Seafood Paella

Paella (pronounce as pai.ei.uh) Easy one-pot-meal, the famous Spanish rice cuisine.

Yummy flavored rice, loaded with my favourite seafood. Love the tomato taste in the rice that has absorbed all the natural sweetness from the seafood.

While the traditional paella method is to cook in a big paella pan, I use my normal non-stick 24cm pan which worked just as great.

Paella uses Spanish bomba rice, a medium-grained rice that absorbs liquid well but maintain some firmness when it cooks. Since it is hard to find and pricey, I substitute with Calrose rice (Japanese sushi rice) or any short-grained rice.

Saffron is a key ingredients in cooking paella. It is an expensive spice, which are actually dried stigma of crocus flowers, orangey to red color. When steep in water, will release the natural colouring that adds an earthy and floral flavor to the paella.

I choose shrimp, mussels and squids for this seafood version of paella. You can also use short-necked clams, scallops, etc. Seafood portion is basically up to your own preferences.

For anchovies broth, I'm using the Anchovies stock cube. Divide a cube into 3 small pieces, add only 1/3 piece to 200ml plain water. Stir to dilute. This is my lazy and instant soup stock when I'm in a rush. As this is slightly salty, you might need to reduce/adjust the salt that you are going to add in.

Ingredients : (serves 2)

100g Calrose Rice - rinsed

3 pcs Squid (small size) - cleaned & cut into rings

7 pcs Shrimp (peeled and deveined)

10 pcs Mussels (debearded and cleaned)

1 clove Garlic - finely minced

1 pc Shallot - finely minced

1 tbsp Frozen Peas

4 tbsp Tomato puree

1/4 tsp Paprika powder

1/2 tsp Saffron + 20ml Hot Water

3 tbsp Olive oil

1/4 tsp Sugar

1/4 tsp Salt / to taste

Dash of black pepper

Dash of Dried Parsley Flakes / chopped Fresh Parsley

230ml Anchovies Stock

Step by Step:

1. Steep the saffron with some hot water for at least 15 mins. Strained & set aside.

2. Heat up pan with 1 tbsp olive oil. Once oil gets hot, season with a pinch of salt. Add the squid rings and prawns into the pan, toss for about 1-2 mins, remove and set aside. This is to let the seafood infuse the oil flavor and prevent it to release too much moisture later on.

3. Using the same pan, add in 2 tbsp olive oil, saute minced garlic and shallot till slightly golden.

4. Then add tomato puree, paprika powder, salt, sugar, black pepper and cook for about 1-2 mins.

5. Combine saffron extract and top up with anchovies broth to make a total of 250ml liquid. Add all liquid and stir to mix. Bring to a boil. Check the broth taste, it should be slightly salty as we are going to mix in the rice. Add more salt if preferred.

6. Add washed rice into the broth, gently stirring to gently distribute the rice all around the pan. Let it cook for 5 mins on medium low heat.

(If you preferred a charred burnt crispy rice at the bottom of the pan, you shouldn't stir the rice. But for me, I don't like it, so I stirred them occasionally.)

7. After 5 mins, arrange the shrimp, mussels and squid rings, peas, cook for another 5 mins. Do not stir the rice at this point. Cook for another 5 mins on medium low heat.

8. After cooking for 10 mins, with very little broth left, turn back the heat to high for 1 min, to further dries up the broth and make the burnt rice at the bottom of the pan. Then turn off the heat, cover the pan with lid and let it rest for 7-10 mins for the rice to fully cooked.

9. Now it's ready. Garnish with freshly chopped parsley / dried parsley. Serve hot.

Happy Cooking.