roast Capsicum Dip

I love dips as there are a million different recipes, using thousands of ingredients and hundreds of ways to use them. This Roast Capsicum Dip is spicy and flavoursome, simple and quick to whip up (once the capsicums are roasted).  I am yet to serve it as a dip, but I have used it as an element of a canape, the base of a pasta sauce and a flavouring for rice.  So it's highly versatile as well as delicious. 

Ingredients

3 capsicums, roasted (about 300g once roasted)

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/4 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1 tbs olive oil

salt, to season

Step 1 - Place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor.

Step 2 - Use 3 or 4 short pulses to combine. Serve warm or cold.

Miro Tapas Bar - Sydney, NSW

Day One in Sydney consisted of a 2pm check in, a walk around the city and a quick trip back to the hotel to google a good tapas restaurant.  I love the Russian roulette of dining in a city I am not familiar with.  Tonight, was a complete win.

Miro Tapas Bar is located at 76 Liverpool Street, which is on the corner of Kent.  It is a funky little restaurant below street level, with red walls and white furniture.  The staff were all incredibly friendly, efficient, good looking and Spanish speaking.  Their thick accents made the dishes sound as good as they tasted and my made my efforts at pronouncing the dishes sounds comical.  

We started with our dining experience with some sangria and acitunas (olives).  I was super spoilt for my fist ever sangria experience as it was made with a very good quality Spanish wine, lightly spiced, with a hint of orange and plenty of fresh fruit. 

Next, was the tortilla alhambra and escalivada vasca.  The tortilla alhambra was nice; a eggplant, capsicum, chili and shallot filled frittata with a heavy sprinkling of Moroccan spices. However, nothing else compared to the escalivada vasca which completely stole the evening.  Small pieces of toasted bread with smoky garlic and lemon eggplant dip, topped with roasted capsicum and anchovies.  Oh yum, I will definitely be recreating this in my own kitchen so keep an eye out for that recipe.

Lastly, we enjoyed the gambas alajillo - a lovely dish of very heavily garliced prawns, the chorizo con manzanas caramelizadas and the calamares al sol.  The chorizo con manzanas caramelizadas was pretty special, charred chorizo with caramlized apples and the most amazing caramel sauce.  The chorizo was beautifully spicey and salty, perfectly complemented by the sweet caramel and tangy apples.  Yum!  The calamares al sol, stripes of golden calamari were exceptionally tender and served with lemon pepper (literally, a wedge of lemon coated in coarsely ground black pepper) and a special salsa, which was similar in flavour to a basil pesto.

All in all it was an amazing dinner, one of the best tapas experiences I have had.  Prices were reasonable, bordering on pricey.  Next time, I must try the churros!  For more information, visit their website.