The worst paella I've had was in Spain. It wasn't up to the standard of the Ritz Hotel Madrid version of Paella. I've never eaten at the Madrid Ritz, but I have been making their version since the day I found the recipe in a 1999 Vogue Travel and Entertaining.
To be fair, the one time I tried Paella in Spain, it was in the lone restaurant of a tiny, hilltop village in Northern Spain. As far away as you could possibly get from it's birthplace Lake Albafura, a lagoon in Valencia on the east coast of Spain.
The original paella would have been a mix of rabbit or chicken and seasonal vegetables. Seafood is a recent addition to the paella pan.
This is a easy picnic version of my usual paella. The Ritz recipe uses ham, pork, chicken, prawn and scampi. I've simplified it, by removing the meats and scampi, and adding chorizo with the prawns. All the vegetables are prepared at home and then put together in a paella pan, set over a gas camp cooker at the park.
INGREDIENTS
150ml olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
4 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 chorizo sausage, sliced
1.5 litres chicken stock (room temperature) When I make paella at home I add heated stock.
600 grams short grain rice ( I use a Calasparra rice from Spain)
3 lemons, quartered
a large pinch of saffron threads, and 1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped, ground together in a mortar and pestle
1 cup green peas (frozen are fine)
1 medium red capsicum, sliced
500 grams green prawns, peeled
METHOD
Heat the oil in the paella pan (mine is a 30cm pan) over medium heat. Fry the onions until soft. (about 5 minutes).
Add the tomatoes and chorizo and cook, stirring, for another 5 minutes.
Add the stock and bring to the boil.
Sprinkle in the rice, stir and return to the boil.
Add the garlic and saffron mixture to the simmering stock.
Add the peas, red capsicum and prawns. Stir to mix.
Cook over high heat for 8 minutes.
Reduce heat to low and cook a further 10 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat and rest for 5 minutes. Serve with lemon.
