I made and cooked a paella, or a Spanish inspired rice dish.
I diced an onion and a pointed red pepper. In a hot large frying pan, I put some olive oil and I cooked off bacon lardons, and some diced chorizo.I then added the diced onion and pepper. When this was softened, I added some sliced mushroom. Once this was stirred in I added 250g of paella rice.
I was staying in London and thinking about going out to eat, I was reminded of a conversation with a colleague a few weeks back who had recommended Reineta in Dickens Yard in Ealing.
Reineta is a Spanish cafe and restaurant.I looked at the dinner menu on their website and the different tapas that were on offer.
I had already made my choice of tapas.
I liked the sound of the mushrooms casserole, made from wild mushrooms with shallots, parsley and mushroom cream and manchego cheese.
I also decided I would have the burned butternut squash with fresh cheese and black truffle.
I thought I would also have the mixed peppers, sliced potatoes and marinated octopus with “choricero” pepper.
You can imagine my disappointment when I went there to find it was in fact closed. It was only open for dinner on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I wasn’t in London on any of those days…
Working in Bristol and out for a walk at lunchtime. I wasn’t actually intending to have lunch out, but walking through the St Nicholas Market looking at all the different stalls, I was tempted. There are lots of lovely places in the market, there is the new Tibetan stall, MOMO, which had quite a queue. I also did think about Low and Slow, but they were equally popular. In the end I went back to the Spanish stall, La Lola.
Since I was last at La Lola, they have added some walls and windows to their stall, so sitting inside in this cold weather is much nicer. I was given a lovely warm welcome, and I ordered my food, and then took a seat. It wasn’t long before my freshly cooked squid arrived.
The crispy baby squid came in a cardboard container, it would have been nice on a plate (which I have said before), but realise that as a stall, it might not be possible.
The squid had a nice crisp coating and was very tender on the inside. The chipped potatoes had been cooked twice, so weren’t as good as previous visits to La Lola. However they were crisp and tasty. The salad was nice and fresh. It was a delicious box of food, which I really enjoyed.
I diced an onion, red pepper. In a hot large frying pan, I put some olive oil and I cooked off some bacon lardons.I then added the diced onion and pepper. When this was softened, I added some sliced baby courgette and diced mushroom. Once this was stirred in I added 250g of paella rice.
I have made my version of paella for many years. Well maybe I should call it a Spanish inspired rice dish, rather than paella.
Recently I have been using a jar of paella paste from Waitrose when cooking paella, however it looks like they have stopped selling it. M&S have stopped selling their paste as well, and Tesco haven’t sold their paella seasoning for a couple of years now. I wouldn’t buy the Schwartz paella seasoning as it uses turmeric rather than saffron. I have been known to creating my own “seasoning” using saffron and I did think I would have to go down that road. It was suggested to me to look on Amazon, so I did, and found some paella seasoning. I ordered some. The Carmencita Paellero Paella Spice Mix is according to the description the number one selling spice mix in Spain.
I used it when cooking a paella and was pleased with the end result. It looked excellent.
It also tasted great when we had it with our New Year fish supper. It is something I would use again and will order more once I run out.
Dare I call this dish paella? Well this Spanish inspired rice dish is a regular dish in our house.
I diced a red onion, red pepper and mushrooms. In a hot large frying pan, I put some olive oil and I cooked off some smoked pancetta bacon.
I then added the diced onion and pepper. When this was softened, I added 250g of paella rice. I ensured that this was then coated with the peppers and onions in the pan. I let this cook for a minute or so before adding a jar of paella paste from Waitrose.
After stirring in the paste I added some chicken stock. Stirred once and left it to cook.
Before serving I added some cooked sliced chorizo and chunks of lemon.
On holiday in Spain recently I picked up this Alteza pack from the freezer at Dialprix.
I thought it was frozen paella. It wasn’t, it was a paella mix, with the ingredients for paella and included broth, but no rice!
With a small self-catering kitchen I had a go though, using some cooked long grain rice, instead of proper paella rice.
The mix was defrosted in the fridge and then cooked in a pan, before adding the rice and the broth and cooking for a little longer.
