Spanish Paella

My birthday is coming up in a week and a bit, and this year I’m inviting a few friends around for an evening of murder and mystery. I bought one of these murder games, where each person is given a character to play and we all have to either figure out who the murderer is, or try and avoid being found out. It’s going to be a lot of fun, but part of the game is dinner. I needed to figure out an easy meal that I could cook in one pot and that was big enough for 10 people. The answer was the Spanish Paella that I’ve made in the past. It’s a gorgeously fragrant and flavoursome dish, with lots of different ingredients in it to accommodate even the fussiest of eaters.

Paella’s originated in Spain, and the general idea of them was that they were made up of leftovers, added to rice to build up a substantial meal for poor families. My paella serves around 8 people and consists of the following ingredients

125ml olive oil
6 peeled cloves of garlic
100ml of fresh, chopped parsley
1 pinch of saffron (optional)
5ml of turmeric
8 chicken drumsticks or thighs
4 tomatoes that have been deseeded, peeled and chopped
15ml paprika
500g Tastic rice
1.5 litres of chicken stock
2 chorizo sausages, sliced (optional)
2 peppers (1 red & 1 green or yellow) deseeded and chopped
500g shelled mussels or 12 mussels in the half shell, scrubbed
250ml frozen peas
150g prawns, shelled and de-veined
2 lemons cut into wedges for decoration

Heat half the oil in a large pan and add half the garlic, then fry over a medium heat for 3 minutes. Make sure to keep an eye on the garlic as it burns quickly. Remove the garlic from the pan and place in a mortar, along with the turmeric or saffron and pound together until you have a paste. Set aside for now.

Reserve about 15ml of the parsley, then add the remainder to the paella pan and fry for 10 seconds until crispy. Then remove it from the pan and add it to the garlic paste.

Heat 30ml of oil in the pan and stir-fry the chicken for around 15-20 minutes over a medium heat. Slice the remaining garlic and add to the pan together with the tomatoes and peppers. Cook for two to three minutes and then add in the paprika. Give it a bit of a mix to combine all the ingredients then remove everything from the pan.

Heat the remaining oil in the pan and add the rice. Cook the rice for about 2 minutes, stirring continuously. Add your garlic paste mixture, parsley mix and half of the stock. Bring to the boil. Boil rapidly for about 6-8 minutes until most of the liquid has been absorbed, then add the remaining stock to the pan and stir.

Add your chicken, tomato, pepper mixture and chorizo sausages to the pan and cook for 5 minutes. Add your remaining ingredients which are the mussels, peas and prawns, then cook for 10-20 minutes over a medium-low heat until the rice is tender. Add more stock if necessary.

To serve, place the paella in a large casserole dish, or serve it straight out of the pan if you’d prefer, sprinkle with the remaining parsley and decorate with the lemon wedges. Serve with crusty garlic bread.