It’s Daring Cooks time and the August 2009 challenge was hosted by the gracious Olga of Las Cosas de Olga and Olga’s Recipes.

I’m always a bit in awe of people who have not one blog but two so I tip my hat to you, Olga. Of course I would tip it to you anyway for this incredibly delicious challenge.

The challenge date was, of course, August 14th, but I was having some issues and couldn’t post.

I’ll get right to it. This is just delicious. From start to finish it was a lovely recipe to make that was actually surprisingly quick (considering some of the Daring Bakers’ challenges take … like … four days!).

Without question my favourite part of the recipe was the sofregit, which was a thick, almost paste-like mixture of tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and garlic, used to enhance and flavour the rice. I loved the sofregit so much I ended up spreading some of it on bread and just eating it that way!

I loved cooking the rice in the rich liquid consisting of some white wine, water (you could have also used fish stock) and a bit of the sofregit. The cuttlefish was delicious in this dish and the artichokes and mushrooms were also very good (confession: I used artichokes canned in water.).

The only element of the challenge I didn’t make was the allioli, which is a thick, custard-like sauce meant to accompany the dish. I really wanted to make the traditional allioli, which would have required a mortar and pestle. I don’t have those. Yet.

I could go on and on, but I won’t. I really hope you try this recipe out as it’s scrumptious.

Thank you so much for broadening our horizons, Olga!

Ciao!

If you’re interested in the recipe, you can find it here.