We have put together a simple paella pack so that you can get cooking and enjoy all the Spanish flavours at home without having to worry about putting yourself into quarantine for two weeks.
The most important ingredient is the paella rice that we get from Brindisa. After that, you have a choice between meat, seafood, or vegetarian (and you can have a mix of all of them). The traditional paella is from the Valencian region of Spain where paella means ‘frying pan’ and uses chicken and rabbit, with the option of snails. However, we won’t have much rabbit until September, and we don’t stock snails (but can source them if you want).
It’s a dish that would no doubt have used what was available at the time, and while Jamie Oliver drew a lot of flack for his non-traditional recipe that incorporates chorizo, it’s not unusual to have sausages, paprika and pepper in your paella.
Here’s a traditional recipe, but our pack includes chorizo as an option, and if you like that, then it’s worth following Jamie Oliver’s recipe.
Chicken & Roasted Red Pepper Paella (Serves 4)
- 400g diced Creedy Carver Chicken Meat
- 400g Spanish Paella Rice
- 125g Chopped Runner beans or French Beans
- 2 large ripe Isle of Wight tomatoes or a large tin of chopped tomatoes & 1/2 Medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 litre of chicken & vegetable Stock
- Pinch of Saffron
- 1/2tsp of Sweet Paprika
- 1 Romano Red pepper (sliced & roasted if possible) or a jar of Roasted Red peppers
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
- Sprig of Rosemary
- 1 lemon (cut into wedges for decoration)
- Heat a few tablespoons of the olive oil in the Paella Pan and brown the seasoned chicken pieces. Cook 200g sliced cooking chorizo if you like it!
Make up the stock and add a good pinch of the saffron stamens. Let them infuse for about 15 mins. Push the meat to the outside of the pan
- To make the “Sofrito”, one of the most important parts of the Paella, first sweat the onion in the Paella Pan until soft. Then add the chopped tomatoes and fry over a medium heat. Keep stirring. As the mixture reduces, it will start to thicken up to a darker red paste.
- Bring the meat back to the middle of the pan and mix thoroughly with the sofrito. Add the paprika & beans and about half of the peppers. Stir again and continue to fry for a few more minutes. Now add the stock to the paella pan to “deglaze” the pan and get all the cooking flavours off the bottom. Taste for seasoning. It needs to be quite well-salted, but if using stock cubes, then you will probably not need any extra salt. Bring to the boil and leave for several minutes for all the flavours to mix in with the stock.
- Now add the rice, mix around briefly and gently to try and even out the rice ensuring all the rice grains are under the surface of the liquid. DO NOT STIR the rice after this. After about 10 minutes the rice should start to appear through the liquid. Now turn down the heat and continue to gently simmer for about another 10 minutes until the rice starts to dry out. (If some rice starts to appear whilst other areas still have liquid you can carefully move some rice around the pan with the skimmer)
- Once most of the liquid has been absorbed, try the rice from under the top surface. It should be cooked “al dente” still with a slightly nutty taste. Cover the Paella pan with foil and turn up the heat for a minute or so. (You will hear the rice “pop” as it is caramelising on the bottom of the pan). This is called the “Socarrat” the most highly prized part of Paella. Covering the pan at this stage also helps finish off the cooking of the top layer of rice. Turn off the heat. Decorate with lemon wedges, the remaining red peppers and the sprig of rosemary.
Recover and leave for a good 10 minutes to rest. Serve directly from the pan remembering to scrape to the bottom to get the “socarrat”