Spanish Paella, Was it a Hit or a Miss?
What now seems a different decade ago, you know back when we were living life like there wasn’t a care in the world, we went on holidays abroad. I think out of everything Covid, holidays are the things I have missed most. With the whole ‘not allowed to socialize’ I did discover I am indeed a secret hermit. I have loved it. I work from home so that didn’t change, I just had more work and more bodies around the house. Maybe I am crossbreed, a hermit/nomad.
I didn’t start out as a holiday person. Circumstances took care of that. But 3 years ago my life changed drastically and holidays came into my life. On our first holiday, nearly 20 years from the day of my last holiday, we went to Manorca. Small Spanish Island down that away. It was perfect for a holiday newbie as it’s a quiet island, no hot nightlife or busy metropolis. Perfect for us oldies. It was also the first, and I vowed last time, I tried Paella. I just wasn’t wowed by it and wast to me everything people had described to me. It wasn’t Spain on a plate.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago and the other half has discovered SimplyCook. We are trying, and rather succeeding, in going cooking from scratch. Well, I say that loosely as we’ve not got a paddy field to grow the rice in and I’d rather get my butter and cheese from a supermarket than have a cow and do all that faffing. But we don’t use jar sauces in our cooking and our spice rack is getting pretty impressive. We just wanted to be more mindful of what we put on our plates. So SimplyCook has slotted into our lives quite nicely. You get a box that has all the fancy bits (unique flavour blends that contain as many as 18 different ingredients) to make meals on the recipe cards. Our first box arrived last week so we have been busy trying it out.
Last night was Spanish Paella night, to say I was apprehensive is an understatement. The OH is the cook in our house, my job is reading out the instructions. Trust me this is the best combination as my cooking skills are not where my talents are.
I am not a seafood lover so OH and daughter did the seafood route, mine was just chicken. It said it serves 2 so we slightly increased a few things to stretch it.
Action shot of the magic happens. What amazed me was where all the liquid went. It looked like we were making soup to start with but it all went.
So the big question, was I converted to Paella? OG yes it was gorgeous, it was Spain on a plate. Reports back from OH and daughter over on the seafood side and thumbs up from them too. So that’s another dish we have discovered and will be doing again.
We have also tried the Bang Bang Chicken and Quesadilla. Both were a big hits all around.
Will we continue using SimplyCook? Yes.
It’s delivered to your door in a letterbox box so no waiting around for parcels. The instructions are easy to follow and laid out in a way that you can easily see what you need to add to your shopping list. It’s not just herbs and spices but unique flavour blends that contain as many as 18 different ingredients all mixed up by the experts. Also, you can check on line what is in each pot and it highlights the allergens. The nutritional information is on the website too.
But the main reason for us is it gives us a chance to try more adventurous recipes that we would normally say we have not got time to do and it’s not from a jar with loads of added sugar and other nasties.
