Staff Reporter
There are many traditional dishes in Spanish cuisine, but paella is the most popular. There are more than 300 recipes for the dish, but whatever they are, the invariable ingredients remain rice and saffron. The Spaniards prepare a paella in a special frying pan. It is made of thick metal, has impressive dimensions, low sides and a wide flat bottom. This allows them to place all the ingredients in it in one layer, where the water evaporates evenly and quickly, preventing the rice from transforming into a porridge. However, this dish can be successfully made with the help of any ordinary pan, in multicooker or in any of the rotisserie ovens.
In each province of Spain paella has individual characteristics. Usually available to residents products such as chicken, rabbit, seafood, fish, green beans and tomatoes are used. There is nothing complicated in the preparation, so everyone can make a paella at home.
Paella with Seafood
You will need:
- 400 gr. round-grained rice;
- 2 large onions;
- 2 tomatoes;
- olive oil;
- 0.5 kg of mussels in shells;
- 8 large shrimps;
- 250 gr. rings of squid;
- 4 medium segments of garlic;
- 2 sweet peppers;
- 1 carrot;
- a bunch of parsley;
- a saffron, bay leaf, salt.
Peel onion, garlic, and carrots. Remove the head, shell and intestinal vein from the shrimp. Separate the leaves from parsley. Fold the shells and heads of the shrimp in a saucepan, pour water and wait for the boil. Put the carrots, 2 cloves of garlic, onions, bay leaves, parsley stems, and salt. Cook for 30 minutes, and strain the resulting broth.
Peel off the peel, and then grind the tomatoes. Remove the pith from the core and cut them into thin strips. Combine 2 slices of garlic with parsley and mash into a gruel. Drain the saffron with a little water.
In a large frying pan, heat the oil and put the mussels in it, wait until they are opened and put into any suitable container. Place the peeled shrimps, soak them for 3 minutes, remove and transfer them to the mussels.
Put tomatoes, mashed garlic, squid in a frying pan and fry them for 4 minutes. Add the rice, stirring, cook it for 6 minutes, put pepper to it and cook the mixture for 4 more minutes. Pour broth, saffron, salt in a frying pan put mussels and shrimps and cook until the rice is soft.
Paella with Chicken
You will need:
- 500 gr. chicken meat;
- 250 gr. round rice or “arabio”;
- 250 gr. green peas;
- 1 onion medium size;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- 4 tomatoes or 70 gr. tomato paste;
- 2 sweet peppers;
- pinch of saffron;
- 0.25 liters of meat broth;
- pepper and salt;
- olive oil.
Rinse and chop the chicken. Fry until golden brown. In another large frying pan with a thick bottom, fry the diced onions and garlic in olive oil. When the onion becomes transparent, add the pepper and fry the vegetables for a few minutes. Pour rice into the frying pan and add a little oil and, stirring, let it stand on low heat for 3-5 minutes.
To the rice, put fried chicken, saffron, tomato paste, salt, peas, and broth, mix everything. When the mixture boils, cook it on low heat for 20-25 minutes, during which time the liquid should evaporate, and the rice becomes soft. When paella with chicken is cooked, cover with a lidded pan and let it brew for 5-10 minutes.
Paella with Vegetables
You will need:
- 1 cup of long-grain rice;
- 2 sweet peppers;
- 1 onion medium size;
- 4 tomatoes;
- 3 medium cloves of garlic;
- pinch of saffron;
- 150 gr of fresh green beans;
- 700 ml of chicken broth;
- pepper and salt.
Start cooking paella with the preparation of vegetables. Wash them, peel the onions and garlic, remove the peel from the tomatoes, the tails from the beans, and the core from the peppers. Slice the garlic with thin plates, cut the onions into half rings, cut the peppers into strips, cut the tomatoes into cubes, cut the beans into pieces 2 cm long. Fry onion, pepper, and garlic for about 4 minutes in a frying pan with hot oil. Put the rice and saffron, stirring, fry them for 3 minutes over a large fire. Add broth and tomatoes, bring the mixture to a boil and simmer 1/4 hours on low heat. Put the beans, pepper, and salt, soak the paella with vegetables on a small fire for about 10 minutes.
