Churros with Chocolate Dipping Sauce

I’m on a self-imposed macaron break. At the end of next week I’m catering an event that is predominantly Greek food and a few batches of my macarons because they are the perfect little treat.

Combine this macaron break with my love for just about anything Spanish and you get these churros with the richest, creamiest chocolate dipping sauce you can possibly imagine.

I was actually inspired to make these churros because the owners of my favourite restaurant in town are opening up two new restaurants this winter, one of which will be a churro bar.

I don’t actually think before making these that I’d ever had a churro.

I know. Who am I?

So I went on a little churro quest online and found a recipe for these that I thought I’d try out.

They’re goooood. Crunchy on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside with a hint of orange from the zest in the batter.

These churros furthered my love for all things Spanish.

Add in the chocolate dipping sauce and you’ll be dreaming of nights on the streets of Barcelona.

Churros with Chocolate Dipping Sauce: 

Ingredients:

Churros:
Via

• 175g all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 100g unsalted butter, diced
• 3 eggs, beaten
• Zest of 1/2 orange
• Sunflower oil, for frying
• Sugar, for coating

Chocolate Dipping Sauce: 

• 4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup milk
• Pinch kosher salt
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 tsp. cornstarch

Directions:

Churros: 

1. Sift together the flour and baking powder. Put the butter in a pan with 200ml cold water and a pinch of salt. Cook over a medium heat until the butter melts, then bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and add the flour. Beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.
2. Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool for 2 minutes. Gradually beat in the eggs until smooth. Stir in the orange zest, cover the bowl and set aside to rest for 30 minutes.
3. Pour enough oil into a large saucepan until one-third full. Place over a medium heat until the oil reaches 180°C. Spoon the batter into a piping bag fitted with a large star-shaped nozzle. Pipe 2 or 3 finger-length pieces directly into the oil, snipping off each with scissors. Cook for about 45 seconds each side, until golden. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle with sugar. Repeat until all the batter is used. Serve with chocolate dipping sauce.

Chocolate Dipping Sauce:

1. In a small saucepan, combine the chocolate, milk and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the chocolate has melted. Whisk cornstarch into heavy cream and add to milk/chocolate mixture. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly and let cook for a further 30 seconds. The sauce will thicken and get darker. Remove from heat then transfer to another bowl for dipping.

PDX Eats: Ataula

Portland is a hotbed of really, really good restaurants.

No matter what you’re craving, I can pretty much guarantee there is a restaurant waiting to fill your stomach with all kinds of gastronomic masterpieces.

I’m thinking about introducing a new section to this blog with my thoughts on some of Portland’s restaurants and I’m starting with Ataula.

Ataula is without a doubt one of my favourite spots in Portland. It’s a Spanish tapas restaurant located just off one of Portland’s most vibrant streets. The owner/chef is Jose Chesa, a native of Barcelona who has brought traditional, authentic tapas to Portland.

I went there a couple of weeks ago with two of my best friends to kick off my birthday celebrations and we had such a great time. You can see the kitchen from the dining part of the restaurant, which I really like. Towards the end of the meal Chef Chesa came from the kitchen to the dining area and talked to the people dining. I’ve never been to a restaurant where that occurs before and I was very impressed.

Now for the food/drink.

Let me start with the sangria.

I could drink this sangria all day long. They offer three different kinds — white, rose, and red. The three of us ordered all three and we enjoyed all of them. My personal favourite was the red. It had the absolute perfect combination of flavours. It was almost like a “comforting” drink whereas I would consider both the white and rose to be more light and refreshing. You can’t go wrong with any of them though. They offer all kinds of beverages, but I would highly recommend you order one of the sangrias.

Now the food.

We ordered a few tapas and one of the paellas they offer. To say we were impressed with the food would probably be the understatement of the year. We absolutely loved it. Everything was so flavourful. I haven’t been to Spain, but it all tasted how I imagine it would taste in Spain.

We had the “pa amb tomaquet” which is house-made bread with shredded tomato and extra-virgin olive oil. Quite possibly my new favourite way to eat bread.

The berenjena is eggplant fries with a romesco dipping sauce. YUM. That sauce was on a whole other level — it paired perfectly with the eggplant and was delicious on its own.

We also had a delicious rabbit dish — rabbit loin wrapped in some serrano ham on a bed of veggies with a dehydrated potato crisp on top. Might have been my favourite dish of the night. Before my friends and I made the Valencian paella, I’d never had rabbit before but oh my goodness is it good. The whole dish was superb.

Finally, we had the rossejat. This is actually their noodle paella dish — it contains toasted noodles, chicken and chorizo. If a traditional seafood paella isn’t really your thing, this is a great alternative (they also have a vegetable paella which is good).

I’ve been to Ataula a couple of times and I’ve never been disappointed with anything I’ve ordered. If this is what Spain tastes like, I’m going to have to immediately get on a plane and go there.

I highly recommend if you live in Portland, or ever find yourself in the Rose City that you go there. And take me with you 🙂

UPDATE: I went there with some friends yesterday for my birthday (sense a theme here? ;)) and they put a birthday candle with the doughnuts we ordered for dessert! Those doughnuts are really, really good.

