Recipe: Duden Family Paella
I am someone who values gathering around the table, family style plates bright with flavor and color, and bottles of wine sitting next to the tea light candles. Though we’d never had it before, paella seemed to encompass all of those things in one. Images of our people gathered around one big pan, drinking wine from our honeymoon flowed in. So on my birthday last year, after many times lingering in the paella section of Sur La Table, we purchased our pan, and our adventures have begun.
That pan with the red handles has created some of our favorite meals at home, and has traveled to Kansas City and Connecticut, creating more memories around the table. And after many times creating this dish, it’s safe to say it tastes as good as those brightly colored photos look too.
The nights we’ve made paella in New England with Will’s family have been some moments that I will cherish. This week, my sister-in-law and I made it together. And in the process I finally wrote down the recipe. It’s a dish that truly does bring people together around one pan, cooking up sweet memories, and I am so excited to finally share it with all of you.
Ingredients:
4 cloves of garlic (minced/diced)
1 yellow onion (diced)
1 bunch of green onions (diced up through the green)
Olive oil
2 cups of paella rice (We use this kind though feel free to mix it up!)
1 1/2 boxes of chicken stock
1/8 tsp saffron threads
5 dashes of turmeric
1/2 tsp salt
1 red pepper, cut the long way
1 yellow pepper, cut the long way
1/4 tbsp fennel
shrimp (or your choice of fish or meat)
chorizo or hot italian sausage (or your choice of fish or meat)
handful of frozen peas
lemon slices
Recipe:
Over medium heat, pre-cook your meat and seafood. We like to use 1 pound of hot italian sausage with apple cider vinegar using this recipe from Bon Appetit, as we couldn’t find chorizo. Leave the juices in the pan, and set the cooked meat/seafood aside.
Add olive oil as needed, and cook the yellow onion and garlic over medium low heat.
After a few minutes, add the white portion of the diced green onions. (The green tops can be chopped and added toward the end.)
After the onions have begun to become translucent (just a few minutes), add the rice directly into the pan with the onions and garlic. Cook over medium low for 2 minutes until the rice begins to look translucent and less opaque.
Pour one full box of chicken stock over the rice and stir to incorporate evenly. Turn the heat to medium.
Add the saffron, dashes of turmeric from the bottle, and salt. (I like to taste and add more of the spices as needed. Be encouraged to vary from the suggestions above to your liking!)
Over medium heat, stir occasionally and bring to a boil. The key is getting the liquid to eventually be gone, while having the rice be soft and not crunchy. During this process, you may need to taste test to see if it’s soft. If not, add more of the chicken stock as needed. You should also adjust the heat lower if it seems the liquid is evaporating too quickly without cooking the rice. Keep in mind that it is desirable to have a crisp form on the bottom of the pan with paella. You will begin to stop stirring, and let it begin to cook with the bottom getting crispier over time.
After the rice starts to look like it’s cooking and the liquid begins to go down, (after 10 minutes or so), add the fennel and stir once.
Add the peppers. (We like to arrange them in a fun circular pattern!)
12 minutes later, add a few splashes of chicken stock as needed.
Add the seafood and meat. (We also like to arrange this around in the circular pattern.) Also add the remaining green onion parts at this time.
After a few minutes, add in the peas. Heat should be on low by this point if not already.
After the peas have begun to thaw, add in a few lemon slices around in the circle. Cover the pan with tin foil. If your rice was more firm at this point, keep the heat on low for 2 minutes while covered. Otherwise, turn off and let sit with the cover on, 10 minutes or so.
Remove the foil, and serve! Be sure that each person knows how to scrape the pan on to get the bottom crisp. Don’t miss squeezing the lemon wedge over each individual bowl. It truly ties the flavors together and makes for a bright finish!
We like to serve with a Rioja wine (where we honeymooned!) The Cune Rioja Crianza, La Rioja Alta Vina Alberdi Reserva, and Cune Vina Real Reserva are some of our favorites.