RICE

Tonight I decided to make paella for dinner,it is at this point that I must tell you that my son does not like rice! Normally when I make this dish I use Bulgar wheat instead,it is a good substitute and to be frank it is a damn site easier to cook than rice and a lot quicker too.

Tonight, for some reason I decided to do things properly and used rice,fool that I am.

My son likes things to have a sauce and on this account I used Aborio rice as this stays moist and congratulated ,myself that at least Pa would be happy as he loves rice dishes and seldom gets them due to my sons preferences.

As luck would have it dinner needed to be early tonight as my son had a meeting to attend,this fact coupled with a catastrophic failure of the kitchen electrics left me cooking in a hurry,in the dark and in a bad temper!

I have not cooked a rice dish for an age so I followed the instructions on the packet to the letter .However,it seems that these instructions had lost something in the translation so that I was obliged to resort to plodding my way through the Spanish directions (I am by no means fluent) and thus discovered the problem.

Time was against me so I cut my losses,threw away the dodgy instructions and winged it for the next twenty minutes.

By cooking all the other ingredients separately and drowning the rice in stock I managed by the end of that time to combine the two and achieve a passable if slightly al dente dish.

Quite expecting that my son would hate the meal and that even Pa would dislike it I served it up with scant confidence.

Imagine my amazement when they both pronounced it to be perfect and in spite of the fact that I had cooked too much rice they both returned for seconds...then thirds and at last there was hardly anything left.

This must be what is called dumb luck,but in spite of having fluked it tonight this will be the last time try a new dish under combat conditions...and that is absolute!