Pollo al Ajillo (Chicken in Garlic Sauce)

Pollo al Ajillo is a very common, simple, and easy dish in Spanish cuisine, it is also common in Cuban kitchens as well. The dish is prepared with chicken or rabbit, your choice. Everyone cooks it differently however, but the simplest and common elements in all of them is olive oil, salt, water, wine, and garlic.

The rest can vary, the cooking methods, how much garlic, how the garlic is cut, what combination of herbs to use, with potatoes without it's all personal preference. Also some Cuban cooks like to make the sauce lemon flavored by omitting all the herbs and only using bay leaves and lemon juice of course don't forget the salt. And for those that like heat spicy dry peppers can be used. Heck I've seen recipes surfing the web that make a soy sauce version of the dish ha ha pretty cool in my opinion :)

However if preparing with rabbit I believe using fresh herbs and bay leaves is important to help mask the gaminess it may have.

I currently have lots of fresh herbs and Travis brought me a small "Bouquet garniat" which had fresh thyme, rosemary, and sage today so that's what herbs I used to prepare the in addition to some bay leaves I tied with the Bouquet "Pollo al Ajillo" let me tell you the Pollo al Ajillo we made today at home with the "Bouquet garniat" was a hit in my house EVERYBODY loved it.

Ingredients:
-extra-virgin olive oil
-3-4 lbs. chicken meat cut into pieces (I use legs and thighs, a whole chicken cut up can be used)
-12 cloves garlic minced or cut into thin rounds your choice
-1 cup white wine plus a couple more splashes
-1 1/2 cup water or chicken stock (you can use water with 1 tsp. chicken bouillon)
-salt to taste
-10 black peppercorns (may replace with fresh ground black pepper)
-3 bay leaves
-1 sprig rosemary
-2 sprig thyme
-1 small bunch sage leaves (you can replace it with oregano, I used sage leaves because I had them on hand)

Directions:
(1) Heat pan on high heat, when real hot add generous amounts of olive oil, add chicken seasoned liberally with salt brown on all sides, set chicken aside.
(2) In same oil, fry the garlic until beautiful and golden, then add white wine, water or stock bring a rolling boil add chicken back along with black peppercorns, rosemary, thyme, bay leaves and sage all tied into a bundle with string, cover and simmer on medium low for 30 minutes.
(3) Turn off heat, remove bay leaves, thyme, rosemary and oregano sprigs.
(4) Dust liberally with finely minced parsley if desired to garnish
(5) Serve with fried cubed potatoes or me having some Cuban descent everything goes well with white rice :) a salad would be good if desired to. Don't forget to spoon over those flavorful juices over the chicken. A salad goes nice or some vegetable side (I just like eating veggies with everything, I had a vegetable soup as a starter that my mother made with beef bones, and tons of greens we had in the fridge)
PLEASE NOTE:
(1) This is optional but you can add about 4 fried cubed potatoes to the dish towards the end of cooking, or actually add cubed potatoes that are raw to simmer with the chicken probably like the last 20 minutes of cooking.

(2)You let the liquid reduce half way to the chicken, if it seems to dry though add a mixture of 1/2 water and wine to add more liquid if it somehow reduces during cooking waayyyy to much.

Leche Frita (Fried Milk)

Leche Frita literally translates into "Fried Milk", leche meaning milk, and frita meaning fried.

This dessert is basically squares of fried milk custard or pudding, in my recipe the custard is infused with cinnamon, citrus, and sometimes vanilla, cut into squares, coated in flour and egg then deep or pan-fried tossed in cinnamon sugar.

