There are times when you want to surprise your loved ones with something unusual and tasty. The ideal solution for a family dinner is paella. This delicious dish came to our table from the sunny Spanish province of Valencia. It was there that the first paella was prepared, which later became one of the calling cards of the national cuisine of Spain. To date, there are at least three hundred different ways to cook paella.
How to cook paella? Each Spanish province is ready to give an answer to this question. It adds fish, meat, poultry, various seafood, vegetables and legumes. In paella, you can mix any ingredients that your fantasy tells you. However, the most popular option is seafood paella.
Traditionally, Spaniards cook paella over an open fire, and at home they use a deep frying pan with two handles, a flat bottom and low sides called paella. The paella with seafood prepared in it turns out to be a very tasty and fragrant dish with an unusually mouth-watering appearance. However, if you don’t have special dishes, do not worry - you can use any pan with thick walls and a wide bottom to prepare paella.
Classic seafood paella consists of the following ingredients:
- long-grain rice - 300 g;
- saffron - 1 teaspoon;
- mussels - 300 g;
- shrimp - 300 g;
- tomatoes - 4 pcs;
- chicken broth - 375 ml;
- olive oil for frying;
- onions - 1 pc., garlic - 3 prongs;
- green frozen peas - 150 g;
- spices: pepper, salt at one’s own discretion.
Start cooking paella worth preparing seafood. Rinse the mussels and unpeeled shrimps thoroughly. Throw open shells. If you use frozen seafood for cooking, you should defrost them and drain the liquid. Fry seafood in a wide pan with olive oil over high heat for about two to three minutes. Take them out of the oil.
Then scald the tomatoes, peel them of seeds and peels and cut the flesh into small cubes.
Pour one teaspoon of saffron with four tablespoons of boiling water and let it brew for about 15-20 minutes.
In the same pan where seafood was fried, over a small fire, fry the onion head and three cloves of garlic until transparent.
Pour rice, simmer it for a couple of minutes along with onion and garlic, and then pour in saffron water and broth. The total amount of liquid per finger should exceed the level of rice. Note that stirring the rice should not be done after adding water.
Add finely chopped pulp of tomatoes, and after about ten minutes - green peas. The dish takes about 25-30 minutes. In the process of cooking, carefully monitor the rice - it should not boil or vice versa, remain undercooked and hard. Rice grains should be crumbly, and the paella itself should be completely dry.
When the rice has completely absorbed the water and the dish is ready, put the prepared seafood on top of the paella and decorate it with a slice of lemon and a sprig of greens.
The finished dish can be poured with Salsa sauce or sprinkled with white wine so that the paella with seafood acquires a delicious aroma. As a rule, paella is served on the table right in the pan, and then it is divided into portions.
This classic recipe can be supplemented with a variety of vegetables - beans, artichokes, red or green bell peppers. Seafood can be used not only with mussels and shrimps, but also with cuttlefish, squid and small seashells. Also, paella with seafood goes well with chicken.
Obviously, despite the long list of ingredients, it’s not difficult to cook paella with seafood on your own. Cook with love and you will succeed!