The necessary BTUs

I'm back. And finally recovered from the tibial plateau fracture: crutches and leg brace are gone and I'm walking around (albeit still in flat shoes) almost like it never happened. When it rains it still hurts, so I'm thinking of using this newly acquired ability to become a meteorologist. Kidding.

The incredible guy and sous chef decided to get busy renovating and got me (naturally!) an incredible kitchen. See incredible guy at work, sous chef carefully supervising. She is a tough foreman (or forecat?)

We got a brand new stove, which goes nicely with the new glass mosaic backsplash. It's beeeeautiful!! We also got a new range hood that allows me to make lots of smoke while cooking without stinking up the whole house. Notice the 9,500 BTU* oval middle burner, which comes with a cast iron griddle/grill, which is lovely.

One problem is that I've had to re-learn how to sear and sautée because pans get really, really hot in a hurry, something that I keep forgetting (I used to have to wait at least a couple of minutes with the old stove) so I've been burning the hell out of everything. But I'm getting there.

*In case you're wondering what BTUs (or British Thermal Units) are: 1 BTU = 1.06 kilojoules. BTUs are used to describe the power of heating and cooling systems. A BTU is defined as amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one 1 pound (0.454 kg) of liquid water by 1°F (0.556 °C) from 60 to 61°F (15.556 to 16.111 °C) at a constant pressure of one atmosphere.

Whatever. Moral of the story: the more BTUs, the better your stove. This stove has lots of BTUs, or at least a lot more than the old stove. Another problem is that Albany has officially become Southern Florida, and it has been hot, hot, hot and humid for the last couple of weeks, which does not encourage me to want to stand in front of all those wonderful (and hot!) BTUs. And, where our stove excels at BTU capacity, our air conditioner, unfortunately, seriously lacks.

I did brave the heat to try a stove-top paella. You may recall from the paella post that an even source of heat is ideal in paella making, so I had been forced to cook my rice in the oven given the lack of BTUs and small burners of the old stove. You can buy heat difusing devices, but they cost a lot of money. So with my brand new toy, and armed with all those added BTUs, I decided to give it a try.

One of the burners has 12,000 BTUs, a hell of a big guy that covers most of the bottom of my paella pan. It worked! I still had to keep an eye for areas of the rice that were cooking faster than others and turn the pan on occasion, but it turned out pretty delicious. And I managed to accomplish the always coveted socarrat, the result of the rice at the bottom of the pan caramelizing and charring in contact with the high heat.

 In any case, the boss gave it a thumbs up.
"Al que no le guste el calor, que no entre a la cocina." (Those who don't like heat shouldn't go in the kitchen) Old Spanish proverb.
Laister arte!