The paella

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Hi friends, I hope you're fine? I am going to talk to you today about one of my favorite dishes.

https://steemit.com/travel/@lndesta120282/my-favourite-dish

When I think the question: "If you did not have to eat more than one dish until the end of your life? It would probably be paella. I'm not a big rice eater on the other hand, I prefer mostly good linguines or tagliatelle but the rice in the paella is super good and fragrant.

There are as many recipes as paella sizes and yes, paella is also the name of the dish in which it is prepared, did you know?

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Here is my recipe, it is relatively simple. Indeed, before I did not often this dish because the recipes that I read in the books or on the net seemed to me too long and too complicated so I tried to concoct a fairly simple and fast, so that I can do it more often.

I still kept the main elements that are essential for me, that is to say, chicken, prawns, peas and chorizo that gives a lot of flavor to this dish. For me a paella without chorizo is Paris without the Eiffel Tower, a pizza without cheese or fries without sauce; o)

https://steemit.com/food/@lndesta120282/french-fries

Here is the recipe, I hope you like it :

Ingredients (for about 4 people)

Personally, I always double these proportions when I prepare, so I can put a part or two in the freezer for the time I want to paella but I have no time to prepare. Or if I come back from work very late and just do not have the courage to cook anymore; o)

400 g round rice or rice for paella or rice for risotto or Mediterranean rice (found in all supermarkets in the pasta and rice section)

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8 chicken drumsticks

1 spicy half chorizo (or sweet for those who do not like when it stings)

350 g of seafood (there are ready-made mixes in frozen-food stores but you can also make your own mix by taking separately frozen seafood or even better if you have the chance to live in seaside, which is unfortunately not my case and if I'm still 200 km to go to the North Sea not far from home, I will not find much except for the famous shrimps fished gray old-fashioned with draft horses and nets)

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Prawns shrimp (indeed, the carcass of crustaceans gives taste, it is also with the carcasses that we make fish soup in other)

Frozen peas

2 onions

6 cloves of garlic

1 small yellow pepper and 1 small red pepper (or to save time I take a mixture of 3 peppers already cut into frozen strips, red, yellow and green)

1 mixture of paella spices (usually found in it, Paprika, Curry and Saffron) or the spices that compose it put separately, 1 teaspoon of each.

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1 small box of tomato paste (the small ones, those containing about 1 big tablespoon of concentrate)

2 cubes of broth (chicken or vegetables or fish depending on the cravings, I put two chicken and one third of a fish)

Olive oil

Pepper and salt

Food coloring for paella (it does not taste but it's just to give it a beautiful golden color, be careful not to put too much, just a knife tip, otherwise you will end up with a paella orange fluo; o) It is less easy to find in stores but on Amazon without problem)

Preparation

The ideal is to cook everything in the paella pan so that it takes the taste of food cooked in it, except the seafood because they reject water.

Cooking meat and seafood

Cook and brown the chicken drumsticks in olive oil in the Paella pan and then set aside on a plate.

Cook and brown the chorizo cut into small pieces or slice according to the desired presentation, no need to put the oil because the pan is already greased after cooking the chicken and in addition the chorizo will reject fat.

Then do not clean the paella pan, the cooking oil of chorizo will bring taste and color to the dish.

In another pan, cook the seafood and then set aside in a colander so that they may release some water.

In the same pan that served for the seafood, also cook quickly the prawns that do not require a lot of cooking time.

Cooking vegetables and herbs

Once again in the paella pan where the chicken was cooked, cook the onions and the garlic cut into small pieces (I use a small mechanical robot that reduces the onions and the garlic in small pieces, it is super convenient, just pull on the string as if you wanted to start a boat and it starts to turn and cut). Then put them aside in a plate or bowl.

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Still in the paella pan, heat the olive oil and fry the peppers cut into strips.

Once the peppers are cooked and softened, add onions and garlic.

Then spice with 3 teaspoons of paella spice mixture or a bag depending on the package.

Crumble the bouillon cubes and add the tomato paste, salt, pepper and food coloring and mix well.

Cooking rice

This is actually the same principle as for a risotto for those who know.

Add the raw rice and mix well so that it is well soaked in the mixture of vegetables and spices. Then add the water so that it covers the rice a good centimeter.

It will eventually be necessary to add water as the rice is cooked. It should not be too much at the beginning because if you put too much is damn and if you put in as and when, you will have more chance to get the consistency that you want is-to to say a rice well cooked but not pasty.

It is therefore necessary to keep a glass of water at hand to add as and when cooking.

It is necessary to regularly check the cooking of the rice and the level of water, it is that the most complicated of the recipe, except the cutting of the vegetables, the onions and the garlic.

Once the water is added a first time, mix well so that it is homogeneous and cook on low heat wit lid while stirring occasionally.

Towards the end of cooking, add the peas, half a glass, no more, just to put some color in the dish. And then seafood and chorizo. Mix well.

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Once the rice is cooked, simply arrange the prawns and chicken over a few minutes to warm them and it's ready!
For decoration, you can also add some slices of lemons.

For those who want, they can also add some mussels, it is then necessary to cook them separately in a small saucepan with a little water and to add them at the end with the chicken and the prawns.

All you have to do is scream at the table!

Enjoy 🤗