This is my baby. His name is Planchet. When Planchet came to me, he was only a few weeks old, and not much larger than a grande latte. He easily fit into one of my hands (which are themselves pretty small). We didn’t know where he’d come from or who his mom was or anything else about him: he was just out meowing in a woodpile one night.

See how his eyes are sort of crossed and unfocused? He’s over a year old now, and he has some problems. We think that he may have been underdeveloped in the womb, because he is blind (my vet has assured me that this is a neurological problem, not an optical one), and he has extraordinarily violent seizures. I always try to throw a blanket over him to hold him down as gently as possible. (Don’t ever, ever do this with your bare hands — if your cat’s as violent as mine, he’ll bite and scratch without the slightest knowledge that he’s doing so. But if you have a towel, blanket, or sweatshirt handy, it may keep them from harming themselves). After it’s over, his eyes are full of kitty-tears and he sits, panting, whimpering a little, while I try to pet and soothe him as best I can until he calms back down.

If I thought he were unhappy or suffering a lot, I might have him put down. As it is, he’s probably the happiest, snuggliest cat I’ve known in my entire life. He never turns down a bit of petting and snuggling, and he loves everyone he meets. He never flips out or bites people, and he’s basically never all aloof and posturing, either. And I’m pretty sure he thinks I am his mom.

He loves having his face touched. He starts purring instantly, closes his eyes and gets a goofy, happy little grin on his face. Then he leans into it, sometimes so far that he falls over.

Oh yeah. That’s the stuff.

Well, I’ve done it, folks — joined Daring Kitchen. This is the first recipe I’ve cooked for the site! The post started out with an intro from our host:

Hi all, this is Olga from Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes and I’m pleased to be your host at August Daring Cooks Challenge. I’ve chosen a delicious Spanish recipe, Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes by José Andrés, one of the most important Spanish Chefs at the moment.

I have very little need for Lots of Food on my own, so I made this for my parents at their house. They both expressed grave doubts about the edibility of squid in general, and especially the squid I made after it had been cooking so long. But in the end, we all were pretty happy with the way it came out; they even asked for seconds.

My mom is on the “Sugar Busters” diet, so the one major substitution I made was to use brown rice; accordingly I left out the saffron/turmeric, since I’m not really sure what it would have been coloring.

As you’ll see, it came out looking pretty much like a big plate of glorp, something Calvin would stab at and make disgusted faces — but it tasted great! This was my first time making aïoli (I’ve actually made it since), and I’ll freely admit that I probably should have worked it up a bit more to try to get some creaminess going, or maybe used the more modern recipe with raw eggs. Ah, well — next time… here’s the original recipe:

Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes
Cooking time: 45 minutes

4 Artichokes (you can use jarred or freezed if fresh are not available)
12 Mushrooms (button or Portobello)
1 or 2 Bay leaves (optional but highly recommended)
1 glass of white wine
2 Cuttlefish (you can use freezed cuttlefish or squid if you don’t find it fresh)
Sofregit (see recipe below)
2 cups short grain rice (Spanish types Calasparra or Montsant are preferred, but you can choose any other short grain. This kind of rice absorbs flavor very well) – about ½ cup per person
Water or Fish Stock (use 1 ½ cup of liquid per ½ cup of rice)
Saffron threads (if you can’t find it or afford to buy it, you can substitute it for turmeric or yellow coloring powder)
Allioli (olive oil and garlic sauce, similar to mayonnaise sauce) - optional

1 ) Cut the cuttlefish in little strips.
2 ) Add 1 or 2 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and put the cuttlefish in the pan.
3 ) If you use fresh artichokes, clean them as shown in the video in tip #7. Cut artichokes in eights.
4 ) Clean the mushrooms and cut them in fourths.
5 ) Add a bay leaf to the cuttlefish and add also the artichokes and the mushrooms.
6 ) Sauté until we get a golden color in the artichokes.
7 ) Put a touch of white wine so all the solids in the bottom of the get mixed, getting a more flavorful dish.
8 ) Add a couple or three tablespoons of sofregit and mix to make sure everything gets impregnated with the sofregit.
9 ) Add all the liquid and bring it to boil.
10 ) Add all the rice. Let boil for about 5 minutes in heavy heat.
11 ) Add some saffron thread to enrich the dish with its flavor and color. Stir a little bit so the rice and the other ingredients get the entire flavor. If you’re using turmeric or yellow coloring, use only 1/4 teaspoon.
12 ) Turn to low heat and boil for another 8 minutes (or until rice is a little softer than “al dente”)
13 ) Put the pan away from heat and let the rice stand a couple of minutes.

