Paella

Chef #826662's Note:

A traditional Spanish rice dish as told by Eva.

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 cups rice
• 5 cups vegetable broth or 5 cups water
• 2 medium green peppers
• 1 red pepper
• 1 cup peas
• 1 bunch asparagus (chopped)
• 1 medium onion
• 2 tomatoes (you can substitute with tomato paste if necessary)
• 1 pinch saffron
• 4 -5 garlic cloves
• parsley
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Start boiling the water or broth in a separate pot.
2. Ideally, you want to use a wide, shallow pan with a lot of surface area (a paella pan is best) so you can slightly crisp a good portion of the rice towards the end of the cooking process, but a deep pot is ok, too, which allows you to make for more people. Just be sure to serve it right away, so the rice on top doesn't make the rice underneath mushy. If you do get your hands on a paella pan, make sure the burner has a wide diameter so the pan is uniformly heated (you can rent a propane burner and a large pan for an outdoor party).
3. In a paella pan or pot, start to heat the oil and once warm toss the green peppers and cook for about 5 minutes. Then, toss in chopped onion, garlic and red pepper. When the onion is cooked, toss in the asparagus and the peas. After about 8 minutes, add diced tomatoes and let it simmer about 5 minutes more uncovered.
4. Meanwhile, in a mortar and pestle, mash a little bit of garlic, the parsley and the saffron, with a little bit of salt so that it doesn't slip, and it wet it with a couple of soup spoonfuls of temperate broth or water. Mash into a paste.
5. Once all the vegetables are cooked, add the boiling broth or water, salt and the saffron paste. Then, add the rice and stir it ONLY once.
6. Let it cook (low heat) uncovered about 20 minutes (never stir the rice because it will get mushy)
7. Once the rice is cooked and the broth has been absorbed, remove the pan from the heat and let it sit for no more than 5 minutes. Serve immediately.
8. Serve it with lemon to squeeze over the rice. Also, you can add whatever other vegetables you like, artichokes and/or zucchini. Whatever you choose to throw in, just add it at the time you'd add the asparagus in this recipe.
9. Enjoy!