The best ever paella?

I haven’t cooked paella before so it’s hard to say. However it was very good and healthy. There’s no chorizo- just prawns and chicken. It’s another Olive recipe. How much do I love that magazine?

It says to use chicken thigh fillets, which are probably really tasty, but I used breast. I also didn’t put a green pepper in. And I used that Marco Pierre White stock which he advertised, as I thought I better get a bit more than a stock cube. Oh and I used mange tout instead of runner beans but these worked really well.

So the recipe is (which serves two very generously!), 1 clove garlic chopped, 2 chicken breasts, salt, 1 red pepper sliced, 100g mange tout, 2 large tomatoes, 200g paella rice, saffron (a few strands), 1 tsp paprika, 500ml fish stock, 125g king prawns.



Just added the rice



Put olive oil in a shallow pan (I don’t have a paella pan) and fry the garlic and chicken for a minute, then add salt, pepper and mange tout, cooking gently. 

It’s a bit weird as you have to grate the tomatoes. So you cut them in half, scoop out the seeds then grate them onto a chopping board until you only have the skin left in your hand. Odd! Add the tomatoes and cooked until it looks thick and concentrated.

Then add the rice, saffron and paprika. I was a bit excited about buying the saffron. It said to toast the saffron by wrapping it in foil and holding it under an open flame for under a minute. I ended up with two black threads of saffron so I decided to not toast it! Stir well and cooked for two minutes then add the fish stock. Bring the mixture to the boil and make sure you don’t stir the rice- just shake the pan.

Add the prawns and simmer for five minutes until the rice forms a crust on the pan. Take off the heat and cover with foil.

The finshed paella in shadow

It was really tasty. It had a delicate flavour and was not overpowering. I thought the mange tout was good with it and the chicken was well cooked. Have a Spanish themed evening and crack open the sangria!