Daring Cooks: Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes

Let me just start off by saying I'm not proud of how I did in this month's Daring Cooks challenge. The choice of the dish came from my namesake, Olga, from Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes. She chose "a delicious Spanish recipe, Rice with mushrooms, cuttlefish and artichokes by José Andrés, one of the most important Spanish Chefs at the moment." I love Jose Andres restaurants in DC (especially Zaytinya) and was looking forward to making the dish.

Originally, my plan was to make this dish for my parents and siblings in Seattle, but Anna said my parents aren't big fans of saffron, so I never made the dish there. Once I was back in DC, I decided to make the dish without cuttlefish (calamari), to eliminate the aioli component and to use canned artichokes instead of the fresh ones. I also used turmeric instead of saffron (to get the same pretty yellow color without the taste) and only used 1/2 of the liquid and rice amounts, but the same vegetable amounts. Needless to say, my dish did not come out as awesome as some of the other Daring Cooks. Sigh. I'll try to do better next time.

The best part of the recipe, for me, was Sofregit. I adapted the original recipe and used it as part of my Grilled Zucchini and Sofregit dish.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 tomatoes, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

1 large onion, chopped4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 bay leaf

salt & pepper

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large pan. Add all ingredients and cook for about an hour till they are soft.

Back to the challenge...once Sofregit is ready to go, I basically sauteed mushrooms and artichoke hearts in olive oil, then added some sofregit and white wine, followed by water and vegetable broth. Once the mixture came to a boil, I added aborrio rice, turmeric and a bay leaf. The mixture boiled for 5 minutes and then cooked for 8 more minutes on a lowered heat.

The canned artichokes overwhelmed the other flavors. I'm glad I only used 1 cup of dry rice instead of 2 cups. Now I have a bunch of rice left over for risotto.

If you have a favorite risotto recipe, please let me know :)