December 31 2009

I spent close to three hours in a car yesterday with my children. To dull the constant screaming I turned my attentions to the radio. Being New Years Eve, CBC radio had special after special of resolutions, traditions, parties etc. I don't usually buy into the whole NYE thing. My husband and I like to keep it simple, a good meal, some bubbles and a relaxing evening. Party pooper's that we are, we don't even pretend that we are going to stay up until midnight. For us nothing can compare to Amsterdam 1998/9, and as my husband says "it just ain't New Year's until someone's hair catches fire".


But then I started to listen as one woman explain how we pin our hopes on the the single moment in time when the clock ticks over and we are frozen in place. How we are when the NYE bell's start tolling is how we will be in the year to come. What?! Really!! I didn't know this? Does that mean then I will sleep through the next year; should I stay awake?  What do I do to prepare? The closer I got to home the more the anxiety grew and it turns out with good merit. My un-potty trained three year old poohed in his diaper and I was just too close to home to stop. The smell was retched and soon filled the car. At home as I was changing him the potty trained three old peed her pants. I think they gang up on me. As I was cleaning up the floor and her, the other was tearing through the house at speeds not seen since man broke the sound barrier. With equal strength as speed he crashed and burned not once but twice - really those bruises are self inflicted. By now I am into dinner preparations, and the husband gets home from work, takes one look at the the mayhem and declares "I am making an executive decision, we are having the good bubbles now" and with that he popped the cork. At once I am relieved, the festive sound southed my soul and I began to cook.


Nothing says New Year's more than Paella... Well maybe not but once again I had to clean out my fridge and wanted to do something creative for the last meal of 2009. I have nicknamed it Bottomfeeder Paella after the BC Spot Prawns that my husband and I bought at the docks a few days ago.

Bottomfeeder Paella

• roughly 1lb shelled shrimp
• 1 medium onion
• 1 cup chopped leeks about 1 medium, white and light green parts only
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 2 tbsp butter
• 5 whole roma tomatoes, peeled and chopped (fresh or canned)
• 2 cups stock, chicken or vegetable
• 1 tsp salt and more to taste
• fresh ground pepper
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp spanish paprika
• 2 tbsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1 cup short grain rice, rinsed

Preheat oven to 425 F. Heat stock and keep warm until needed. 

Melt butter in large oven proof 10-12 inch skillet or a paella pan if you have one, over medium heat. Cook, onion, leek celery about 5 minutes until translucent, add in garlic cook for another minute. Add and mix well salt, pepper, thyme, and paprika, stir in rice and fully coat, cooking until rice glistens.

Pour warm stock over rice, add bay leaf, tomatoes, parsley, and shrimp. Put the skillet in the oven, bake for 10 -15 minutes. Check the liquid level, and add more stock if needed to keep the rice moist.

Remove from oven cover with tinfoil for 15 minutes to finish cooking the the rice. Use more parsley to garnish.

Open the best bottle of bubbly you have and enjoy a home cooked meal. 

photo by me.

Bottomfeeders & Leftovers

Today we went to the docks. The Steveston Docks, like rough and tumble raiders to wrestle up tonights grub. We were after the bottom feeders, the ocean's floor cleaners, with their pint sized bodies and needle like legs- the Pacific Spot Prawn. Not necessarily in season they are caught using traps and frozen at sea. According to Taras Grescoe in his book Bottomfeeder: How to eat ethically in a world of vanishing seafood, they are a responsible choice if you are to eat prawns at all... and there are some nasty prawns out there. Even though the book scared us off many of our other favourite seafoods, we love the pint sized morsels and will take on the buccaneers of the high seas to get some. And well our son loves boats, so why not take a drive to the historic seaside village just outside of Richmond? We bought 3lbs of them, shell, legs, antennae and all of the prickly decapods.


With the aid of the three year olds, my husband shelled and clean the prawns. When time came to remove the heads both Billie and Elijah were anything but squeamish. If cleaning them was this much fun would they eat them? He then skewered them another process that was endlessly fascinating, then marinated them in odds and ends he found in the fridge and pantry. While he was doing that, I was cleaning out the fridge. I was pleasantly surprised that many of the things that we had before the holidays had not gone off. I had my sauce that I use for pizza; raw tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper, celery, carrot and leeks all packed in water. Plus fresh veg and fruit.  Dinner was forming almost as if by momentum rather than planning. The menu became, marinated prawns on a rice pilaf with a citrus, pomegranate salad. 


In the spirit of eating from the bottom of the sea we ate from the bottom of the fridge and the babies loved it! The babies ate the prawns with gusto, probably because they got up close and personal with them, then they dug into the pilaf with the same enthusiasm, asking for more. We learnt a new trick tonight, like marshmallows sticks make food interesting.

photos by me, with the twins new toy camera (mine is in the shop).