Let’s bring the vibrant flavors of Spain to your table! This scratch-made Paella is a celebration of worldwide cuisine built with arborio rice, fresh seafood, crushed tomatoes, and vegetable broth. We layer deep flavors with ground smoked paprika and dried saffron. Cooked in a large sauté pan with frying oil, extra virgin olive oil, and white wine, this gorgeous meal finishes perfectly in the oven.
Tom the Chef Founder
Let’s talk about important parts of the recipe before you start…
I am absolutely thrilled to share my scratch-made Paella with you today. As a chef who focuses on worldwide cuisine, bringing the vibrant flavors of Spain to your table is a true joy. This recipe avoids artificial shortcuts, relying instead on real, unprocessed ingredients. We build an incredible base using frying oil, arborio rice, crushed tomatoes, vegetable broth, and a splash of dry white wine. The beautiful aromatics come alive with ground smoked paprika, extra virgin olive oil, and a fragrant pinch of dried saffron. To top it off, we use the best fresh seafood you can find. Since my wife is a pescatarian, I often use vegan chorizo, which works perfectly here, but traditional Paella was originally made without meat. You can add a sprinkle of fresh green peas as a modification that is not part of the recipe, but it is truly magnificent exactly as I have written it.
When I start making my Paella, the very first thing I do is prepare the fresh seafood. I usually do about half fish and half seafood. For the fish, I love to use cod, tilapia, tuna, or mahi-mahi, but salmon is also a great choice. For the other half, I love to use shrimp, mussels, and calamari. It is best to use raw shrimp, typically identified by their gray color, since precooked ones can get rubbery during cooking. Everything must be fresh or defrosted prior to cooking. I rinse them under cold water, let them drain, and use my chef’s knife and cutting board to cut the fish into large chunks. I place it all in a medium mixing bowl, drizzle it with extra virgin olive oil, squeeze the juice from one lemon, and add a pinch of salt and ground black pepper. I gently stir it and place it aside for the final baking step.
The base of our Paella is where all the deep flavors begin to develop. I preheat a large sauté pan or stir fry pan—making sure it is ovenproof with a lid—on medium-high heat with 5 tablespoons of frying oil. I toss in 1 finely chopped yellow or white onion and sauté with occasional stirring until it is glossy and slightly seared, which takes about 3 to 4 minutes. Then, I add 1 diced yellow bell pepper and cook it for about a minute. While traditional paella was made without meat, including just fresh seafood, it is common in modern days to add chorizo. I add half a pound of raw chorizo and cook while stirring for 2 to 3 minutes until its surface is partially cooked and it releases some of its fat into the frying oil.
Next, it is time to add the rice to the Paella. I specifically use 1 and a half cups of arborio rice, though you can use other short-grain rice or white rice of your choice. I add the arborio rice directly into the large sauté pan with the frying oil and the rendered fat from the chorizo. I sauté the mixture while stirring continuously until the rice gets a beautiful glossy look. This usually takes about 3 to 5 minutes. Toasting the arborio rice this way helps the grains maintain their structure when we eventually add the crushed tomatoes and vegetable broth later in the cooking process.
Once the arborio rice is glossy and perfectly toasted, I deglaze the large sauté pan by adding 1 cup of white wine. I personally prefer to use a dry white wine for my Paella. I cook the mixture with constant stirring using a wooden spoon. You want to keep stirring until about half of the white wine gets absorbed by the arborio rice and evaporated. This step usually takes just about 1 minute, but it is absolutely essential for infusing the rice with a bright acidity before we introduce the vegetable broth, ground smoked paprika, and dried saffron.
Now we build the body of the Paella. I set my oven to preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Into the large sauté pan, I add 1 cup of canned crushed tomatoes—or tomato puree if you prefer—and 2 cups of vegetable broth or chicken broth. I season this rich liquid with 1 teaspoon of dried parsley, 1 teaspoon of ground smoked paprika, 2 cloves of grated garlic, a generous pinch of dried saffron, 1 teaspoon of salt, and half a teaspoon of black pepper. I thoroughly stir everything together so the vegetable broth, crushed tomatoes, ground smoked paprika, and dried saffron create an incredibly aromatic cooking liquid for the arborio rice.
For the final cooking stage of the Paella, I take the marinated fresh seafood and fish chunks from the medium mixing bowl and place them right on top of the arborio rice mixture. You can stir them in, but I usually keep them on the surface. I cover the pan with a lid or tinfoil and place it into the preheated 350-degree oven. I let it cook for about 20 to 30 minutes until the liquid gets absorbed and the arborio rice is fully cooked. Stirring during this phase is not necessary. If you have too much liquid while it is finishing in the oven, remove the lid and continue to cook to let the liquid evaporate. Once done, I remove it from the oven, squeeze one lemon over the top, and gently salt and pepper before serving!
(click on any ingredients and tool to learn more on CookingHub.com)
Advertisement:
Comments