Paula Goes To Europe

You know, a year or so ago, Michael and I had the opportunity to go to Europe, and it was so great

It was my first and only trip. So today, I'm going to be bringing a taste of Europe to you with Wienerschnitzel

which is just a delicious breaded veal cutlet. And then spicy Spanish chicken and sausage paella

And then I'm going to be whipping up a Tuscan carbonara. and finally sweet chocolate crepes

So go in there, pack your bags, because Paula's going to be taking you to Europe

For this first dish, I'm going to tap into my German heritage

I'm going to be making us a Wienerschnitzel. It literally means a breaded veal cutlet

And to ensure that my Wienerschnitzel turns out real crispy, I'm gonna just take a paper towel and get any moisture off of our meat that might be there

So I've probably got a quarter of an inch of vegetable oil heating up here in our skillet

Now in this bowl, I'm gonna add one cup of flour, hour, and that doesn't have to be perfect because it's just for coating

All right, so I'm going to crack two eggs. I'm checking them one at the time as I go, and I'm going to beat those up, and I'm going

to add about two tablespoons of water to our eggs. And in this bowl, I've got two cups of plain breadcrumbs

and I'm using a store-bought breadcrumb, but you can certainly, you know, make your own fresh breadcrumbs

All right, now I'm just going to salt and pepper our veal

I'm going to run it through the flour

and then into the egg, making sure that's wet. And then the last step is into our breadcrumbs

Very, very simple, y'all. We've got all of our pieces. nice and coated

You know, I would think since this meat is so thin that this has got to be a diet

A dietetic dish. Wouldn't you? Surely it's not thick enough to be fattening

Okay. Okay, so this is our last piece. All right

Now I had to just wash the goof off my hands for a second. And while my hands are damp, I'm just gonna shake a little water into my oil and make sure it's hot enough

So let's slip this in and see. Oh, yeah, I think that's, like, just perfect as far as the temperature goes

And in that hot oil goes our veal. So there we go

And you can see I've got enough oil in the pan to cover the top of our veal

Ooh-wee. You want to see? Did you see it

It looks delicious. So this is really, really a very quick entree

And down here, I've got a poppy seed noodle that I'm going to serve my Wiener Snitzel on top of

Okie doke. So look at this. Now I'm going to just drain it real quickly on some paper towels

Just absorb a little bit of that grease Doesn that look like fabuliosis Let pop down here and give this a little taste

I love noodles. I think everybody probably loves pasta, don't they

All right, so I'm not even going to need a knife because that veal is so tender

Oops. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm, yum

That is so good. So tender and so flavorful. I think you're gonna just love this

Up next, I'm gonna be making a chicken and sausage paella. We're going to Spain

And later, I'm making a Tustin Carbignola and chocolate French crepes, y'all

Hey, y'all. Today, I'm revisting Europe to some places that I didn't get to go

when Michael and I went on that lovely trip to London and Paris

Well, I told you before we went on break that I was going to be making us up today

a dish that originated in Spain, and it's called chicken and sausage paella

Very humble dish using chicken, sausage, rice, a little saffron, and canned tomatoes

All right, now, y'all, I'm just going to finish searing off my chicken

and I've seasoned the chicken with paprika and salt and pepper. So while our chicken is searing, I'm just over here finishing up our vegetables

which is just onions and bell pepper. So I'm just going to finish dicing those up

All right. Now your chicken doesn't have to be completely done because it's got some more cooking to do

So I'm going to take this out, take our chicken out, and I'm using a nice heavy piece of my cast iron to do this in

All right, now I'm just going to scoop my bell peppers and my onions over into my pan

and let that saute until it's soft. And it's picking up those flavors that the chicken left in our pan

And so now I'm going to add a 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes

And I'm going to give that a stir. And then I'm going to add our chicken broth, because we're going to add rice and naturally

rice requires a wet ingredient. So I'm gonna add four cups of chicken broth to our pan

All right. So we're gonna put in our Chirizio sausage. This is a Spanish sausage

You can also get Mexican Chirizio. You can get Portuguese and so on

But the sausage that we're using originated in Spain. and it's made with a smoky paprika

which gives this sausage a lot, lot of flavor. All right. Now we're going to add our rice

and the rice that I have here is called a boreo rice

and you can find this at the grocery store, and this is a short, fatter grain

which means this rice is going to really absorb a lot of our liquid

and that's going to result in a lot more flavor. You can substitute, but, you know, give this rice a try

It's really quite delicious. Now, I'm going to measure out two cups of our rice

and I've got one more ingredient here left to go in, and this ingredient is saffron

Now, I'm going to use a pinch of this, and I'm gonna kinda quickly tell you the story

of why this is so expensive. There is a purple flower that is grown in Spain The women in the village pick these beautiful purple flowers and they put them in sacks and they take them back to the village

and they dump these sacks out, giving them just mounds and mounds of these beautiful purple flowers

And by hand, they go into the center of this flower and they remove this saffron from the very center

