Chorizo & Seafood Paella

You will need a paella pan of about 45cm, but if you don’t have one then the biggest skillet you have will suffice.

Making a sofrito

A sofrito is one of the building blocks for all good paella and many other sauces in Spanish cuisine such as romesco. It’s basically a jam of onions, garlic and capsicum along with herbs and bay leaf. You can make this and freeze it as it could be seen as the Spanish version of a stock when cooking rice.

• 125ml olive oil
• 2 white onions finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves thinly sliced
• 4 bay leaves
• Bunch of thyme
• 4 large red capsicums: seeded and finely diced
• 4 ripe tomatoes peeled seeded and cored and diced

Making sure all your ingredients are finely diced put in your paella pan and softly-fry or sofrito over a very low heat. The whole process should take around an hour or more. The mixture will gradually turn into a jamy, darker coloured paste. Once it has darkened, take off the heat, let cool and store in a container.

Making a paella

INGREDIENTS

• 750 ml
(3 cups) water
• ¼ tsp
 Spanish sweet or smoked paprika
• pinch saffron threads (Iranian or Spanish)
• 1 tbsp 
olive oil
• 100g 
semi-cured chorizo, sliced into ½ cm rounds
• 2
squid or calamari tubes, sliced into 1 cm rounds
• ¼ cup
sofrito – recipe above
• 1 cup
bomba rice or marisma rice
• 100ml 
white wine
• 8
 large green prawns
• 16 
black mussels
• salt
• 1 
roasted capsicum, diced
• chopped parsley, to serve
• lemon wedges, to serve

METHOD

1. Place a paella pan over a medium heat. Add the olive oil and chorizo and cook for 5 minutes until it releases some oil and looks crisp, remove and set aside, add the sofrito and cook for 5 minutes, stirring regularly before adding the squid and cook for 3 minutes. Add back the chorizo along with the saffron and then the rice.
2. Stir to make sure the rice is coated in the paprika coloured oils then pour in the wine and cook until evaporated.
3. Pour in the water, stir, then spread the rice evenly over the base of the pan and bring to the boil.
4. Cook for a few minutes until the rice begins to swell and absorbs some stock.
5. Add the prawns and two pinches of salt. Stir gently for the last time and reduce the heat to a steady simmer.
6. Cook for 3–4 minutes until the rice begins to show as the stock reduces.
7. Add the mussels and continue to cook for 8–10 minutes until the water has been absorbed and the rice is tender.
8. Reduce heat to low and cook for a further 5 minutes until a crust (known as a socarrat) forms on the bottom of the pan.
9. Sprinkle over the roasted capsicum, remove from the heat and rest for 5 minutes.
10. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with lemon wedges.

The Carousel thanks The Bohemian Bar & Restaurant in Melbourne for this delicious recipe.

If you want to become an expert at making a delicious paella, you can register for paella cooking class with Bohemian Head Chef Lorenzo Casu and Spanish paella Master Chef Gerard Rodriguez!