We love this red rice paella with chicken, mussels, prawns and spicy chorizo.
Ingredients
• 600g (2½ cups) red rice
• 100ml (5 tbsp) extra virgin olive oil
• 30g (3 medium cloves) garlic, finely chopped
• 150g French shallot, finely chopped
• 600g (4 medium-sized) chicken thighs, cut into 2cm chunks
• 2 large spicy chorizo sausages, cut into slices
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes plus extra for garnish
• 250g large mussels, cleaned
• 150g (1½ medium sized) red bell peppers, seeded and chopped into 1cm pieces
• 150g (1½ medium-sized) green bell peppers, seeded and chopped into 1cm pieces
• 5g (1½ tsp) pimentón picante (smoked hot Spanish paprika)
• 225g large raw peeled prawns
• 3g (1 heaped tsp) loosely packed saffron strands
• 1.5 litres fish stock
• Himalayan pink salt
• Bunch of rocket
• Bunch of basil
What you’ll do
Precook the red rice (21/2 cups red rice to five cups water. It will take an extra 10 to 15 minutes more than white rice.)
Place a 40 to 50 cm paella pan over two burners on a medium heat. Add the oil and garlic and, as soon as the garlic begins to sizzle, add the shallot and fry for five to six minutes until soft and sweet, turning the pan every few minutes so that everything cooks evenly.
Do this throughout the cooking time. Stir in the chicken, chorizo, cherry tomatoes and mussels and stir-fry for three to four minutes until almost cooked. Remove from pan. Add the red and green bell peppers and pimentón, and fry for five minutes until the peppers are just softened. Scatter the prawns around the pan, add the rice and saffron, and stir everything together well. Add the stock and 21/2 teaspoons of salt and bring to the boil, stirring briefly to redistribute the ingredients around the pan.
Leave to simmer vigorously for six minutes over a medium-high heat, but do not stir it any more, remembering to give the pan a turn every two minutes. Then reduce the heat to medium, arrange the mussels, chicken and chorizo evenly around the pan and push them down slightly into the rice. Leave to cook for a further 14 minutes, again without stirring, by which time all the liquid will have been absorbed and the surface of the rice should be pitted with small holes.
Turn off the heat, cover the pan with a clean tea towel and leave to rest for five minutes before serving. Serve warm straight from the pan. Scatter rocket, basil and cherry tomatoes on top of the dish.
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Recipe from Amanda Battley, published by Buddha Soul Pty Limited/Jacksons Publications. RRP $39.99, buddhasoul.com
