Boiled rice groats are an excellent side dish for many dishes, but there are many such in which the very meaning is to cook rice with additional ingredients.
Paella is more likely an intermediate link between these two options. Along with all kinds of pilaf recipes, European cuisine also does not lag behind - paella is cooked with vegetables, different types of meat and even seafood.
It would be strange if the great gastronomes and seafarers - the Spaniards, bypassed the many marine inhabitants that they met on the open spaces.
General technological features of the preparation of paella with seafood
• Traditionally, paella with seafood is cooked in a special wide frying pan, with low even sides. In the absence of such kitchen utensils, you can use a wok or an ordinary cast-iron, rather capacious frying pan. If you have a slow cooker, the dish can be prepared in it.
• For paella, it is recommended to use special rice of varieties of Spanish origin. The most common ones that can be found on sale are Iberica and Arborio. Well-saturated and non-digestible rice with an average grain size growing in the Krasnodar Territory is also suitable for us.
• Seafood selection is richer. You can use already packaged boiled-frozen cocktails or purchase seafood separately in freshly frozen form. These can be mussels, squids, small cuttlefish, ocean shrimp, scallops. Moreover, shrimps and mussels go to the dish both peeled and in their original form - shrimps with heads and in shells, and mussels in shells.
• Seafood must be thawed before use. To do this, they are laid out in a bowl in advance and placed in the refrigerator. The liquid accumulated at the bottom of the vessel is drained. Seafood is pre-quickly fried in vegetable oil, after which it is laid out from the pan and added to a practically finished dish.
• Vegetables are an equally important part of paella. According to traditional recipes, it is cooked with onions, green peas, juicy bell peppers, green beans. Hot peppers, garlic, canned corn and fresh tomatoes can be added.
• Saffron - a spice without which the dish will resemble rice porridge. It is he who colors the paella, giving the dish a golden hue. To make saffron more color, it is poured with boiling water and allowed to stand for some time.
• Paella with seafood is served on the table in the pan in which it was cooked. But this does not happen immediately when it is ready. First, thin semicircles of lemon are laid out on its surface and allowed to stand under the lid for about 20 minutes.
Seafood Paella with String Beans
Ingredients:
• seafood cocktail - half a kilo;
• 40 ml of olive refined oil;
• head of a bitter onion;
• 300 gr. rice for paella;
• green beans - 150 gr.;
• 200 gr. tomato puree;
• frozen peas - 100 gr.;
• small, sweet, preferably red, pepper;
• a quarter of the average lemon;
• a quarter of a spoon, or even a little less than saffron.
Cooking method:
1. You need to take care of seafood in advance. We spread them in a bowl and leave them in the common chamber of the refrigerator until completely thawed.
2. Pour saffron with a glass of boiling water and leave for a quarter hour to insist, then filter and bring to the boil.
3. Pour oil into a wide pan, let it warm up well. From a bowl of seafood, decant all the liquid and transfer them to the pan. At maximum heat, fry for two minutes, and transfer to a suitable dish.
4. In the same pan, add a little oil and pass onion chopped onion cubes on it until amber.
5. Pour the sorted rice to the onion, fry for no more than 3 minutes, until the grains acquire a transparency effect.
6. Pour in hot "saffron water", add more boiling water, add salt to your taste. The liquid should be above the surface of the rice on the finger.
7. We set the fire a little less than average, cook for 10 minutes. We put the tomato, and ten minutes later, green peas, beans and chopped pulp of sweet pepper.
8. When all the water has left and the rice is completely ready, lay previously fried seafood on top of it. In addition, decorate the paella with thin half-rings of lemon, close the lid and let stand for about fifteen minutes before serving.
Classic Paella with Seafood
Ingredients:
• king prawns - two in shell with a head, eight peeled;
• rice groats - 150 gr.;
• 120 gr. fresh squid;
• Bulgarian, large and juicy peppers - 1 pc.;
• garlic;
• three branches of parsley;
• two large tomatoes;
• saffron threads;
• a small onion head;
• 1/2 thin-skinned lemon;
• a quarter cup of olive or other quality oil;
• four mussels in shells.
