bought my paella pan, had the correct rice (Bomba), good Saffron, and Spanish Paprika - along with all the seafood I wanted. Ahhhh seafood... that is a big one.Mind you it took me 3 hours to find some fresh squid as the guys from Sharky's Charters, Bait & Tackle sent me & Rob down out to Roanoke island to the town of Wanache. There we made stops at Oneal's which brings in the seafood from the trawlers in the "Industrial Seafood Commercial Zone". Well then, after having driven 25 miles (and stopping a 5 other places before hand), the guy tells us they have don't have them - despite the Sharky's guys promising up & down they would. At least Oneal's sent us to Ellsworth's a few blocks away. They had Squid for sure! Well they did, and we found out from this big guy in his late 50's with a classic NC OBX accent and oozed lifelong fisherman. Well we could buy all the squid we wanted as long as it was in 28 pound frozen blocks!!! Sure enough he sent us to back to a local market obviously called Seamart !!!
Ok I got my squid - and the Paella was a first of many. Although I knew how to make Sofrito (the tomato base sauce for many Cuban foods) - I had never actually made it from scratch being lazy
all these years. OH how amazing that smell alone was filling the huge kicthen I had the pleasure to cook it in. Even more so was that since it was such a large group I was working TWO Pealla pans. Overall I was pleased with the outcome except that I used a little too much of the Hot Spanish Paprika... use less next time!(of note the cook always makes better food when supplied with a glass of wine!)
No comments:
Post a Comment