The second installment of The Rep’s series Cooking, Carols & Cocktails is now available, and it’s highly enticing. Where else, for instance, are you going to find “Jingle Bells” with some scat singing? Paige Alyssa gives it up in great style, a real smile-maker.
On the menu in this episode is a dish that’s traditionally very festive, paella. The affable Frank Schmitz, owner of Barcelona restaurant, a Clayton favorite, leads us through the dish; his son Karl, who created the HOMS clothing line and who worked at the restaurant as he was growing up, is the host for the cooking segment.
It’s a particularly spectacular dish to make done in the original style, which is to say over an open flame – although they aren’t doing it outdoors right now, as the purists might insist is necessary. But there’s a large grill, which Frank hauls outside every Wednesday for paella-ing at Barcelona when the weather is clement, and an equally large paella pan. We learn a little about the history of the dish as Frank tosses in three kinds of Spanish sausage, chicken, fish, and shellfish as well as the requisite rice and saffron-laced broth. It’s quite a show, good enough to just for a moment leave the viewer thinking they’re really smelling the wonderful aroma. In between there’s chat about family turkey memories and other background.
Purists who check on the written recipe need to know that it’s not exactly what he’s tossing in the pan here – he’s using Spanish bomba rice, for instance, whereas the recipe calls for arborio, but that’s a perfectly reasonable substitute (unless, perhaps, you’re Spanish, a discussion I’m side-stepping) and he calls only for Spanish chorizo instead of the three he uses, which are more difficult to locate. And I’d add that you don’t need a paella pan, a large skillet will substitute nicely.
Another fascinating cocktail, the Vesper, named for one of James Bond’s female friends, comes to us with a hit of Big O ginger liqueur and mixologist Heather Sharpe, to wind things up.
Good fun, and very appetizing.
There are details at http://www.repstl.org/events/detail/cooking-carols-and-cocktails. One ticket allows for two viewings of your chosen show for $15, or all four shows cost $60, and include recipe cards. Rep subscribers can redeem a flexpass for access to all four shows. All shows will be viewable on line until the end of January.
The third in the series of four will be available starting Christmas Day, and features Cathy’s Kitchen with Cathy Jenkins, and music from Joe Mancuso.