Spicy Andalusian Seafood Paella

Spicy Andalusian Seafood Paella

I can’t say that I’m a BIG fan of Spanish food, but I do like Spanish food; I can’t say that I’m a BIG fan of seafood paella, but I do like seafood paella. When you go to an authentic Spanish restaurant, you mush not miss one of its famous dishes – seafood paella, if you like seafood and rice.

Couple weeks ago, I was craving for some seafood and rice dish, so I went online and tried to find some recipe of paella. However, I found Creole jambalaya. It’s kinda similar to paella, so I made jambalaya instead. It wasn’t a big of a success. It was tasty, but the rice wasn’t fully cooked through probably because of the kind of rice that I used, or the pot that I used. I wasn’t sure. Regardless, it was still pretty tasty.

This week, we had guest coming for dinner, and I heard that he likes to eat seafood paella, so I made that. This time, I made sure that I had all the right ingredients and tools that I needed for the paella, so then I wouldn’t be embarrassed by the uncooked rice again! Plus, thanks to my colleague for the expensive saffron that he gave me for free! 🙂 The whole thing came out perfectly yummy!! But, I gotta say, I hate making seafood dishes, especially with shrimps and clams! Every time I made shrimps and clams, I gotta spend a lot of time and energy to clean them. I gotta make sure that I clean out the shrimps; I gotta make sure that I brush the clams and make them spit out the sand. Gosh, too much work! Oh well, as long as the dish tastes good, I guess everything that I’ve done to make that happen is worthy.

Ingredients:

1. 1 tomato, diced

2. 1/2 cup of white wine

3. 1 yellow onion, chopped

4. 12 black mussels, cleaned

5. 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil

6. 1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped

7. 2 Italian sausage, cooked ahead and sliced

8. 2 roasted peppers, chopped

9. 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

10. 1 cup of paella rice

11. 1/2 teaspoon of saffron threads

12. 2 cups of chicken stock, heated

13. 12 extra large shrimps, cleaned and unpealed

14. 12 little neck clams, cleaned

15. 1 handful of parsley, chopped

16. 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice

17. 1/2 teaspoon of salt

18. 1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper

Directions:

1. Heat wine and onions in a saucepan over high heat. Add mussels, cover and cook for 5 minutes

2. Remove from heat, discard any unopened mussels, and drain, reserving the liquid to use later.

3. Heat oil in a large paella pan, if you have one. I used a regular medium size skillet and it worked fine too. Add extra onion, sausage and cook for 5 minutes or until softened.

4. Add chopped tomatoes, roasted peppers, cayenne. Season with salt and ground pepper.

5. Stir in the reserved liquid, then add rice and stir again. Blend saffron with the chicken stock and stir into the rice. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes without stirring.

6. Put shrimps, clams on top of the rice. Push them into the rice, cover and cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Add mussels and lemon juice for the last 5 minutes to heat through. If rice is not cooked, add extra chicken stock and for a few more minutes.

7. Leave to rest for 5 minutes, then add parsley before serving.