Ingredients :
- 3 cups paella rice (long grain rice and arborio rice works just as well)
- 3 garlic cloves, sliced
- 1 large onion, diced
- 4 plum tomatoes, diced
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 12-16 fresh uncooked (and unpeeled if possible) king prawns (feel free to add clams, squid, prawns or mussels)
- 1 pinch saffron
- 1/2 tablespoon paprika
- 2 bay leaves
- olive oil
- salt
- 8 cups fish stock (optional, just if the seafood is frozen)
- 1/2 cup parsley
Method :
- Stock preparation if the seafood is fresh:
- Put around 9 cups of water to boil in a big saucepan with the bay leaves and a slice of lemon. Once the water is starting to boil, add your fresh seafood and leave it boil until the king prawns change their colour. Once this happens, take out all the seafood and save it on a plate or bowl for later, add salt to the water and leave the stock at medium/low heat so it keeps hot but not boiling.
- If you added clams, it"s important to boil them separately from the rest until they open.
- Stock preparation if the seafood is frozen:
- Put around 9 cups of water to boil in a big saucepan with the bay leaves. Add 2 fish stock cubes. When it"s starting to boil add your seafood and leave it for about 2-3 minutes. Take it away and save it for later. Put the heat down to medium/low so it keeps hot but not boiling.
- If we added frozen clams they still have to be boiled separately.
- Cover the bottom of your paellera/pan with olive oil and put it to medium heat.
- Brown garlic, onion and pepper until they"re softened, adding plum tomatoes shortly before the mixture is finished.
- Add the parsley and paprika and mix it all together.
- Add rice, mixing together and stirring as the rice browns (1-1 1/2) minutes. As the rice browns mix in the saffron. Make sure to break it between your fingers and stir it in to release all the flavour.
- When the rice is slightly translucent add enough stock to cover the whole mixture. If it"s been kept warm, it will begin to boil almost immediately. Lower to a medium heat but keep it at a steady boil
- Now is the part that makes a difference.
- Stir the paella a few times during the first 5-10 minutes adding stock every so often to cover the rice.
- After that you must let the paella SIT. Let it cook for another 10-20 min adding stock bit by bit to keep the rice covered until the rice on top is al dente (cooked but not so soft. It has to be a bit hard, just enough).
- Don"t worry about the rice on the bottom. It sticks together with the bottom of the stock and you get the best flavour in there.
- When the rice on top it"s still a bit hard (about 5-8 mins before is cooked) add the seafood and try to get it a bit mixed but don"t stir the bottom of the paella. This will finish cooking the seafood and will add a bit of extra flavour.
- Let it cook for 5-8 min and try the rice. If it still quite al dente, take the paella off of heat and leave it rest fully covered with a cloth for 10 or 20 minutes. (Depending how hard the rice was when you took it off heat. Best thing to do is try a bit of the rice on top every 5-10 min so we know when it"s done) Patience is key here. If you uncover it too early the rice will be too hard and crunchy. We want the rice to be soft and nice.
- Uncover, serve and enjoy. Some people add a bit of lemon and others sprinkle some more parsley on top. It"s really up to you. My humble opinion is that it"s best as it is.
- Enjoy!
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