It started as a very regular Saturday morning with some music playing in the background and munching on some breakfast. All of a sudden my husband was lost in thought and I was wondering whats on his mind. He just looked at me and narrated a story of his bachelor days and how his friends and he loved food and on one of their weekends they went to a Spanish restaurant and he so loved the Paella. I realized where he was heading. I smiled and said lets try it out. I usually love trying out a new dish on weekends since both of us are relaxed and I don't have to finish the cooking in a hurry. While I plan out my dish I have my ever talented husband and his love for photography right behind me to record and snap a picture of all I do.
Paella is a famous Spanish dish which actually originates from Valencia and for those of you who are a little confused with the pronunciation,it is pronounced as 'pah EH yuh' The rice used in Spanish dishes is always a medium to short grain variety and is slightly sticky when cooked. It is sturdy, survives the cooking technique for paella and can absorb much liquid
Valencia is a coastal Mediterranean city, surrounded by rice fields. As such, the cuisine is based on rice and fish / seafood, and quite often both in the same dish.
Paella Valenciana, the most traditional kind, is what I have attempted and I think it was pretty good for my first time with a Spanish dish.
Ingredients
For 4-6 people
1-2 large onions
1 head of garlic
2 large peppers (I use a green one & a red one)
Plenty olive oil
1 chicken stock cube (use a fish one if you prefer)
500 gms chicken chopped up into small pieces
250g small prawns or large prawns (as per your choice and taste)
250g clams or 15-20 mussels ( whichever you prefer or you can use both)
1 Kielbasa (this is an Eastern European sausage you can add any type of sausage-I personally think it enhances the flavour)
Food colouring (optional)
Rice (short grain Mexican rice)
1 bag of frozen or fresh peas
Tin of pickled red peppers (optional)
Lemons
Since I do not have a Paella pan I just cheated and used a regular cooking dish and I must say it turned out good for my first time
1)Take a large, deep saucepan and cover the bottom with the olive oil ... Add the chopped chicken and stir for a few minutes . Now throw in the chopped onion, pepper and garlic and fry gently until everything is cooked. During this stage leaving the chicken begins to give out juices and this gives a nice aroma. Put this pan aside now as you won't need it till the final stage.
You'll need to take the heads and shells off all the small and large prawns and keep the heads and shells aside. This is the little messy part of the preparation which you can begin while you are cooking the chicken.
This is a very important stage to get your Paella right You MUST work with the correct quantity of liquid in this recipe.
For every cup of rice that is used you need to use double the quantity of water.If you chose to make 2 cups of rice then you need to use 4 cups of water. Now add this measured water to another deep saucepan and throw in the mussels and clams. Bring them to the boil and continue until all the shells are open (discard any that don't open) then sieve the water into another large saucepan and save this water. Set the mussels and clams aside as we won't need them until the final stage.
Now in the water which you've just boiled the shellfish add the heads and shells from the prawns. Once they're boiling add some yellow food colouring (saffron is of course my choice since it gives a very different flavor). Also add the chicken stock cube. The rice will take its salt from this stock cube.
After a few minutes of gentle boiling, the water will take on the flavour of the prawn heads and shells and will have turned into a deep yellow colour. Turn off the heat and sieve out the shells.
Heat up the pan with, once these start sizzling throw in the Stir the rice into the juices and don't worry if some bits stick as this becomes the favourite part of the paella, then add the peeled prawn at this stage.
Immediately pour in the yellow stock, stir and allow boiling very gently. Don't worry if all the stock doesn't go in immediately, just let some cook off and add it later. Now you throw in the frozen peas and place the mussels, large prawns and strips of red peppers carefully to make the dish look as attractive as possible. Cook the paella gently for around 20 minutes, turning the pan occasionally to make sure that all parts of it are cooking equally. Once most of the liquid has been soaked up by the rice your masterpiece is finished. Just place a few halves of lemon on top and and its tasting time
¼ tsp turmeric powder
