Seafood Paella

10 Oct 2014

Paella, a Valencian-Cataln word derived from the old French word papelle for “pan”. Paella is cooked on a specialized shallow pan and is a great party hosting dish. We often cook it over our BBQ grill in the backyard. You can cut and prepare all of your ingredients ahead of time and while cooking the dish, you can enjoy time talking/entertainig guests sipping over glasses of sangria.

Most traditional paella consists of meat (chicken and rabbit), land snails, beans and seasoning. However, similar to Mediterranean coast folks, we get awesome seafood living in SF Bay area on the Pacific Coast. Therefore, I like to prepare mine with lots of fresh and live seafood.

Make sure you get good quality Valencia rice. Whole Foods sell Bomba rice which works very well. This is made using a Lodge 15” Paella Pan and serves 5-6 people.

Ingredients

• 2 chicken thigh with bones and skin
• 5 oz Chorizo (3/4 of a 6 oz stick)
• 16 clams
• 12 live spot prawns or 15 regular
• 5 baby squid
• 6 scallops
• 8 oz clam juice (1 bottle)
• 8 oz lobster juice (1 bottle)
• 1.5 cup of chicken broth
• 2 cups bomba rice
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 cup fresh peas
• 1 onion
• 2 tomatoes
• 8 cloves garlic
• smoked paprika
• oregano
• saffron
• flat leaf parsley (optional)
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Instructions

1. chop chicken thigh into pieces, marinade with garlic powder, paprika, oregano, salt and pepper (overnight)
2. bring chicken stock with clam juice and lobster juice (use shrimp shell if not using live prawns) into a boil, steep saffron
3. dice garlic, dice onion, dice tomatoes
4. clean squid, cut into small rings
5. wash clams
6. cut bell pepper into strips
7. heat paella pan, add olive oil
8. sear the chicken pieces on all sides, skin down, remove and reserve
9. sautee chorizo to render some of the fat, remove and reserve
10. sautee garlic and onion, when soft {~2 min), add tomato (~10 min)
11. add rice and coat with sofrito (garlic/onion/tomato mixture)
12. pour in the stock that has been steeped in saffron
13. arrange the seared chicken pieces over the plate and add chorizo
14. when the water has cooked off 50%, add red bell pepper, squid, clams, scallops
15. finally, 15 min before the dish is ready add prawns
16. when the liquid has cooked off from the pan and the bottom of pan forms a nice socarrat, it is ready
17. serve with garlic aioli