PAELLA

Many years ago when I first tasted Paella, I decided "never again".... It was smelly and soggy and horrible. I was in France doing my parachute course, I went to bed hungry that night. Just a couple of years ago I gave it another go in Spanish Tapas Bar in Putney, a friend convinced me, and I couldn't have enough of it. I decided to try it at home too and I always get a good results, I usually blend a recipes from books and friends and results is quite satisfying.

Ingredients

1 kg mussels

1 packet prawn (500 gr)
1 packet chicken thigh fillets

400 gr chorizo sausages

1 large pinch saffron threads

2 large onion preferably red

4 cloves of garlic crashed

1 tsp smoked paprika

3-4 tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and chopped

500gr paella rice (or a short grain)

about half a packet (200-250 gr) frozen peas

olive oil

approx. 1.5L chicken stock (or fish stock if you like)

Scrub mussels and remove beards, then fry the chicken first until they are browned, remove from the pan. Fry chorizo and drain on absorbent paper. Using the same oil in the pan fry onion and garlic until soft, add smoked pepper, safron and tomatoes, mix well, add rice and stir, put chicken, chorizo and most of the stock to the pan, stir to combined everything and simmer 15-20 min until rice nearly cooked, tender. (If its getting dry you can add more stock, you will find your way to how much stock to add, depends which rice you are using )Sprinkle peas, and prawns and mussels evenly on the surface and cover with large foil and simmer until mussels are opened and peas and prawns are cooked. (5 to 10 min) Discard any mussel that is not opened. Ready to serve :)) This recipe requires some time to stand in the kitchen but is definitely well worth it...