Spanish Seafood Paella

Spanish paella recipe with simple step by step instructions including photographs. This seafood paella was made in a 42cm paella pan catering for 10 people.

Ingredients:

1kg Paella rice
2 Red peppers
2 Green peppers
4 Cloves of Garlic
2 Large onions
4 Plum tomatoes
Pinch saffron
2 Whole cuttlefish (cut into squares)
500g Fresh prawns
1kg Fresh mussels (pre steamed, shells open)
2 Litres good fish stock
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper

Prep the vegetables by cutting into small pieces, dice the garlic and fry together in the paella pan using a splash of olive oil. Cook until the onions become translucent.









Using a ladle add the rice counting each one as you go for this recipe we used 7 ladles (full 1kg bag)












Stir the rice into the vegetables and continue to cook until the rice begins to lose its colour.












Then add your stock, ladle in as with the rice, counting as you go. You need two ladles of stock for every one of rice, in this case 14. Turn up the heat and cook for 5 minutes. Add a pinch of saffron.











At this point the paella does not need to be stirred any more. Lower the heat and add the cuttlefish pieces, spread evenly over the paella.












Push the cuttlefish pieces down into the rice so that they are partially covered.
















Arrange the prawns over the top of the paella.

















Arrange your pre steamed mussels over the top of the prawns, leaving the shells on is optional.










At this stage cover the whole pan in tinfoil and leave the paella to cook for 10 minutes. (This method also cooks the prawns on top.)








Remove the foil and serve.












Paella tips:

Always keep some extra stock handy as you may need it, if you don't have any stock left don't be afraid to top up with water. The rice to stock ratio is a simple guideline - 2 ladles of stock to every 1 of rice. Some rice absorbs the liquid better than others.

A paella is very versatile dish so don't be afraid to add more of the main ingredient, in this case fish. Monkfish works well and needs little cooking so can be added at the end. Steamed clams are great alongside the mussels as are cockles. Swordfish is quite meaty so can be added with the cuttlefish/calamari.

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