a spanish-inspired summer feast for my family

The one sad thing about moving away from home is that the meals I have with my family come once in a blue moon. The meals with all 4 of us, rare. Those meals being home-cooked around our family’s dining table, even rarer.

In fact I don’t even think I’ve had a meal like that with my family since holiday season last year, almost 9 months. Somehow, and for whatever reason, the planets aligned just this past week. I was back in my hometown in Maryland for the weekend going to the dentist (yay!) and getting my haircut (yay!). My brother and dad had just flown back from L.A. on a “work” trip. And my mom is always home so she’s the easy one to pin down.

I learned to cook cooking for my family in our small kitchen. Thankfully, that kitchen has been newly renovated and is now a good deal larger than closet-sized. But my family cooking ethos stays the same nonetheless: don’t dirty the kitchen + clean up after myself to the nth degree, serve potatoes in some form, serve tomatoes in some form. If I just follow those 3 philosophical tenets, my family will be more than happy.

A lot of my most memorable cooking experiences and memories are from that first year I learned to cook (2020). Hunkered down in covid spring, then trapped during covid summer, I had nothing to do but cook and experiment. And I recall this one day in the summer when I decided to make paella. For whatever reason, my parents own a massive paella pan, so it seemed ideal enough. I bought shrimp, mussels, chorizo, chicken, fish, paella rice, saffron — the whole shebang. We invited our family friends over and they were a. positively confused b. extremely excited. At that time, an onion took me like five minutes to cut, so I remember it being a laborious meal. I decided to give this paella another go.

The thing about paella when I was doing my recipe research: it’s actually not that hard. There aren’t even that many ingredients. Besides the protein, it’s really just rice + tomato + stock + saffron. And the other great thing is that they are completely customizable. Like a loaded cookie dough or a loaded ice cream, just throw in whatever mix-ins you want (cooked vegetables, various proteins) and it’ll turn out just fine.

My ideal paella has both chicken and seafood — I like shrimp and fish out of accessibility and ease. Chicken thighs lend so much depth of flavor, so they are a must for me, too. And personally, I don’t really want my paella loaded with a random assortment of vegetables. Onions and peas suffice. I’ll have my vegetables elsewhere on my dinner plate. It’s really crazy how, through just a few high-quality ingredients, the paella rice transforms into something special. It tastes like Spain, at home. I like topping the paella with some homemade chimichurri, for both bright green color and a fresh hit of herbs, but that’s optional.

Roast patatas bravas are the second special treat (out of four) my family got. I like roasting the potatoes in the oven after a brief boil, just like as if you were making smashed potatoes. All that time in the oven allows you to whip up the two sauces for the patatas bravas. A basic hot salsa and a rich, lemony aioli.

The third dish is heirloom tomatoes, my ultimate summer treat. I like adorning them simply with umami-rich ingredients like toasted garlic, olives, lemon zest & chili flakes. They don’t need any extra acidity since tomatoes are always acidic. But a few dashes of sherry vinegar wouldn’t hurt if you’re inclined.

Finally, summer wouldn’t be complete without a cobbler. I like presenting my cobblers in deep dish plates. Not to beat a dead horse, but they are just more ~chic~ that way. Like I’m not trying to convince you I made a pie (because clearly I did not), but I do want you to believe I put in the same amount of effort as a pie by presenting it in a pie plate. You feel? A cobbler in a pyrex is giving “I don’t care about you,” Cobbler in a pie plate: chic. I like cobblers because effort wise they are between pies and crisps. I mean, really, like if I’m trying to say I don’t really care what we have for dessert, I would make a crisp. A cobbler is at least 10 steps beyond that. I went through the effort to make biscuits, but I’m not baby-sitting a pie crust. A good middle ground.

Ok with that explanation over with, this is a very classic cobbler that I like to make slightly fancy with a little ground fennel seed and cardamom in the berries. It goes even more lovely with vanilla ice cream that way. Ever so much more appealing to eat sweet, tender biscuits with just-cooked summer fruit than a streusel topping IMO (they are also so ugly… I’m not even kidding I’ve never seen a good-looking crisp, a well-photographed crisp, or even a well-styled crisp). Ok, I’m gonna end this newsletter before I rant on about how much I dislike crisps for 4 more paragraphs.

Ryan

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