Paella
( Paella )

Paella recipe

Preparation and cooking

• - Prepare clams and mussels.
  Wash mussels accurately.
  Dip clams in salted cold water for some hours, changing the water now and then.
  Then let them open in a large pan, on high heat, separately, without no cooking liquid.
  Filter the liquid they have expelled and remove them from their shells once cold.
  Put apart some of them whith their shell for garnishing your dish.
• - Prepare prawns.
  Twist and pull every head from the body.
  Peel away the shell from the body, leaving the end of the tail, if you want.
  Use a sharp knife to slit the back along the entire curve to remove the intestinal vein and pull out the black thread with a knife or your fingers.
• - Prepare all vegetables.
  Clean, wash and cut all string beans into little pieces.
  Clean all mushrooms without washing them under running water (it's enough to peel and clean them with absorbent kitchen paper); then slice them.
  Clean, wash and cut bell pepper into little pieces too.
• - Begin cooking paella.
  Pour olive oil into the appropriate "paella pan" and fry all meat on high heat, stirring frequently.
  Remove all meat with a skimming ladle and put apart.
  At this point add onion, reduce heat and let it fry, stirring now and then.
  Then add pepper, string beans and peas to the pan and continue frying sligthly, stirring now and then.
  When all these ingredients have flavored, add the squids too. Stir.
  After 2-3 minutes add tomatoes.
  Reduce heat and continue cooking, half-covered, stirring now and then, 5 minutes.
• - Meanwhile ... ... prepare vegetable stock according to the package directions.
  Remember to prepare more of the requested dose; it may be necessary to add more stock for a lot of reasons.
  Add also the liquid of clams and mussels you have put apart.
  Dissolve saffron and paprika in the boiling stock.
• - The last step.
  At this point add boiling stock (about 1.0 liter), mushrooms and rice.
  Stir accurately and cook on a medium heat, about 10 minutes.
  Add other stock, gradually, when necessary.
  I recommend you not to stir too much from now on.
  Season to taste with slt, if necessary.
  Now reduce heat and cook, other 6-8 minutes according to the directions on the rice package.
  Add meat you have put apart, clams, prawns, mussels, chives and parsley 2 minutes before the end of cooking and stir.
  Your cooking juice must be well reduced and all rice grains well separated.

Just before serving

• - Garnish paella surface with the mussels and clams on their shells that you've put apart.
  Let your paella rest, some minutes.
  Serve directly in the pan.

Note

Tips

• - I do not use garlic because I and many other people do not like it and this dish must be eaten with many guests. So I avoid it but remember it is an important ingredient in the Spanish cuisine. If you want, add 2 or 3 gloves, finely chopped, to the olive oil.
• - You can modify the ingredients, using other kind of meat, fish and vegetables and choosing, first of all, the seasonal ingredients that you can find when you decide to prepare this dish. If you have any problems about the doses, remember to use about 40g (1 1/2 ounces) every kind of meat or vegetable and about 50g (1 3/4 ounces) fish.
• - You can also use canned peas or broad beans, after draining them from their preservation liquid; you have to add them with the rice.
• - You need a very large paella pan. If you want to prepare this dish with these doses, you have to use 2 pans.

Menu planning

• - It's difficult to combine paella with other courses because it is one-plate meal but generally I use to serve a lot of tasty appetizers before and close my menu with a simple seasonal dessert.

Healthy eating

• - I calculated the calories of paella mostly out of curiosity. Being a dish of your special occasions, it is not the case of thinking about diets unless you have some serious dysmetabolic problem.

Loretta

What's the right wine for " Paella " ?

Sangria is the best choice for paella dish but you can pair a red wine too.

A little history

Paella is an old dish born in the East of Spain. The basic ingredient is the rice, colored with saffron and paprika and mixed with different seasonal products (meat, fish, vegetables and white mushrooms). For this reason you can find a lot of recipes with this name. You have just read my own version I got from a Spanish woman. I have tasted this recipe a lot of times in my kitchen.