Paella con Amigos

Paella (pronounced pie-eh-ya) is a rice dish that originated in Spain.  This version is made with seafood but can also be made with chicken and sausage.  It’s a great dish to share with friends.

Prep time: 30 Minutes  Cooking time: approx 2 hours

½ Cup Olive Oil

½ Tsp sugar

½ Tbsp paprika

1/8 Cup red wine vinegar

1 bay leaf

1 Spanish chorizo

½ Cup small scallops

½ Cup shelled prawns

½ Cup clams

2 small tomatoes, grated, no skins

½ Spanish onion, grated

2 finely chopped garlic cloves

1 Cup cremini mushrooms

2 marinated bell peppers, sliced

2 ½ cups Arborio rice

7 ½ cups of hot stock

1 pinch of saffron (let sit in a couple of tablespoons of hot water before use)

salt and pepper

3 lemons to serve.

Sofrito This will become the base flavour of the paella.  Heat a paella pan to medium-high heat and add 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil, onions, bay leave and sugar.  Cook until the onions are lightly browned (30-40 minutes).  Add garlic and paprika and cook for an additional minute. Deglaze with the red wine vinegar.  Once the vinegar is mostly cooked off, add tomatoes and cook until the sofrito is a deep burgundy and has thickened to almost a paste.  Set aside.

In the same pan, lightly sauté the mushrooms about 5 minutes on medium heat.  Set aside mushrooms and mushroom liquid.

Next, in the paella pan, ‘sweat’ the chorizos on low-medium heat (until oil is removed) about 15 minutes.  Drain oil from pan.

In a medium sauce pan, begin warming the stock to a soft simmer.  Once simmering, add sofrito and saffron liquid and threads to stock.  Keep warm.

In paella pan, over medium heat, pour ¼ cup of olive oil, add the rice and toast the rice to a light golden brown.  The grains will become opaque and begin to smell nutty.

Pour in the sofrito/stock/saffron mixture and raise the heat to high, bring to a boil and adjust the seasoning by adding salt/pepper to taste.

Stir well for a few minutes and begin adding the reserved ingredients, decoratively distributed across the rice.  Add the sliced peppers.  Continue cooking on high heat and stir the paella for a few minutes.  Start to occasionally rotate the pan for even heating.

Keep cooking over high heat and add clams.  Now make sure not to touch the paella from here on out, but keep rotating the pan every few minutes for even heating.

When the rice begins to appear above the liquid, after 8-10 minutes, reduce the heat to medium low.  Set prawns on top of the rice, add the scallops and continue to simmer, slowly rotating the pan until the liquid has been absorbed, about 10 additional minutes.

Cover the pan with foil and cook gently on low for another two minutes, ensuring the top layer of rice is evenly cooked.  Continue to rotate the pan.

With the foil still in place, increase the heat to medium high, rotating the pan, cooking until the rice begins to make a popping noise (about 2 minutes).  The bottom layer of the rice will become caramelized, creating the socarrat.  Socarrat is a crispy layer of rice at the bottom of the paella.  Remove from heat.  Let the paella rest still covered for 5 minutes.

Sit everyone down, squeeze ½ lemon over the entire contents.  Eat directly from the pan, starting at the perimeter, working towards the centre.  Give half a lemon to each person for garnish.

Serves 6.