Whip up Angus An's paella for a relaxing night off
When Angus An was training to become a chef, he wasn’t interested in Thai food. After graduating from culinary school in New York, the Taiwanese-born, Maple Ridge–raised chef moved to Montreal and then England to learn the finer points of European cooking. A chance encounter with Australian chef David Thompson at London’s Nahm, the first Thai restaurant to win a Michelin star, set him on a new path.
“What really inspired me was how David was able to put flavour onto the plate, and I really wanted to learn Thai food because it was a balance of intense flavours,” An says.
The executive chef and owner of Kitsilano’s Maenam restaurant chats with the Georgia Straight in Longtail Kitchen, his new restaurant at New Westminster’s River Market. “When Thai people talk about seasoning, there are endless possibilities. They don’t talk about what you season with—it’s more about flavour. You season with flavour, so it’s a balance of hot, sour, sweet, and salty.”
After a year of learning at Nahm, where An met his Thai wife, Kate Auewattanakorn, the couple moved to Vancouver. In 2006, they opened Gastropod, a contemporary European eatery, and then changed the concept for the space to Maenam in 2009. Since its launch, the upscale Thai restaurant has won over critics and local diners alike with its inspired take on authentic Thai flavours.
At Longtail, An puts a more casual spin on Thai cuisine.
“The concept for Longtail is a multi-use restaurant space, so it’s retail, restaurant, takeout, take-home,” An explains, noting that customers will soon be able to buy pad Thai kits. “We’ll have everything portioned out and all you have to do is buy some eggs and fresh produce.”
When asked whether he cooks Thai food at home, An laughs and says that he prefers to eat other cuisines on his night off.
“Sundays are usually the day I cook, and I go through phases,” he says. “For a while it was Mexican, so every week I’d make tacos, and we’d literally do that for four or five weeks. For a while it was paella. I really like to make it because it’s one of those easy,
one-pot dishes. You can get everything together and boom—you have a meal.”
Paella can be made with chicken, game, or seafood. When cooking it, An takes the same flavour-first approach that Thompson taught him.
“I use a tomato sofrito sauce, and the key thing is definitely the rice. You have to get bomba rice or paella rice, because if you use risotto rice it’s not the same,” An explains. “Bomba has this magical ability to absorb endless amounts of liquid, which in the end equals to endless amounts of flavour.”
An suggests pairing his seafood paella with a glass of white Rioja.
Angus An’s seafood paella
Ingredients
8 peeled raw prawns
¼ pound (113 g) squid, fresh or defrosted, cut into 22 to 25 pieces
8 oz (230 grams) salmon fillet, cubed
8 oz (230 grams) lingcod fillet, cubed
¼ cup (60 mL) olive oil
½ cup (125 mL) roasted red pepper sofrito (see recipe below)
1 ½ cups (375 mL) bomba or paella rice
3 cups (750 mL) chicken stock infused with a pinch of saffron
12 mussels, cleaned and scrubbed
12 clams, cleaned and scrubbed
Method
1. Season the prawns, squid, salmon, and lingcod with salt and pepper.
2. In a paella pan or large sauté pan over medium-high heat, cook seafood in olive oil for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove seafood and set aside.
3. Add sofrito to the hot pan and deglaze it by stirring up the brown bits and sweating the sauce for 1 minute, or until it’s aromatic. Mix in the rice and cook for another minute.
4. Add the chicken stock and cook rice mixture uncovered over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 15 to 20 minutes, or until rice is al dente. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Add the mussels and clams. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until shells are completely open. Discard any that do not open. Stir in remaining seafood.
Roasted Red Pepper Sofrito
6 red bell peppers
1 large onion
1 head of garlic
¼ cup (60 mL) olive oil
½ cup (125 mL) tomato sauce
1. Grill the bell peppers over high heat using a barbecue or gas flame for about 10 minutes, or until charred. Remove from heat, place in a bowl, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap to steam for half an hour.
2. Peel the skin off the peppers, remove seeds, and dice peppers into small pieces.
3. Peel and mince the onion and garlic, and sweat in olive oil in a saucepan over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, or until extremely soft.
4. Add the roasted pepper and tomato sauce, and season with salt and pepper. Remove saucepan from heat.
5. Using an immersion blender, blend mixture in saucepan until smooth, or transfer to a blender and blend until smooth. Set aside ½ cup (125 mL) for use in paella, above, and refrigerate the rest for another use.
Yield: 4 servings.
Recipe has not been tested by the Georgia Straight.
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