Seafood Paella

I have never been to Spain so I am not quite sure where my love for paella comes from. It’s pretty much flavorful rice with an assortment of meat and seafood in one dish, what is there not to love? The standard that I set for myself to determine if I am a good cook is the ability to successfully make paella.

My attempted at making paella in the past has always resulted in under cooked rice with a burnt bottom. I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. Thankfully, for my birthday a few years ago, I received a gift certificate to Hot Stove Society from my best friend and one of the classes offered was paella making! My BFF’s husband and another friend of mine came along with me to learn how to properly make the dish.

The biggest take away from that class was patience, it takes a good 45 minutes of adding stock for the rice to cook through. A good paella pan is also a MUST! In order to get that soccorat (slightly crusty flavor enhanced caramelized layer of crunchy rice) at the bottom of the pan without burning it. I am the worst at leaving things alone to do it’s thing, I am constantly stirring/touching it. Just let that beautiful crust develop. Finishing the paella in the oven allows the rice to dry out a little and is not too soggy, also allows the meat add-ins to cook thoroughly. In this post, I am going to show you my variation of Seafood Paella.

Ingredients

6 cups chicken stock

1/4 tsp saffron threads

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup yellow onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 tsp Pimenton

2 1/4 cup Bomba rice

6 large head-on shrimps

1 lb mussels, scrubbed

1/2 lb baby squid

1/4 cup roasted bell peppers, strips

1 cup Lima beans

Parsley, chopped

Lemon, thinly sliced

First thing to do, heat up the chicken stock in a medium saucepan and maintain a low simmer. In the mean while, on medium-high, heat up a paella pan (the ones with the dimples work best at distributing the heat) or heavy-bottomed cast iron pan with olive oil. Saute onion for about 5 minutes until soften. Add garlic, pimenton, and saffron threads for another 1-2 minutes. Toasting the spices in the oil helps release their flavors. Add in the rice, stir until evenly coated in the oil, and spread around pan evenly. Turn down the temperature to medium-low.

The next step requires a lot of patience, slowly ladle the chicken stock over the rice until just covered. Stir, stir, stir to make sure the rice cooks evenly. Keep adding more chicken stock when liquid has absorbed or evaporated, repeat. Reserve about 1 cup of chicken stock. This process should take about 35-40 minutes, I test the rice to see if it’s to my al dente preference. Then stop stirring and let the bottom of the rice get crispy for another 10 minutes and become that beautiful soccorat.

I gently incorporate the lima beans throughout at this point and nest in the proteins—for my seafood version I like using head-on shrimps, mussels (fresh, whole if I could find it or I use frozen on the half shell), and baby squid. Other additional or alternative protein options would be fine. I don’t like overcrowding my pan for aesthetics. I toss all my seafood with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon ahead of time. I do like jarred roasted bell peppers so I scatter some around the top as well. Once you have in all the add-in, add the remainder chicken stock and tent the pan with some aluminium foil. It will go into a 350 degree oven for another 15 minutes to finish cooking.

At this point, there should be no more liquid and the rice is fluffy, proteins cooked through. Garnish the dish with parsley and sliced lemon if desired.