An odd moment and paella

paella with sausage and chicken

Something very odd and perhaps a bit surreal happened tonight...I decided to make paella. That in itself isn't so odd, but what was odd was that on the foodnetwork, Bobby had a paella throwdown...I, having no prior knowledge of this, made my first paella. This, to me was a pretty cool and very odd. Whatever, weird moment but here's my masterpiece. Though good, I am sure not nearly as good as Bobby's. In this paella I included chicken, shrimp and some delicious garlic/pepper sausage I found at my local grocery store.

The recipe turned out pretty good for a first attempt, especially considering thatI watched the darned pot the entire time it was cooking (from start to finish about 1hr) because I was afraid of overcooking or under cooking the rice! I used jasmine instead of arborio because that's what I had on hand. I wish I had also included mussels, clams, the arborio and that I had a real paella pot on hand, but this turned out pretty good considering it was cooked in a dutch oven. I would make this again, but would use arborio next time.

Saffron broth:

chicken stock (1 small box)

1 stalk celery sliced

1/4 tsp saffron

1/2 tsp paprika

1 bay leaf

1/2 lemon

shells from a 1/2 lb shrimp

2 chicken breast carcases

1/2 onion (sweet and small)

2 c water

2 cloves garlic crushed.

Let all ingredients simmer for about 1 hour over med to low heat. If stock gets to dry add more water. Season to taste. Reserve any stock in the freezer (freezes beautifully) for another dish.

Ps. I also found some really nice plates and bowls at the thrift store today (thrift store shopping is my other hobby and passion:) and thought they displayed the meal beautifully.

besos

Julia

FYI...Here are some pics of an authentic paella Jason, my family and I had in Paraguay at a Spanish friend of my father's house, Don Pedro's.He served his Paella with mayo in lieu of aioli...another component I didn't add to my paella.