Hola,

I can’t believe Summer is nearly over, it is still warm in Spain but there is a chill in the wind now. I am trying my hardest to hang to Summer, so thought I would re-blog one of my favourite summer dishes…Paella.

April 2015

Paella is a traditional dish in Spain but also a traditional dish for my family. My mum started cooking this in the 80’s with small shrimps and it became more and more extravagant as the years went on and better seafood was readily available in the UK. She passed this recipe onto me which over the years I have adapted and made over and over again for friends/family. I made this recipe for the first time last year for a friend’s birthday and instead of my usual mixed paella (chicken, prawns, muscles, squid & chorizo) this one is just the crab claws and prawns…well I also threw in some squid as it looked really good at the fish counter :-).

I love the fact you can make this with anything that you like, my mum would also add pork rather than the chorizo. I love all of it and most of the time I struggle to fit it all in the paella dish!!!

Here in Spain there are lots of regions and variations of the dish often using rabbit/duck/snails and seafood. The word Paella is actually the name of the pan.  According to tradition in Valencia, paella is cooked over an open fire which is fueled by orange and pine branches along with pine cones. This produces an aromatic smoke which infuses the paella. I think the idea of this sounds amazing, I would love to try this.

For more information take a look at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paella

This recipe serves 4-6 people depending on your portion size, we ate nearly all of it and there were only 4 of us but it could have gone further ha ha!

Ingredients:

1 Onion Diced

1/2 (Depending on size) Red Peppers Sliced

Green Beans Halved

2 Garlic Cloves Grated

2  Lemons juiced

1 Lemon Cut Into Wedges

5/6 Fresh Tomatoes Diced

Handful Flat Leaf Parsley Chopped

Chorizo Sausage Sliced

2 pints Good Fish Stock (Can use Chicken stock)

1 Tbsp Paprika

1 Tsp Turmeric

Optional Pinch Saffron

2 1/2 Cups Paella Rice (I bought a box of traditional paella rice here in Spain but it is different to the paella rice I have used in the UK, here it looks more like long grain rice in the UK it looks more like risotto rice. If you can only find risotto rice you can use that)

Large Prawns x 12 (cooked or uncooked- mine were uncooked)

12 x Cooked Crab Claws

Large Handful of Prepared Squid (if you can only get whole squid it is a bit of a faff to prepare so best ask the fish monger to do it for you)

(with the seafood I usually make sure there is enough of each for 2 per person)

Salt & Pepper

Method:

In a large paella dish fry the chorizo, do not add oil as it should produce a lot, if it sticks add a little oil. Once the Chorizo is brown and crispy remove with a slotted spoon and keep for later.

Add the onions to the paella dish and fry until soft, then add the garlic.

Fry for few minutes then add the rice. Cook this until the rice turns translucent.

Now add your spices and stir until the rice is coated, then start to laddle in the stock.

Keep the heat medium, just laddle in a spoonful at a time so the rice doesn’t stick, let the rice soak up the liquid before adding another spoonful. After the 2nd spoon add in the beans and the red pepper.

Now season well. Add the juice of 2 lemons. Stir and simmer, keep adding the stock.

Now you want to cook this until the rice is nearly cooked, when its just about there (rice should always have a slight bite) Then add in the tomatoes. Taste the juice add more salt/pepper or lemon juice according to taste.

As my prawns where so large and uncooked I added them in at this stage too and covered the pan with foil.

You could pop this in the oven or keep on the hob.

After about ten minutes add in the squid, add more stock if it’s sticking.

If you run out of stock just add small drops of hot water, not too much as you do not want to make it soggy. The rice should now be cooked. Cover again with the foil and cook for another 5 minutes.

Now add back in the chorizo and the crab. Carefully stir this trying not to spill anything :-), now let crab claws heat through. At this stage you can just pop this in a warm oven with the foil covering the pan while you prepare the lemon wedges…

Take one lemon and cut into 6 wedges, then with a sharp knife slice between the flesh and the skin halfway along…

Try not to over cook the squid as you don’t want it to be chewy

Once its all warmed through, carefully stir and arrange the seafood so it looks pretty 🙂

Then place the lemons along the edge of the paella dish and sprinkle over the parsley. Serve with bread.

You can add anything to Paella’s, I am sure i will be sharing other paella recipes in the future, please see my photos of previous paellas….

Enjoy

Lulu xxxxx

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