A lot of people seem intimidated and think this is hard to make, they are very scared of the custard being to soft and breaking, but trust me if you follow my recipe it's super easy and you should be fine :)

Ingredients for custard:
-4 cups milk
-3/4 cup sugar
-1 cinnamon stick
-1 lemon only the zest
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
-8 tablespoons cornstarch
-1/2 and 2 tablespoons water (more or less)

Ingredients for coating:
-flour as needed (enough to coat custard squares)
-2 beaten eggs

Ingredients for cinnamon sugar dusting:
-1/2 cup white cane sugar
-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions for custard:
(1) Heat milk, sugar, cinnamon, and lemon zest on medium high heat, stir occasionally. When it bubbles and comes to boil lower heat to low and allow to simmer 5- 10 minutes.
(2) While milk is simmering in a bowl add 8 tablespoons cornstarch, and dissolve in water set aside.
(3) When milk mixture has simmered 5- 10 minutes, remove cinnamon stick and higher heat to medium high, give a quick stir with a fork to the cornstarch water mixture and whisk it in with a whisk of course, stiring constantly and fast until it begins to thicken and bubbles.
(4) Remove from heat and quickly put into a glass dish, allow to cool and refrigerate at least 4- 6 hours until cold and firm.
(5) Get everything ready, for the frying process, start heating a large pan with enough oil to deep-fry or pan0fry custard squares heat the pan on medium for now so your oil won't burn while prepping, then in one plate put flour enough to coat most custard squares, in a bowl beat eggs set aside, in another plate make cinnamon sugar by combining sugar with ground cinnamon, and get a seperate plate with paper towels to drain the oil after you fried your custard. Set everything aside.

(6) When firm, quickly pass the bottom of the glass dish over warm water (in the sink) then remove, cut squares, and gently remove using your fingers careful not to break the squares.
(7) Raise the heat in the pan with oil to high heat, pass squares one at a time, first through flour, then pass it through beaten egg (yes you heard FLOUR first THEN beaten EGG) and add to the how oil.
(8) With a spoon splash oil over or spoon over oil over the custard squares that are frying, carefully with a large wooden spoon and spatula or spider flip them over until golden on all sides.
(9) Remove from oil when golden and browned then allow to drain on paper towels, when cool enough to handle coat in cinnamon sugar carefully being careful not to break it.
(10) Transfer to serving plate, allow to cool before eating, I like it at room temperature but think leftovers in the fridge are even better :)
PLEASE NOTE:
(1) The making of the custard can be made 1 day in advance if you want to then the day of serving you can do the whole frying part

(2) You can flavor it however you want, you can use grated lime zest or orange zest instead of lemon.

(3) You can skip the cinnamon sugar and only coat in sugar, or dust with powdered sugar, or heck I've seen people drizzle it with chocolate syrup, or types of fruit syrups when serving.

(4) To make the custard richer some people beat 5 egg yolks with the cornstarch and use only milk to dilute the cornstarch instead of water, in addition when heating the milk they like to add 1 stick of butter for even more richness or omit the egg yolks and use only butter. I personally DO NOT l feel like adding egg yolks and butter, I think it's not necessary, the custard squares are already coated in flour and egg, plus fried in oil anyways...

I only add egg yolks and butter when making "Natilla" (a type of Spanish custard similar to this one, it's like a pudding, more soft and uses less cornstarch) or I use it when making "Crema Catalana" (another type of Spanish custard translates to "Catalan Cream" which is a soft milk pudding with a hard sugar crust on top)

Arroz Amarillo Con Camarones a la Chorrera (Shrimp Rice Porridge)

"Arroz a la Chorrera" in Cuban slang or talk is rice cooked like a porridge, it's thick and soupy, usually made with short-grain rice, colored yellow with saffron, bijol, or achiote seeds. In my house we joke about it since "chorro" could be slang for diarrhea hehe... and chorrera could be having "chorro"... as in "Tengo chorrera" translates to "I have diarrhea... so we say... "rice diarrhea style" (yeah yeah I know sick humor) but "chorro" could also mean a strong burst of water...

In Spain however rices prepared like a thick porridge are usually called "Arroz Caldoso" (brothy rice) and is cooked with whatever you want, usually seafood like Calamari, or a combinations of shrimp, clams, etc.

