Paella - Easy to make and tastes GREAT!
KateGood afternoon everyone!
Last weekend I went back home to see my family and catch up on all things English…after 3 years in Spain I sometimes start to forget what my country looks like! On the plane home, I began imagining all the wonderful English treats I was going to gorge myself with once in my homeland!
So, you can imagine my complete astonishment when I arrived home to find that my mum had made an enormous Paella for us for dinner!!! To make me feel ‘at home’… I have to admit, though, that it was absoultely DELICIOUS! It appears that mum had got the recipe from a friend of a friend of a friend who’s aunty is Spanish…and well it really was very tasty and totally authentic.
She has kindly passed the recipe on to me, so if you feel like having a go at making this very typical Spanish dish yourselves, read on for a great recipe - my mum assures me that it is very easy :)
Ingredients (serves 6)
1/3tbsp olive oil 1onion, chopped 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
3-5 tbsps minced fresh parsley
1 large pinch of saffron
2 tbsps of chicken stock
3 skinless chicken breasts, cut into large chunks
2 green peppers and 1 red pepper, sliced
1 tsp of yellow food colouring
8 oz tomato sauce
1 tsp sugar
4 cups of rice
7 cups of water
Salt
1/2 lb - 1 lb shrimps (leave shells on)
1 lb scallops
Instructions:
1. Fry the onion, parsley, and garlic in olive oil for 5 minutes in a very large frying pan.
2. Add the saffron, chicken stock, chicken and peppers and fry until the chicken is white.
3. Add the tomato sauce, sugar and yellow food colouring. Stir it all together.
4. Add the rice & water and bring to boil. Season to taste.
5. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Add the shrimps & scallops and boil an additional 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
7. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the rice gets too dry during the last 10 minutes, add more water. If the rice is too wet at the end of the 10 minutes, uncover and evaporate.
8. It’s ready! Put the fryingpan in the middle of the table and let everyone help themselves in true Spanish style. Is great accompanied with a nice cold Sangria!
I hope you enjoy this as much as we did!
Kate X
September 27th, 2007 at 9:50 am
And I always thuoght the colour of paella was natural. Do you have any idea what they used to turn the food yellow before food colouring was invented? What would it look like without? Just white? And did they really think yellow would look more appealling? The Spanish are weird. Nice, but weird.
September 27th, 2007 at 10:41 am
Hi Katherine!
Yes, it is a bit odd isn’t it?!! But, well, I think it looks pretty yellow and there’s a lot to be said for food that looks good…would seem a bit anaemic if it were white I reckon…;)
August 13th, 2008 at 11:59 am
i have been getting the spanish-travel-itch, and i think this just made it worse!
have u seen the newest Matt Tebbutt in Barcelona? http://uktv.co.uk/food/stepbystep/aid/604328
October 29th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
WE love this paella!!!! We have to make it 4 a school wide project and we are just thanking you because this is the best one YET!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Craigmont M.
October 29th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
We are currently doing a project on spanish dishes and we jus happened to chose the paella!! Not only did it taste great it also gave us an A!!! thnx for all the information
October 30th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Thank you Amanda, Des, Shenequa and Kayla!
I am glad to hear that this recipe was so useful for you!
If you did a project on paella, you probably know by now that each one has its own version of paella. That’s another of the good things about it! you can make fishy, with meat, a mix of both, vegetable…
As regards the first comment from KAtherine, actually we normally use ‘natural’ colouring: saffron. If you don’t have it then you can use the yellow food colouring, but the traditional way is to colour with saffron.
Thanks again to all of you, enjoy your paella!