Quick Prawn Paella

Ok, firstly, apologies. It's been far too long since I wrote anything new here. I've been Tweeting (@blokeinkitchen) but that doesn't excuse the tardiness.

Secondly, I know this isn't very appropriate for the season (Christmas dinner recipe will be appearing shortly, honest) but I'm cooking this now and wanted to share it with you.

Paella, for me, is a bit of a pain. Getting those grains of arborio rice to just the right consistency ain't easy. If you want it done properly, go to Ayo's on Nerja beach in Spain. In the meantime, here goes...

What you'll need:

300g raw prawns (with shells)
2 good glugs of olive oil
1 onion
1 carrot
1 teaspoon of tomato puree
500ml chicken stock
6oz basmati rice
2 cloves of garlic
3 cloves
3 cardamoms
1 piece of cinamon
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
2 large tomatoes
1/2 a red pepper
1 handful of defrosted frozen peas
1 chunk of chorizo
A handful of fresh parsley

Here's how you do it:

First, you need to make a stock. Take the shells off the prawns and set them aside, you need 'em. De-vein the prawns by running a very sharp knife down the length of the back of the prawn where you'll see a black vein. Pluck this out and discard.

Finely chop the onion and the carrot. Gently heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the carrot and half the onion and fry gently until you get a bit of colour in the onion and the carrot is softened a little.

Chuck in the prawn shells and continue frying until they change colour. Add the tomato puree and cook out for a couple of minutes, giving everything a good old stir then add the chicken stock.

Now, this is an important bit, so pay attention.

You'll have noticed that I've been specific with the amounts of stock and rice. Normally I wouldn't be so bothered. Amounts of 'some' are usually my method, but this is different. This actually matters because this is how you get the rice 'just-so'.

Bring the stock to the boil then turn the heat down and simmer for 15 minutes. This should reduce the stock to around 300ml. Drain the stock through a seive into a measuring jug to check. If it is less than 300ml, top it up with a bit of boiling water. If there's a little more, put it back in the pan and reduce it a little more, then strain into the measuring jug again. Discard the stuff from the seive.

Add another glug of olive oil into the empty frying pan. Add the rest of the onion, the chorizo (skin removed and roughly chopped - the chorizo, not the skin) the finely chopped garlic, the cardamoms, cloves, cinamon and turmeric and fry gently until the onion has softened.

Add the rice. Give it a good old stir around to get it coated in the seasoned oil.

Important bit No. 2.

Add the stock, add a bit of salt and pepper, bring it to the boil, turn the heat down as low as it will go, put a lid on the pan and leave it for 10 minutes. Don't take the lid of and most definitely don't stir it. As long as you've stuck to the volumes of stock and rice above, it will be perfect.

While the rice is cooking, peel, de-seed and chop the tomatoes, and do the same to the red pepper. Do I need to tell you how to do this? Hmm, possibly, but I haven't got time right now. I do intend to add a section full of useful tips like this once I get the blokeinthekitchen website back up and running but with currently work commitments this is a bit tricky, but I digress. If anyone wants to know how to do this, Tweet me and I'll either reply on Twitter or stick a separate post here, whichever I get time for.

When the 10 minutes is up, take the lid off the rice, add the prawns, the peas and the chopped tomato, pepper and parsley. Give it a gentle stir then put the lid back on. Leave it for 5 minutes or so, until the prawns have turned pink all over and are cooked through.

Actually, it's at this point you could add anything you want - squid, mussels, cooked chicken - whatever takes your fancy. Just make sure that everything is cooked through and warm before you serve it up with some ice cold, crisp, dry white wine.

I'll hopefully be able to add photo's to this very soon. In the meantime, enjoy!



The Bloke