Here’s the recipe I made this evening

Fideuà is a Valencian dish which is now eaten all over Spain.
This is my vegetarian version with toasted tofu as the protein rather than the more usual seafood.  I don’t really like seafood so for me this is the best!

Clearly you can create this dish with the vegetables of your choice but this is what I had in the fridge this evening. I sliced because I love doing this in the new Magimix but probably it’s better to dice!

I used Fideo Number 0 but there are several sizes available and Number 2 is more traditional.

What you need
Bag of fideo No 0 or bigger
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
half courgette chopped or sliced
two carrots chopped or sliced
half a red pepper diced
slosh olive oil
slosh of tomato frigit or paste
5 cups of vegetable stock
Seasoning – I used salt, pepper and some crumbled dried chillies

In a paella pan if you have one, or a large frying pan, saute all the vegetables with seasoning in the oil, then add the tofu and after about ten minutes add the fideos. At this point you can stir but not too forcefully.
Pour in the stock so that it just covers all that is in the pan. Let this cook for about 20 minutes. Don’t stir but you can open it up a little with a wooden spoon. When the fluid is no longer obvious put the whole thing under the grill (this is where a paella pan comes in handy) and leave it until the tails of the fideos are turning upwards towards the sky. Put a lid on and serve soon with allioli on the side.

Allioli

 I used about 8 garlic cloves and smashed them in this beautiful mortar which belonged to my partners grandmother. Adding olive oil a few drops at a time you keep smashing and stirring with vigour until it is creamy and completely smooth. Traditionally menstruating women shouldn’t make allioli as the oil will not blend with the garlic. I think I proved this wrong tonight 🙂
Here is the little spoon holder that sits by the cooker and makes me smile when I see it

it roughly translates as – Keep smiling when times are hard. But today I was enjoying the kitchen and the music on iCat fm too much to need the reminder. Hope you too had a good Saturday!