Paella San Martiño Style

Given my love for sailing, I equate making paella to sailing a boat. There should always be one captain. The captain in this episode will be you. Don't let others deter you form your final destiny. This is an incredible dish that can easily be modified to suit your taste as well as those you wish to impress with your culinary creativity. The real trick is to use the freshest ingredients and. seafood is the key! If you live in the Dallas area, I suggest Whole Foods or Central Market for this purpose. However, your local fishmonger will probably have fresh seafood.

Real Spanish Paella is cooked on a wood fire. According to the chief-cook all wood, provided it's dry and unpainted, will do. However, if you don't have such luxury, a grill, stove top or even an oven will work. Also, authentic paellas uses rabbit as it main meat. If you have a problem eating Thumper then substitute it with pork.

Category : From the Sea

3 1/2 cups of strong fish- or chicken stock
2 onions, chopped into small quarters
1 bay leaf
1 sprig of fresh thyme
1 cup chopped parsley
1 tsp of saffron
1 Spanish chorizo cut into small pieces (Spanish sausage. You may leave this out if you wish but I have seen people use Italian sausage with some good results. Spanish chorizo can be found at your local Latin or Mexican grocery store)
1/3 cup of Spanish olive oil
(sea) salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 chicken (you may use chicken legs and boneless breasts of chicken)
1 rabbit (you can substitute rabbit for pork)
12 giant shrimps or king prawns
1 green pepper, seeded and cut into strips
1 large tomato, peeled and chopped or one can of roasted chopped tomatoes
8 small cloves of garlic
2 cups round grained rice
2 teaspoons of paprika
1/2 lb of French beans
1 to 2 lbs of mussels, cleaned and debearded (cook in aforementioned broth)
1 small filet of hake or other white fish
1/2 lb of squid, cleaned (optional if you like squid)
Lemon wedges for decoration

Cut the rabbit (or pork) and the chicken in bite-sized cubes. It's not necessary to remove the bones. Debeard the clams.

Clean the squid making sure to remove their insides unless you bought them already cleaned. Wash the shrimps. Prepare the hake, or other white fish you are using, by removing the head, tail and insides. Cut the fish in pieces without removing the backbone. Put all seafood, except clams, in a bowl. Make your own fish broth using the head and tail of your fish adding chicken bouillon cubes or clam juice. Cook the clams in the broth until they open and keep them apart for later.

Use 3 1/2 cups of the fish (or chicken broth) and place the rice in it. Let it sit for about 20 minutes so the rice absorbs some of the liquid.

Cut the French beans in 1/2 inch pieces. Cut the onions and peppers into small pieces. Put all the vegetables, except the onions in a bowl.

Remove all rust from your authentic Spanish Paella pan. If you don't have one, a deep, large frying pan will do but make sure that it fits entirely on top of a stove, grill or oven. Heat it with the olive oil and get it steaming hot. Throw in the chicken and rabbit (or pork) and chorizo, season it with salt, black pepper and garlic. Fry them until golden brown. Remove chicken and rabbit (or pork) from the paella and repeat the procedure with the seafood. Wait until the squid is done before adding the salt.

Remove the seafood and (you couldn't have guessed it was so simple) repeat the same action with the veggies. Don't forget to fry the onions first.

Put all the ingredients, except the shrimps and clams into the paella and add the rice and the broth it has been soaking in to the pan. Add the saffron.

Taste the broth. A good paella needs to be well salted. You may want to add salt and pepper. Put the parsley in and stir the ingredients. This should be the last time that you stir the paella. Cover the paella loosely with aluminum foil.
Let the paella cook over a slow fire or place in the oven at about 400 degrees. If you place it in the oven and don't cover it, the paella will be dry. It should take about twenty minutes to cook the rice. Just add some broth when your paella starts to get burned.

Garnish the paella with the clams and shrimps ands some pimento strips. When the rice is cooked and almost dry, your Real Spanish Paella is ready. Take the paella out of the fire and let it rest 5 minutes.

Wine Pairing: Albariño or Tempranillo