I wasn't sure if I was gonna label this post "Arroz Caldoso Con Camarones" or "Arroz Con Camarones a la Chorrera" but I think I'll go with the label "a la Chorrera" since it's what we call it down here at home :) Usually when prepared we love to use a combination of clams and shrimp to make "Arroz Con Mariscos a la Chorrera" (rice and seafood porridge) but we had non on hand so we decided to make a delicious "Arroz Con Camarones a la Chorrera" (shrimp rice porridge)

Ingredients:
-2 cups short-grain rice (like Bomba, Calasparra, Calrose, Arborio, etc.)
-1 1/2 lbs. shrimp (peeled and deveined, shells reserved)
-1 lbs. clams (I didn't have any but if you add them it will be wonderful :)
-9-12 cups shrimp stock (see directions, stock is made from reserved shrimp shells)
-2 cups more or less clam stock (optional only if using clams)
-1 onion finely minced
-1 green bell pepper minced
-6 cloves garlic minced
-4 oz. tomato sauce or 1 fresh grated tomato
-extra-virgin olive oil as needed
-1 cup fresh or frozen peas
-4 large carrots cut into rounds
-1 tablespoon sweet smoked Spanish paprika (Pimienton de la Vera)
-saffron to color rice yellow or 1 teaspoon bijol powder or achiote seed infused oil
-salt to taste
Directions:
(1) Peel and devein the shrimp (in case you don't know how, you squeeze the end of the tails, pull back and remove half the peel then remove the rest, put in a bowl the peels and in another the shells) then to remove the black veins by using a knife and cutting open the back then removing the black string vein. Wash them away. Set aside.

(2) In a large or medium pot add shrimp shells and water, bring to a boil, remove foam and let boil for 5- 10 minutes, reserve stock.
(3) If using clams which I didn't have, put clams in a pot with enough water to barely cover them, leave on high heat, when the clams open, turn off heat, remove them, and strain stock and reserve. Set clams aside. (again I didn't have any wish I did)

(4) Alright now, heat a large pot with generous amounts of extra-virgin olive oil, sautee onions and bell peppers on medium high heat until translucent maybe 5-8 minutes, then add garlic sautee another 2-3 minutes, then add tomato let cook down another 5 minutes. Add shrimp stock about 12 cups (If you were using clams, add the clam stock and the rest of the stock should be shrimp), generous amounts of salt (the water has to be salty add about 3 teaspoons), coloring and sweet smoked Spanish paprika.

(5) Bring to a rolling boil on high heat, add washed rice lower heat to low, cover and simmer rice on low for 10 minutes, after 10 minutes, add and fold in carrots, higher heat back to high heat to bring to boil, simmer carrots 10 minutes on low, if the rice looks to thick for you at this point, you want it soupier add more stock or water with a pinch of salt until you reach desired consistency.

(6) Lastly fold in shrimp and clams(if using clams) and peas and let cook an additional 5 minutes.
(7) Serve in large bowls with a salad of your choice.


PLEASE NOTE:
(1) If you don't have sweet smoked Spanish paprika, and want to season it in a more Cuban fashion don't use the paprika and replace it with 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 2 bay leaves, and black pepper to taste that's how my grandmother seasons it, I just prefer it with the sweet smoked Spanish paprika, also my grandmother doesn't add carrot but I like it for color and taste.

(2) I have a secret that makes mine extremely delicious it's not on my recipe list since it might be taboo for Spanish and Cuban Cuisine... but what makes mine extra special is I add 1 tablespoon of Fish Sauce (it's a type of sauce made of fermented fish) and 1 teaspoon monosodium glutamine to the stock...

(3) Also if interested in other versions of this dish you can check out Pilar Lechuza's recipe for "Arroz Caldoso Con Mariscos" she's a wonderful cook specializing in food from Galicia, Spain check out her blog sometime :)

Another good version is done with lobster and mussels she labeled it as "Lobster Soupy Rice" but I'm sure in Spanish she probably calls it "Arroz Caldoso Con Longosta" or something, this one is prepared by Nuria from Barcelona, Spain also very delicious you should also check out her blog :)

In addition there's also a great video by someone I do not know on youtube on preparing "Arroz Caldoso Con Mariscos" :)