Mixed Paella (Meat, Seafood and veggies)

[Rancherstriker]

As requested, here's my recipe on Paella. There are a lot of different ways to make paella, with each one claiming to be the best one. This is a tasty one and if steps are followed to the letter, it should turn out great. This is the recipe that I used to compete with a few years ago, and still cook it for family and friends. I will be pasting pictures from different times, since I haven't fully documented a step-by-step photo guide for this, or the pictures have my ugly mug on them (hey, the focus is on the food!). To prevent confusion on the ingredients I will be using pictures on the ingredients that I'm not that clear on their english name. Sorry if this makes the post image-heavy, as this is my first post and I'm not that familiar with the forum tools.

If anyone have any questions, please let me know! This is the first time I write a step by step recipe, so it could be a little confusing.

Serves about 14kgs of Paella, enough to feed 28 people. Use a 70cm (about 28”) paella. If anyone needs a recipe for a smaller pan, I have the proportions for about 7kgs (enough for 14 people) and a bigger 25kg one.

Ingredients

1. Saffron Sauce
   • 5 roma tomatoes
   • 2.5gr of saffron Mancha grade
   • 5 turmeric roots (You need the 5 to stain water, you will only use about 2" of one in the paella)
   • 1/3 white onion
2. Paella
   1. Veggies
      • 1 Garlic bulb, finely minced
      • 1 white onion, medium-big, finely minced
      • 500gr of green beans, cut in 1” pieces
      • 2 yellow bell pepper, julienned in thin stripes
      • 2 Green bell pepper, julienned in thin stripes
      • 2 Red bell pepper, julienned in thin stripes
      • 2.5kg rice (DO NOT USE NONSTICK, PRECOOKED, etc. Use regular rice if you aren’t able to find Bomba or Calasparra rice)
   2. Seafood
      • 30 venus clams (Known here as Chirlas)
      • 10 chocolata clams (Big, brown shells)
      • 1kg of mussels, cleaned and debearded.
      • 2kg squid (You can use either cleaned tubes cut into rings, or giant squid meat, diced into 1” cubes)
      • 2 kg of 16-20 or 21-25 headless shrimp, cleaned and deveined (reserve the shells)
      • 2kg of baby octopus, boiled until tender on water with bay leaves. Do not add salt, as this will make octopus tough.
   3. Meats
      • 2.3kg of spareribs, cut in pieces about 1” wide and 2” long. (This particular cut is called "Costilla cargada de Puerco" – Loaded pork rib in Spanish-talking countries
      • 
      • 1.5kg of chicken wings, split into 3 parts (drummette, wingette and tip). Reserve the tip for stock
      • 450gr of spicy Spanish chorizo (Palacios brand is supreme. If you can find it, use no other) sliced. Do not slice it too thin or you will burn it.
      • 
3. Stock
   • 5lt of water
   • Shrimp Boullion powder or cubes (Enough for 3 lts of stock)
   • Chicken Boullion powder or cubes (enough for 5lts of stock)
   • 3 big blue crabs, if you cannot find big, use 2 small ones for each 1.5lts of water
   • 10 garlic cloves
   • 1 onion, split into thirds
   • Reserved shrimp shells
   • Reserved wing tips.
4. Optional stuff (Making it pretty, but won’t add anything to the flavor)
   • Crab claws
   • Artichokes, split down the middle
   • Asparagus
     • Boiled whole lobster, crab or any other big, showy crustacean
5. Random spices
   • Salt
   • Pepper
   • Garlic Pepper
   • Olive Oil

Preparation

1. In your kitchen:
   1. Saffron sauce:
      1. In a small saucepan, put the turmeric roots in boiling water. Wait until the water is tinted yellow and the roots are soft.
      2. Take a cup of the boiling turmeric water and soak the saffron on it.
      3. Take a medium root from the water, (about 1”) and slice it into round pieces.
      4. Throw into a blender the seeded tomatoes, the 1/3 onion, the cup of hot water with the soaked saffron and the sliced turmeric root. Blend it till it forms a yellow sauce. Put it into a glass container (it will stain easily anything made of plastic) and set aside.
   2. Stock
      1. Just throw the ingredients into a pot, stirring occasionally. When the water starts boiling, lower the heat to keep it warm. You do NOT want this to get cold.

