Paella

Firstly, Nigel would like to say thank you for all the birthday greetings and good wishes he received from literally all round the world! He is not one for wanting to be in the spotlight and was therefore overwhelmed by all the publicity, but he was most appreciative nevertheless. :-)

A couple of weekends ago, I bought some Mozambican prawns from the seafood trader at the Saturday market.  I got home and then wondered what I was going to do with them!  I decided that paella sounded a good choice, despite being short of some of the ingredients I would usually use.  I found the following around the house.

Ingredients
About 10 cms or 4 inches chorizo, cut into thin slices
110g/4oz pancetta, cut into small dice
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 large onion, finely diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 tsp soft thyme leaves (1/2 teasp dry, if you have not got thyme in the garden)
1 small chilli, chopped
1 cup of rice
1 tsp paprika
1/2 cup dry white wine
About 3 cups of chicken stock, hot
3 chicken breasts, each chopped in large bite size pieces 

2 to 3 fillets of white fish cut into bite size pieces
1 cup of frozen peas 
1 tin chopped tomatoes

2 tablespoons of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter
6 to 8 Large cloves of garlic, separated and peeled
12 prawns, in shells, preferably raw

5 tbsp chopped green parsley
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Heat half the olive oil in a paella dish or heavy-based non stick frying pan. Add the chorizo and pancetta and fry until crisp. Add the garlic, onion and pepper and heat until softened.
 Add the thyme, chilli  and  rice, and stir until all the grains of rice are nicely coated and glossy. Now add the paprika and dry white wine and when it is bubbling, pour in the hot chicken stock, add the chicken pieces and cook for 5-10 minutes.  

Add the pieces of fish fillet. Sprinkle in the peas and chopped tomatoes and continue to cook gently for another 10 minutes.

Note - I always have hot water on hand, in case the rice takes up more liquid than expected, and I just add a little if the ingredients look a bit dry.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil  and butter with the garlic cloves in a separate pan and add the prawns. Fry quickly for a minute or two then add them to the paella. 

Scatter the chopped parsley over the paella and serve immediately.

For my usual recipe with all the normal ingredients see Here

Add the chorizo and pancetta

 Add the thyme, chilli  and  rice

Chicken, fish and peas added

Fry the prawns and the garlic

Add the prawns to the main dish and serve.

Bon appétit.  

 

See also - My Life Before Charente Updated 18/11/12