Paella Party @ Las Cosas

I attended the Paella Party at Las Cosas on Tuesday night. I had been waiting a long time to take this class. It only happens on a Tuesday night.

Class description: Paella is the perfect dish to whip up for a party and perfect for summer entertaining. Tonight we provide you with tips and hints for creating this delicious dish. We will fill out our menu with some tasty tapas. Our menu includes:Rosemary Flatbread, Sautéed Olives, Mediterranean Salad with Feta, and, both a Smoked Artichoke & Chick Pea Vegetarian Paella, and a traditional Chorizo, Poultry & Seafood Paella. Dessert will be a Crema Catalona with Berries. Don’t miss the delicious celebration of Spain’s favorite & famous party dish. (Hands-On)

Per usual, the menu items are split up among class members. My partner and I worked on two dishes – Mediterranean Salad with Feta and Olive and the Crema Catalan – so the salad and the dessert.

Mediterranean Salad with Feta and Olives

We actually started working on the Crema Catalan first so I was still cooking the crema on the stove when salad work was started. My class partner did all the prep work on cutting up the salad.

• Cucumbers
• Roma tomatoes
• Red onion
• Romaine lettuce
• Apples

When I finally joined in, it was time to make the dressing. The dressing ingredients – olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, and oregano – were mixed in a small bowl.

Then we added the feta to the dressing.

Next we poured the dressing on the salad, added the olives, and hand tossed the salad.

Crema Catalan

We had volunteered to do the dessert. I was particularly keen on this one because it was described as “like creme brulee” and I love creme brulee.

The first part was to mix the egg yolks and sugar into a bowl.

My class partner was working on the mixture for the stove – milk, cinnamon, and lemon peel.

Next some milk was mixed with some cornstarch.

Then the egg mixture was added to the stove mixture along with some vanilla after removing the lemon peel and cinnamon stick. We also added the cornstarch mixture. And it was stirred constantly while we waited for it to boil.

Then the mixture was removed from the stove and divided into ramekins. I made quite a mess trying to do this. After this step, the tray of crema catalan was put in the refrigerator to chill.

We lightly sprinkled sugar on top of the chilled mixture.

I was delighted to find out that we would be using a kitchen torch for the next step.

Final result was a ramekin with crema and a carmelized sugar shell on top.

The Other Menu Items

Rosemary Flatbread – flour, baking powder, kosher salt, rosemary, plain yogurt, olive oil, and garlic heads.

Sauteed Orange and Fennel Cured Olives – olive oil, brine-cured olives (Kalamata), orange peel, fennel seeds, garlic, crushed red pepper, and orange juice.

Garlic Shrimp with Chile Pequin – shrimp, olive oil, garlic, chile pequin, kosher salt, parsley, lemon, and crusty bread.

Chorizo, Chicken and Seafood Paella – olive oil, chicken, pork loin, chorizo, shrimp, bell peppers, onions, garlic, roma tomatoes, Spanish sherry, smoked paprika, saffron, short grain rice, chicken stock, parsley, salt, peas, and clams.

Spring Vegetable Paella – fennel bulbs, baby carrots, turnips, red new potatoes, olive oil, parsley, smoked paprika, saffron, salt, onion, tomatoes, medium grain rice, vegetable broth, dry white wine, asparagus, garbanzo beans, and artichoke hearts.