It's been a while since I cooked something special, something not usually within my comfort food menu.
Since this was meant to be a "do nothing much" weekend, I decided to cook one of my favourite foods - Spanish Paella.
Staying with Rebecca the big foodie helps. She cooks so much and has a collection of very thick and expensive looking cookbooks, all worthy to be coffee table books. Mention anything to her and she will whip out the recipe or even recipes almost immediately. Needless to say, she has put to use her love for cooking very well - by serving in the Green Room serving food to the pastors and speakers at church every Sunday.
So I was pondering over the idea of paella and she showed me a couple. The one which caught my eye was Jamie Oliver's Favourite Paella Recipe.
Right on then, this shall be dinner for Saturday night!
Due to the serving size, I had to split the food up into two pans.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/seafood-recipes/my-favourite-paella
He has a really long list of ingredients and I have omitted out some, and below were what I used.
• 2 raw chorizo sausages (approximately 150g in total), thickly sliced
• 1 green pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 1 red pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
• a small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped, stalks finely chopped
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 500g clams or mussels, scrubbed clean and debearded (I bought ready cooked mussels in white wine sauce)
• 300g paella rice
• 1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock, preferably organic
• 12 large prawns
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges
• Lastly I added in a sprig of white wine to bring out more flavour (as if it weren't enough!)
Heat a large wide-based pan over a medium heat and add a lug of olive oil, the sliced chorizo and the pork belly. Fry for around 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. As soon as the chorizo starts taking on colour and the fat is beginning to cook out of it, add the chopped peppers, garlic, onion and parsley stalks along with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Fry gently for another 10 minutes, or until the vegetables have begun to soften. Meanwhile pick through the shellfish and get
rid of any clams or mussels that aren't tightly closed.
Add the rice and keep stirring for a few minutes until the rice is coated in all the lovely flavours, then pour in the tinned tomatoes and 800ml of stock, seasoning again with salt and pepper. Bring everything to the boil, then turn down to a medium to low heat and stir constantly for about 15 minutes. This combination of flavours will be absolutely beautiful, but you’ve got to help the dish along by doing your job and making sure each grain of rice gets the same amount of love. So every now and then, stir from the outside of the pan into the middle so you get a sort of pile of rice in the centre, making sure nothing is sticking to the bottom. Flatten the pile out with your spoon, then start the whole process again.
After 15 minutes the rice should be cooked, but still have a bit of a bite, so add the mussels or clams and the prawns. You may want to add an extra splash of stock here if the rice looks a bit dry. Keep stirring, and as the clams and mussels start to open and the prawns begin to turn pink; cook for a further 5 minutes or so. Discard any clams or mussels that don't open. Add in a sprig of white wine. Stir in the chopped parsley leaves and the juice from half your lemon wedges, and bring to the table with the remaining lemon wedges on the side.
To me, the chorizo sausages made the difference by giving it the wonderful aroma and colour. Definitely will try to cook more with chorizo sausages from now on. Rebecca and K enjoyed it and saying it's bursting with flavour. With a glass of white wine to go with, it was a good dinner indeed.
Since this was meant to be a "do nothing much" weekend, I decided to cook one of my favourite foods - Spanish Paella.
Staying with Rebecca the big foodie helps. She cooks so much and has a collection of very thick and expensive looking cookbooks, all worthy to be coffee table books. Mention anything to her and she will whip out the recipe or even recipes almost immediately. Needless to say, she has put to use her love for cooking very well - by serving in the Green Room serving food to the pastors and speakers at church every Sunday.
So I was pondering over the idea of paella and she showed me a couple. The one which caught my eye was Jamie Oliver's Favourite Paella Recipe.
Right on then, this shall be dinner for Saturday night!
 |
| The chef all ready to start with two pans |
 |
| Cooking the rice and adding in chicken stock |
 |
| And it's done! Full of flavour, yums! |
He has a really long list of ingredients and I have omitted out some, and below were what I used.
Jamie Oliver's Favourite Paella Recipe
Serves 4-6ingredients
• olive oil• 2 raw chorizo sausages (approximately 150g in total), thickly sliced
• 1 green pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 1 red pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
• a small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped, stalks finely chopped
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 500g clams or mussels, scrubbed clean and debearded (I bought ready cooked mussels in white wine sauce)
• 300g paella rice
• 1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock, preferably organic
• 12 large prawns
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges
• Lastly I added in a sprig of white wine to bring out more flavour (as if it weren't enough!)
Heat a large wide-based pan over a medium heat and add a lug of olive oil, the sliced chorizo and the pork belly. Fry for around 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. As soon as the chorizo starts taking on colour and the fat is beginning to cook out of it, add the chopped peppers, garlic, onion and parsley stalks along with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Fry gently for another 10 minutes, or until the vegetables have begun to soften. Meanwhile pick through the shellfish and get
rid of any clams or mussels that aren't tightly closed.
Add the rice and keep stirring for a few minutes until the rice is coated in all the lovely flavours, then pour in the tinned tomatoes and 800ml of stock, seasoning again with salt and pepper. Bring everything to the boil, then turn down to a medium to low heat and stir constantly for about 15 minutes. This combination of flavours will be absolutely beautiful, but you’ve got to help the dish along by doing your job and making sure each grain of rice gets the same amount of love. So every now and then, stir from the outside of the pan into the middle so you get a sort of pile of rice in the centre, making sure nothing is sticking to the bottom. Flatten the pile out with your spoon, then start the whole process again.
After 15 minutes the rice should be cooked, but still have a bit of a bite, so add the mussels or clams and the prawns. You may want to add an extra splash of stock here if the rice looks a bit dry. Keep stirring, and as the clams and mussels start to open and the prawns begin to turn pink; cook for a further 5 minutes or so. Discard any clams or mussels that don't open. Add in a sprig of white wine. Stir in the chopped parsley leaves and the juice from half your lemon wedges, and bring to the table with the remaining lemon wedges on the side.
To me, the chorizo sausages made the difference by giving it the wonderful aroma and colour. Definitely will try to cook more with chorizo sausages from now on. Rebecca and K enjoyed it and saying it's bursting with flavour. With a glass of white wine to go with, it was a good dinner indeed.
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