Paella (Seafood)
This is essentially the same general recipe as the my other paella recipe, but this time with seafood. Since I made paella for the first time, I've made some small changes to my technique so this recipe will be slightly different. This was actually my first time incorporating a variety of seafood (shrimp, squid, clams, mussels) into paella and I'm very pleased with how it turned out!
Active Time: 40 min
Total Time: 1 hr
Ingredients
> rice (ideally bomba or calasparra, but most short-grained rice is fine)
> shrimp, squid, littleneck clams, mussels
> onion, garlic
> parsley, lemon
> olive oil, white wine, chicken stock (or fish stock if you have it), tomato paste
> salt, pepper, paprika, cumin, saffron
Instructions
1. Heat chicken stock in a pot (you'd ideally want to use 3-4x the volume of the rice, depending on how much rice you use). Keep it on low heat; the purpose of this step is to simply bring it up to temperature.
2. Peel a couple of shrimp and add the shells to the chicken stock. If you have extra clams or mussels, also add them to the broth to infuse more seafood flavor into the broth.
3. Chop the calamari up into small pieces. Generously season the calamari and shrimp with salt and pepper.
4. Heat a large pan over medium-high heat with plenty of olive oil. Fry the calamari for a few minutes until mostly cooked. Remove and set aside. Then do the same with the shrimp.
4. Dice an onion. Add the onions to the pan and saute for around 5 minutes. Peel and finely chop a couple of cloves of garlic. Add it to the pan and continue to cook for a couple of minutes.
5. Add the rice to the pan and saute for a minute or two, ensuring that the rice is coated with the oil.
6. Add some white wine, stir, and cook until the alcohol disappears. Add the calamari back into the pan. Then add tomato paste, pepper, paprika, and a little bit of cumin. Mix.
7. Add the stock to the rice, and then add the saffron. Gently ensure that the rice forms an even layer in the pan.
8. Cook over medium-high heat for a while (maybe 10 minutes) until the stock is half absorbed into the rice. Arrange mussels, clams, and shrimp in the pan, pushing them in to ensure the clams and mussels are fully submerged.
9. Cook until the broth has almost entirely disappeared. At this point, we want to get the socarrat, or the crispy part at the bottom of the rice. Drizzle some more olive oil over the paella and turn the heat up to high. Cook for a few minutes.
10. Take the pan off the heat, cover, and let sit for 5-10 minutes.
11. Dust with a bit more paprika. Serve with some lemon and chopped parsley on the side. Enjoy!
Notes/Tips:
> Can't find saffron? Trader Joe's has a small container (0.7g) of saffron for $6, which should be more than enough for one portion. Saffron is the spice which really gives paella its characteristic yellow color and amazing taste.
> Putting the shrimp shells, along with extra mussels and clams, infuses much more seafood flavor into the stock. Feel free to also add a few leftover lemon rinds; just make sure to remove them before adding the stock to the rice.
> Be very generous with the amount of oil you add at the beginning. You're cooking a lot of ingredients!
> A good ratio of stock to rice is around 3:1; adjust accordingly.
> Towards the end, when there isn't much broth left, do not touch the rice. This will help develop the crispy bottom on the rice.
> Be careful about the amount of salt that you add, especially if your broth is salted. The clams/mussels also add a bit of extra liquid and salt into the broth.