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About Authentic Spanish Seafood Paella Recipes
Paella is a famous rice dish from Valencia in Spain which dates back to the mid-1800s. There are three main types of paella and these are seafood paella, Valencian paella and mixed paella. Seafood paella usually contains two or three kinds of fish or seafood. Valencian paella contains green vegetables, chicken, duck, or rabbit, beans and land snails. Mixed paella contains meat and seafood and occasionally beans. Olive oil and saffron feature in most paella recipes.
The popularity of this dish spread beyond the borders of Spain last century and, as usually happens with national dishes, there were suddenly hundreds of recipes for this Spanish dish. Today there are all kinds of recipes for paella, featuring a wide range of meat and fish. There are also mixed paella recipes and even vegetarian ones. The most famous recipe however is the seafood paella.
The following seafood paella recipe contains squid, shrimp and scallops, as well as onion, peas, tomatoes, garlic and more, giving this dish plenty of flavor. If you want to use fish as well as seafood, add some chopped cod or red snapper filets when you add the shrimp and peas near the end. This is not a difficult dish to make and the taste is amazing. Serve this with crusty bread and butter on the side.
How to Make Seafood Paella
Ingredients -
1 lb sea scallops
1 lb medium shrimp
1 lb squid
1 chopped onion
2 cups medium-grain rice
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 cup frozen peas
⅛ teaspoon ground saffron
1 cup canned chopped tomatoes in juice
3 thinly sliced garlic cloves
1 red bell pepper, in thin strips
4 cups water
2 tablespoons olive oil
Preparation:
Shell and devein the shrimp, keeping their shells. Combine the shells with the water in a 3 quart pot.
Bring the mixture to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer it for half an hour, partially covered.
Strain this broth through a sieve and discard the shrimp shells. You will have about 3 cups of shrimp broth.
Rinse the cleaned squid under cold running water and use paper towels to pat it dry.
Slice the bodies crosswise to make half inch rings and cut the tentacles into 1 inch pieces.
Heat the oil over a low to moderate heat in a 12 inch skillet.
Sauté the garlic and onion until the onion is tender. Add the red bell pepper and cook for 4 minutes.
Add the squid and cook for 2 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and their juice, ¼ teaspoon salt and ½ cup of the shrimp broth.
Bring the mixture to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
Stir in the saffron, rice, the remaining salt, and the rest of the shrimp broth.
Bring the mixture to a boil again, then turn it down, cover the skillet and simmer for 30 minutes or until the rice is cooked and the squid is tender.
Remove and discard the tough muscle from each scallop. Cut the scallops in half crosswise if they are big.
Stir the shrimp, scallops, and frozen peas into the rice mixture.
Cover and cook for 8 minutes or until the shrimp and scallops are just opaque.
(Serves 6)
Photo Description:
Because there are so many different recipes for paella, nobody is going to notice or mind if you adapt this recipe. Feel free to add different kinds of seafood, some chopped whitefish filets or anything else you fancy. Paella is a wonderful dish and it is not hard to make either. There are various other rice dishes you could make like risotto or pilaf, but paella has something extra special about it. Perhaps it is the saffron-flavored rice or the mixture of different seafood. This delicious Spanish dish is great if you are having a dinner party. Serve a glass of Spanish Rioja on the side if you like.
