A visit to Spain would be incomplete without fighting your way through a mountain of paella. It is Spain’s finest contribution to the world of gastronomy. Paella often contains chicken, rabbit and even snails but I like this seafood version best of all.
preparation time 40 minutes
cooking time about 35 minutes
serves 6
Ingredients
18 mussels
75 ml (3 fl oz) extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed
50 g (2 oz) shallots, finely diced
250 g (8 oz) chicken breasts, skinned and cut into 1 cm (1⁄2 inch) dice
1 green pepper, deseeded and thinly sliced
1 red pepper, deseeded and thinly sliced
75 g (3 oz) cured ham, preferably jamón serrano, diced
125 g (4 oz) cleaned squid (see here), sliced
50 g (2 oz) stoned black olives
25 g (1 oz) capers, rinsed
350 g (12 oz) tomatoes, skinned, deseeded and sliced
75 g (3 oz) peas
400 g (14 oz) long grain rice
1 glass of dry white wine
4 saffron strands, crushed
1 teaspoon paprika
juice of 1 lemon
1 bay leaf
500 g (1 lb) raw prawns, shelled
fresh coriander leaves, to garnish
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 Scrub the mussels under cold running water. Pull off the beards and scrape off any barnacles with a small sharp knife. Discard any open mussels that do not close when tapped lightly on a work surface.
2 Heat a little water in a large pan, add the mussels and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Cook over a medium-high heat for 3–5 minutes, until the mussels have opened. Discard any that do not open. Strain the mussels, reserving the cooking liquid. Remove the top shell from each mussel and set the mussels aside.
3 Heat the oil in a paella pan (if you don’t have such a thing, all is not lost; simply use a very large frying pan). Add the garlic, shallots and diced chicken, season lightly with salt and pepper and cook for 2–3 minutes, until the chicken is sealed on all sides.
4 Add the sliced peppers, ham and squid and cook for 1 minute, then add the olives, capers, tomatoes and peas. Add the rice and stir well, then pour in the white wine and add the saffron.
5 Top up the mussel cooking liquid with enough water to make 1.2 litres (2 pints) and stir it into the pan. Add the paprika, lemon juice and bay leaf and season well with salt and pepper.
6 Bring to the boil and cook for 10 minutes over a fairly high heat. Reduce the temperature, add the mussels and prawns and cook slowly for 10–12 minutes, until all the stock has been absorbed and the rice is tender.
7 Cover and leave to rest for 5 minutes, which will allow the flavours to develop. Remove the bay leaf, garnish with coriander leaves and serve.
Feel free to alter this recipe to suit your taste. The nice thing about paella is that there are no hard rules about what you can and can’t use.