Paella

I know Cinco de Mayo was a while ago, but it got me inspired to make Paella for the first time!  Yes, that’s right, I’ve never made Paella before.  Usually, when I’m making a somewhat traditional dish that is a first try for me, I’ll dive into my Fannie Farmer Cookbook.  This cookbook is great for that sort of thing!

The sous chef and I discovered that we aren’t big fans of clams, so…we ended up removing those little guys and tossing them.  Otherwise, this dish was TERRIFIC!  We had plenty of leftovers and ate them all!!!  The recipe I’m posting below is the halved version of the recipe as I just can’t imagine needing the full recipe that the cookbook lists.  As it is, we had to use our largest tupperware dish to save the leftovers!

Paella
adapted from Fannie Farmer Cookbook

Ingredients
1/16 teaspoon of saffron
2 cups chicken broth
2-3 chicken breasts
salt
freshly ground pepper
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 teaspoon oregano
6 thin slices spicy Spanish sausage (Chorizo)
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 Tbsp butter
1 cup short grain rice
1/2 pound shrimp, cooked, shelled, and deveined
1/2 package frozen tiny peas, or 3/4 cup fresh peas
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/2 tsp salt

Directions

Put the Saffron to soak in 1 Tbsp of the chicken broth.  Rinse the chicken, pat it dry, and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.  Heat the olive oil in a large skillet, add the chicken and brown well on all sides.  Add 2 tbsp of water and the oregano.  Cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes or until the chicken is done.  Remove the chicken and set aside.

Lightly brown the sausage slices; remove and set aside.   Add the onion and garlic to the pan and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.  Melt the butter in the pan and stir in the rice, saffron, and about half a teaspoon of salt, cooking for 5 minutes.  Add the remaining chicken broth, bring to a boil, cover, and simmer 20 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  In a shallow 4-quart casserole, arrange the rice, chicken, shrimp and sausage so that some of each shows on the top.  Heat in the oven about 15-20 minutes.  Meanwhile either pour boiling water over frozen peas or blanch frozen peas 2 minutes.  Scatter over casserole, sprinkle with parsley, and serve.