Paella

Our Daring Cooks’ September 2012 hostess was Inma of la Galletika. Inma brought us a taste of Spain and challenged us to make our very own delicious Paella!

We were immediately reminded of our first ever Daring Challenge, which was a recipe for rice with cuttlefish, artichokes and mushrooms (I recall that we substituted chicken for the cuttlefish, but were otherwise quite faithful to the recipe for a change). This time we decided to make a mixed paella using the best ingredients that we could find at our local farmer’s market (Alemany market in San Francisco) and butcher’s shop (Guerra’s, also in San Francisco). Our protein elements for the dish were rabbit and chorizo, with a few prawns added towards the end and, to be honest, used mainly as garnish. This was not a seafood paella…

Ingredients (Serves at least 6, I think)

top: vegetables and groceries
bottom: rabbit, chorizo and shrimp

1 rabbit, jointed (we didn’t buy it from amazon.com but I almost wish we had. You have to check this out, including the pictures and the comments…)

Olive oil as needed
1 white onion
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
2 large tomatoes
4 cloves garlic, chopped
4 small chorizo sausages
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp salt
a few grinds of black peppercorns
2 1/2 cups risotto rice (we used Dacsa, el arroz de Valencia!)
6 cups light chicken stock
Enough shrimp for all of your diners to have at least 2-3 each; the bulk of the risotto is very good as leftovers the next day. but reheated shrimp are almost always disappointing…)

In a large pan (we used our big cast iron cauldron), first brown the rabbit in the olive oil. Remove from the pan, then brown the chorizo in the rendered rabbit fat.

Next, make your sofrito – dice the onion and bell peppers, mince the garlic, and (in a fresh skillet) cook them in a few tbsp olive oil until soft. Add diced tomatoes and cook further until tomatoes are broken down.

Return the rabbit to the pan with the Add the sofrito to the rabbit and chorizo in your large pan, and season with the smoked paprika, salt and pepper. (We LOVE the smoked paprika – it can sometimes be hard to find but I think it really makes this dish shine). Once the spices are incorporated, add the rice and the stock, then cook without stirring until the rice starts to get plump and cooked. Towards the end of the cooking, bury the shrimp in the rice and cook until just done – careful not to overdo it!

Serve the paella with shrimp on top. Our plating unfortunately needs some work, though the flavor was phenomenal. Gracias, Inma!