Seafood paella with chorizo
* This post is part of the Royal Selangor Jellyriffic Competition where ten bloggers from around the world compete by posting recipes each day for 30 days in the month of October 2011 to raise awareness and support for breast cancer. *
UPDATE:
Follow our progress and download our recipes in the “Cuisines of the World” by clicking the image below:
Reminder: To be in a chance to win the Olympus camera, post your comments or guess the ten international cuisines and the dishes or key ingredients of the dishes that we will eventually come up with.
One reader has already guessed nine out of the ten! It’s not difficult when there are so many clues!! Record your answers below or at this page
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The last two weeks have really been a revelation for us because we have pushed our culinary boundaries in search of recipes to fulfill our “Cuisines of the world” journey.
The popularity of paella to the Spanish is like risotto to the Italians or nasi lemak to Malaysians.
We have thrown paella parties at home because Mysaucepan loves this dish for its distinctive flavours that is brought out by using saffron, that ever so expensive ingredient that is required only in small doses.
Before we get into this beautiful Spanish recipe, guess what we received in the mail last week??
Redisland Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Redisland Australia has sent us a case of their beautiful olive oils! For this recipe, we have chosen to used Redisland Australia Extra Virgin Olive Oil because they have a good range of quality products. In addition, this company is a Gold Partner with the National Breast Cancer Foundation of Australia.
We extend a big “thank you” to Redisland for helping us to spread the awareness and support for breast cancer through this Jellyriffic competition.
For this particular blog post, we have only cooked a small portion of paella in a regular pan. In order to cook a really good paella, we would suggest using a large paella pan which is also great for entertaining because the pan can be used as a serving plate on its own as we have done in our paella parties at home.
Redisland Extra Virgin Olive Oil and paella pan
More importantly, the hallmark of a good paella is the soccarat or crusty and flavoursome layer that forms on the side and bottom of a large paella pan.
Day 17: Seafood paella
Seafood paella with chorizo
Our recipe below is to cater for 4 people or more. For more details of this recipe, please visit our paella party recipe here. Ingredients 8 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil Method 1. Roughly cut red capsicum, roma tomato and 2 spanish onions, then put into blender and blend until ingredients become a smooth puree. Important tip for this recipe: 1. Always use shortgrain rice for making paella or risotto. Serves 4 people
4 cloves of garlic
4 cups of arborio rice
4 chorizo sausages sliced
1 large capsicum
4 chorizo sausages sliced
1 can of ripened tomato
2 fresh roma tomato
1 cup of green peas
1 litre of chicken / seafood stock
300gm banana or green prawns, shelled, deveined and trimmed
1 squid, cut into small rings
1 – 2 blue swimmer crab cut into quarters
300 gm black Tasmanian mussels (or green mussels)
2 lemons cut into wedges
1 bunch continental parsley
1 cup of dry white wine
10 sprigs of saffron
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of EVOO in paella pan and sear chorizo sausage slices until brown on both sides and set aside.
3. Add 3 tablespoon of EVOO into pan and lightly sautee 1 diced spanish onion until soft, then add arborio rice and mix well, coating the rice with the oil and onions.
4. Add the vegetable puree to the rice and mix well so the rice will start to absorb the puree.
5. Gradually ladle stock into the pan and let the rice absorb the stock and repeat until rice is cooked to al dente.
5. Add 1 cup of dry white wine, prawns, squid, crab and mussels into pan and let cook lightly, careful as seafood can overcook easily.
6. Add salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste.
7. Sprinkle green peas and chopped continental parsley onto the cooked seafood and rice.
2. Unlike risotto which requires stirring as stock is added to the rice, do not stir the ingredients for paella once all the ingredients and stock have been added to the pan. This is to ensure you will eventually get a crusty base known as soccarat when the rice starts to dry and harden from the heat. The quitessential hallmark of a good paella is crusty and flavoursome soccarat.
This paella obviously lacked the full flavours and aromas of the ones that we make in the large paella pan but nevertheless, it was still very good. Extra virgin olive oil is one of my favourite ingredients to cook with and an extra drizzle of Redisland’s EVOO on the rice just before serving it is absolutely heaven!
Not only is this olive oil healthy, it has a beautiful flavour and dipping freshly baked bread into this oil is another way to taste its wonderful flavour and aroma.
Seafood paella with chorizo
So dear readers, what is your favourite Spanish food?
*Note to readers: You can support and help raise the awareness of breast cancer by the following ways:
- Share our recipes with family and friends on Facebook or Twitter.
- Like chopinandmysaucepan on Facebook.
- Follow chopinandmysaucepan on Twitter.
- Suggest to us any recipe, jelly or otherwise that you may like us to cook using the mould. Recipes do not necessarily need to incorporate gelatin and participants are encouraged to be as creative as possible. We need all the help we can get and would welcome any creative ideas and recipes from our readers.
- Purchase a jelly mould from Royal Selangor. Remember, all sales proceeds will go towards improving the lives of women affected by breast cancer.
Win an Olympus VG-110 camera
To encourage readers to support the cause for breast cancer awareness, we will give away an Olympus VG-110 camera to one lucky reader.
All you have to do over the next thirty days is to provide your comments, feedback, suggestions or any recipes and you will be in the running to receive this camera. This prize is open to any and all readers.
If you enjoy our daily posts throughout October 2011, do consider helping the cause for breast cancer by participating in any or all the the ways mentioned above.
We wish you good health and happy cooking!
Chopinand & Mysaucepan
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Note: ChopinandMysaucepan used complimentary Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Redisland for this particular recipe.
Check out Redisland’s product range, recipes and olive oils by visiting their website:www.redisland.com
Redisland Australia Limited
31 Lakewood Boulevard
Braeside, Victoria 3195
Australia
Australian Customer service line: 1300 765 901
Tel: +61 3 8587 1400
For more information about how you can contribute, volunteer or support the cause to prevent breast cancer, please visit the National Breast Cancer foundation website:
National Breast Cancer Foundation
Level 9, 50 Pitt street
Sydney, New South Wales 2000
General enquiries within Australia: 1300 708 763
Pink Ribbon Campaign enquiries: 1300 803 551
Again, mmmm, paella!
Lucky you for getting all the lovely oil!
Seafood Paella? OMG you are AMAZING! That is stunning and it looks SO good!
Loooove Redisland oil. Such a depth of flavour. The paella look awesome!
I do like seafood paella, especially the crusty rice bits
I hate it when I get a bad paella with mushy rice.
im amazed by your creativeness! paella! whoa!!
This has to be the cutest way to present paella ever!
You know, just a little bit of oil. Just to use here and there. Just a little. 😉
Love paella! I don’t know if I’ve ever had a truly authentic one, but I love ’em all the same!
Sometimes I have this impression that you are able to put every dish in the world into this cone! It looks wonderful!
Oh this one’s sounds great too! Lucky you to get such great quality produce to use in your terrific recipes too
Lovin your food around the world series! Gonna look out for that brand of EVOO in my local supermarket =)
Oh, this I loved! And how generously is Redisland Australia to send a whole case of olive oil.
Mmmm.. that paella looks so drool-worthy. It’s a dish so close to biryani, and I love its flavors and delicious textures
I’m loving that fork and presentation of this paella! It’s always my favorite dish and this looks really fancy~~~ (I will need several plates to make me fulfilled! hehe)
Such a cute paella, love it!
The idea on “Cuisines of the World” is brilliant!
I just realized that I never made paella myself. 😯 Time for changing that!
I love the fork.
A good paella is one of the best things in the world! And the rice in this looks so flavoursome.