Simply Cook Paella Recipe

In the midst of all the craziness in my life lately, I can't remember how long it had been since I simply followed and cooked a recipe for myself with no intention of photographing it.

When things are overwhelming and there is a lot happening in life threatening to make me feel like I'm drowning, I always go back to the drawing board of what makes me feel grounded. My daily non-negotiables become even more important to adhere to, and making sure to not neglect my own self-care while running around trying to take care of everyone else too.

One of the things I love most is cooking without pressure or need.There is something that has always felt luxuriously indulgent to me about getting losing oneself in the process of cooking a delightful meal because your heart desires something homey, comforting, and wholesome from scratch. It's not always about macros or Instagram in life, people! I think the joy of cooking sometimes get lost nowadays in doing it for the purpose of the photo...

The Ultimate Chicken And Chorizo Paella

Last week I worked nearly about 80 hours cumulatively on top of the very heavy personal stuff going on, and it has felt like I had not had a moment to take a breath for myself. Going into the week, I knew it was going to be like this, and I happened to come across a post on the feedfeed by Afrodite's Kitchen. I instantly was dying for some cozy, heartiness of this gorgeous paella, and I knew it was a sign I should take the evening to myself to make this dish. Plus, hello, leftover dinners set for the rest of the crazy week ahead- check!

It was SO darn lovely to follow a recipe and be told what to do, and just purely enjoy every step of creating a dish I had never attempted before. My amazing client brought me back some Spanish saffron on her recent vacation, and it was just waiting for me to use it in this classic seafood paella. I adapted Afrodite's recipe a bit to fit my ingredients and will post my adaptation below, but her recipe worked pretty fantastically for a first time paella attempt of mine.

I originally did not intend to take photos of my completed dish because I didn't want to rush myself to finish everything before sundown and the natural light faded away, so I took my sweet time. It just so happened to be one of those lovely, long summer evenings where the sun was staying out to play quite late, and so I casually strolled over to the window to take a couple quick shots before digging in.

Easy Chicken And Chorizo Paella Recipe

The paella also stayed super fresh in a glass tupperware in the fridge throughout the entire workweek, and reheated beautifully. Arborio rice keeps well and doesn't turn soggy! Plus, this entire dish is gluten-free and dairy-free, so that is awesome.

You don't need a special paella pan, although I would like to eventually try making it in one, one day. My 10-inch Lodge cast iron was filled to the brim but cooked everything beautifully and made for an easy cleanup, so I was rather happy.

It's a pretty easy to follow recipe for even beginner cooks, and a paella is definitely a gorgeously impressive dish to share when you have people to enjoy it with together. Ah, now I'm getting lost in memories of my trip to Spain a few years back, what a gorgeous country!

Paella Recipe Seasoning

*Note: I steam-cooked the clams on the side in lemon juice and white wine, then just topped the paella with it. If you'd like to cook the clams or mussels directly in the paella at the end, feel free.

1. In skillet, heat up olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and cook for about 5 minutes until onion becomes translucent.

2. Add the rice and stir well to coat thoroughly in olive oil. Cook for about a minute, then add white wine and stir mixture until wine reduces in about 45 seconds. Add paprika, turmeric, bay leaves, and saffron, and a splash of chicken stock, then stir well to combine. Add in pureed tomato and stir well. Reduce heat to medium-low. Continuously stir mixture and keep adding chicken stock as the rice absorbs it over then next 15-20 minutes. You will use the majority of the chicken stock here.Add in green peas and stir to combine.

Weeknight Paella Recipe

3. Then add shrimp and squid into rice mixture. Cook for about 15 minutes until seafood is thoroughly cooked through and rice has absorbed most of the liquid. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve!

Tip: You may be concerned if it seems too soupy at first, but the rice will very quickly soak up the excess liquid- plus, it's great for keeping leftovers fresher for longer!This saffron-infused paella recipe is loaded with mussels, clams, and shrimp. Grill it in your biggest skillet for best flavor (no special pan required). Paella serves a crowd for your next cookout!

Sally is the author of four cookbooks and is a regular correspondent for the Boston Globe Wednesday Food Section. She also is a food photographer.

Spanish Paella Recipe With Shrimp And Mussels

A festive occasion calls for a big statement, and this paella is just that: a colorful rice dish bursting with clams, mussels and shrimp along with smoky chorizo and saffron for tons of flavor. You don’t need much else to serve alongside it, but you could make a green salad if you feel inspired.

Set the whole pan of paella on your picnic table, and bring out some crusty bread and wine glasses. Summer is just too short not to celebrate it with friends.

The origins of paella are ancient, rooted in the area around Valencia, Spain near the Albufera Lagoon, where both fishing and rice growing dominated the region for centuries.

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Paella was the food of farm workers who cooked dishes of rice over wood fires, embellished with whatever ingredients they could find.

The dish is named for the wide, shallow pan in which the paella is cooked. The word paella is from a Valencian dialect meaning “pan, ” probably derived from the Latin word patella for pan.

While you can buy a paella pan and even a special outdoor paella grill for cooking it, it's easy enough to adapt the traditional paella method to our home kitchens without a lot of extra fuss.

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Since I don’t possess a paella pan, I used the largest sturdy skillet in my collection of pans. A cast iron pan would be ideal but mine was not big enough and I found my heavy skillet worked just fine. Lacking a large skillet, you could also use a medium-size roasting pan (approximately 14x10 inches).

Although you can cook paella entirely indoors on top of the stove, when you consider paella’s wood-fired origins, it makes total sense to cook it outside on the grill. For this recipe, I started it on the stove indoors while the grill heated, and then finished it on the grill. Even, steady, medium heat is the goal.

Paella is the mother of all the one-pot meals, so it makes a supreme party dish. Improvisation rules the day, since even in Spain the issue of what ingredients should go in paella is hotly disputed, making it impossible for foreigners, let alone Spaniards, to dictate them strictly.

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Paella is essentially a rice dish, and the type of rice does make a difference. Spanish bomba rice, a medium-grained stubby rice that absorbs liquid well but maintains some firmness when it cooks, is preferred.

The crispy bits! Once the stock comes to a simmer, don’t stir it. As the paella cooks, the rice stays on the bottom and forms a crusty golden bottom layer in the finished dish. This crust of rice is called

For this seafood paella, you can use fish or shellfish stock if you like and if you can find a good source for it, but I actually prefer chicken stock. It adds a depth of flavor, and as the shellfish cook, you get plenty of sweet, briny juices to flavor the rice. Be sure to taste the stock and season it with salt if necessary.

Simple Paella Recipe

Saffron is a key ingredient, too. These orange-red threads are actually the dried stigmas of crocus flowers. Crumbled into a pot of hot stock, saffron adds an earthy, floral, and somewhat mysterious flavor to your paella. It imbues the rice with a gorgeous golden color, too.

Saffron is a fairly expensive spice, but thankfully you only need a few threads to season a whole dish of paella. It also keeps for a fairly long time as long if it's stored in an airtight container and kept out of direct sunlight, so you don't need to worry about using up your extra saffron right away.

. Sofrito lays the groundwork for all the flavors in the dish to mingle; think of it as priming a canvas before making a painting.

Skillet Grilled Seafood And Chorizo Paella

I chose shrimp, clams, and mussels for this seafood version of paella, and Spanish dry-cured chorizo for its smoky, meaty flavor. Chorizo can be a controversial add-in and not