Cooking with MC

Empanadillas are quite a popular Spanish snack that you can find pretty easily at most bakeries. They consist of a dough, folded in a half-moon shape, with different types of stuffing. Some of the most common stuffings, at least in my area, are: spinach, garden peas and tomato sauce. Usually empanadillas are eaten as a snack between breakfast and lunch, or even between lunch and dinner.  In my family this dish is quite commonly found at extended family gatherings, when you're meant to have a few snacks on your paper plate and wander around the house talking to people. Also, my grandma would often make this as a standalone dish, specially during summer and warmer months, when you don't feel like eating a hot stew.  I didn't get to learn how to make empanadillas from my grandma, who made the best ones, but instead we had to figure out the recipe on our own. The first time we made them, I knew we were on the right track because the kitchen smelled the exact same my grandma...

Spanish Arroz al horno is a traditional rice recipe, that originated in the Comunidad Valenciana (Valencian Community), which is the region where I'm from. It's cooked in the oven using a round font made out of clay. This recipe originated as a way to use the leftovers of other dishes, such as puchero . Nowadays, it's sometimes made as a standalone dish, but sometimes still made with leftovers. There are several variants of this dish, depending on where you live. I will go as far as to say that each town has its own version of this dish, or even each family!. This is the way my partner and I make it, which might be slightly different from someone else's.  I think it's important to mention that this is not paella .  Paella is another type of rice based dish which is typically cooked in a specific type of pan also called paella . Both are what we call "dry rice", which means that the broth or water used to cook the rice has completely evaporated, but they...