The Empress

Roasted Vegetables
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

I ate lunch at The Empress today. The menu is interesting with breakfast and lunch options available till 5pm. I ordered the vichyssoise soup and the Roasted Vegetable Plate.
The vichyssoise was had great flavor and was nicely cold on a hot day.



The Roasted Vegetables where outstanding. I think this is the best bunch of vegetables I have ever eaten, seriously. I have had great menestras de verduras in spain but those have ham in them, this was straight up tasty veg.



The hummus was garlicky, and paired well with the well seasoned vegetables. I had a great lunch, attentive service in a nice place.

Paella negra con esparagos

Paella negra con esparagos
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

Black rice paella with white asparagus.

I made a small paella for lunch. I wanted to make a very dark inky rice, some of my previous attempts yielded a rice much more on the grey side, so for this dish I used a much more generous amount of ink. This paella also ends up being meatless, vegetarian friendly if you don't mind seafood products.
The ingredients are few:

Asparagus, these are very high quality canned white asparagus



quality assurance tab





You should taste the liquid the asparagus come canned or jarred in. If it tastes good, not overly salty or metallic tasting then save it and use it as part of your liquid for the rice. This liquid was saved and used. (about 3/4 cup)

I also used a high quality cuttlefish/squid ink. I've used the little envelopes before and they are just ok, this really has a great squid aroma, and also I believe, a higher protein/collagen content. It is thicker and ends up being very unctuous in the finished product.



I used a cup and a half of bomba rice



I used hot pimenton as I figured the heat would go well with the ink and scarcity of ingredients






Chopped onions and garlic round up the ingredients.



Preparation; I heated up a small paella pan



Added olive oil and sauteed the onions and garlic



as soon as the garlic began to brown I added the rice and sauteed it with the onions and garlic



After half a minute or so I added the pimenton, about one teaspoon



I mixed it in and quickly added my liquid (the pimenton can burn and turn bitter rather quickly) which was just the asparagus water and regular water to make up 3 times the rice volume, so in this case 4 and a half cups



I then added two heaping teaspoons of the ink



I mixed to incorporate and tasted for salt.



The ink adds a bit of salt but it still needed a pinch more. I let it boil on the stovetop and the color began to set



It was very fragrant, smelling of the sea with clearly noticeable squid aroma.
When the rice was nearly dry I added the asparagus over top, they are already cooked so just need to warm up a bit.



Served the dish was excellent, a very unctuous mouth feel, almost silky awesome ocean taste with a nice texture and taste contrast from the asparagus.



Clearly the rice turned a deep shiny black which I really liked. The ink would also make a great base for a pasta sauce. May have to buy some squid bodies and stuff them with the leftover rice, they would be nice grilled. Excellent dish overall.

Kale chips

Kale seasoned
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

Many of the bloggers on eatingrichmond, have posted their versions of Kale chips or dehydrated kale. EatingBirdFood, CaramelizedOpinions are just a couple of examples. I had fried some kale to a crispy finish in another dish, but decided to bake it for this one. The Kale was accompanied by thinly sliced country pork ribs seasoned and thinly cut, cooked a la plancha or on a hot dry skillet.

I washed the Kale and cut out the main stem or rib.



after trimming



I dressed it with olive oil and seasoned salt (lowry's) and layered it on a rack over a tray. I then placed it in the preheated convection oven at 325 deg F. for 12 minutes. They shrink and get brown on the edges.



they end up very crispy and tasty, this is how we served it



great side dish, or snack as many other people serve it. It is easy and quick and certainly can be seasoned a million ways.

Vegetable paella

Vegetable paella
Originally uploaded by EatingVideo

We had a small gathering of friends to celebrate the week of birthdays. I grilled some lamb, my wife made some great hummus and seeing as we had some vegetarian guests, I made a vegetable paella.
Ingredients
3 cups bomba rice
9 cups of salted water (should taste like the ocean) (including the water from the asparagus)
1 lb of roasted red pepper, sliced into strips
4 cooked artichoke hearts
1/4 cup of pine nuts
1/2 cup of cooked large white beans
one jar of white asparagus
2 handfulls of fresh green beans
2 tablespoons of pimenton
pinch of paprika
one large grated tomato
4 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup of olive oil
2 cups of assorted wild mushrooms

I sauteed the garlic and mushrooms and pine nuts in the olive oil, the added mushrooms and when soft added the paprika and quickly mixed and added the grated tomato.
After another several minutes I added the water, paprika and the rice.
when the water came to a boil the green beans went in followed by the red pepper strips and large white beas.
when the water level lowered to the rice then I layered the artichokes and white asparagus on top. I kept it on the burners till a slight char developed on the bottom, then served.
Turned out great!