Paella josé vives Serves 8-ish

small piece fillet steak

˝ - 1lb mussels in shell

small piece pork fillet1

1lb prawns in shell

2 rabbit legs

4 squid, cleaned and sliced

2 chicken legs2

short grain rice3

2/3 tomatoes, skinned, chopped, seeded

peas or green beans (chop to 1 inch)

1 - 2 mild Spanish onions, chopped

olive oil

2 cloves garlic, crushed

saffron

1 red pepper, sliced

 (radishes to serve)

1 optional             2 you could use a whole chicken         3 you could use risotto rice but ordinary pudding is fine

  1. Clean mussels well in several changes of cold water, removing any beards. Discard any open ones that do not close when banged on surface. Bring to boil in a large pan of water; boil furiously for 1 or 2 mins. Put mussels aside, discarding any that are not open. Retain the cooking liquor.

  2. Shell half of the prawns, placing the shells into the mussel cooking liquor. Boil this for 20 mins uncovered.

  3. Cover the bottom of a large, deep cooking pan (something like preserving pan size) with oil. When hot toss in the prawns in shells and fry for a few seconds, adding plenty of salt. Remove prawns and set aside. Fry red pepper in the same oil; remove and set aside.

  4. Cube the steak and pork. Turn up heat and fry squid in the same oil for a few mins; remove and set aside. Fry skinned chicken and rabbit if used; remove and set aside.

  5. Top the oil up if necessary so that it still covers the bottom of the pan and fry the onion and garlic on a very low heat for at least 20 mins, stirring occasionally, so that they are translucent. Add tomatoes and cook for a further couple of minutes.

  6. Return meat and chicken to pan and pour in the mussel liquor. Top up with water and simmer for about an hour. Add all of the prawns, mussels, squid, peas/beans, peppers for the last 5 minutes.

  7. You could leave this to cool until you are ready to cook the paella (freeze if you wish).

To cook the paella ..

(Heat the stock to near boiling, if necessary.) Crush saffron strands in a mortar and pestle and soak in a ladle or so of the hot stock. Cover the bottom of the paella pan with oil. When hot add the rice (as a guide, 1oz per person, but depends how greedy you are). Cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes to heat through. Then gradually add stock (and contents) to rice, turning heat to medium. Add saffron and cook (adding more stock if necessary), until rice is cooked and stock absorbed.

Serve with wedges of lemon and bowls of radishes.

Return to Food page