Spanish Seafood Paella (Paella de Marisco)
Bomba rice cooked without stirring in saffron-infused seafood stock over a sofrito of red pepper, garlic, grated tomato and smoked paprika, topped with prawns, squid and mussels, and finished with a lightly toasted socarrat.
Ingredients
Stock
- 1.2 litres (5 cups) low-salt fish or seafood stock
- a generous pinch of saffron threads (about 0.3 g)
Seafood
- 12 large shell-on raw prawns (about 400 g / 14 oz)
- 300 g (10 oz) cleaned squid, in rings
- 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) live mussels, scrubbed and debearded
- 200 g (7 oz) monkfish or hake chunks (optional)
Sofrito and rice
- 5 tbsp (75 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 red pepper (about 150 g), diced
- 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 large tomatoes (about 300 g), grated, skins discarded
- 2 tsp sweet smoked paprika (pimentón dulce)
- 350 g (1 ¾ cups) bomba rice
- 1 ½ tsp fine salt, adjusted to the stock
- 100 g (⅔ cup) peas or flat green beans (optional)
To serve
- 2 lemons, in wedges
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley
- allioli (optional)
Instructions
- Heat the stock and add the saffron. Keep warm.
- Heat the oil in the paella pan over medium-high heat. Sear the prawns 1 minute a side and remove. Cook the squid and fish 2 minutes and remove.
- Over medium heat, cook the pepper 5 minutes, add the garlic for 30 seconds, then the grated tomato for 6–8 minutes until jammy.
- Stir in the paprika for 10–15 seconds, then the rice for 1–2 minutes.
- Return the squid, add all the hot stock, the salt and peas, stir once to spread evenly, and don't stir again.
- Boil 8–10 minutes, then simmer on medium-low 8–10 minutes.
- With 6 minutes to go, push in the mussels hinge-down and lay the prawns and fish on top.
- When the rice is just tender and the liquid absorbed, raise the heat for 1–2 minutes until the rice crackles to form the socarrat.
- Cover loosely and rest 5 minutes. Serve with parsley, lemon and allioli.
Notes
- Bomba absorbs about three times its volume of stock. With Sénia or Bahía rice, start with 1 litre.
- Keep the rice layer 1–2 cm (½–¾ in) deep. Scale down rice and stock for a smaller pan.
- On a small burner, rotate the pan often, straddle two burners, or finish in a 200°C (400°F) oven for 12–15 minutes.
- Discard any mussels that don't open.
- Refrigerate leftovers within an hour and eat within 1 day.