Eat This While You Read That: Jason Cordova

I won't even pretend to understand the whole Kaiju thing. Giant monsters from the deep with no basis in biology? Hey, it's science fantasy, I can roll with that. The stories are entertaining and anyway, they are more about the big BOOMs and stompy feets, and the brave souls fighting off the terrors that have no name. If you're going to read Kaiju stories, you have to look up Jason Cordova's stories (mostly co-written with Eric Brown). I'd say start with Kaiju Dawn, and while you're making this dish with the monster flavor profile, you can immerse yourself in a world that has no parallel.

Jason's an Iberian, and proud of it, so he didn't surprise me with his dish. I was delighted when he suggest Chorizo con Pollo, and made a note of the instructions his grandmother had passed on to him. It wasn't a full recipe, but it really didn't need to be - this dish is more about preparation and presentation, it's not complicated at all. As a matter of fact, Jason pointed out that it could be made even more simply than I prepared it, and I've included those notes below the recipe.

Chicken, sausage, cheese, and rice: ingredients that make magic together.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:21]

Jason's grandmother always served the chorizo carefully spooned over the chicken. I added crumbled Queso Fresco on top of the heap, and it was all delicious. Monster flavor: the chicken is a mere vehicle for that lovely spicy chorizo. The rice has a personality of it's own, savory, a hint of acid... it's a beautiful thing.

Frying the rice. I really need to look up the chemistry of what's happening here, but I already know it does make a difference.

The First Reader is already planning when he's going to ask me to make this again. I don't mind - even on a school night, if I add Jason's modifier of a packaged black beans and rice to serve under the chicken and sausage, this is simple to fix and packs a potent punch of deliciousness. And I could probably throw the rice in the rice cooker and have it all done in 20 minutes. Even with my schedule, that's doable. It makes wonderful leftovers, too.

If you want to add that lovely golden color to the rice without the expense of real saffron, you can use Saffron Flowers. No actual relationship to saffron, these are florets from the Marigold, Tagetes spp.

The layers all go together very well. You could mix it up in the pot, but this looks nicer.