Arroz con mariscos

Arroz con Mariscos (Seafood rice)

The beauty of this dish is that it cooks like a paella but isn't technically one, which means you can throw out all the authentic stuff and throw in whatever you like. You don't even need to use seafood, substitute with chicken and rabbit if you can get it. It also fits in one pan so it saves on dishes. In fact, if you serve it "family style", everyone can eat straight from the pan, saving on dishes.

We used our paella pan for this recipe. It was a great success.

For the recipe here, substitute the rings for any squid you can get; we sometimes use small whole squid (which the Spanish call "sepitas"), bodies and tentacles separated. Spain and France have something called a langostine or langostino which are something similar to a prawn crossed with a lobster. The chrorizo is a nice addition, giving extra flavour, but you can omit it if you are looking for "seafood-only".

serves 4

2 medium-size squid tubes cut into rings
8 mussels
8 large unpeeled prawns (or 4 langostines)
500g of rice
1 piece chorizo, sliced and quartered
500ml of seafood stock (or water)
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
400g can of diced tomatoes (or sofrito)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp sweet paprika powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
Fresh coriander, to serve

Heat some olive oil in a large fry pan. Cook the squid and chorizo until lightly browned.

Add the onions to the chorizo and saute until soft. The onion should soak up the flavour of the chorizo. Add the garlic and cook until you can smell it.

Add the spices along with some black pepper and stir in. Once aromatic (about 1 minute), add the tomato and stir for a minute or two.

Pour in the seafood stock and bring to a gentle boil.

Add the rice lengthways so that you create a small mound which runs from one side of the pan to the other. Take a spatula and gently "shovel" the rice around the pan so it is distributed evenly. We call this the paella technique because it the same technique used when making a traditional paella. What it does is it prevents the rice from breaking and releasing starch which will turn your dish "gluey".

Once the absorption process is well under way (about 10 - 15 minutes), start to add the seafood. Add the mussels lightly into the rice to start the cooking process. Lay the prawns through the middle of the pan, pushing them down slightly into the rice.

Eventually the rice will finish absorbing all of the liquid and will begin to crackle. This is the infamous "socarrat" or "paella crust" forming. Be careful, you want it brown, not black. Use your nose. You don't want to smell burning.

Once you are satisfied with the crust, adjust with salt and pepper as needed and serve with the coriander.