I love this simple Paella dish I tried when I was in Malaga Spain and we had a cookery lesson on how to make authentic Paella full of delightful Spanish flavours and seafood!

So, convicted that it’s the best I had and still remember making notes on a table napkin and few odd pictures on my phone. This is definitely a recipe to please the crowds and feed the mass! Spanish Paella.

The recipe looks very stretched, but the groundwork is having your sea food selection sorted, a good stock and a wide-open pan to cook the rice

So why the name Paella? How to pronounce the name

Paella is a rice dish from Spain, originally from the Valencia region. Paella is named after the word “paella” which means “pan”!

Spices required to make the paella

A must a good quality smoked paprika, this makes all the difference and Saffron! We get the best in Spain and you get the best!

Special Rice

You can incorporate this dish even with short grain rice, but the best is Arborio rice which is a little different and quite fits the job to absorb the flavours that go in the stock. These little grains need that special trick to cook through that amount of liquid that goes into making this dish happen.

Always read the package instructions to cook the rice and liquid that is recommended to cook the rice.

Back in my culinary college we had a whole theory, story about cooking the rice and we were graded on how well we understood the concept of cooking rice and in various cuisines.

Like the burnt or toasted rice in the middle east, the pilaf in Iran, the Biriyani -Indian, the Thai jasmine rice, Chinese fried rice, North African bean rice, Portuguese tomato rice, coconut rice, tamarind rice, lemon rice, cauliflower rice

Stock

Chicken stock is the best

Learn how to make the stock from scratch in my nest blog on how to…

Sea food,

mussels

Clamps

Shrimps

Lobsters

Squid

Maybe some left over fish even…

Protein

Chorizo, anything goes with this, but I suggest you use a good quality smoked chorizo which has a bit of heat and colour and flavour

Like I mentioned there are so many variations and I have adapted this merely with what I have in my fridge and pantry. You can use ready-mades stock or make your own!

Spanish people love colours and flavour, so don’t be shy to us combinations that make your palette go dreamy!

Paella is always making with chicken or fish, so keeping this in mind this feast is truly a grand process!

I often find that finding the right dish with the right pot challenging, as there is so much of logic in having the appropriate dish for this as so many things go in to make this dish so flavoursome. I bought my Paella pan in Aldi on one of my shopping days and found this really handy as it was the right size for me to cook for my family. Amazon of course has all this now with a click of a button!

Ensure a good quality olive oil is used to fry this onion and chorizo, cooking on med heat with all the prep done is so handy as the only patience required is when you cook rice. The sea food cooks in no minutes. But ensuring you have the miso-on place to make it elective as to not to burn the spices or the rice or the meat!