Need an Idea for Tonight's Dinner?

Since my wonderful fiance has been working late during his "busy season" needless to say dinners have been me eating alone most of the week since he has not been home before 10pm every night...

I combed through a couple of different recipes and decided to make my paella from a mix of one found on TheStoneSoup and also Food Network.

I will say I did use a couple of *cheats* in terms of some things to make it a bit cheaper (ie. pre-packaged saffron yellow rice instead of saffron threads and white rice, and also I used a pre-cooked mussel rather than fresh raw).

So I decided to get brave and do a first attempt at authentic Spanish paella! Everything I have ever read said that you needed Spanish Paprika to make it "authentic"...so I made a stop at Central Market (much like Whole Foods but apparently it's a Texas thing). Low and behold there in the bulk salts and seasonings of the world section I found Spanish Paprika. So I gathered up the rest of the essential ingrediants and decided it was now or never!



What you will need:
Protein option of your choice (chicken,pork --or you can skip this completely)
Shellfish of choice (I used shrimp and mussels)
Chorizo (spicy sausage)
1/2t cayenne pepper
4T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4t Spanish smoky paprika (hot or sweet --your choice)
1 large red onion
3 medium tomatoes
2 Fresh Jalapenos
1T minced garlic in olive oil
1 large red peper
300g package of yellow rice with saffron seasoning
1/2 C dry white wine
4C low sodium chicken broth
1/4 lb of small salad shrimp
1lb pre-cooked frozen mussels
Lemon (garnish)


Now the fun starts. If you choose to use chicken start with browning it in a bit of EVOO and a dash of cayenne pepper and 1/4t of paprika. If not you can start off by adding 1T of EVOO into a large pot and adding the crumbled chorizo to the hot oil. cook for 5-8 minutes or until cooked through.


While cooking add the chicken broth to a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. Keep warm on the burner.

Take the shrimp and add 2T EVOO and 2t of paprika in a bowl and mix. Once coated add the shrimp to the pot with the chorizo and mix. Allow to cook another 5-8 minutes while working on cutting vegetables.

Cut up the red onion, tomatoes, and red paper. I found that it works best to coarsely chop the tomatoes, dice the onion, and cut the red pepper into thin strips.

Now that the proteins are cooked remove with a slotted spoon and place aside.

Add the onion to the pot and cook 5 minutes until they start to soften. Once soft, add peppers, tomatoes, and the garlic. Add in the remaining cayenne pepper, EVOO, and Spanish Paprika. Cook together for a couple of minutes until the vegetable mixture begins to soften.


Next add in the wine and mix to glaze the pot and pull in all of the seasoning. Rain in the saffron rice and stir.

Return the chorizo and shrimp to the mixture. Add in 3C of the hot chicken broth and stir. Allow to come to a boil and then lower heat and allow to simmer briskly for about 10 minutes. Shake the pot occasionally while cooking but do not stir.

Lower the heat and continue to simmer slowly for 20 minutes.

As the rice starts to cook and soften add additional chicken broth as needed to avoid the mixture drying out.

At this point I used the pre-cooked and frozen mussels which required 6 minutes of cooking in the steamer bag in the microwave.

Once done I added them onto the top of the cooking mixture added a couple of dashes of cayenne pepper an additional 1/4C of chicken broth over the top of the mussels and continued to cook 10 additional minutes.

Total cooking and prep time for this is about 1 hour and makes about 6 generous servings.

Spoon into a bowl and garnish with a couple slices of lemon...Delish!