Recipe
’S ’ is for Spanish and nothing is so easy to make or
wonderful to eat as paella the national dish of spain. All of the
ingredients are easily found in Australia and it is a dish ideally
suited to our climate.
PAELLA
Serves 10
Preparation: 20 mins
Cooking: 40 mins
The traditional pan for this recipe is shallow and wide. If you
don’t have a paella pan or a large enough frying pan, use two smaller
frying pans as the mixture should only be about 4cm deep. This recipe
is best made just before serving and can be done across a couple
of jets on the stove, or on the BBQ.
1kilo clams
1 tablespoon coarse salt
600g medium uncooked prawns
1 kilo small black mussels
4 tablespoons olive oil
7 cups (1750ml) chicken or fish stock
1 large pinch saffron threads
4 (440g) chicken thigh fillets, chopped coarsely
400g chorizo sausage, sliced
2 large (600g) red onion, chopped
2 medium (400g) red capsicum, chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
4 teaspoons smoked or sweet paprika
4 medium (720g) tomatoes, peeled, seeded, chopped finely
3 cups (600g) Calasperra (or Calrose or short grain) rice
2 cups (250g) peas
3 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
To prepare the seafood
Rinse the clams under cold water and place them in a large bowl. Sprinkle the clams with the salt, cover with cold water and soak for 2 hours to purges them of any grit. Drain and rinse.
Shell and devein the prawns, leaving the tails intact. Reserve shells. Scrub the mussels.
To make the stock
Brown prawn shells in 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large saucepan. Pour in chicken or fish stock, bring to the boil and simmer 20 minutes. Strain, add saffron and set aside till needed.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in paella pan, add the chicken and cook until browned. Remove the chicken from the pan. Add the chorizo to the same pan and cook until browned; drain the chorizo on absorbent paper.
To make the sofrito (or picada, the key to a great paella )
Add the final 2 tablespoons oil to the pan, add the onion, capsicum, garlic, paprika and tomatoes to the same pan and cook, stirring, until soft.
Add the rice and stir until it is coated in oil. Return the chicken and chorizo to the pan.
Add the stock and saffron mixture and stir only until combined. do not stir again. Bring to the boil then simmer, uncovered, for about 12 minutes or until the rice is almost tender. Sprinkle the peas over the rice and simmer, uncovered, for a further three minutes.
Place the clams, mussels and prawns over the rice mixture. Cover
the pan with a large piece of foil and simmer, covered, for about
five minutes or until the clams and mussels have opened and the
prawns are just cooked through. Discard any shells that don’t open.
Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.
