Paella!!!

Seafood, Chicken and Chorizo Paella

Flank Steak with Harrisa

Beet Salad with Goat Cheese and Pecans

Ceasar Salad with Parmesan and Homemade Croutons

If someone asked me what my signature dish was, I would have to say Paella. It was the first dish my husband and I cooked together in college. He swooned me by cooking pheasant (that he shot and had in his freezer), rice pilaf and broccoli with hollandaise sauce, after a study session. Seeing that he liked food, I bought him a cookbook and it was in that cookbook, Julia Child and Company, that we found An American Paella in a Chinese-Style Electric Wok to cook and the rest is history.

Since then we have had years of consecutive Paella parties where we have woke up with with way too many people sleeping in our living room. Paella was the first dish we cooked at our christening dinner party in Barcelona, Paella was the main entrée for the Teacher’s Appreciation Luncheon and Paella was a station at my friend’s wedding. When I tell my family I am cooking paella, everyone comes home.

It was last summer that we cooked paella for my cooking partner’s 50^th birthday. She did not want to celebrate her birthday. I had to talk her into a party. All my suggestions of fun things to do fell on deaf ears. To me, a birthday is a REASON to celebrate, whether it is a luncheon, dinner cooked by loving friends or a dinner out. She loves to bike so I twisted her arm to a weekend party encompassing all of the above along with her favorite, a grinding bike ride. My partner in crime is an Iron Man triathlete and I ride with her and THAT is my claim to fame. Anyway, her 50^th turned from nothing, into a great, three day weekend of daytime outdoor adventures and nighttime kitchen fun.  You know, kind of like Woodstock.

The highlight of the weekend was us at my stove cooking two paellas side by side! I was famished after a 40 mile, difficult bike ride, so the dish we created tasted better than ever. My husband cooked flank steak with a harissa sauce and our friends helped make a Caesar and beet salad. Her birthday was a weekend to remember!

I have changed my paella a touch since I first made it, changed it enough to just perfect it! I hope you enjoy all the recipes!

Paella

All colors of wine goes with Paella. Just make sure it is not too strong of a red. We like Pinot Noir, a Rioja, a Napa Chardonnay, even a French Rose

Serves 8

8 chicken thighs
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound chorizo (Spanish cure), cut into ½ inch slices
1 cup onions, chopped
1 ½ cups peppers (I use a mix of red, orange and yellow
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup vermouth or dry white wine
4 cups chicken or shrimp broth (Swanson's is just fine but if you have some shrimp shells, a      nice, salted shrimp broth is lovely)
2 cups rice (if you can get Spanish rice, by all means use it but arborio rice will also work. Uncle Bens is fool proof.)
16 large shrimps, prepped, and seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper
6 large scallops, prepped and seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper
16 clams washed
Any other fish you want like squid, mussels, halibut, etc., just do a piece for everyone, do not crowd.
1 cup chopped, peeled and seeded, tomatoes
1 cup garbanzo beans
1 cup cooked or defrosted peas or green beans or a mixture of both

Heat the olive oil in a large paella pan over medium high heat and sear the chicken on both sides. Remove chicken and add chorizo; sear well on one side only, remove and add to chicken. In the fat from the chicken and chorizo, saute the onions two minutes or until soft, add the peppers, garlic and all the spices and cook until spices are aromatic, two more minutes. Add the wine and let it reduce for one more minute and add the chicken or shrimp broth; bring back to a boil. Add the chicken, cover with either a lid or piece of foil (if your paella pan is too big for a lid), reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes or until the chicken is almost done. Add chorizo. At this point you can let the mixture rest until you are ready. You could actually cook this recipe up until this point and refrigerate the mixture until you are ready.

From here on out, you have 20 minutes to a half an hour to finish the dish. I like to have my paella pan ready to go with all my accompaniments; rice, shrimp, clams, fish of your choice, tomatoes, garbanzo beans and peas or green beans. Bring your liquid back to a boil and add rice making sure all the rice has settled evenly on the bottom of your pan and not hanging out on top of the chicken, I shake the rice down into the broth. After that you want to stir the rice as little as possible, really not at all, to avoid making risotto and bringing out the starch. Open boil the rice until you see rice starting to float to the surface. This should take around 5 to 7 minutes. Add all of you fish, pushing them evenly down into the broth to cook. If you are cooking the clams and mussels in the paella, I place them hinge-side down, half way into the broth. (If you cook them separately, add a little of the wine in the pan to steam them and add them in at the end along with the broth, maybe the broth a little earlier, so it can absorb). Turn the heat down to low and strew on the tomatoes, and garbanzos and just a bit later, the green beans and peas. You are just heating up the garbanzos, green beans and peas. I then start playing with the fish, pulling out the fish that is cooked and placing in on top of the rice, on the side of the pan, like a warming tray. If it is getting to dry add more stock or wine, if it is too soupy, be thankful, the broth is WONDERFUL and in Spain many even ask for their paella "wet". Do not stir the rice though. If you feel the rice is not cooking properly for some reason, pop it into a 400 degree oven for a few minutes. Once the rice is al dente and the fish is cooked and vegetables hot, turn off the heat and cover the paella with a tea towel while you dress your salad. Serve directly from the paella pan with a Caesar salad with homemade croutons to soak up all the wonderful paella juices!!