In France cooking Spanish food... I've always wanted to make paella, and while I'm certainly no expert in Spanish food, my impression so far has been very good. Usually there are lots of vegetables, seafood, olive oil, and an abundant use of almonds in Spanish cooking, all things I love. I'll be honest: one of the reasons I haven't made paella yet is because of the fairly pricy ingredient list. Usually there are three proteins: chicken or rabbit, and two kinds of seafood, usually white fish and either shrimp, mussels, squid, clams, or snails. Living in Kansas, these last ingredients can be a bit hard to find and also quite expensive, however, thanks to the seafood monger in the place de la Révolution, finding mussels and fish for this recipe was easy and relatively inexpensive.
Before getting on to the recipe, I just have to say how much I love these cookbooks. There are several different ones, and they are all incredibly clear, with lots of pictures and detailed instructions. I even think they exist in translation, but that's no fun!
On to the paella, which requires lots of steps, so if you want something fast and easy, well you can go get yourself an Uncle Ben's rice bowl or some lame shit like that.
In a big stainless steel pan (or paella pan if you happen to have on lying around...) sauté half of a finely diced red onion, half of a green and red pepper. Add some diced chicken or rabbit. While that cooks, bring 50 mL of water to boil for the mussels (the cooking liquid is added later to the dish). Toss in the mussels, cook till they are all opened.
Back to the big pan: add a diced tomato, two cloves minced garlic, some chopped parsley, fresh thyme, paprika, salt and pepper.
On to the paella, which requires lots of steps, so if you want something fast and easy, well you can go get yourself an Uncle Ben's rice bowl or some lame shit like that.
In a big stainless steel pan (or paella pan if you happen to have on lying around...) sauté half of a finely diced red onion, half of a green and red pepper. Add some diced chicken or rabbit. While that cooks, bring 50 mL of water to boil for the mussels (the cooking liquid is added later to the dish). Toss in the mussels, cook till they are all opened.
Back to the big pan: add a diced tomato, two cloves minced garlic, some chopped parsley, fresh thyme, paprika, salt and pepper.
Now add the fish (I used trout, but I think technically it really should be white fish, like cod or halibut or sole), diced like the chicken, and 250g, or like a cup and a half or rice. Ok, the rice is important. It has to be short grain rice, like arborio rice used for risotto. There is a special paella rice, although I couldn't find any. This recipe turned out really well using arborio rice, which is easy to find. Another important part: you can't stir it once the rice and liquid (stock, mussel cooking liquid along with saffron) are added. You want a crust to form on the bottom, which is why when you add the rice and liquid you pour a few tablespoons of olive oil around the edges of the pan that seeps down and helps the crust form.
All you should do is gently shake the pan from time to time while the rice cooks. It takes about 20 minutes, and once the rice is cooked, the final touch is some diced chorizo, some frozen peas, and the mussels which you arrange nicely on top! Serve with a lemon wedge and maybe some extra chopped parsley sprinkled on top.
After my first attempt at paella, I was quite pleased with the results. My advice would be to have the ingredients all prepared and ready to go before starting anything. There is a lot of prep work involved, and it's best to just do that before starting any cooking, otherwise things will start to burn, you'll be rushing around like crazy chopping and draining mussels and measuring. Also, you can't really make paella for one person, so it's best to have a little paella party (note to self: plan paella party), however the leftovers do reheat nicely.