Holiday Paella

Paper Calendars

Hello,

Wall calendars hung in work cubicles and day planners to tuck into your backpack have been largely overtaken by calendars on smartphones and computers. Does this make us more or less efficient? I enjoy making notations with a pen and flipping through actual pages to the months ahead in the same way that I find it satisfying and motivating to make a list of errands or chores and cross them out one by one as they are completed. Efficiency aside, calendars lend themselves to art. They provide a ready-made excuse for creating a series and the possible themes are endless.

For some time I had an agent for my illustration work in Japan. It was common for companies in Japan to give their clients an elaborate wall calendar, as a little thank you and a little self-promotion combined, at the end of the year. I was hired by a company that produced dairy products (seemingly very un-Japanese) to create six still lifes for their annual calendar. My agent had an office in New York and one in Tokyo. I was given a general idea as to what they were looking for. The art director for the project would be coming to New York, with a translator, to discuss the project in detail and would remain in New York for a week while I worked on the rough sketches. I was excited that the project had been green-lighted but was overtaken by anxiety as I worried about living up to expectations considering what the company was spending on travel expenses alone.

One of the illustrations was to include a lobster and melted butter. It’s always easier to draw from the actual object as opposed to a photograph and my husband arranged for the next best thing. He went to the fishmonger at our local supermarket and borrowed a plastic replica of a lobster for me to look at. The other illustrations featured a glass of milk, a dish of ice cream, a bowl of yogurt with fruit, a slice of cake topped with whipped cream, and a cheese board next to a glass of wine.

When I first met with the art director he presented me with a beautiful, handmade paper portfolio that I still use to this day. I was unsure of the custom here. Should I present him with a gift the next time that we meet? Again, husband to the rescue. The Japanese art director had mentioned that he had seen many ducks in Central Park and wished that he had a duck call with him. My husband went to a sporting goods store and procured a very handsome wood duck call. I’m not sure if the art director understood why I gave him the duck call as the meaning may have been lost in translation, but he would have been too polite to show any confusion.

I was not accustomed to being wined and dined in a working situation, but a lovely dinner followed each of our two meetings. One restaurant was on the Upper East Side and featured a tasting menu, the other was the famous sushi restaurant Nobu. Paella was not part of either meal, my inspiration for writing about paella comes from the illustration. This recipe is one of Jane Brody’s that I have used before with minor changes including the addition of lobster tails to make the dish even more festive. I found so many variations of paella online and make no claims to authenticity. The saffron proved to be a bit difficult to track down and that coupled with the expense briefly made me consider growing crocuses, the source of saffron until I learned that each bloom only produces three stigmas (or saffron thread), and 4,000 blooms are required for one ounce of saffron. Has anyone tried growing crocuses for the saffron? The saffron provides the distinctive flavor of paella and the rich color.

The project wound up being a success as I was able to finish the final illustrations, after the art director headed back to Japan, at a more leisurely pace than the hectic week of producing the sketches.

Paella Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup finely chopped onion

2 T. olive oil

1 cup long-grain rice

1 red pepper, seeded and chopped

1 T. minced garlic

1/4 cup chopped basil leaves

1/2 t. saffron threads crumbled

1 to 1 1/2 cups chicken broth

3/4 lb. large shrimp, shelled and deveined

1/2 lb. clams and/or mussels

2 small lobster tails

1 cup frozen peas

Directions

serves four

Cook the lobster tails. When cool, remove the meat, cut it into bite-sized pieces, and refrigerate until you are ready to add them to the paella at the end.

In a large, heavy skillet sauté the onion in the olive oil until the onion is softened.

Add the rice, and cook while stirring for 3 minutes.

Add red pepper, garlic, basil, saffron, and one cup of the broth. Bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the clams and/or mussels. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Add, but do not stir in the shrimp, peas, and the additional broth if the liquid has been absorbed. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the lobster pieces and simmer for an additional 2 minutes.

Serve.

Happy New Year!!

Thanks for reading! I always enjoy reading your comments!

Vicki