2 In The Kitchen: Celebrate National Paella Day
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - In order to celebrate national Paella day, Chef Jesus Nunez of Barraca stopped by the CBS 2 studios to show how to cook up the tasty dish.
For more information about Barraca, click here.
Click here for a printable version of this recipe (.pdf)
Paella de Marisco (seafood)
In order to prepare an authentic paella, there are six essential ingredients:
- The paella pan
- The rice is always bomba
- Saffron
- Sofrito
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Passion and love.
Ingredients (4 people)
Sofrito:
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 5 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste or finely chopped
- 2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 green bell pepper
- Salt
- 1 teaspoon pimentón dulce (or sweet paprika)
- A good pinch of saffron threads
Other ingredients:
- 4 cleaned small squid, bodies sliced into 1/4-inch-wide rings, tentacles left whole
- 1 small cuttlefish, sliced in small pieces
- 4 cups medium-grain bomba rice
- 8 cups fish or lobster stock, simmering in a separate pot
- 12 mussels
- 12 jumbo shrimp in their shells
- 12 clams, scrubbed and debearded
- 1/4 lb of swordfish
- 1 oz English peas
- 1 oz Fava beans
- 1 Lemon, for garnish
Directions
• What is Sofrito?
Sofrito is an important part of the paella. It is a concentrate of vegetables that will bring flavor to the rice.
• How to prepare Sofrito?
Fry the onion in the oil in a pan until soft, stirring often. Stir in the garlic and the peppers, and before it begins to color, add the tomatoes. Add salt to taste, pimentón, and saffron, stir well, and cook until the mix is reduced to a jammy sauce and the oil is sizzling.
• How to prepare the paella?
Put the pan on the fire and add 3 tablespoons of olive oil. When hot, add the squid and cuttlefish, when it starts to take color add the rice and cook 1 minute to toast the rice, then add the sofrito and cook for 1 minute more.
Add the hot broth and then the rest of the ingredients except the lemon. Immediately stir the rice so that it does not become loose but after that, do NOT touch the rice again. You do not want to release the starch from the rice, after all we are not making risotto. Cook the paella on the stove top for 25 minutes and then finish it in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. The end result is a caramelized and almost crunchy consistently on the bottom that is the most sought after part of the paella called soccorat.
VARIATIONS
You can add 4 quartered small artichoke hearts, or roasted red peppers, cut into strips, with the rice. Some people use the pulp of 1 or 2 dried and soaked ñora peppers, instead of pimentón.
