Seafood Paella
There are as many versions of paella as there are regions of Spain. Those from near the coast contain a lot of seafood, while inland versions add chicken or pork. Here the only meat is the chorizo – essential for an authentic flavour.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 3 Tbsp (45ml) olive oil
- 1 large onion chopped
- 2 fat cloves garlic chopped
- 5 oz (150g) chorizo sliced
- 11 oz (300g) small squid (calamari) cleaned
- 1 red bell pepper seeded and sliced
- 4 tomatoes peeled, seeded, and diced, or 7oz (200g) can of tomatoes
- 2 cups (500ml) chicken stock (generous cups)
- 7 Tbsp (105ml) dry white wine
- 1 cup (200g) short grain Spanish or risotto rice
- large pinch saffron threads
- 1¼ cups (150g) fresh or frozen peas
- 12 large cooked shrimp (prawns) in the shell, or 8 langoustines
- 1 lb (450g) mussels de-bearded and scrubbed
- 1 lb (450g) slams scrubbed
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan or a paella pan, add the onion and the garlic and sauté until the onion is translucent. Add the chorizo and sauté until golden.
- If the squid (calamari) are very small, you can leave them whole; otherwise, cut the bodies into rings and the tentacles into pieces.Add the squid to the pan and sauté over a high heat for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in the pepper slices and the seeded and diced tomatoes and simmer gently for 5 minutes until the pepper slices are tender. Pour in the stock and wine, stir well and bring to a boil.
- Stir in the rice and saffron, and season to taste with salt and pepper.Spread the contents of the in an even layer over the base. Bring the liquid back to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
- Add the peas, shrimp (prawns) or langoustines, mussels and clams, stirring them gently into the rice. Cook gently for another 15-20 minutes, until the rice is tender and all the mussels and clams have opened. If any remain closed, discard them.It the paella seems dry, add a little more stock.
- Gently stir everything together and serve piping hot.
