My husband and I always order paella when we go to tapas restaurants. This year I wanted to try to make one at home. On New Year’s Eve, we stopped at Sur La Table and bought a paella pan ($19.99). I have never made paella so I went online and read over several recipes made both with and without a paella pan. I picked the ingredients we liked and went shopping. The challenge came in figuring out the preparation and cooking time because we did not use the same ingredients from any one recipe. So I winged it. And guess what? It turned out great!!!
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of olive oil
3 cups of chicken stock
1 box (12oz. package) of Valencia rice (I used Goya Brand)
1 onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 lbs. sausage*
1 1bs. raw shrimp
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tomatoes, chopped in chunky pieces
2 tsp dried Rosemary
1 tbsp. paprika
Notes: I bought a bag of frozen peas, but there was no room left in the pan! Next time, I might add asparagus in place of one of the peppers.
*We used smoked sausage, but next time I think we will try a jalapeno sausage or Spanish Chorizo to give the dish a little more kick.
Preparation:
It is important to have everything cut and ready to go before you get started. I just put them in containers and stacked them up in the fridge. Defrost shrimp if frozen by running under cold water.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Cook sausage separately in a frying pan so you can drain any grease. Put aside.
Place paella pan on stove over two burners. Add peppers, onions and garlic to pan and sauté 3 to 5 mins until soft.
Remove pan from heat and stir in package of rice until it is mixed in evenly.
Stir in tomatoes, sausage and broth and return pan to heat on simmer for 15 minutes.
Add shrimp, rosemary, paprika and salt to taste
Transfer pan to oven – uncovered. (I put the pan on a cookie sheet in case it overflowed.) Cook 15 minutes until almost all the liquid is absorbed but rice is still al dente.
Remove from oven and cover with foil so it can finish cooking – 5 to 10 minutes.
Serves four (or two very hungry people with leftovers for lunch the next day).