Chicken & Chorizo Paella

Ingredients: About 800g Chicken Meat (Leg, Thigh or Breast meat diced into bite-size pieces - keep the skin & bone on for extra flavour) 800g Spanish Paella Rice 200g diced cooking chorizo 250g Chopped  green beans 3-4 medium, ripe tomatoes or a large tin of chopped tomatoes or (3-4 tablespoon of Tomato Frito) About 1.8 litres of boiling chicken & vegetable Stock ( 2.5l for Bomba Rice) Pinch of Saffron 1 tsp of Sweet Paprika (Pimenton Dulce) 1 Red pepper (sliced & roasted if possible) or  a jar of Roasted Red peppers Extra virgin olive oil 1 Medium onion, finely chopped Salt Sprig of Rosemary 1 lemon (cut into wedges for decoration)
Method
Heat a few tablespoons of the olive oil in the Paella Pan and part cook the chicken pieces, sprinkled with salt,  until browned. (longer if they contain bones).  This is a good time to also fry the chorizo, as the oil and paprika flavours mix with the chicken. Make up the stock and add a good pinch of the saffron stamens. Let them infuse for about 15 mins. Push the meat to the outside of the pan
To make the "Sofrito", one of the most important parts of the Paella, first sweat the onion in the Paella Pan until soft. Then add the chopped tomatoes and fry over a medium heat. Keep stirring. As the mixture reduces, it will start to thicken up to a thick dark paste. When it is this dark red paste you have the perfect sofrito ! If you don't want to do this - try using a few tablespoons of our Natural Tomato Frito
Bring the meat back to the middle of the pan and mix thoroughly  with the sofrito. Add the paprika and about half of the peppers. Mix around again and continue fry for few more minutes. Now add the hot stock to the paella pan to "deglaze" the pan and get all the cooking flavours off the bottom. Taste for seasoning. It needs to be quite well salted, but if using stock cubes, then you will probably not need any extra salt. Mix around in the pan. Then add the beans and bring to the boil and leave for several minutes for all the flavours to mix in with the stock.
Now add the rice, mix around briefly and gently to try and even out the rice ensuring all the rice grains are under the surface of the liquid. DO NOT STIRthe rice after this. After about 10 minutes the rice should start to appear though the liquid. Now turn down the heat and continue to simmer for about another 10 minutes until the rice starts to dry out. (If some rice starts to appear whilst other areas still have liquid you can carefully move some rice around the pan with the skimmer)
Once most of the liquid has been absorbed, try the rice from under the top surface. It should be cooked "al dente" still with a slight nutty taste. Now cover the Paella pan with foil and turn up the heat for a minute or so. (You will hear the rice "pop" as it is caramelising on the bottom of the pan). This is called the "Socarrat" the most highly prized part of Paella. Covering the pan at this stage also helps finish off the cooking of the top layer of rice. Turn off the heat. Decorate with lemon wedges, the remaining red peppers and the sprig of rosemary. Recover and leave for a good 10 minutes to rest. Serve directly from the pan remembering to scrape to the bottom to get the "socarrat"

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EASY SEAFOOD PAELLA

• Ingredients:
  2 tbsp (30ml) olive oil
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp (15ml) NoMU Spanish Rub
• 1 chorizo sausage, thinly sliced
• 1 cup (250ml) Arborio rice (risotto rice)
• ¼ cup (60ml) dry white wine
• a pinch of saffron
• 1L (4 cups) good quality chicken stock
• A mixture of seafood. I used 8 prawns, 200g de-veined and sliced calamari,  300g cubed kingklip (or any other white fish) and  12 cleaned black mussels.
• ½ cup (125ml) peas
• 100g black olives, pitted
• 15ml parsley, finely chopped
  
• 

  Heat a heavy based saucepan (Paella pan is best) over medium heat with olive oil and gently fry onion, garlic, NoMU Spanish Rub and chorizo for about a minute.
  Add rice and sauté for a further minute until rice becomes translucent.
  Add wine and stir until absorbed. Add saffron to stock and bring to a simmer.
  Slowly add hot stock and cook gently over medium heat until rice is just underdone.
  Place prawns, calamari, kingklip, mussels (having discarded any that are opened already) and peas over rice and cover with lid. Allow to cook for about 8 – 10 minutes or until fish is just cooked and the mussels have steamed open.
  Scatter with olives and chopped parsley and serve with lemon wedges.

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Paella Recipe

Ingredients:

6 boneless higher-welfare chicken breasts or thighs, skin on, each quartered

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

plain flour, for dusting

olive oil

100 g iberico chorizo, sliced

6 slices higher-welfare pancetta or streaky bacon

1 onion, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 litres organic chicken stock, hot

2 large pinches saffron

1 heaped teaspoon smoked paprika

500 g paella rice

1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and chopped, stalks chopped

2 handfuls fresh or frozen peas

10 king prawns, from sustainable sources, ask your fishmonger

500 g mussels, from sustainable sources, ask your fishmonger, scrubbed, optional

2 small squid, from sustainable sources, ask your fishmonger, halved and scored, optional

Method

Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/gas 5. Season the chicken pieces and dust with flour. Heat a little olive oil in a large deep pan and fry the chicken until golden brown on both sides. Place the pieces on a baking tray and into the oven for 30 minutes.

Put the pan back on the heat. Add the sliced chorizo and pancetta or bacon and fry until browned and crispy. Then add the onion and garlic and cook until soft. Meanwhile infuse half the hot chicken stock with the saffron. Add the smoked paprika, rice and infused stock and leave to cook on a medium heat, stirring from time to time.

After 20 minutes the rice should be nearly cooked. At this point, pour in the rest of the stock along with the peas, prawns, and the mussels and squid if you are using them. Place a lid on the pan and cook for 10 minutes more.

Finally, add the cooked chicken and serve sprinkled with chopped parsley and a wedge of lemon.

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