Hola Español!

Seafood paella 

(serves 4)

Ingredients 

• Large pinch of saffron threads 
• Boiling water 
• 3 tomatoes
 
• ¼ cup olive oil
 
• 6 large banana prawns
 
• 1 onion, chopped
 
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
 
• 1 red capsicum, chopped 
• Salt and pepper 
• ¼ cup white wine or rosé
wine 
• 1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
 
• 5 cups good-quality fish stock
 
• 1½ cups paella rice (I used calasparra) 
 
• 12 raw prawns, tails on
 
• 8–12 mussels, cleaned and debearded
 
• 12 clams 
• Parsley 

Method 

1. Place the saffron in a bowl. Pour over ¼ cup boiling water and leave to infuse. 
2. Place the tomatoes in a bowl. Cover with boiling water and leave for 5 minutes, then slip the skins off and chop. 
3. Heat the oil in the paella pan, add the banana prawns and cook for 2 to 3 minutes each side until coloured, then set aside. 
4. Add the onion, garlic and capsicum to the pan, season well with salt and pepper and cook gently for 12 to 15 minutes until lightly coloured.
5. Add the chopped tomatoes, wine, saffron and soaking water and the paprika and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring.  
6. Add 4½ cups of the stock and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer.  
7. Sprinkle the rice evenly into the pan and cook over a medium heat without stirring for 15 minutes until the rice at the top still has a little ‘bite’.  
8. Poke the prawns into the rice with the mussels, hinge end down. After about 5 minutes, once the mussels have started opening, add the clams and banana prawns and cook for a further 4 to 5 minutes until the clams have opened. (If the mussels are slow to open, increase the heat for a few minutes and cover the pan with tinfoil to accelerate the cooking.) Discard any shellfish that haven’t opened.  
9. Remove the pan from the heat, cover with tinfoil and leave to rest for 10 minutes.  
10. Scatter over the parsley and serve straight from the pan with lemon wedges and good crusty bread. 

TIP: The remaining ½ cup of stock can be heated to a simmer and added with the clams if the rice appears to be drying out too much. Bear in mind that the rice shouldn’t be soupy like risotto it should be quite dry, forming a light crust at the base as it cooks. This caramelised bottom layer of crunchy rice is known as ‘socarrat’ in Spanish and is highly prized.

Roasted red capsicum and walnut dip  

(makes about 1 1/2 cups)

Ingredients 

• 3 large red capsicums
 
• 1 cup walnut pieces, toasted
 
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
 
• 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
 
• 1 teaspoon each ground cumin and sea salt
 
• 1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses or  
  lemon juice
 
• ½ teaspoon chilli flakes 

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C fan bake. 
2. Cut the top out of the capsicums and remove the seeds. Sit the bases of the capsicums in a muffin tin and roast for about 30 minutes until they are soft and the skins are blistered. Put them in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Cool, then remove the skins. 
3. Blitz the capsicums in a food processor with  
   all the remaining ingredients until blended.
4. Transfer to a bowl and serve with warm flatbreads and a bowl of olives. 

Baked spanish rice with chicken and chorizo

(serves 4-6)

Ingredients 

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
 
• 6 small chicken thighs, skin on, bone in
 
• 4 chicken drumsticks
 
• 1 onion, diced
 
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
 
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
 
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary
 
• Sea salt 
• 200 grams gluten-free chorizo, sliced into  
  1cm pieces
 
• 1 cup calasparra or arborio (risotto) rice
 
• 3½ cups chicken stock
 
• 400 gram tin whole cherry tomatoes
 
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley to serve 

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C fan bake. 
2. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan and brown the chicken on all sides. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside. Don’t wash the pan. Add the onion, garlic, paprika and rosemary to the pan with a good pinch of salt and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the chorizo, rice, stock and the tomatoes with their juice. Season and bring to the boil. 
4. Tip the mixture into a large roasting dish or other heatproof dish and nestle in the chicken. 
5. Cover with foil and cook for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for a further 10 to 15 minutes until the chicken is fully cooked. Top with the parsley  
   before serving.

Recipes and photography by Sarah Tuck and Claire Aldous and supplied by Dish magazine