Cooking method:
1. Saffron pour a glass of hot water, let it brew for a quarter of an hour.
2. Lightly crush three garlic cloves with the plane of the knife blade. We clean the peel, cut the teeth into medium-sized pieces. In parsley, we separate the stems from the leafy part and cut them finely. We chop the onion in half rings, and the Bulgarian pepper, having cleared the seeds, in large slices. We cut the tomatoes in half and rub on a coarse grater - we leave the peel.
3. Choose the two largest shrimp. Carefully, using a toothpick, remove the insides, rinse the clams in cold water. We clean the remaining shrimp, put the heads and shells in a pan. Add 600 milliliters of water and wait until it boils. After boiling for three minutes, remove from the stove, filter the broth and save.
4. Rinse and scald boiled water squids. We remove all the chords, cut the carcasses into rings.
5. Pour two tablespoons of oil into a special pan. Warming up, drop two unpeeled shrimp, part of the squid and all the mussels in the shells into it. Fry seafood over medium heat for two minutes.
6. Put onion and bell pepper in a pan. Stirring, cook for two minutes, then add the chopped stems of parsley and garlic. After about a minute, we get the mussels, fill it with saffron water and add half a liter of shrimp broth.
7. We add, add about a third of a spoon of pepper. Bringing to a boil, we fall asleep rice. Simmer for a quarter of an hour on low heat and mix everything with the remaining shrimp and squid. We bring the paella to readiness with the previous heating for 10 minutes, until excess moisture evaporates.
8. In the center of the paella we put half a lemon, sprinkle the dish with parsley and letting stand for a quarter of an hour, serve.
"Marinara" - Spanish paella with seafood (with fish)
Ingredients:
• pink salmon (fillet) - a pound;
• 250 gr. medium grain rice;
• mussels - 120 gr.;
• half a liter of vegetable broth (interchangeable with boiled water);
• 130 gr. peeled shrimp;
• half a large lemon;
• 100 gr. frozen peas;
• large onion;
• garlic;
• two tablespoons of oil: olive or sunflower, refined;
• a small pod of hot chili;
• five stigmas of saffron.
For vegetable broth:
• large onion;
• a third of a small celery root;
• large carrot;
• stalks of parsley and dill - 5 pcs.;
• petiole celery - 2 branches.
Cooking method:
1. Two peeled garlic cloves cut into small pieces. Squeeze the juice from the lemon and mix it with two tablespoons of oil, add the garlic.
2. We put small pieces of cod fillet in a bowl, add the marinade and leave in it for half an hour.
3. Cooking vegetable broth. We clean all the vegetables, cut into pieces. We lower together with the stems of greens in a pan with 0.7 l. water and let it boil. Reduce the heat and cook for about half an hour. Filter the vegetable broth through a sieve.
4. Finely chop the onion and three cloves of garlic. From bitter pepper we select all partitions with seeds, grind its flesh. Fry everything together in a pan, adding a little olive oil, no longer than five minutes. Stir occasionally so as not to burn.
5. Spread rice to the fried components and continue cooking for five minutes. The seeds should be saturated with oil and become transparent.
6. Slightly add hot vegetable stock and pour it over the rice. Add saffron stigmas, mix and leave under the lid, setting the minimum heat.
7. After about 10 minutes, we take out the fish from the marinade and lay out its pieces on top of the rice. The marinade is also sent to the pan. After about five minutes, we put seafood and green peas. Bring to readiness within 4 minutes, remove from the stove.
8. Before serving, decorate paella with seafood thin slices of lemon.
Seafood and Chicken Wings Paella
Ingredients:
• seafood platter - 250 gr.;
• five chilled chicken wings;
• 300 gr. rice cereal for paella;
• slightly less than 1/3 teaspoon chopped saffron;
• two medium onion heads;
• garlic;
• 100 ml of dry, exclusively white wine;
• carrots - 2 medium root crops;
• refined oil;
• dark pitted olives - 8 pcs .;
• two tablespoons of frozen green peas.
Cooking method:
1. Fry thawed seafood for two minutes with a little oil. We put the seafood in a bowl and, having washed the pan, pour a couple of tablespoons of oil into it. We place on a large, but not maximum fire.
2. In the heated, almost hot fat, lower the chicken wings and fry them on all sides until a golden crust is obtained. Remove chicken from the fire, transfer to a suitable dish, rub with chopped garlic.