Sofregit
Cooking time: aprox. 1 hour
(a well cooked and fragrant sauce made of olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and onions, and may at times
different vegetables such as peppers or mushrooms)

2 tablespoons of olive oil
5 big red ripe tomatoes, chopped
2 small onions, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped (optional)
4 or 5 garlic cloves, chopped
1 cup of button or Portobello mushrooms, chopped (optional)
1 Bay leaf
Salt
Touch of ground cumin
Touch of dried oregano

1 ) Put all the ingredients together in a frying pan and sauté slowly until all vegetables are soft.
2 ) Taste and salt if necessary (maybe it’s not!)

Allioli is the optional part of the recipe. You must choose one of the two recipes given, even though I highly recommend you to try traditional one. Allioli is served together with the rice and it gives a very nice taste.

Allioli (Traditional recipe)
Cooking time: 20 min aprox.
Ingredients:

4 garlic cloves, peeled
Pinch of salt
Fresh lemon juice (some drops)
Extra-virgin olive oil (Spanish preferred but not essential)

Directions:

1 ) Place the garlic in a mortar along with the salt.
2 ) Using a pestle, smash the garlic cloves to a smooth paste. (The salt stops the garlic from slipping at the bottom of the mortar as you pound it down.)
3 ) Add the lemon juice to the garlic.
4 ) Drop by drop; pour the olive oil into the mortar slowly as you continue to crush the paste with your pestle.
5 ) Keep turning your pestle in a slow, continuous circular motion in the mortar. The drip needs to be slow and steady. Make sure the paste soaks up the olive oil as you go.
6 ) Keep adding the oil, drop by drop, until you have the consistency of a very thick mayonnaise. If your allioli gets too dense, add water to thin it out. This takes time—around 20 minutes of slow motion around the mortar—to create a dense, rich sauce.

José’s tips for traditional recipe: It’s hard to think that, when you start crushing the garlic, it will ever turn into something as dense and smooth as allioli. But don’t give up. It’s worth the extra time and effort to see the oil and garlic come together before your eyes. Just make sure you’re adding the olive oil slowly, drop by drop. Keep moving the pestle around the mortar in a circular motion and keep dreaming of the thick, creamy sauce at the end of it all.

Here are a few iPhone apps I’ve got on my phone, and am loving:

Big Oven - There are dozens, really, of recipe-compilation iPhone apps, but so far, this is my favorite. It speedily accesses its online database of 170,000+ recipes and classifies by dietary restrictions, ratings, type of cuisine, and more! It will even pick a random recipe from its trove if you ask it to, so if you find yourself stuck at the grocery store with no brilliant ideas of what to cook, you’ll find a shopping list appearing in your hands. Photos of their recipes are rather inspirational, too…

Cocktail Compass: Seattle - This is all about finding hours and specs on Seattle’s Happy Hour. It uses location services to show you what’s closest, and then goes on to tell you how much time you have to get there before Happy Hour ends. Tap on an interesting-looking entry, and you’ll get details on what that location’s Happy Hour involves, as well as a map to them, a call button, and an option to add them to your favorites list. No longer must you wander downtown like a lost, thirsty puppy!

Yelp - It’s just as good as the full website is, with hundreds of restaurant reviews, hours, phone numbers, and details. Even better, it integrates with maps and location services to tell you what’s nearby, and how to get there. You can search by ethnicity, price range, and more, and build up a list of favorites to come back to.

Open Table - So you’ve found a restaurant that looks great, is nearby, and in your price range. Of course, it’s only two in the afternoon, and you need a table for six, but no one’s answering the phone at the restaurants. Open Table will allow you to make reservations online instantly, for free. The one caveat I’d have for this is that the selection of restaurants available via Open Table, while large, is not Every Restaurant in Seattle. Yet.

In the spirit of all things food (which have sparked my interest more and more of late), I wanted to share with you a web-site that a friend of mine found recently: Foodzie. Essentially, it’s Etsy for food. It’s an on-line market-place for small (and generally, indie) vendors and artisans to sell their edibles. Sauces, spreads, jams, oils, vinegar, nuts, cheeses, chocolate, candy — it’s a treasure trove of off-the-beaten-path foodstuffs! I have yet to order anything from them, but here are a few of the things I’ve found which are going on my to-eat list:

Cinnamon Basil Tea Cookies from the Botanical Bakery.

Lavender Hanahbells Thimble Cheese from the Shy Brothers Farm. I’m such a sucker for Lavender!

Grenache Wine Vinegar from Allure Estates.

Scenic City Sizzle, Grilling Pepper from Alchemy Spice Company. I’m imagining this getting slathered all over a grilled halibut. Whoa.

Mint Chip Macaroons from Emmy’s Organics. The “chips” are not semi-sweet or even bitter-sweet chocolate chips, but raw cocoa nibs sprinkled throughout. I love chocolate in its regularly consumable forms, but there’s something so totally pure and perfect about nibs, they’re so dark and bitter but with their own natural sweetness and oiliness that fills your mouth with the smallest amount.