And after they get through removing the saffron from the flowers, the children play in all these beautiful flowers

And I've never seen it firsthand, but they say it is a beautiful, beautiful sight

So, our dish is looking good. Now I'm just gonna add back our chicken

And I'm gonna take that little bit of fat that drained off our chicken

and I'm gonna make sure that gets back in our pot because fat equals flavor

In 20 minutes, this will be ready. And when we come back, we're moving on east, y'all

We're going to Italy. And I'm gonna be preparing for us a Tuscan Cabanera

And later, chocolate French crepes, y'all. Hey, y'all, welcome back

We're still in Spain. Our chicken and sausage paella is ready. Now I'm going to add a cup of green peas

I'm going to just stir those peas into that hot rice and sausage and chicken

and it won't take them but like five or so minutes. Ooh, and I got me a plate ready here, y'all

I have thought several times while I was making this that this surely must be considered one of those yummy comfort foods that you would find in Spain

So let's give it a taste. Mmm. It's so good, but yet so simple

All right, so come on over here. Now we're going to Italy

I've got some pancetta that I've had sauteing here. And pancetta is like pork belly, y'all

I'm going to add like one kind of medium-sized whole onion. There we go

The pancetta's ready. So let's just go in with our onions into our pancetta

Saute those off. Now this dish got its name because the word carbonara

it's Italian for charcoal. And they say that the workers who worked in charcoal

would come home and make this dish at night because it was one of those economical, easy

and quick meals that they could put together. So in this pot I've got one pound box of spaghetti

box of spaghetti that I've cooked off. All right, so I'm just going to sit that over there

and let that drain. And here, let me move this pot out of the way

so y'all can get in here into our skillet and see our carbonara as I'm putting it together

All right, I've got five egg yolks. I separated these eggs earlier

and I'm gonna give them a quick beat. And to our eggs, I'm gonna add a fourth of a cup of heavy cream

And we're gonna mix our yolks and our heavy cream together. And I've got some parmigiana, reggiana cheese

Let's just call them parm and reg. You know, since we're on a first name basis

And I'm gonna need a cup of this. And I think that I've got our cup here already grated

So I'm just gonna quit before I cut my hands on my grater

Now I'm gonna add our cheese to our eggs and our heavy cream

I'm gonna add a little salt. and just a little black pepper

But when I get our dish together, I'm really gonna top it with a heavy hand

All right. We gonna take our noodles that I had draining over here in the sink and I just gonna add those drained noodles to the pancetta and onions

And I really want to get that tossed in so that that pasta can soak up that fat from

our pancetta. Now into our spaghetti, we are gonna pour our parm-regg cheese

It's got our heavy cream in it, our five egg yolks, and a little salt and pepper

So there we go. And just that quickly, y'all, we have this meal pulled together

Doesn't that look yummy? I can't get over, y'all. This is much how we make our macaroni and cheese down south

You know, we make it with eggs and cream. Oh, it looks so good

Now, we're gonna come in here with a heavy hand. Okay

All right, let's dig in here. Mmm! Mmm! Woo-wee

That black pepper, I mean, it keeps it, y'all. Woo! Listen, keep your travel shoes on

because we're going to France. We're gonna be cooking up some crepes

You ready for us to finish up our trip today in Europe

Our last stop is Paris. I'm fixing to make our crepe batter

I've got three eggs that are gonna go into our crepes. All right, now I'm gonna take my whisk

Okay, so there we go. I'm gonna put a pinch of salt

Three quarters of a cup, all-purpose flour. I'm making a chocolate crepe for us today

So, two tablespoons of cocoa. Now, don't worry, a little lumps won't hurt a thing

Now, I'm gonna whisk in six tablespoons of melted butter. You know these are gonna be delicious

Now I'm gonna add one and a third cup of milk. Now I'm gonna let this batter sit for about 20 minutes

I've already got some that's been sitting out about 20 minutes. Our batter, you can see, is very, very thin

Now I've got my pan here over medium heat, and I'm gonna brush that with a little butter

And I'm gonna pour in a fourth of a cup of batter

immediately spreading our batter in our pan. And this doesn't take but just a minute

I'm using a Teflon pan, so I have no worry of our crepe sticking

A little bit more on that side, and our crepe will be ready

All right, there we go. Look at that beautiful crepe. This worked out perfectly

All right, now let's bring our crepes on down here. I think I'm definitely gonna just smear a little butter

A little powdered sugar with our hazelnut sauce. I think I might like a few strawberries in there

Maybe a few bananas, too. All right, now I'm going to fold my crepe up with a little extra powdered sugar

I'm going to come in, I think, maybe just a wee bit of chocolate sauce

All right, now I think I'm going to top it. with a little cream

a pretty little cherry, grated white chocolate, some few pretty little peanuts

I forgot my vegetable, y'all. Great time of day. What am I thinking

I'll see y'all next time, And until then, you know that I always send you love and best dishes from my kitchen to yours