Not much to report on the Type 65 Coupe Project. I have been doing a lot of other things over the last few weeks. The heat has been making me lazy.
I decided to do some work on the A/C unit for the Coupe. I cut and chopped the housing cover for several hours, and then decided it might be easier to just make a whole new cover using fiberglass and resin. . . . I did some research on composites, epoxy resins, fiberglass and boat repair, and lost-foam casting. Interestingly, I am doing the same research for some stuff at work. I will try my hand at making a custom duct for the A/C unit. I have a layout in my mind, but there are a lot more things that need to go behind the dash panel besides the A/C ducts. The new cover/duct will have to make several 90- and 180-degree bends. I hope to avoid the use of too many fittings by making a single duct/top cover for the A/C unit. Maybe it should be called a “manifold” instead.
Here are some pictures of the air conditioner and the “dry fit” of where it will mount.
I also re-installed the firewall. I had to take it off and re-paint it with a higher quality silver paint. I do not have pictures of this, but it does look better than before. The paint is “harder” than the other paint I used.
Next, I removed the “bad” brake hoses originally from the Complete Kit and replaced them with the proper red hose from the third technical bulletin from Factory Five Racing. This is the hose going from the reservoir to the master cylinders. The new hose is much softer and easily slipped over the fittings. I hope they won’t leak. We will find out soon when I fill and bleed the system.
I also started to look at engine hoist options – I want to drop the engine in SOON!
Paella is a delicious rice dish. There was a reference to paella on a Seinfeld episode. I have eaten lots of paella, but never made it. So, after several Maker Faire events in the Bay Area, I really wanted to try making my own.
Based on a recommendation from a fellow Big Green Egg fan (Thanks Dale!), I bought a paella pan made in Spain and Bomba rice from La Española Meats, Inc. in Harbor City, CA.
My 15-inch pan would be perfect for my Large Big Green Egg – except for the handles. They are too big and prevent the pan from sitting on the grill grate. I think I can bend the handles so it will fit the 19-inch grate on the BGE. I didn’t let this glitch stop me. I inverted the grill basket used for the vegetables, and put the paella pan on top. If you look closely at the pictures, you can see the basket under the paella pan. Seemed to work OK.
Of course, my paella pan is not as big as the giant ones used by Gerard’s Paella at the Maker Faire, but my pan is large enough to make 8 servings.
I used Steven Raichlen’s recipe from Primal Grill, Season One as a starter. (“Paella Primavera (with Vegetables and Beans But No Meat.”) His version is vegetarian, using all roasted veggies and vegetable broth. I had some Portuguese sausage in my freezer, and chicken stock, so I used them in my first attempt.
Here are the grilled veggies – Onions, garlic, red and green bell peppers, tomatoes, zucchini squash. These were direct-grilled in a basket. I used extra virgin olive oil and tossed on some sea salt, oregano, black pepper and basil.
Next, I direct-grilled the sausages in the basket. These were Hoffy brand Portuguese sausages. I wasn’t too pleased with this sausage. It was not bad, it was just a little too plain and mild for me. I still have several other brands of Portuguese sausages from Hawaii in my freezer. I need to test those soon.
I heated up the paella pan and added some olive oil. This is the chopped onion, garlic, peppers, saffron and chicken broth. . .
After several minutes, I added the Bomba rice. . . .
I almost panicked as the broth dried up – the rice was not fully cooked, and I was afraid of scorching the pan and ruining the dish. But, I quickly added some chicken bouillon to add more liquid. I had to add a total of four additional cups of liquid to get the rice just right. This is a total of 10 cups of broth. Not sure why this is so much more than Raichlen’s version. I do not recall how long I cooked this dish – I just cooked until the rice was tender.
Here is the dish with all the liquid absorbed. Bomba rice is nice and tender, and very tasty. Bu wait – there’s more. . .
Next, I added the grilled vegetables and the sausage. . .
This would be a great one-pan party dish for a good sized and hungry group.
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