SEAFOOD PAELLA

There are many different recipes to cook a paella. From very traditional - click here - (you can add English subtitles using the settings button.) to more modern ones. I love the seafood paella, and my mother used to make a delicious one. She is now too old and doesn't cook them anymore. I have tried to use her recipe here, but unfortunately where we live we do not have a fish coop with the type of fish needed, so I had to adapt it to whatever I could find. However, the recipe below is the one my mother used to make. Mine turned up quite nice, but not as good as hers. Will keep trying ... 

Ingredients

800 gr. 'bomba' rice
2 l. fish stock
1 kg. fresh mussels, cleaned
1 kg. fresh clams, rested in salted water to spit the sand
16 scampi
16 prawns
1 big fresh cuttlefish (with the spleen)
1 big onion
½ red capsicum
2 garlic cloves
2 grated ripe tomatoes
1 dried cayenne chili
brandy
oil
salt

a pinch of saffron

white wine (optional)

For the light fish stock (3 litres)

the head and spines of a big monkfish or Rockfish (if available) - see note below

2 or 3 bay leaves
1 leek
1 onion
salt

Note: Rockfish is a generic name used in gastronomy to designate fish that usually have many spines or a large head, relatively little meat, rather firm, compared to others, and that are very tasty. Gastronomically they are very precious. They are fish that live on rocky bottoms. 

 

Method

For the fish stock:

Wash the monkfish to clean the blood clots that may have.
Put in a pot with cold water, some salt, the onion, 2 or 3 bay leafs and the leek and bring it to the boil.
When it starts to boil skim the foam off the top and cook for 10 - 15 minutes.
Strain the broth and it is ready to use.

Strain the juices from the mussels and the clams to the stock.

For the paella:

Put a pot with a lid on the stove and add the clams with a splash of white wine. Cover and cook just until the clams open. Discard the closed ones and keep the juices. Do the same with the mussels. Add the juices from cooking the shell fish to the fish stock. Reserve.

In a paellera, heat some oil in the middle and slightly stir-fry the prawns. 

Remove them from the paellera. Do the same with the scampi. Reserve.

Stir fry the cuttlefish cut into 1 cm. squares. Reserve the central part with the spleen bag [1]. Remove it.

[1] Cuttlefish spleen:

Is the brown bag that has inside the head. It gives a fantastic iodinated flavour, and is the clue to transform a good paella in a 5 stars one.

Using the same oil, add the onion chopped in brunoise [2], the dried cayenne chilli, the grated garlic and sauté it. When the onion starts to become transparent, add the capsicum also chopped in brunoise and cook for a few minutes more.

[2] brunoise

Remove the dried cayenne. It only needs to have a slightly hot flavour. Add the grated tomatoes.
Sauté the “sofregit” which is the basis of the dish until golden dark. But take care not to burn it, because then it doesn't taste good.

2-3 minutes before that point add the cuttlefish spleen. Cut the bags and add the brown sauce to the”sofregit” and stir up well.
Add a splash of brandy and cook for a couple of minutes. 
Add the stir fried cuttlefish and the rice and stir for 1 minute. 

Add 2 litters of fish stock. (Two cups of stock for each cup of rice).
Add salt to taste.

Cook the rice at high heat for about 15 minutes and then lower the heat to medium. The rice needs 20-22 minutes to be ready or until all the stock has been absorbed.
5 minutes before the end add the prawns, the scampi, the clams and the mussels on top of the rice. Be creative.

Let it rest 5-10 minutes covered with baking paper.

Serves 8 people