Seafood Paella

I got a paella pan for my birthday - something that I had looked at and pawed over ever since I first saw them for sale in Sabato. Then a birthday appears before me, and my lovely wife got me a paella pan from Farro Foods in Constellation Drive.

Paella is pronounced pah -a- ya. I off course started to scour the internet for paella making methods and recipes and was treated to the normal drivel from youtube where some cooking school guy advertising his school makes a rice dish for which he is flamed by every internet-paella-expert out there... but I did find one that was very good - Cooking Authentic Seafood Paella With Sarah Jay.

Seafood Paella Recipe

Here is the recipe for 2 that I used, using the ingredients that were easily available. This is the updated version made 22Oct:

Sofrito

1 onion

1 400g can diced tomato

3 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

Rice

1 cup shortgrain rice (Arborio is what I had)

Broth

375ml pack Fish stock

2 cups water

4 mussels

2 tuatuas

10 saffron stamens

Seafood

4 mussels

12 prawns

4 tuatuas

Oil the pan with olive oil and make the sofrito. Let it cook so that it darkens - you'll have to add water to it. I cooked it about 20 mins. Get the broth going, and take out the mussels when they open. I ate two before I could stop myself. Save them for the topping. First try didn't have saffron so used 1 tsp tumeric. Put in the rice and stir for 5 mins. Then add the broth and cook for 10 mins. Then add the seafood. I had to lay the mussels down - they were quite big, and the paella is only an inch deep. I placed the prawns in and pressed them down. I did add a bit more water. Test for salt - the fish stock was pretty salty so I didn't need to add any more salt to the paella. I was testing for the socarrat (which is the yummy toasted base-layer) and I could feel a bit of resistance. When the prawns were pink-through and mussels open, it was done!

We had a Spanish red wine with it and my first paella was a success - the pan was scraped clean! Time to go get some saffron, and I think I'll add some cockles or tuatuas next time too.

Part 2 22 October update: Used saffron and added the tuatuas - great idea! Getting the authentic NZ Paella ;-)

Yum. johnhs