BY ALICIA GREEN
This paella is a colourful crowd-pleaser. It takes about 50 minutes, including preparation, and would be a great dinner party dish or weekend treat. Unlike risotto, the stock doesn’t need to be added to the paella bit-by-bit, leaving you time to prepare the seafood as the rice cooks.
Saffron can be very expensive so I would recommend using just a few strands, for flavour, then adding turmeric for colour. A little bit of paprika also helps with the colour and gives the flavour a bit more depth. This version is meatless but chorizo could also be added at the beginning, along with the pepper and tomato, to give a rich and smoky taste.
I have used king prawns and squid for the seafood but mussels and clams also work well; they should be added to the pan 10 minutes before the rice has finished cooking. For a really extravagant version of the dish you could use all four along with a small glass of dry white wine (added to the pan just before the stock, so the rice soaks it up) for extra flavour.
The quantities below feed two very hungry people or make four smaller portions.
- 200ml calasparra paella rice (available from A C & Co. Continental Grocers on Atlantic Road and Sainsbury’s)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 400 ml stock – fish or vegetable
- Approximately 5 saffron threads (available from A C & Co. Continental Grocers)
- 1 large onion
- 1 lemon
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 small red pepper or half a large red pepper
- 1 large, red tomato
- A handful of parsley leaves (I picked up all my fruit, veg and herbs from Asad Nasseri Quality Food & Veg on Electric Avenue)
- 1 teaspoon of powdered smoky paprika
- 1 teaspoon of powdered turmeric
- 1 large handful of frozen peas
- 1 squid, cleaned and prepared
- 8 raw king prawns, shell on (I got my seafood from 16 Electric Avenue)
Method:
Take a large frying pan and heat the two tablespoons of olive oil. Make the stock if from a cube. Add the saffron threads to the stock, so it begins to colour while you cook.
Finely dice the onion, add to the pan and fry on a medium heat for three minutes. Halve the tomato and remove the inner juice and seeds. Finely dice the tomato, garlic and red pepper and add them to the pan along with the paprika and turmeric. Fry for another three minutes until the ingredients begin to soften.
Add the rice to the pan and stir all the ingredients together so they are well mixed and the rice grains are coated in the oil. Fry for a further minute. Add all of the stock/saffron mix to the pan and give the ingredients a quick stir, so the rice doesn’t stick to the base. The rice will take approximately 20-25 minutes to cook and will only need stirring occasionally.
Now that the rice is cooking, you can prepare the squid. First separate the tentacles from the body (you can do this by pulling both parts firmly away from each other) and remove the quill from inside the body. Using a sharp knife, cut away the tentacles from the head. Discard the head but save the tentacles for cooking. Remove the thin purple membrane from the main body of the squid and cut off the wings. Cut the squid into rings and it is ready to cook, along with the tentacles.
Preparing the squid sounds much harder than it is – try watching some videos on Youtube for help or ask your fishmonger to do it for you..
When the paella has five minutes of cooking time left heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan and add the prawns. Keep the heads and shells on the prawns when you are cooking them because they are full of flavour. As the prawns have nearly turned completely pink add the squid to the pan and fry on a high heat for approximately a minute. As soon as the squid is opaque white and has firmed up a little bit it is cooked – this shouldn’t take more than a minute if your pan is hot enough.
Add the frozen peas to the main paella pan then quickly add the seafood, along with the cooking juices. Take the pan off the heat, squeeze in the juice of half the lemon and stir. Sprinkle a handful of chopped parsley over the rice and dish up the paella with extra parsley and lemon wedges on the side.
