Paella
Paella
We love Paella in my family. I have learned that the most important thing in this recipe is to work with the correct quantity of liquid. Whereas everything else is quite flexible. I work on the basis of half a mug of rice per person so I use double the quantity of water to rice "plus a bit" so if you are cooking for 4 people then use 2 mugs of rice which requires 4 mugs of water "plus a bit".
Ingredients:
1 chicken breast chopped into chunks
250g beef cubes
1 onion finely chopped
3 garlic cloves finely crushed
1 large peppers
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tomatoes
1 chicken stock cube
500g mixed seafood
Mussels -
Large prawns
Rice
200g Frozen peas
1 tsp Saffron (I didn’t have any)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Thyme
2 tsp Paprika
Lemons
Freshly chopped parsley
Method:
Wash the mussels, removing the beards. Throw away any that don’t shut on contact with water. Bring them to the boil and continue until all the shells are open (discard any that don't open), 4-5 minutes, then sieve the water into another large saucepan.
boil in that water the shellfish add the heads and shells from the prawns. Once they're boiling add saffron and the chicken stock cube. The rice will take its salt from this stock cube.
After a few minutes of gentle boiling the water will have taken on the flavour of the prawn heads and shells and will have turned into a deep yellow colour. Turn off the heat and use a colander to sieve out the shells which can now be disposed of leaving you with a pan of delicious stock.
Heat some olive oil in a large pan. Add the onion, garlic, green pepper, chicken, meat and fry gently for about five minutes. Add the chopped tomato and fry on a low heat until the meat is cooked. Season
Add the rice and stir well to make sure that it is thoroughly coated.
Immediately pour in the yellow stock, stir and allow to boil very gently. Now you throw in the frozen peas and place the mussels, large prawns and strips of red peppers carefully to make the dish look as attractive as possible.
Allow the paella to cook gently for around 20 minutes, turning the pan occasionally to make sure that all parts of it are cooking equally.
Sprinkle some parsley and place a few halves of lemon on top.
