4.23.2012

Our First Paella (Secret Recipe Club)

Happy Secret Recipe Club Reveal Day! This is the club in which we are assigned a food blog and we make and post a recipe from it. Our assignment for April was the blog Foodness Gracious by Gerry Speirs. Gerry is a stay-at-home-dad who loves to cook and bake and has tons of amazing recipes on his blog - from crackers to caramels and curries to cookies. His photos are drool-worthy and his recent 3-in-a-row series of macaron recipes made us crave those little French bites of deliciousness. But you know when you have a gift certificate to Williams-Sonoma and you just have to buy a paella pan even though you have never made paella? Yeah? So do we. So when we saw Gerry's recipe for seafood paella, we grabbed our shiny new pan and got to work.

Seafood stock...we didn't make our own.

Trader Joe's Saffron - a great product at a great price.


Our paella pan. It's not 17 inches wide.

Gerry's recipe can be found here. Note that he mentions that it makes "a lot of paella." Note that while he admits that it's okay with paella to be a little loose with the measuring, he also mentions that his paella pan is 17 inches wide, a fact we overlooked when we decided to follow his recipe with little to no tweaks. In our 15 inch paella pan. Yeah. The convo went something like, "Honey, are you sure it says four cups of rice? That seems like a lot." "Yes, for the third time, it says 4 cups of rice. He used arborio, but it should be fine." Well, there were some moments when things were overflowing onto the stove. And we ended up calling in not one, not two, but three of the neighbors to help us eat dinner (which they didn't mind at all!).

The Evolution of Our Paella (in pictures):





Everyone (and in the end, that was about seven people total) loved the flavors in this dish. We used shrimp, clams and chorizo because we love that spicy meatiness paired with the seafood. It was really delicious and in the end every bit of rice was eaten. However, our lack of attention to the size of our pan vs. Gerry's resulted in a very crowded pan which then resulted in a consistency more like risotto than traditional paella. (Which isn't horrible!) What follows is the recipe we actually made, based on Gerry's. But next time, we will use half the amount of rice because of the size of our pan, and otherwise follow Gerry's recipe for yumminess.

Ingredients:

8 cups seafood broth
1 teaspoon saffron
1/2 cup olive oil
2 medium onions, diced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, with juice
6 cloves garlic, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
4 cups medium grain rice *(depending on the size of your paella pan!)
1/2 pound chorizo
1 pound littleneck clams
1/2 pound raw shrimp, peeled and deveined

Heat the seafood stock with the saffron in a large pot. In a large paella pan heat 1/2 cup of olive oil. Add the onion and cook until translucent. Add the bell pepper and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring often. Add the diced tomatoes and garlic and simmer for another 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour in 4 cups of rice and stir until it's all been covered by the tomato mixture. Slowly add the stock, stirring gently so that the rice gets coated and sits in the stock.***(See note below)

Continue to cook until rice begins to become tender. Add the chorizo and continue to cook 5 minutes. Add the clams by stuffing each one into the rice, making sure they are mostly covered by the paella. After about another 25-30 minutes, once nearly all of the stock has been absorbed, add the shrimp and cook another five minutes until shrimp turn pink. Then take the pan off the heat, cover with some foil, and allow to rest for 7-10 minutes.

Note: ***(this part took some time because all the stock wouldn't fit in the pan, so we added as much as could fit, stirred until it was absorbed, added more and continued to do this until all the stock was gone, obviously leading to our risotto-like consistency).


Secret Recipe Club




22 comments:

Teri said...

Even with your "bumps" in putting this together, I think it looks and sounds delicious! What a great recipe.! I love how you did the photos!

Kathy Walker said...

Paella is delicious and yours looks fabulous! We haven't had it in a long time...guess I need to buy a pan so I can make it more often! Great SRC selection.

Erin said...

You're right - that's a LOT of Paella. But it looks absolutely heavenly!!!

Chelsy Ethridge said...

Whoa, I am still afraid to make a paella, but you made it look so effortless! Looks amazingly tasty!

Our Eating Habits said...

I had Foodness Graciuos last month, what a fun blog! Great pick, glad you got to use your shiny new pan :)

Lacy @ NYCityEats said...

Um YUM!! I totally need to invest in a paella pan and then make this immediately! This looks incredible! Wish I could have a big plate of paella for dinner tonight! Any leftovers?? ;)

Devon @ deli-cute-essen said...

Great story to go with your yummy looking dish. Made me laugh and crave some yummy Paella!

Unknown said...

This looks fantastic!

Gerry @Foodness Gracious said...

Thanks for your awesome words! I'm glad you chose the paella and yes it does make a lot :) Yours looks amazing and so cool you used chorizo!
Thanks again, and take care!

Mindy said...

Hahaha! I'm totally one of those people who bought a paella pan because I thought I'd use it a lot. I lived in Spain for almost a year, so was convinced I would. I've had it for about 3 years, and it's been used once...by a friend! ;-) This looks fabulous!

Unknown said...

Ohhhhh this sounds really good! I've never actually made paella, but your story made me laugh. I may just have to give this a try. Thanks so much for sharing - great to be in Group C with you. :)

wendyweekendgourmet said...

Great job...isn't paella fun? I made my first batch last spring and had a lot of fun. Isn't Gerry's blog great? Good selection...glad to be in SRC with you!

Aly ~ Cooking In Stilettos said...

Paella is the perfect food for sharing :) Looks amazing!

Christine @ Christine's Kitchen Chronicles said...

Wowza that's a lot of paella and they all look so delicious! Great pick!

Jen @ Jens Favorite Cookies said...

Mmm... I've never made paella before. It looks delicious. Maybe I should try this one!

Jo said...

I've been there before! When I made gumbo last year for the first time, I had to split it into 2 pots halfway through, I ran out of room! Your paella looks amazing, lucky neighbors too!

yummychunklet said...

I'm making a paella during my birthday month in May. Thanks for sharing!

heidi said...

Great walk-through of the recipe! The colours of a paella are amazing - it's been way too long since I had any!

Unknown said...

paella is one of those things that i always want to order in restaurants but can't because it's massive and my partner won't eat seafood.... do i hear a girl's night coming on?? um, yes.

happy src reveal from a group D member!

Eliotseats said...

Gerry's blog cracks me up! When we visited the Spanish Table in Santa Fe we were intrigued by the HUGE paella pans for sale there. We wanted one (just because). We have never made paella either. You may have inspired us.

Lomo said...

Wow! That looks absolutely fabulous! I am impressed that is all fint into that pan! Well done!

Anne@FromMySweetHeart said...

It's hard to believe this was your first paella! It is picture perfect! I have yet to make it..it seems a bit daunting to me. But you've inspired me! What a great choice. And I will have to check out Gerry's blog!