Simple Seafood Paella

We have a council clean up happening in our area during the coming week.  We culled, sorted and dumped out the front so much 'stuff' it was quite liberating, but also very tiring.  Two old double beds, a few boxes of kitchen implements, more boxes of garage junk and we had quite a large assortment of household objects waiting for collection.  During council clean ups people drive around with their utes and trailers collecting items that other people don't want so it is also a good way of recycling goods within our community before the council comes to collect what is left behind.




What do you cook when you don't feel like cooking?  A lovely simple Seafood Paella (pronounced pay-ee-ya) that is always a family favourite.  I take out a portion of the rice mixture before adding the seafood and place it in small pan and add 2 chopped chicken thighs for my daughter who doesn't like seafood, except for smoked salmon (no I don't understand this choice either) but she has recently become a vegetarian so smoked salmon and chicken are now off the menu.


I was too tired to cook even this so we ordered home delivered pizza thus it was an easy night and the finale of My Kitchen Rules was on and there were no distractions in the kitchen.

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Simple Seafood Paella

1 red onion, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 small red capsicum, diced

2 chorizo, diced

2 tomatoes, also diced

1 cup peas

1 1/2 cups arborio rice

3 1/2 cups hot chicken stock

Seafood of your choice; I used 700g white fish fillets cut into 2.5cm pieces

                                       1 squid tube cut into rings aprox 1/2cm wide 

                                       400g green prawns, vein removed, tail intact

Serves 6

Fry the onion for 5 minutes at a gentle heat, add garlic, capsicum and chorizo.  Fry for another 5 minutes then add the tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes have broken down, about 5 minutes.  Add the peas and rice, stir until the rice is well coated.  Add 1/2 cup white wine and cook for 2 minutes before adding the chicken stock.  Stir well and then leave untouched for 15 minutes, adding a little more stock if needed.

Then add the seafood, slightly pushing the pieces into the rice.

Cook for 5 more minutes, check seafood is cooked, sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve in the pan in which it was cooked.

                                       

Optional;  some people like to shave fresh parmesan over the top or add some dried chilli flakes.

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Do you have a free council clean up in your area and do you take advantage of this by spring cleaning?

Buon appetito Enjoy Merryn xx