Obviously if I could have used proper rice, it probably would have been better. It was certainly interesting, but even though I didn’t cook it for as long as indicated on the instructions, I still think the seafood was overcooked.
When I was down in Ealing at La Rueda Tapas Bar in Ealing I was initially tempted by the paella choices they had, including a squid ink paella. In the end we had tapas. I would have liked to try a squid ink paella.
Recently I was working in Bristol, and went for a walk at lunchtime with a plan on getting something to eat. It was a Thursday so I headed out to the Temple Quay Market. Didn’t really fancy anything from the market, so I headed to the St Nicholas Market. It was rather busy. In the end I headed down towards La Lola for some squid or paella.
I was impressed to see that La Lola have expanded their menu and one of the choices was a squid ink paella. Well it was bit of a no-brainer, so I decided to try out their dish.
As with previous visits, I was given a warm welcome, I ordered my paella and took a seat. It arrived quite quickly, with some aioli and a slice of lemon.
You have to say that the dish is very black, very black indeed.
I have to say that it doesn’t look that appetising, however it was very tasty. There was squid and prawns in the rice.
I am not sure I would have it again, but I am glad I tried it and it was good.
Staying in London I did fancy some tapas one evening, we decided to head to La Rueda Tapas Bar in Ealing.
La Rueda Tapas Bar is a one-of-a-kind culinary establishment with a menu inspired by the idea of simple and honest cooking. Starting in 2000, we developed a unique dining experience for all of our guests using fresh and sustainable ingredients—taking you on a culinary journey like no other. From classic recipes to new-age kitchen adventures, each dish reflects our passion for high-quality food presented in a simple yet pleasing manner.
We were given a nice warm welcome and allowed to choose where we wanted to sit. We could have sat outside, but it’s quite a busy street, so we sat inside. We looked over the menu and chose what to have. In the end we went with five different dishes.
Knowing me, I probably would have chosen the calamari, but this time I decided I wouldn’t choose that dish. I was also tempted by the paella, but in the end we went with the tapas selection.
We started off with some olives marinated in garlic and herbs. These were really nice, just the thing to nibble, whilst waiting for the dishes to arrive.
The first of these was the Patatas Bravas. Tripled fried potatoes served with a spicy Brava sauce and a helping of aioli. The potatoes were nice and crisp, the Brava sauce was quite spicy, but this was offset with the nice aioli that had a good flavour of garlic. I think I would have liked the spiciness to be taken down a notch, but otherwise it was a nice dish.
The next dish to arrive was the Gambas al pil pil. This was prawns with chilli, garlic and extra virgin olive oil. This was an excellent little dish, the prawns were nice and tasty. They hadn’t been peeled, but they were easy to peel.
The dish after this was Pulpo Gallego. Galician style octopus, saffron potato mash, pimenton.
This was one impressive dish, and one kind of dish I have wanted to try for a while. The dish was a mound of saffron flavoured mashed potato topped with two grilled octopus tentacles. The octopus was very nice, tender and tasty. I think the mash could have been smoother (more butter), but was tasty.
Our final dish was Chorizo al vino, the classic Spanish sausage cooked in red wine sauce.
The chorizo was lovely and tender and I liked the sauce.
Overall the food was beautiful cooked and it was delicious. I do hope to visit La Rueda again.
Working in Bristol a few weeks back and out for a walk at lunchtime. I did consider buying some mushrooms from the food market at Finzel Reach, but they looked rather expensive, £10 for a small punnet of morels. Due to my experience last time with She Sells Sushi, I decided not to go there and headed to St Nicholas Market.
Having had some really nice food from La Lola at the St Nicholas Market it wasn’t too surprising when I was looking for somewhere for lunch that I gravitated to the La Lola stall. Having tried some of their other dishes, paella and Huevos Rotos with Iberico ham, this time I went back on an old favourite of their crispy squid.
The staff as always were friendly and welcoming, and I took a seat by the window and waited for my food.
It wasn’t very long before my food arrived. The squid was served with “chipped” potatoes, salad and aioli.
The squid had a nice crisp coating and was very tender on the inside. The chipped potatoes were cooked to perfection and the salad was nice and fresh. It was a delicious box of food, which I really enjoyed.
