Paella is surprisingly quick and easy to make. You must follow the cooking
procedures in a specific order because the main ingredients all have different
cooking times.
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
4 chicken legs
1/2 cup olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
2 links of dry chorizo, 1 diced and 1 sliced
garlic to taste
2 cups short-grain rice, such as Calasparra rice
2 pinches saffron
2 1/2 cups fish stock or clam juice
2 1/2cups chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup diced tomato
1/2cup diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup green peas
8 little neck clams
8 black mussels
8 large shrimp, peeled
2 small lobsters or 8 crawfish, shelled
Preparation:
Make the paella on the stovetop in a large skillet or paella
pan without a lid. In the pan, cook the chicken in half of the olive oil until
cooked through. Remove from pan and set aside. (Set sliced chorizo aside.)
In
the same pan using the chicken fat and the rest of the olive oil, sauté onions
and diced chorizo until onions are soft. Add the garlic. Add the rice and stir
until each grain is coated with oil. Add the saffron.
Combine fish stock or clam juice with chicken stock to make cooking liquid.
Add 3 cups of the cooking liquid to the pan and bring to a simmer. Cook for
about 5 to 7 minutes. Add salt and pepper. Then add the diced tomato and
pepper; add peas. Stir.
As you add the rest of the ingredients, use more cooking liquid as needed. Try
not to stir any more at this point, but don't let the rice stick to the bottom
of the pan too much. Stick your spoon into the pan and check to see if
anything is sticking on the bottom; stir only if you have to.
Add clams by pushing them down into the rice. Wait 3 to 4 minutes, then add
the mussels. Add more liquid.
Add sliced chorizo, cooked chicken legs, shrimp,
and lobster or crawfish meat in that order. Add more liquid if needed.
When
lobster and shrimp meat are cooked (they will turn pink after about 2
minutes), it is done. Serve with slices of rustic bread and a hearty Spanish
or Argentine wine.