1. Outside (Yes, outside. Gas burners are not safe to use indoors, and you need the space to sort up all the ingredients)
   1. Set your gas burner on a level surface, put the paella on top of it, and light it up at low flame, enough to heat up the pan.
   2. Put a little olive oil in the center, and check if the pan is level. This is very important down the road, since you want the ingredients to be covered equally. Leveling the pan later will be harder, since it will be loaded and heavier. The warm pan will heat up the oil and make it less viscous, so if your paella is not level, you will see the oil move around. Once it’s level, proceed.
   3. Raise the flame to medium-high. Start by sauteeing the shrimp with olive oil and some garlic pepper. You can use salt and pepper if you don’t have garlic pepper. Once it’s pink, remove it from the pan and keep it in a covered bowl. Leave the oil in the pan
   4. Add the minced garlic and onion to the pan. Add oil as needed. When the onion starts getting translucent, add the julienned bell peppers. Stir until the bell pepper just start to get cooked, the bell peppers start to go soft. (The picture has bacon into the mix. Feel free to add minced bacon, though it doesn't add much at this point).
      
   5. Add the pork and stir with the garlic, onion and peppers. If you need to add more oil, do so. Season with salt and pepper. Stir ocasionally
      
   6. When the pork is browned, but not fully cooked (about 20 mins), add the chicken drumettes and wingettes. Add the sliced chorizo. Stir with all the ingredients. You shouldn’t need to add more oil unless the pan is dry. The pork, chicken and chorizo should render enough fat to prevent this, but you can add more oil if needed, just do not add too much. The chorizo will stain the ingredients a reddish-brown color. Don't worry about that.
      
   7. When the chicken is about halfway cooked (about 20 mins) add the squid and stir into the ingredients. The squid will release a lot of water, don’t worry about it.
   8. After about 15 mins, the squid should be almost cooked. Using a colander, pour stock into the pan, just below halfway the capacity of the pan. Wait until the stock is boiling.
   9. Add the saffron sauce stirring it into the ingredients, and ensure it is mixed with the stock you just poured.
   10. Lower the fire to low
   11. Add the rice in a circular motion. Try to get the rice evenly spread, without stirring it. You can lightly stir it to ensure it gets everywhere, but do your utmost to not stir it.
       
   12. Add the clams and mussels, burying them halfway into the rice
   13. Bury the baby octopus into the rice
   14. Add the cooked shrimp trying to cover the paella evenly. Whatever juice is on the shrimp bowl, add it.
   15. On top, add whatever you decided to garnish the paella with. Keep in mind, if you add raw lobster or crabs, they can release an unsightly white fluid on top of your rice.
   16. Use aluminmum foil to craft a cover for your paella. It is important to prevent steam escaping from the pan.
   17. Add enough stock to cover the rice evenly (this is where leveling the pan comes into play). The stock shouldn’t be almost at the rim of the pan. If it does, keep in mind you will have dripping stock into your floor. Have a mop ready. Try to cover the rice, not the seafood.
   18. Once the stock is boiling, lower the fire to as low as possible without it going out (you will have to watch out for the wind, as it can easily put the flame out)
       Your paella should look like this, just before you cover it. Notice the visible stock alongside the pan.
       
   19. Cover the paella with the aluminum foil cover. Tighten it up at the borders to prevent steam from escaping.
       
   20. Get a chair, wait for 30 minutes with the flame on low. You should be able to hear the boiling stock inside the paella at first.
   21. After the 30 minutes are up, uncover a small portion, and with a thin spatula, check for doneness of the rice at the bottom. It should be done and wet. The rice on top of the paella should be al dente, cooked, but still firm.
   22. Cover the paella and turn off the flame.
   23. Allow for a resting period of 30 minutes. This will allow the rice to finish cooking and absorbing liquids.
   24. Once the 30 minutes rest period is up, sound the dining bell and enjoy. Try to serve the paella in an orderly fashion (i.e. don’t allow people to pick stuff out, you should aim for each portion to have enough of all the ingredients)

Your Paella should look like this:




Enjoy! Hope this was comprehensive enough!

[gcdmd]

Beeeyooteefull!!!!!

Muchisimas gracias.

[W.A.]

Thanks! I just bought this paella and plan on making this today on my Kamado Joe! Probably not as awesome as the one in your picture though...

[Rancherstriker]

Good luck! Just watch out for the temperature and it should be fine!