 

Paella Valenciana!

I might be English, but after making and eating this paella recipe from Victor Claver of the Portland Trailblazers he might just be my favourite Blazer (sorry, Joel Freeland).

A month or two ago, my friend and I asked Victor if he had a family paella recipe he could share with us to use for one of our Friday Night Dinners. He kindly gave us this recipe from his native Valencia with a message saying, “I hope you can make a good one ;)” and we made it for dinner this weekend (you can read the dinner recap and find the other recipes here).

Now, I’m not going to lie. When I read over the recipe and saw there was rabbit involved I was a little skeptical. I’d never eaten rabbit before, let alone cooked with it so I truly had no idea what I was getting myself into. {If you really, really don’t want to try rabbit, you probably can make it with just chicken instead of a combination of the two. Just remember it won’t be as authentic.}

To say it was an experience would be a total understatement. Taylor and I ordered rabbit and picked it up from a local store, not realizing it would be a whole rabbit and we would have to cut the meat off ourselves.

We got back to her apartment so we could start preparing everything for the paella before the rest of the FND crew showed up. Given that we had absolutely no idea what we were supposed to be doing with the rabbit, we went to trust ol’ Google and looked up what we needed to do. It was…unpleasant. But we sucked it up like the strong young women we are and got to it. It would probably have been better if we had the correct knives, but we made do with what we had and got the meat we needed.

Next time though, we’re getting someone to butcher it for us. Not something I particularly want to do again, although it’s nice to be able to say I did do it.

This is a pretty simple paella to make. It does take time though, and make sure to follow the directions because otherwise I assume you’d end up with either a sloppy mess or a bunch of burned rice — neither of which sound very appetizing.

While we were cooking we got a message from Victor asking how it was going and asking us to send him a picture once it was done. It turned out great an
d we sent him the best picture we had taken (and we took a lot). Yesterday we sent him the recap blog post over from PDX FND, expressing our gratitude for sharing the recipe with us and he proceeded to tell us that we’ll “have to go to Valencia  and taste the original flavor ;)”. I think that sounds like a great plan and I’m so excited to go over there at some point (hopefully in the not too distant future) and try out a real Valencian paella made by a true Valencian. Until then though, this will have to satisfy my paella cravings.

We also came across a store with an entire line of shelves dedicated to things from Spain, like this paella rice. Needless to say, I’lll definitely be going back there.

Here is the recipe, I’m posting it with step-by-step instructions and a lot of pictures because I think for paella, being able to see what you’re supposed to do is so, so helpful.

I hope you all enjoy it and once again a big thank you to Victor for sharing the recipe with us!!

Paella Valenciana:
Via

Ingredients:

• 700g (1 1/2 lb). chicken, sliced and slightly salted
• 300g (2/3 lb.) rabbit, sliced and slightly salted
• 1 tablespoon ground paprika
• Saffron, to taste (or yellow food colouring)
• 12 tablespoons grated fresh tomato
• 400g (14 oz.) Ferraura, rotjet, or wide green beans
• 100 g (3.5  oz.) Garrofón (Lima Beans)
• 3 or 4 artichokes (we used a can of artichoke hearts, a lot easier)
• 100 g (3.5 oz.) white beans or tabella
• Water
• 150 ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 320g (11.3 oz.) rice (paella rice is preferable)
• Salt, to taste

Directions:

1. Pour the oil in the middle of the paella pan and heat the oil over a high heat.
2. When the oil begins to smoke, add the chicken and rabbit and brown carefully over medium heat. Paella success depends a lot on successful browning of the meat.
   
3. Add the chopped vegetables (beans included) and sauté for a few minutes.
4. Make a hole in the centre of the pan, setting aside the meat and vegetables. In the gap, incorporate the tomato, fry for a few minutes, then add the paprika. Let it cook for another minute and be careful not to burn the paprika.
5. Pour in the water close to the edge of the pan. You want the pan to be almost full of water. Add some salt and allow it to cook for about 20 minutes, adding more water if necessary.
6. After 20 minutes, you should see that the water/stock of the paella comes halfway up the rivets on the side of the pan.
7. Now test the salt. The broth should be slightly salty as the rice will absorb some while it cooks. {The recipe translation says you should have a guest try the broth to determine saltiness, then you can blame them if it is too salty ;)}
8. Now incorporate the rice. Make a slight groove with the rice, going diagonally across the pan. You want the rice to stick out about an inch from the stock. Add the saffron or dye on top of the rice. Uniformly mix the rice into the pan and cook over a strong (medium-high/high) heat for about 7 minutes, or until half cooked rice begins to appear. {I don’t actually have a picture of this step, but imagine the picture above having a diagonal line of rice topped with saffron on top, then stir it all together}
9. Now lower the heat to low/medium-low and cook for another 4-5 minutes. {Make sure the paella isn’t burning and sticking to the bottom of the pan; if you need to slightly stir it to move around the grains to prevent burning}.
   
10. Once the liquid has been absorbed, check to make sure the rice is cooked. If not, add a little more water and continue cooking, just make sure not to burn the rice.
11. Finally, rest the paella for about 5 minutes, then enjoy!