May 2009 Paella experiment

Back in May, Clay and I decided we finally needed to break in the paella pan that Jim had given me several years. We invited a few taste testers and started the planning. Every recipe we looked at was either very complicated or too simple. Plus not all of our guests ate pork but, for us, we felt paella should have sausage (most of you know I have a love of andouille). In the end we cobbled something together from multiple recipes. It may not be authentic but, we think it came out well and you can tell by the picture Kathy took that at least it looked good. I’ve made this one other time since and I didn’t make any changes to it. I might consider a brief olive oil and garlic marinade for the shrimp.
I posted the recipe after the “jump”




MAY 2009 PAELLA

Marinade for chicken
2 TBS dried oregano toasted in the skillet until fragrant (1 min or so)
5 TBS Red wine vinegar
3 TBS minced garlic
Salt and pepper
6 chicken thighs

For base
Olive oil
1 large onion
1 large red bell pepper
2 TBS minced garlic
2 tsp ground coriander
4 cups chicken broth

Rice
¼ tsp paprika (sweet or smoked ) I used smoked
3 cups jasmine rice
¼ cup white wine
Big pinch saffron threads
Extra broth kept at a low simmer

1 lb Chorizo sausage
24 shrimp
24 clams

Trim thighs of extra fat
Combine oregano, vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper and rub paste over chicken
Marinate at least 6 hours

Preheat oven to 350

In dutch oven, brown chicken thighs in olive oil 6- 8 minutes and set aside
Add more olive oil to pan if needed
saute red pepper, onion, garlic and coriander in olive oil about 10 minutes
Add broth and chicken and any juices from chicken
Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 min.
Steep saffron in wine

Heat olive oil in wide shallow pan, saute rice and paprika until rice is coated
Add wine with saffron and stir until distributed and mostly evaporated
Add chicken and broth base to the pan and combine

Add Clams (we did this after 10 minutes but, they didn’t open very quickly so, I think it would be better to do it when you up the pan in the oven.)
Cook in oven for 20 minutes.

Grill the sausage. Or Saute in pan until brown prior to adding rice to pan.

After 10 minutes, add the shrimp and sausage to the pan and continue to cook for 10 more minutes. If you have guests who prefer not to at pork, you can add the sausage to the individual plates.


Add extra warm broth if rice become dry.