Mission Impossible 2: Limited Edition Cooking

Remember my little dilemma where my online game friends are coming and I’ve completely forgotten that I’m supposed to cook something for our potluck gathering and my mad dash to the morning market only rewarded me with these?

Fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, chicken, fish filament, shrimps and Bombay onions.

And only these Jasmine Pusa Gold 1121 Basmathi Import Rice (2kg pack) to spare in the kitchen.

I was completely at loss on what to cook for the gathering since my trip to the morning market did not yield much stuff for me to cook. And so I asked for some suggestion from my readers and Facebook friends. Famous dishes that’s suggested to me are a few separate dishes like; prawns cooked with sliced cucumber, tomato chicken, blanched veggies with soya sauce.

Some even suggested one pot meals like soup, curry and even Tomyam dishes. These suggestions would have been all right if it’s a sit down dinner meal at home and would have cooked as suggested in a heartbeat if that was the case, but since I’m going for a potluck, I need to make things not only plentiful, but convenient to pack up and will not spoil fast as well.

After putting my head together, I recalled reading a Harlequin romance line of book. The hero in that book was somewhat in a situation similar to mine. He was supposed to impress his lady love with his cooking with limited time and ingredients. I thought that if he can do it, so can I! The dashing Spanish hero cooked some mean paella and fixed some ensalada for his ladylove, and so I thought I’d borrow the idea and cook up my own to impress my friends.

Paella is an internationally-known rice dish from Spain. It originated in the fields of a region called Valencia on the eastern coast of Spain. Basically, paella is made from any kind of ingredient that goes well with rice. There are as many versions of paella as there are cooks. It may contain chicken,shellfish, fish, eel, squid, beans, peas, artichokes or peppers. Saffron, the spice that also turns the rice a wonderful golden color is an essential part of the dish, but I’ll omit that considering that I don’t have them in my kitchen.

The history of paella is quite an interesting one, I must say. It is said that Moorish kings’ servants created rice dishes by mixing the left-overs from royal banquets in large pots to take home. It is said by some that that word paella originates from the Arab word “baqiyah” meaning left-overs. However, linguists believe that the word paella comes from the name of the pan it is made in – the Latin term patella, a flat plate on which offerings were made to the Gods.

I thought that the Jasmine Pusa Gold 1121 Basmathi Import Rice would be perfect for my version of paella.

The rice grains are extra long.

The Jasmine Pusa Gold 1121 Basmathi Import Rice would be able absorb spices and flavourings well within short period of cooking time, definitely.

So here’s my version of the paella and the accompanying ensalada.

Quickie Mixed Meat Paella

Ingredients
Chicken drumsticks/chicken fillet

Fish filament

Shrimps,

Chopped Bombay onions or garlic

Jasmine Pusa Gold 1121 Basmathi Import Rice

A mixture of paprika powder, chicken stock granule and salt to taste

Method:

Marinade the chicken with some paprika powder and salt for 15 minutes.

Sauté the shrimps with a bit of oil in the pan.

Add in the filament sticks and fry em up a lil bit before taking them out and putting them aside.

Fry up the chicken that has been thoroughly marinated with paprika powder and salt til it’s half cooked and put aside.

Mix the spices mixture with 4 1/2 water and add in 2 cups of Pusagold Jasmine rice that has been washed into the pan and simmer til cooked.

When the rice is halfway cooked, top it with the sauteed shrimps and filament stick along with the half cooked fried chicken and continue to cook over the pan with slow fire til everything is fully cooked. The Jasmine Pusa Gold 1121 Basmathi Import Rice will be able to absorb the flavourings from the shrimps, filament sticks and chicken pieces well if you use slow fire to cook, so you must have patience while cooking the paella. Watch the fire and be careful not to burn the rice, ya?

Here’s my Mixta Paella, ready to be served.

Cooking paella can take quite some time, so while you’re waiting for the paella to be cooked, you can prepare some accompanying side dishes. Below is my quickie recipe for Mixta Ensalada to go with the paella during the potluck gathering.

 

Mixta Ensalada

Ingredients:

Sliced cucumber
Fresh tomatoes
Lime juice/extra virgin olive oil
Method

Slice up the cucumbers and tomatoes. Squeeze some lemon juice and drizzle with some olive oil. Add in some sliced boiled eggs if you wish, but that’s optional.

Final result of the paella.

Hmm…not too shabby for a ‘limited edition ingredients’, eh?  Wonder what my guildmates thinks about my cooking. Hopefully it will be all right.

Will be posting about the gathering soon and let you folks know whether or not I’ve turned myself into an overnight Spanish cook sensation or a historical disaster.

Cleffairy: I’ll be doing a lucky draw for all my Mission Impossible posts and get my son to pick a winner.  Everyone who commented on this post or any other Mission Impossible posts will be entitled for the lucky draw. 1 comment= 1 lucky draw entry. So the more you comment, the higher chance you will win. Lucky commenter will received a pack of Jasmine Pusa Gold 1121 Basmathi Import Rice (2kg). 😀 Giveaway is open for those living in Malaysia only.

20 comments

  1. claire says:

    wow Cleff! The beras looks great… must be expensive type, yes? Cannot imagine how the taste is.. never taken like this before but I surely would love to try!! Anything new to me, I don’t mind tasting… yummsss!!

    • Cleffairy says:

      Yes, Claire…it’s a high end beras. If not mistaken it’s RM20++ per 2kg. 😀 Hahahaha… next time you come KL, den I can cook this for you to try. 😀

    • Cleffairy says:

      Hahaha…this is Spanish rice dish. It’s called Paella. 😀 Minus the saffron in the ingredients though, cuz I dun have any of those expensive stuff! 😛

  2. angel_troll says:

    Wow! Paella! This is such a surprise. I thought you’d probably cook something else…perhaps honeyed chicken wings or something. This looks wonderful. 😀 So how was the gathering?

  3. Jess says:

    When can you cook & invite me…. then I can tell you if the Jasmine Pusa Gold 1121 Basmathi Import Rice (such a long name , hungry liao by the time I type finish) nice or not!

    • Cleffairy says:

      Hmmm…my husband said it was ok. My son likes it. 😀 I brought this dish for my friends to try in a potluck gathering…the feedback was not too shabby. 😛

  4. Cheeyee says:

    Hey it looks good! And not seems too complicated. Maybe I should try it one day. I think my kids will love it. 🙂

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