Paella

Today I hosted girl's dinner at my place and I decided to make paella, it's a traditional Spanish dish that can be made with a combination of meats and seafood, depending on the chef's mood. I like to keep it simple and use just chicken, pork and shrimp. I have made it before whit mussels and calamari as well, but I just personally do not enjoy mussels at all....

It is very very easy to make this dish, it just takes a little bit of time:
Serves around 6 - 7 people

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts
1 pound of shrimp
2 butterfly cut pork chops with no bones
1 yellow bell pepper
1 orange bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1 large red onion
3 garlic cloves
1 chicken buillon cube
salt/pepper
Soy sauce
Whorcheshire sauce
1 tbs of dijon mustard
4 cups of rice

Preparation:
Slice the meats in small cubes, slice very thinly the peppers and onion, mix them with the chicken and pork in a bowl, sprinkle salt and pepper, add a generous pour of soy sauce and whorecheshire and mix, set in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Peel the shrimp and mix with soy sauce and whorcheshire sauce, add the mustard and the garlic, minced. Let it rest in the fridge as well.

around 45 mins before serving:
In a large pan over medium - high heat add some olive oil and cook the pork and chicken mix, around 7 - 10 minutes. place it in a bowl and let it seat for a second.
In the same pan add a little more olive oil and cook the shrimp, around 6 - 8 minutes, set aside.
In a big sauce pan boil 4 cups of water with the chicken buillon, turn the heat off and add the 4 cups of rice, let it cook, when it is done add the cooked meats and shrimp and make sure to use the juices as well, stir until the rice is completely covered with the sauce and it's ready to serve!

You can also add some cilantro and achiote powder if you would like to make the rice a little more orange, by adding it in the boiling water.
If you would like to use mussels, you can cook them in white onions, garlic, white wine and parsley, boil the spices together add some season all and put the mussels, cook them until they open. If you see any mussels open before cooking discard them, that means they are not fresh!

Parsley is a great garnish!
Enjoy!

Easy BBQ Pork Ribs

Serves 6 people
Prep Time: 20 - 30 mins
Cook Time: 2 hours

Ingredients:

2 racks of pork ribs
Kosher salt
Dried thyme
Dried rosemary
Freshly ground pepper
1 small bottle of soy sauce
1 cup of brown sugar
1 small bbq sauce bottle (your personal favorite)

Instructions:

Lay the pork ribs in a large disposable aluminum tray, cover the ribs with soy sauce and let them simmer for 10 minutes. Get rid of the excess of soy sauce, noticing that your ribs should have a light glaze over them.

In a separate bowl mix a generous amount of thyme and rosemary with the brown sugar, add a pinch of salt and grind enough pepper to sprinkle both racks. Make a nice rub with the igredients.

Cover the ribs with the rub make sure you cover the back and front of the rack and put aside, turn the grill on medium/high heat and wait for it to get into 450 - 500 degrees.

Put the whole tray in the grill and close for 1.5 hours, you will see that the rub melted and the ribs are nice and covered in sugar. With a brush gently cover the front and back of the ribs with bbq sauce and flash seare them on each side. (3 - 4 minuutes at the time) Then set the ribs back into the aluminum tray and with a spoon cover them with the juices that have been dripped on the tray.

Lower the heat to medium and keep smoking them for as long as you want (minimum of 30 more minutes) your ribs will be so tender and yummy everyone will go back for seconds!

Tip: You can slice apples or pears and place them under the ribs in the aluminum tray for aroma. You can also add some honey into the bbq sauce to make it sweeter!