When I was in college, I used to open my door during final exams and find a box of cookies underfoot. This meant that Jessica had been hard at work, somehow baking off hundreds of cookies in between studying for and taking exams. For […]
I have an ice cream machine; summer is the peak season for ice cream – these are two known facts. I bought the machine in the summer of 2011, fully knowing that it would spend the summer in storage, while I camped out in a […]
what you see is roasted tomatoes, nicely caramelized in a 450-degree oven, sitting on top of saffron and smoked paprika scented rice. what you see is gorgeousness. let us all worship at the altar of tomatoes and rice.
this is a slightly revised version of mark bittman’s tomato paella from the new york times food section. i’ve made this three times now: once when i was sick and could barely taste anything, once for my parents while i was home, and once for a couple of my roommates.
in the article that accompanies the original recipe, mark bittman says that you have to try it at least once with just tomatoes, and i would have to say that with respect to this paella, i’ve become a tomato purist. for the purposes of this post i’ll be ignoring any issues regarding the authenticity of this particular paella, because when something tastes this good, you ignore pretentions like authenticity. this rice is pretty fantastic: the smoked paprika and saffron give the rice an earthy, unplaceable flavor and aroma that’s balanced by the tomatoes. if you make this in the summer, with homegrown or locally grown tomatoes, i guarantee you that the tomatoes will taste like tomato-infused sunshine. (more…)