Tiny Urban Kitchen

Exploring Food from Boston to Hong Kong and Beyond

  • About
    • About Me
    • Tiny Urban Kitchen’s Favorite Equipment
    • Press
  • Recipes
    • Recipe Index
    • Asian
      • Chinese
      • Taiwanese
      • Thai
      • Malaysian
      • Japanese
      • Korean
    • Appetizers
    • Soups
    • Salad
    • Pasta
    • Noodles
    • Rice
    • Vegetarian
    • Meat
    • Sweets
      • Baking
      • Ice cream
      • Cookies
    • Misc
    • Kawaii (Cute)
  • Travel / Restaurants
    • United States
      • Boston
        • Jen’s Picks
        • Boston
          • Allston
          • Back Bay
          • Brighton
          • North End
          • South End
        • Cambridge
          • Kendall Square
          • Inman Square
          • Central Square
          • Harvard Square
          • Porter Square
          • North Cambridge
        • Somerville
          • Davis Square
          • Union Square
        • Greater Boston
          • Brookline
          • Arlington
          • Belmont
          • Watertown
          • Newton
          • Lexington
          • Concord
          • Burlington
          • Natick
        • Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Berkshires
      • Vermont
      • Maine
      • New York
      • Washington DC
      • Philadelphia
      • Orlando
      • Chicago
      • Las Vegas
      • California
        • Los Angeles
        • San Francisco
        • Napa
        • Sonoma
      • Seattle
      • Hawaii
    • Canada
      • Montreal
      • Canadian Rockies
      • Toronto
    • Argentina
    • Europe
      • United Kingdom
        • London
        • Oxford
      • Italy
        • Rome
        • Piedmont
      • France
        • Paris
        • Bordeaux
      • Spain
        • Madrid
        • Barcelona
        • Catalonia / San Sebastian / Girona
      • Germany
      • Belgium
        • Brussels
      • Switzerland
      • Greece
      • Finland
      • Norway
      • Denmark
    • Japan
      • Japan Guide
      • Tokyo
      • Osaka
      • Kyoto
    • China (Mainland)
      • Beijing
      • Chengdu
      • Shanghai
      • Shaanxi
      • Shenzhen
      • Xiamen
      • Yunnan
    • Singapore
    • Hong Kong
    • Malaysia
    • Taiwan
    • Thailand
    • Australia/New Zealand
  • Michelin
    • Formerly had a star
    • Michelin Recommended
    • 1 Star
    • 2 Stars
    • 3 Stars
  • Jen’s Eating Guides!
    • Boston Restaurants
    • Boston Dishes
    • Tokyo
    • Hong Kong
    • Las Vegas
    • Napa / Sonoma
    • Taiwan (night markets)
    • Taiwanese (casual eats)
    • Street Foods of Bangkok (Part I)
    • Street Foods of Bangkok (Part II)
    • Kitchen Equipment
  • Trip Reports
    • All trip reports
    • New England
    • New York
    • Washington DC
    • Las Vegas
    • California
    • Canada
    • Europe
    • Florida
    • Japan
    • China

August 2009 Daring Cooks Challenge: Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes

August 14, 2009 by Jennifer Che 21 Comments

I’m so excited to have participated in my first Daring Cooks Challenge. August’s challenge was hosted by Olga from Olga’s Recipes, and the recipe was a Catalan dish: rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes. I had been meaning to make paella for some time now (I had even bought saffron!) so this was a perfect opportunity to try it out!

Modifications
Instead of using cuttlefish, I used pre-cleaned squid — partly because Seafood Counter Guy at Whole Foods had never heard of cuttlefish and partly because I saw some pictures of not-cleaned cuttlefish (ink sac and innards and all) and I got REALLY scared.

I also substituted the fish head stock with chicken broth and a dash of Japanese dashi since I was scared of dealing with fish heads (yes, I know, I’m Chinese – how could I be afraid of some fish heads?)

Finally, instead of cleaning out 4 fresh artichokes, I bought canned artichokes.

Over all, this dish was a success! It met the HAF – Husband Approval Factor (actually, my husband’s quite a foodie, so this means something. 🙂 The allioli totally made the dish – the pungent raw garlicky essence on the rice really created a zing that made this dish incredible.

