I've revised the process, which I record here for my future reference.
Season chicken and fry in pan, set aside.
Fry capsicum and beans, set aside.
Fry one diced onion, and as much garlic as you like, briefly. Add three finely diced ripe tomatoes, some chilli flakes, and fry until liquid from tomatoes is reduced pretty much to a paste. Add salami or chorizo and fry a bit.
Add two cups of rice, two teaspoons of smoked paprika, and stir around a bit. Add one litre of chicken stock.
Add capsicum and beans back in.
Simmer for ten or fifteen minutes. Add chicken back in, push into the rice and liquid.
Fry prawns briefly in separate pan. (Update - no, I should have done them early on in the paella pan and put them aside.)
When most liquid absorbed in paella pan, throw prawns on top, cover in foiland put in hot oven for 15 or so minutes.
Check that rice is soft enough and rest on table for 10 mins. Take photo and eat.
Yes, no saffron means it is missing a key ingredient, but this is still good.
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ReplyDeleteYour paella photo is utterly spoiled by the dead, contorted prawns. Do you realise they were tigers, delightful in their pyjamas, that came from their rivers and seagrass nurseries west of Groote to migrate out to the 20f contour? Do you know what that takes? To end up contorted in death then dumped on top of your paella? They began their story long before 100,000 years back when the first humans followed their own contour lines from africa to the North, and still trace the first migration to the edge of the contour that shapes the gulf. They're beautiful. I was one of the first to catch them. Let them be. Not as contorted monuments to a paella dish. You're obviously proud of the recipe. I'm saddened.
ReplyDeleteIt's too saucy. Try again.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: yes, getting paella "drier" is quite a challenge, and the subject of much discussion on the internet. A bit problem is getting a heat source that is even enough across the wide cooking pan.
ReplyDeleteI am at least heartened to read that paella varies even in Spain, where apparently some restaurants serve a "wetter" version.
As for the Anonymous who is going on about the prawns: that is one of the strangest comments I have ever read.
ReplyDeleteAlso - I realised that this time I fried them in a separate pan, but really i should fry them earlier in the paella pan. Perhaps with the brief fry of the capsicum and beans.
The advantage of doing the tomatoes and onion and garlic after frying the main stuff a bit is that it takes up some of the stuff that was left sticking on the bottom of the pan.
Strange only because you and I work in different environments. I come from the n and work around Groote. The opinion I have intersects with extinction rebellion. I find happiness in the knowledge that when I started we were on the way to 350 boats in the gulf. Now there are 50. One has been built in the past 30 years. Clearly a dying industry. My opinion, for what it's worth, is that those of us who've done it now appreciate the environment, the unique migration of the prawns out from the mangroves along the gutters, diving in the mud for a week every month to grow new shell and continue their migration. It's a magnificent thing and deserves better than ending up as paella topping. We tried potting them, without success. But we tried. Because we recognised, felt, we had to change. The gulf will be ok. Your decision whether to cook them in one pan or another is trivial.
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