Paella

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 6 people, you will need:

• 1 4 tomatoes
• 2 1 onion
• 3 3 cloves garlic
• 4 4 chicken breasts
• 5 ½ Chorizo
• 6 ¼ cauliflower
• 7 150 g peas
• 8 250 g mussels
• 9 250 g prawns
• 10 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 11 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 12 500 g rice
• 13 1 litre water
• 14 2 chicken stock cubes
• 15 4 pinches saffron
• 16 1 lemon
• Total weight: 4,370 grams

Times:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
1 hour 26 min.	1 hour 32 min.	2 hours 58 min.

Step by step recipe

• 1: Peel 4 tomatoes and dice small.
• 2: Peel 1 onion, peel 3 cloves garlic and chop.
• 3: Cut 4 chicken breasts into pieces and slice ½ Chorizo (tip: remove skin from chorizo before cutting, then the skin will not shrivel and spoil the appearence during cooking).
• 4: Prepare ¼ cauliflower.
• 5: Prepare 150 g peas.
• 6: Wash and scrape 250 g mussels.
• 7: Wash 250 g prawns.
• 8: Put a large pan on high heat (even better, use a real paella pan if you can), and pour in 3 tablespoons olive oil. When really hot, tip in mussels all at once.
• 9: They will spit, so cover pan with a sheet of aluminium foil.
• 10: Cook like this for 2 or 3 minutes until the mussels open.
  Remove from the heat, and lift out mussels with a skimmer. Set aside.
• 11: Put the pan back on high heat and cook prawns 2 or 3 minutes on each side.
• 12: Remove pan from heat, and lift out prawns with a skimmer and set aside.
• 13: Empty remaining cooking juices out of the pan, then pour in 3 tablespoons olive oil and put back on high heat.
  Add sliced chorizo and lightly brown 2 or 3 minutes.
• 14: Remove chorizo slices using a skimmer, and tip in chicken pieces. Fry until golden brown on all sides.
  These are likely to spit, so you can partially cover again with foil to avoid making a mess of your kitchen.
  Remove chicken pieces and set aside.
• 15: Add onion and garlic to remaining cooking fat, season, stir well and cook 2 or 3 minutes.
• 16: Tip in 500 g rice and stir well until "pearled", as for pilau rice.
• 17: Add diced tomatoes, stir well.
• 18: Then add chicken and chorizo, plus any juices that may have drained out while waiting, it all helps add flavour.
• 19: Add 1 litre water mixed with 2 chicken stock cubes, then 4 pinches saffron and stir thoroughly. Add cauliflower florets, season and stir again.
  Turn down the heat, cover again with aluminium foil and leave to cook gently for about 1 hour, stirring from time to time.
• 20: Meanwhile, shell mussels and peel prawns.
• 21: 5 minutes before serving, add peas, mussels and prawns, and squeeze 1 lemon over.
  Stir again and leave to cook a further 5 minutes. Check seasoning. To serve, take the pan to the table so that guests can help themselves, and come back for more.

Remarks

To get closer to the "true" paella, I encourage you to use round Spanish rice rather than classic long grain.
Paella is one of those dishes that gets better each time you reheat it, so don't hesitate to make plenty at a time. It freezes very well.
It's important, in my opinion, that all the elements of a paella should be ready to eat, so no mussels, prawns or scampi still in their shells, or chicken with skin or bones. It takes longer, no doubt getting away from the true paella, but it's much more enjoyable to eat.

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