Thanks Olga!

Ingredients (serves 4):

  • 4 Artichokes
  • 12 Mushrooms (Baby Bellas)
  • 2 Bay leaves
  • 1 glass of white wine
  • 3/4 lb cuttlefish
  • Sofregit (click here for recipe)
  • 300 gr (2 cups) Short grain rice
  • Fish stock (use 1 ½ cup of liquid per ½ cup of rice)
  • Saffron threads
  • Allioli (click here for recipe)

I had never bought or cooked squid before so I was slightly scared when I opened up the package. Yeeks!

I guess they didn’t look too bad. At least they were clean, and quite easy to chop.

1) Add 1-2 T of olive oil in a pan and saute the squid.

2) Add a bay leaf, artichokes, and mushroom.
3) Saute until the artichokes turn golden brown. (since my artichokes came from a can and were already sort of yellow, I just sauteed until the veggies softened a bit ~ 5 minutes)
4) Add a splash of white wine so that all the solids in the pan get mixed together
5) Add 2-3 tablespoons of sofregit and mix to make sure everything gets impregnated with the sofregit. (I ended up dumping ALL the sofregit that I had made into the pan – it still turned out great!)
6) Add all the liquids (1 cup wine and 6 cups stock) and bring to a boil
7) Add all the rice. Let boil for 5 minutes.
8) Add saffron (I added like 10-20 threads)
9) Bring to a simmer and let cook for 8 minutes or until “al dente”
10) Remove pan from heat and let it rest for another few minutes

Serve with allioli on top.

©2009-2014 Tiny Urban Kitchen
All Rights Reserved

Filed Under: Recipe, Rice, Seafood, Spanish

« Sofregit
Penang »

Recent Posts

  • Bozar Restaurant Brussels – 1 Michelin Star February 25, 2021
  • Fin de Siecle Brussels February 23, 2021
  • Happy Lunar New Year – a Different Celebration During an Unusual Year February 12, 2021
  • The Araki Hong Kong February 1, 2021
  • L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon Hong Kong January 18, 2021
  • Nostalgic Reminders of Home: Five Guys Hong Kong January 6, 2021
  • Elementary Hong Kong January 5, 2021
  • Happy New Year 2021! A Look Back at 2020 January 1, 2021

Latest Chinese recipes!

Comments

  1. B says

    August 14, 2009 at 2:14 am

    YUM. i wonder if i have the patience to make this, with all the different parts….

    Reply
  2. Justin says

    August 14, 2009 at 8:10 am

    this looks good. and buying cleaned squid makes a big difference. the uncleaned stuff is a little scary. i bet you’ll start making squid at home a lot more now that you’ve tried it.

    Reply
  3. Livia says

    August 14, 2009 at 9:03 am

    Yum. One suggestion — maybe for you r recipes you could posted estimated preparation and cooking times.

    Reply
  4. Megan@Feasting on Art says

    August 14, 2009 at 9:05 am

    Yum! The squid looks terrific. Good job forming the rice into an appetizing mound, mine was more of a pile of food in the middle of the plate.

    Reply
  5. Lisa Michelle says

    August 14, 2009 at 9:24 am

    Congratulations on a first DC Challenege extremely well done! Your plating is gorgeous, as is the photo of it! It looks mouth watering!

    Reply
  6. jglee says

    August 14, 2009 at 11:00 am

    Livia – thanks for the suggestion. This dish isn’t so bad to make, especially if you have sofregit already made (that’s the most time-consuming part, but I guess Catalan people just have it on hand usually?) The rest of the dish takes about 45 minutes to prepare max. I think I spent close to 2 hours when I made it for this challenge, but that’s because I messed up on the allioli once, made the sofregit first (serially), etc.

    Reply
  7. Citronetvanille says

    August 14, 2009 at 11:11 am

    Wonderful, that is the type of recipe I like! I can smell it from here. Love your blog.

    Reply
  8. Jenn says

    August 14, 2009 at 2:42 pm

    Beautiful! I love your presentation!

