A Spanish Paella – Step by Step How To
Basic Paella Ingredients
- 1 Red bell pepper
- 1 big onion, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic (to taste, but it should not dominate the paella)
- ca. 1 cup of frozen peas
- 3 fresh tomatoes or 1 can of tomatos
- 1/2 lbs of frozen mussels
- 1 chicken breast (ca. 1 1/2 lbs)
- 1 1/2 lbs of mixed seafood: squid, calamari and fish, we used pangasius
- 3 cups of paella rice (bomba would be traditional, but any rice should be fine)
- 1/2 lbs of fresh jumbo shrimp or spiny lobsters, frozen shrimp taste as good, but don’t make an equivalently good garnish
- fresh parsley
- salt and papper to taste
- saffron
- chicken stock
- water
- Oil
Start you Paella by chopping a red bell pepper, onion and garlic. For the tomatoes you can use also canned tomatoes, the peas in the picture peas are frozen
Start your Paella by frying the chicken breast cut into cubes in a pan. Ideally this would be a paella pan, but a wok will do it likewise. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Meanwhile, start chopping the onion into tiny cubes, the bell pepper into medium sized cubes or stripes as well as the garlic.
Fry the chicken cubes, let them rest, go on with the seafood.
As soon as the chicken cubes are somewhat done, set them aside and start frying the seafood. Add salt and pepper to taste. A pinch of parika powder can’t harm, but will add additional flavor. In the pictures we used pangsasius fillets, octopus and fresh calamari cut into rings. Let them get golden and set aside to chill.
Prepare the calamari rings, fish and squid in your paella pan or wok. Use a wooden spatula.
Now you can start by putting the vegetables into the pan, add the tomatoes, stir.
Add the onion, bell pepper to your paella.
As soon as the onion will turn transparent you can add the meat, seafood and frozen mussels.
Combine the prepared ingredients for your Paella.
You can add now also the peas, and about 5-6 cups of hot water. Add 1-2 chicken stock cubes for better flavor and the rice
The basic Paella - meat, seafood, vegetables. Add the mussels now.
Now its time to add the mussels to your paella, put some extra garlic if you like.
The paella is now ready to recive its characteristic yellow color by adding the saffron. Any kind of saffron will do it, but we especially can recommend the Paellero packages if available.
Spanish safron - any kind of safron will do it, but Paellero is a great choice.
Stir well until about half of the water is absorbed/evaporated. You should now cease to further stir, in order to let the paella develop its traditional crust as the bottom of the pan.
The saffron gives the typical color to the Paella.
Now, add the Paella rice to your mixture and let it absorb the water. Chicken stock will give additional and essential flavor to your composition.
As soon as the majority of water is either absorbed or evaporated, you can garnish the paella with fresh shrimp.
Shrimp scampi or prawn, especially the jumbo variations or if available spiny lobsters will make a perfect topping for your paella.
In order to make sure that the prawn will be well done from both sides cover the pan.
Place the fresh shrimp on top of the half baked Paella
Meanwhile, cop the parsley and add it after some 3 minutes.
Now the time has come to chop the fresh parsley.
Garnish your Paella with your fresh parsley after turning the shrimp, they should be half pink now.
Let the paella cook for another 3-5 minutes. Voila, you are done. Admire your Paella
Voila, the Paella is as traditional as ready to be served. Enjoy.
Paella Cooking Tips
Before you now insult us, for selling you this mix as authentic Paella recipe, let us be clear on some basics, which directly translate into further cooking instructions:
While we used chicken meat in our example, you can still have an “authentic” paella recipe using rabbit or duck, top it with snails and beans instead of peas. the rabbit/snail/bean variation would have to classified as Valencian Paella, where this very dish has actually its origins. Thus, a prurist would say, that this, and only this is a really traditional Paella. May it be.
A typical tourist from Spain, which is most likely to visit the sea side, will insist that the seafood Paella is the true one. The seafood Paella uses mussels instead of snails and usually skips the meat in favor of various seafoods such as squid, cuttlefish, cod, salmon, lobster, shrimp and even crayfish. Pangasius would not be quite an option, but we think, despite being a fresh water fish, it has not only a competitive price, but also a firm and delicious meat which makes it a perfect fit.
The 3rd type is the mixed Paella or sometimes also called “International Paella” and will not add only all of the ingredients mentioned above, but also sausages, such as Chorizo. After all, Paella cooking is like a living religion: ever changing, ever local, ever tasty. Cook. Enjoy. Share.
