Paella

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Originally uploaded by chuborupert

I have been practicing my paella making over the last several months. My main problem is that I tend to throw one together without much warning and subsequently don't have all the ingredients I would like to have at the time. For this paella, shrimp and tilapia make up the seafood, what it's missing is something (anything) green. some snap peas would have worked, maybe some roasted green peppers (actually I think I had some frozen but didn't think about it)
OK to start I peeled the shrimp and made a quick shrimp stock,
one onion
3-4 cloves of garlic
shrimp shells (I had a big bag of them frozen in the fridge)
I covered it all with plenty of water and set it on the burner.



At the same time I sauteed the shrimp and tilapia with garlic in the paella pan. I cooked it not quite through and set it aside.



I then grated a tomato (OK this sounds strange but it works great. You take a regular old tomato and grate it over a plate) This is sauteed with some garlic salt and pepper and then 1 tablespoon of pimenton is added. Sautee for a couple of seconds then the shrimp stock is added to the pan so as not to burn the pimenton.



The amount of stock added can be measured, but there is a trick with a standard paella pan. If you add liquid up to cover the screws that hold the handles in place (you can see the screws below, you want to just cover them with liquid)Then you can add a standard amount of rice (described below)



Once the liquid comes to a boil then you can add a single line (diameter of the pan) of rice down the middle till it reaches the top of the liquid. This is what I did and gives you the right amount of liquid to rice no matter the size of the pan.
The rice is then distributed throughout the pan.
When the rice becomes visible (as it absorbs water and water evaporates) then it is time to return the shrimp and fish to the pan.



You would also add the aformentioned greens at this time.
Several minutes later it's done



I tend to add too much fish or meat for the amount of rice in the pan, as traditionally this dish is about the rice not the other ingredients, but practice makes perfect.