    Reply
  9. Amy I. says

    August 14, 2009 at 2:54 pm

    Looks great, I love the composed presentation!

    Reply
  10. Olga says

    August 14, 2009 at 4:45 pm

    Congratulations on your first challenge. You’ve made a fantastic job!!

    Reply
  11. climbhighak says

    August 14, 2009 at 7:58 pm

    Well done on your first DC challenge. I would have cleaned your whole squid in exchange for the ink. Just saying.

    Reply
  12. Charli says

    August 14, 2009 at 9:15 pm

    I agree completely about the allioli making this one. Great presentation!

    Reply
  13. Junglefrog says

    August 15, 2009 at 2:08 am

    Oooo, sorry if I scared you off my that terrible photo of the squid insides..lol… Well, it was kind of gross and scary so very wise decision to use precleaned squid. I totally love that first photo of yours. What a beautiful presentation and well done on your first challenge too!

    Reply
  14. Audax says

    August 15, 2009 at 5:35 am

    Your plating is so professional just like your finished recipe. Love all your pixs and I noticed your allioli posting also yours is so white. bravo bravo bravo on a fabulous challenge well done. Cheers from Audax in Australia

    Reply
  15. Andrew says

    August 15, 2009 at 10:44 am

    Good choice on the squid. The waitress in Italy warned me that cuttlefish is a “black” fish. It really was the worst meal in the whole country.

    Reply
  16. Lauren says

    August 15, 2009 at 12:55 pm

    Beautiful job!! Your dish looks amazing, and the plating is gorgeous =D.

    Reply
  17. Claire says

    August 15, 2009 at 4:39 pm

    Stunning presentation. Glad you enjoyed your first challenge. It was my second challenge and really enjoyed it too.

    Reply
  18. Medhaa says

    August 15, 2009 at 7:06 pm

    I love your presentation, you have a lot of patience. Lovely work.

    Reply
  19. Diana says

    August 18, 2009 at 4:57 pm

    Good job on the challenge, and GREAT plating!

    Reply
  20. Rose says

    August 19, 2009 at 12:31 pm

    Great job! Beautifully plated 🙂

    Reply
  21. La cuina vermella says

    March 21, 2010 at 4:38 pm

    Hello from Barcelona, Catalonia. You are right, the Catalan people it is easy to cook the sauce. Thanks for this recipe. a pleasure and an honor.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Welcome to Tiny Urban Kitchen!

JenChe

Hi, my name's Jen and welcome to my cooking, eating, and travel site! I am a Boston to Hong Kong transplant, born and raised in Ohio with parents from Taiwan. Feel free to head on over to the About page if you want to learn more about me, or just explore away, maybe starting with the Recipe Index or one of the travel pages! I hope you enjoy this site!
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Archives

Categories

Awards

Saveur
PFB

BostonGlobe

Most Recent Posts

Bozar Brussels

Bozar Restaurant Brussels – 1 Michelin Star

Fin de Siecle Brussels

Fin de Siecle Brussels

Happy Lunar New Year – a Different Celebration During an Unusual Year

The Araki Hong Kong

The Araki Hong Kong

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon Hong Kong

L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon Hong Kong

Five Guys Hong  Kong

Nostalgic Reminders of Home: Five Guys Hong Kong

Elementary HK

Elementary Hong Kong

Happy New Year 2021! A Look Back at 2020

Restaurant Le George Paris

Restaurant Le George Paris

Great Yakiniku and Fine Wine

Nice Yakiniku and Fine Wine Hong Kong

France!

Yam'Tcha Paris
David Toutain Paris
Divellec Paris
Breizh Cafe Paris
Clamato Paris

Kawaii! (Cute)

Norway!

Food Advertising by logo

Chinese Recipes

Okra with Chicken
Food Advertising by logo

Shop & Support us!

Spain!

Girona Spain
Amelia San Sebastian

Japan!

Bulgari Il Ristorante Luca Fantin
Sukiyaki Imafuku Tokyo
Sushi Ishimaya Tokyo
Disney Sea Tokyo
Tempura Fukamachi Tokyo
Shinjuku Gyoen

Cambridge restaurants

Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress