Issue 032

December 2007

Ingredients 

1 cup Long grain rice

A pinch Saffron

1 each Diced Chicken or Turkey breast

½ Onion (diced large)

1 each Red pepper (diced large)

10 Cherry tomatoes

1 bulb Fresh garlic finely sliced

1 each Fresh red chilli finely sliced

100gm Frozen or fresh seafood mix (defrosted if frozen beforehand)

A pinch Dried crushed chilli

A pinch Paprika

40gm Chorizo sausage (optional)

¼ Lemon

Method 

Paella makes a great lunch, it is packed with carbs and proteins and has loads of flavour. To start this off you want to put the rice in a pan and cover it with 2 cups of water to cook – add the saffron into this pan along with a pinch of salt, cook on a medium heat.

At the same time place a large pan on the stove and add olive oil, sauté the chicken or turkey breast, add the paprika and crushed chillis to this, but only cook the meat half way through and set it aside. Remove the meat from the pan and place in a bowl. It will cook through with its residual heat whilst we finish the rest of the dish.  

In the same pan add some more olive oil, once it is hot cook the onion until soft. Once softened add the diced pepper. At this point your rice should be cooked, if so remove from the heat and add the chicken to the top of it, when the peppers and onions are soft add this to the rice too. Again back to the pan, add some more olive oil – don’t be afraid it’s a ‘good’ fat! 

When this is hot for the last time, you can add the chorizo if you are using it, sauté this for one minute then add the fresh garlic and chilli, the pan should be hot so stir this constantly, only cook this for a further minute and then add the seafood mix into this. Warm through for another minute and add the rice and meat back into this pan. Season with salt and serve with a chunk of lemon to squeeze on top. 

Extra Notes 

There apear to be a lot of processes to this dish but this is how to get the most flavour out of the dish – everything needs to be caramelised or softened individually. This version of the popular recipe is already trimmed down for convenience.