Dienos Saulėje: Conocer a la familia

This past weekend, I got to go to Madrid and meet the extended family as well as celebrate some birthdays. The birthday boys were the twins you see in the blue shirts with the rackets below and José's dad, sitting next to José, who turned 80. Below is a picture of the celebration at the restaurant. It was a hot day as were the majority of the days, but luckily we found a cool, shady location.

After eating way to much food including leftovers of others and a blueberry cheesecake, this birthday cake was brought out.

After dinner, we went to the family's house in Madrid. To get there we took the tunnel that bypassed the entire city. Here we are just about to go down. When we got there, I got to meet Paz's parents and aunt and uncle. The aunt graciously gave me a recipe and then decided to make for me the next day paella. I took some pictures so to remember how to do it so that maybe I might be able to make something similar in the US.

First, fry the chicken in olive oil, salt, and parsley and add vegetables such as artichokes, peas, and olives.

Add 10 cups of water (1 cup = .25L) for every 1 kilo of rice. The rice we used was rounded. We mixed about 4 cups of chicken stalk with the water for extra flavor and then added some salt with something similar to safron that adds color.

Once boiling over an evenly distributed flame, the rice is added. Then red peppers and and shrimp are placed on top as a decoration. Do not stir.

The dish is cooked until the water is almost consumed and the rice is almost cooked. Then the flame is turned off, the pan topped with a cloth, and the rice cooks in the vapor for 10 more minutes. And viola, you have a paella. It seems simple, but we'll see how it goes with out having the experts around. This paella, I think, is the type from Valencia. We were going to add more sea food, but the store was closed.