The PAELLAphile

Nothing more speaks to me of a family meal than the sea food paella. This traditional Spanish cuisine of rice, saffron, seafood and chicken has been officially classified as good eats in our home.

This is a recipe I got from my father (who makes the best sea food paella ever, as opposed to my mother, who makes the best arroz valenciana, a chicken paella of sorts). Hope you enjoy it as much as we do:

Ingredients:
This recipe can feed around 8-10 people, so just tweak it to suit your numbers Ü

• 1 kg mussels, sauteed in a tsp of garlic and onions slices, then boiled. Set aside 1 cup of broth. I prefer to keep some in a shell for presentation purposes, but I do take out most of the mussels from it's shell after cooking. You could also substitute these with clams. 
• 1/2 kg crabs, boil whole with next ingredient
• 1/2 kg prawns (shrimps medium-to large are fine too)
• 1/c squid rings (boiled til tender)
• 400 grams chicken, breasts (set aside raw) and soup parts (boil and set aside 2 cups broth)
• 2 pcs chorizo de bilbao, sliced
• 200 gms bacon or ham, sliced into bite sized pieces
• 3 tbsp olive oil, preferably extra virgin
• 1 medium onion, chopped finely
• 2 tbsp garlic, minced
• 1 c tomato sauce
• 2 c rice, washed 
• 3 c broth (from the ones saved above)
• 2 pcs bell pepper, one red, one green, cut into strips
• 1 egg, hard boiled for garnish
• lemon or lime slices
• salt
• 2 tsp saffron (this tends to be optional for us as the sea food's flavors are often more than enough)
• 1/2 c peas (which I don't put as no one really likes these except for me)

Procedure:

Before anything else, make sure you have a heavy pan to cook this with. If you don't have a heavy cast iron pan (or a paellarahan), the next best thing is trying to cook this in a pressure cooker's bottom half or something equally thick.

Most of the prep work has been indicated above. That' basically most of the work for this dish. Putting it all together doesn't take that much time.

• Start off by frying the chicken breasts, chorizo and bacon or ham (or both!) in the olive oil. 
• Push to one side and saute the garlic and onions together with the tomato sauce.
• Add broth and rice and mix everything else in the pan together
• Season with salt and cover to cook rice. **note: not all rice is created equal. some may require more water or less water. I'd put 2 1/2 c broth first, then add as I cook the rice to make sure the texture isn't too hard or too mushy. Cook til all the broth is absorbed.
• During the last 5 minutes of cooking, stir in the mussels and squid. Then top it with the crab and shrimps. I would cut up some of the crab in half and some of the shrimp to mix in with the rice and leave some for garnish.
• Stir in the saffron, if any, at this point as well as the bell peppers. Save some bell  pepper for garnish too.
• When all done, garnish with egg and lemon slices as well (see pic above).
• The main thing you have to watch for in paella making is ensuring that none of the seafood is overcooked and that the rice is cooked to the right consistency.

From Kitchen Wanderings, here's to a life full of flavor!