Not Another Food Blog

Seafood Paella

Traditionally, a paella is cooked by men on a Sunday when the females of
the house are taking a break from the kitchen. I cooked this on a Saturday so I think I am covered. This may seem like a long and complicated recipe but it’s really fun and is well worth it in the end. Your friends will be very impressed.

A few things before we get into it. You will need a proper paella pan. Alternatively you can use a large frying pan with flat bottom and deep sides, the idea is to distribute the heat evenly. You can get Spanish sweet/smoky paprika and paella rice from a Spanish deli. If you live in Sydney there is one on Liverpool street in the Spanish Quarter. You only stir the paella once when cooking, right at the beginning when you’re mixing the rice with other ingredients. The rice will absorb all the goodness and form a thin crust on the bottom of the pan. Reduce the ingredients if cooking for less people.

Serves 6-8 hungry people
1 1/2 cups Sofrito
12 green tiger prawns
1 medium ling or snapper fillet, sliced in cubes
12-15 mussels, cleaned
a handful of Pippies
500 gm paella rice, short grain basically
1.7 liters vegetable stock
3 tbsp olive oil
200 ml white wine
1 tbsp sweet paprika
1 tsp smoky paprika
pinch of saffron threads
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
150 gm sliced green beans or peas
1 red capsicum, roasted, seeded and sliced
1 tsp salt
cracked pepper
fresh parsley
paella pan

1. Add vegetable stock to the saucepan and bring to boil. In the meantime start peeling the prawns. Peel off the shell but leave the heads and tails, make a  shallow cut along the spine and remove the eeky black string of crap. Add the prawn shells to the stock and cook for 10 minutes. Strain the stock and put aside.
2. Cover the prawns with half the garlic and 1 tbsp olive oil. Prepare the rest of ingredients.
   If you have mortar & pestle, grind the saffron with some salt.
3. Heat up some of the oil in the paella pan. It’s best too cook paella on gas stove making sure the heat is spread evenly, which means moving the pan around during cooking.
4. Add the prawns and ling fillet. Cook the prawns for a minute on each side and remove. Cook the fish a little longer and also remove on a plate.
5. To the pan with all the juices from seafood add the rest of oil, garlic, paprika and saffron. The heat should be medium to high at this stage. Add the rice and stir through until the rice is well coated. The spices will start releasing the flavour.
6. Add 100 ml of white wine and sauté for 30 seconds to a minute. Add the sofrito mixture and stir through the rice. At this stage we’ll add most of the stock. Leave about 400 ml of stock for later. Stir through gently, making sure the rice is covered evenly. From now on we do not stir the rice at all. Turn the heat down to medium low. Remember rotating the pan to ensure even heat spread.
7. Leave the rice cooking for about 15 minutes. When a lot of the stock is absorbed and you see little holes with bubbles on the surface, taste the rice a little. It will still be firm at this stage, so add a little more stock if it’s starting to evaporate too quickly. Spread the green beans or peas on the top.
8. After further 5 minutes of cooking and moving around the pan, add the fish semi-cooked fish and after a couple a minute the prawns. Cook for further 5 minutes and remove from the heat.
9. Now for the last step we’ll cook our muscles and pippies. Heat up a tablespoon of olive oil in a deep frying pan or a shallow saucepan. Saute the a sliced clove of garlic, some parsley and salt for 30 seconds before adding white wine and stock. Bring to boil and add the muscles and pippies. Cover the pan and cook for 4 minutes, stirring half way through. Discard unopened shells and place the rest on top of the paella.
10. Sprinkle paella with fresh parsley and squeeze lemon juice all over.

Note: you can substitute ingredients as much as you like, paella is very forgiving. It’s very nice with chorizo or chicken.