Paella
Apparently Mom has been advertising my paella--Niangniang just asked me about it. Here's the original recipe from my Spanish cookbook:2 large cups of rice
300g prawns
100g lean pork, diced
10 chicken wings
1.5 dl olive oil (*1.5dl=150ml)
3 garlic cloves
1 tomato, peeled and chopped
a few drops of lemon juice
salt and saffron
4 large cups prawn stock
2 hard-boiled eggs and 1 pepper, tinned
Peel the prawns, fry the tails for a few seconds and store in the refrigerator. Boil the heads in water for 30 minutes, grind and drain using a food mill. Set the hot stock aside, leaving on the heat. Season the meat with salt and pepper. Saute the garlic, chicken and pork with oil in the paella pan. Add the rice, stirring for 5 minutes. Add the lemon juice, tomato, salt, pepper and crushed saffron. Pour in the hot prawn stock, adding more water if necessary. Bring to the boil and then bake at 180 degrees(C) for 20 minutes and leave to stand for another 15 minutes outside the oven. If the rice is still hard and dry, sprinkle with a little water and cover and cook for a few more minutes. Garnish with the fried prawns,eggs and peppers.
Being a somewhat lazy person, I usually skip the part that makes the prawn stock. Instead, I use ready-made chicken stock (in fact, this is used by another paella recipe I have), or better yet, clam juice from a can to tune up the yummy seafood flavor. I often skip the lean pork and chicken wings as well. Because I do not have a very big paella pan, I generally half the recipe. In addition to prawns, clams, mussels as well as other seafood can be added at the end.