3. Heating over a small fire, in the same but again washed pan, two tablespoons of oil, fry until amber stained half the onion rings with finely chopped carrots.
4. We fall asleep to the fried vegetables rice. Cooking, often stirring and not lowering the heat, two minutes. Then we add the wine and continue cooking until it is completely absorbed into the grains.
5. Pour the contents of the pan with hot water. Add saffron, bring to a boil. Having set the heat a little lower than average, we add a little, spread the fried wings to the rice, mix and level the surface. We cover the pan with a lid, simmer on a minimum fire for about 20 minutes. Mix during this time twice and very carefully.
6. Add seafood and frozen peas. Having mixed well, we cook paella for another five minutes.
7. After removing from the heat, add the olives sliced in rings into the dish and let it stand for some more time. It is advisable to stand the paella before serving under the lid for at least 20 minutes.
Paella with seafood, green peas and corn in a slow cooker
Ingredients:
• mussels, peeled from shells - 350 grams;
• a glass of rice;
• 200 gr. shrimp (peeled);
• liter of broth;
• onion head;
• four large tomatoes;
• ground saffron - a small pinch;
• 40 ml of refined oil;
• canned peas and corn - 350 ml jar each.
Cooking method:
1. Put frozen mussels in a colander and pour boiling water over them. Then we rinse thoroughly with warm water and leave it in a colander in order to well express its residues.
2. Put tomatoes in a bowl, pour hot water. After waiting two minutes, place under a stream of cold water, cool the tomatoes to easily peel them.
3. Turn on the slow cooker, setting the frying mode, pour oil. Slightly warming up, put the finely chopped onion in it and fry until transparent. It does not make sense to close the lid, since the onions must be constantly stirred so as not to burn.
4. Cut the tomato pulp into medium-sized cubes and add to the sautéed onion. Fry vegetables for 10 minutes, without changing the established regime, after which we spread rice to them. We continue to cook, stirring regularly, for another five minutes, and pour hot broth or water into the thicket. Salt, add pepper and saffron to taste.
5. Transfer the previously set mode to "Pilaf" or "Rice", prepare the paella with the lid closed for 40 minutes.
6. Open the lid, mix the contents of the bowl with canned corn and peas. We close it again and bring it to readiness by setting the previous mode for another five minutes.
Simple paella with seafood
Ingredients:
• peeled thawed shrimp - 100 gr.;
• two glasses of medium grain rice cereal;
• a pound of peeled mussels;
• 300 gr. fresh tomato;
• frozen squid rings - 250 gr.;
• half a teaspoon of ground saffron;
• 1 onion;
• half a lemon;
• three tablespoons of special olive oil for frying;
• 200 gr. scallop.
Cooking method:
1. We spread all seafood in a colander. We substitute a bowl of a suitable size under it and wait for them to completely thaw.
2. Tint water with saffron. To do this, fill it with an incomplete glass of boiling water and leave it for at least 20 minutes. We sort through the rice groats, finely chop the onion.
3. Thawed seafood for two minutes, fry in a pan, adding a little oil. We transfer the seafood to a clean dish, and in the remaining oil, pass the onions until transparent. Next, add the rice groats and fry, stirring, for about two minutes.
4. Pour in the saffron water brought to a boil and add a little more broth or water. We make sure that the liquid covers the rice about a centimeter.
5. Bring to a boil and it is at this point that we add salt and a little pepper. Reduce the heat to medium, cook for 20 minutes without stirring, and then add finely chopped tomato pulp (without peel) to the rice.
6. After waiting for all the moisture to evaporate, we try the rice for readiness. If it does not crackle on the teeth, turn off the stove and put in the pan previously fried seafood and thin semicircles of lemon. Let the dish brew for half an hour.
Useful tips and tricks for cooking paella with seafood
• Paella rice is generally not soaked. And yet, if your culinary experience suggests that you cannot achieve the desired degree of readiness in any other way, you can use this trick.
• If there is no time to prepare a vegetable broth or broth, do not take the broth cubes. Better pour rice with ordinary drinking water.
• It is considered to be especially chic to cook paella with a crust on the bottom. To achieve this effect, in the end, when the rice is ready, the paella is kept at maximum heat for 30 seconds and only then removed from the stove.
