Seafood Paella
Festive occasions often call for a big statement, and this seafood paella recipe ticks all the boxes: a saffron-infused, colourful rice dish loaded with mussels, squid, pippies and prawns, along with smokey chorizo. The Screaming Seeds Spice Co. Paella Blend has been especially made to produce loads of flavour. You won’t need much else to serve alongside it, except perhaps some some crusty bread and/or a green salad.
The origins of paella are ancient, rooted in the area around Valencia, Spain near the Albufera Lagoon, where both fishing and rice growing dominated the region for centuries. It was the food of farm workers who cooked dishes of rice over wood fires, enhanced with whatever local ingredients they could find.
Paella is named for the wide, shallow pan in which it is cooked. The word ‘paella’ is from a Valencian dialect meaning ‘pan’, most-likely derived from the Latin word ‘patella’ for pan.
Ingredients
1 cup olive oil
3 cloves garlic (chopped) and 2 red chillies (chopped)
1 tsp of anchovies (optional)
1 or 2 squid tubes cut into 2cm squares or 1cm rings
500g washed mussels
500g peeled green prawns
250g washed pippies (if available)
650g boned chicken thighs, cut into large chunks
200g smoked pork belly (kaiser flesch from your deli), diced
200g sliced chorizo
1 spanish onion, chopped
1 red capsicum, sliced into strips
1 small packet of dried peas (avoid frozen or canned)
500g paella, arborio or basmati rice
2 tsp Screaming Seeds Paella Perfection (or to taste)
1L chicken or vegetable stock
150ml dry white wine (or other liquid (ie. water) as required)
2 lemons, cut into wedges
Chopped parsley
Method
- Method Stir oil, garlic, chillies and anchovies in hot wok for 30 seconds.
- Add the mussels and cook for two minutes (or until opened).
- Add squid, prawns, and pippies until the prawns are ‘just’ pink. Remove from the pan – set aside leaving juices in pan.
- Add chicken, pork, and chorizo and cook for two minutes. Add onion, capsicum and peas, stirring.
- Add rice and Screaming Seeds Paella Perfection and stir well.
- Turn oven on to 200 degrees.
- Add stock and wine and cook stirring like a risotto for 12 minutes.
- Take off stove and with flair, arrange the seafood on to pan.
- Place in oven for about 10 more minutes or until rice is cooked.
- Remove, sprinkle with parsley and serve with lemon wedges.
Utensils
Cook in either a wok, a traditional paella pan or a large frypan that is oven friendly.
Ideally serve with
Crusty bread and a tossed salad, a cool-climate Pinot Noir (Bellarine or Mornington Peninsula), or even a more traditional Rosé-style wine or Sparkling Shiraz.
