Seafood Paella

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

 Sofrito: 

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup finely diced yellow onion 

1/2 cup finely diced red bell pepper 

5 Cloves of minced garlic 

1 cup fresh tomato grated on a box grater   

1/2 teaspoon sea salt 

1 teaspoons of tomato paste

1 teaspoon of pimenton (Spanish paprika)

 Paella: 

1 1/2 cups Spanish paella rice like Bomba or Valencia

4 tablespoons olive oil 

1 pound medium shrimp, peeled, deveined and tails removed 

1 fat pinch saffron steeped and grinded in salt

1/2 pound small clams, scrubbed 

1/2 pound mussels, scrubbed and bearded 

2 lemon, cut into wedges   

1 cup of squid cut into thin small rounds

Caldo or Broth

1 cup of white wine

1 spring of thyme

1 cup of clam juice

1 lb of fish bones

3 cups of water

2 teaspoons of sea salt

 Garnish

Lemon wedges

Piquillo Peppers

Fresh Parsley

1/8 teaspoon of pimenton gets sprinkled lightly over the top.

For the Caldo:

In a pot boil 1 cup of clam juice and the cup of white wine, 3 cups of water, and thyme.  Add the fish bones and simmer for 30 min.   You should have 4 to 4.5 cups of broth.  Rice to broth ratio is 1 to 3

To prepare the sofrito:

. Add the onions and red peppers, stirring frequently until tender and lightly caramelized, 5 to 8 minutes.

Add tomatoes, pimentón and tomato paste.  Reduce heat to medium and stir frequently until the sauce is thick and turns a deep brick red color, about 10 minutes add a pinch of sugar(optional) if tomatoes are too acidic. 

To prepare the paella:

 In a paella pan add Olive Oil, and the squid cook for about 5 min add the paprika cook for another 2 min

Add the sofrito and mix well

Add the rice, saffron and add more olive oil and toast the rice for about 5 min.

Once sofrito is thick add the rice more olive oil and toast for 2 min.

Add the broth at once it can be warm but not too hot, otherwise it will open up the walls of the rice too soon and you will end up with risotto.

Distribute rice evenly with a fork no longer than a couple of minutes then we leave the rice undisturbed and uncovered for about 10 minutes, adjusting heat so we can achieve an even simmer.

 Add the clams

Add the mussels

Nestle the shrimp so it cooks slowly with the steam.

Once broth is absorbed cover paella turn off the heat.

Turn the heat heat to medium-high; cook for about 2 minutes until the bottom layer of rice starts to crackle and caramelize, creating the socarrat (the crunchy rice crust for which paella is famous). At this point, you will need to closely monitor the paella and frequently move your pan around on the burner to evenly distribute the heat.

 To serve: Garnish with lemon wedges, piquillo peppers and parsley. Serve family-style straight from the pan.