Spanish Paella from a Bristol Kitchen

Sunday night I had a hankering to christen my paella pan. Mum had bought me over some vacuum packed chorizo back from Spain so this seemed like a golden opportunity to experiment with a paella recipe. So I did a little research and thought what I might like to do and gave it a go. The recipe itself is fairly simple although the main challenge is getting an even heat across your whole pan so the rice can cook evenly, on a halogen hob this is difficult but not impossible, you just have to make sure you move it around a bit to get an even heat. Anyway without further ado this is my paella recipe. 

Paella in it's pan

You will need:

400g chunkily chopped chicken thigh fillets

Half a chorizo ring, or more if you love chorizo (who doesn't?)

300g Paella rice, although I used arborio and it worked fine, it's the short grain that counts

Half a can of chopped tomatoes

1 1/2 pints of chicken stock

Pack of runner beans trimmed and sliced in to 2 inch pieces

1/2 can of butter beans (optional) I personally found that they made the dish even more filling so not sure I would use them next time but they are traditional so up to your personal tastes.

1 red pepper cut in to cube like chunks

2 cloves of garlic

1 tablespoon of smoked paprika

3-4 strands of saffron (optional)

salt & pepper to taste

1. Heat up some olive oil in your paella pan, or whatever wide flat pan you can find and fry the chicken chunks for about 4-5 minutes and then remove

2. Add the crushed garlic and stir in the pan for 1-2 minutes before adding the runner beans stir well then add the chicken back to the pan and add the chorizo too.

3. Whilst the beans are cooking add the chopped tomatoes, smoked paprika and stir well then add the saffron to some chicken stock before adding all the stock until it reaches almost the top of the pan

4. Bring the mixture to the boil on a high heat for about 15 minutes and season with salt and pepper

5. Add the rice and pepper chunks and make sure it is all covered by the mix leave on a fairly high heat for 20 minutes and do not stir it when the rice has absorbed the liquid take off the heat and stir in the butter beans, if you want to use them

6. Leave the paella off the heat for about 5-10 minutes if the rice is cooked correctly the grains will be loose but slightly al dente.

7. Serve immediately to hungry people

Will feed about 4 moderately hungry people or 3 ravenous ones

paella on my plate

and another because it was just so damn tasty

Anyway give it a go if you get the chance it is a tasty recipe I cannot wait to make it again. Next blog will be a review of our lunch at Ronnie's in Thornbury cannot wait to show you the lovely photos I took, especially of the pudding.

New Year, New Soup: Patatas Bravas

Happy New Year to you all! Hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Years Eve? Rich and I went to Berlin, and got engaged so that was very exciting and unexpected we are very happy and look forward to sharing the celebrations with friends, there will be a food travel blog post on Berlin at some point this month, so am looking forward to sharing that with you. This month is always notoriously frugal so once we returned from Germany I went to Reg the Veg in Clifton village and bought up a stack of soup making vegetables. I had two soups in mind for this week, spicy squash, red pepper and coconut and last night's soup of patatas bravas.

A favourite on the tapas scene I was keen to try and recreate the taste of this dish in a soup, inspired by one of mum's gifts to Rich, some gorgeous Pimentón de la Vera as part of a Christmas present, I was determined it's first use would be a tasty one. Plus the packaging is right up my street and very kitsch but the wonderful smoky sweet smell that rises from the open tin is heavenly. 

Pimenton

Some of Reg the Veg's wares

I used the following ingredients:

1 small onion

1 crushed clove of garlic

2 large potatoes chopped into cubes

1 pepper chopped into pieces

Half a ring of chorizo chopped into bits

2-3 chargrilled peppers from a jar chopped finely

2-3 beef tomatoes chopped small

A good squeeze of tomato puree

2-3 teaspoons of pimenton

1 and a half pints of chicken stock

A good helping of chilli flakes, a pinch of cumin plus healthy shakes of salt and pepper

So I chopped a small onion, and two inches of the chorizo ring and let that sizzle away with the chilli flakes, I then added all the vegetables, puree, spices and then the stock. I let this cook happily away with the lid on for about an hour and then let it cool whilst I went to pilates class. When I returned I used my hand blender to blitz the soup into a puree then I added some more chopped chorizo whilst I heated it up to serve with some crusty bread. It was very easy indeed and I was glad that it tasted just like patatas bravas, it fed me for  lunch today and will tomorrow as well. 

Today's lunch

Close up, with crackers topped with brie and caramelised onion chutney

Next blog posts will include our review of lunch from peri peri chicken place Roosters on Park Street and meat filled German meals. But in the mean time enjoy this recipe and thanks for all the congratulations we've received on Twitter so far. 

Boom!