Big Bend Florida Sportsman Guide

Paella

(Spanish Seafood Rice)

By Capt. Tato Reyes

Paella is the name given to almost any rice in Spain. Actually I don’t know of many rice dishes that are not called paella this or paella that. No doubt that Paella is one of the most famous rice dishes in the world.

In our family we enjoy Paella in a very simple way. These are the ingredients you will need. I will give them to you in the order that you will need them:

1. Extra Virgin Olive Oil and garlic
2. “The Meats” – chicken, pork, ham and chorizo
3. Safron, salt and pepper
4. “The Sofrito” --- diced green peppers, tomatoes and onions
5. Lima beans
6. Rice
7. “The Seafood” – squid, shrimp. Mussles, clams
8. Green Beans, Red Pimento, White Sparragus
9. Chicken Broth

 To cook paella you will need a “paellero” which is the traditional flat shallow pan.

It is good to have several sizes so you can prepare paella for a few a two people or as many as you want.

In this picture you can see a small sea food less paella for two next to a small Paella for six being cook in my kitchen top.

This medium size paellero will serve 12 people and is made out of Calphalon, a modern days paellero.

This bigger size “paellero” will serve over 80 people, and believe me, they grow even to larger sizes. 

We are going to start our Paella with extra virgin olive oil and some fresh garlic in our paellero, once the oil is seasoned we add the meats.

 
These are: ham, Chicken,Spanish sausage (chorizo), Ham and Pork

Cook your meats in the seasoned oil until brown.
The next set of ingredients are what we call “sofrito” which is diced onions, diced green pepper and diced tomatoes. I also like to ad at this point the Saffron

Another view of the meats browning and the added sofrito. I will cook this at medium heat for 5 to 10 minutes and then I start adding the seafood. From this point on it is quick adding of ingredients We are going to add the Lima Beans, the squid, the shrimps, the mussels and  clams

.

Lima beans and Pimentos                         Squid                             Shrimps

Clams                                                          Mussles

     Shrimps, Mussles, Clams & Squid

 At this point we add the rice and garnish with green peas and white esparragus and red pimentos.

The rice will be cooked within 20 minutes and I like to have plenty of stock at hand to keep it moist.

Buen Provecho!!!