Fish Paella Recipe

Hello!

Well this is my first post in english, please forgive me if I do not use the right words for certain things, but I am not used to talk about cooking issues in Shakespeare's language.

Said that, I am writing this post because a new friend I met yesterday in Sri Lanka, is going to cook a fish paella in few days, and she needed a proper receipe, so let’s go.

FISH STOCK

First of all we need to prepare a stock with fish and vegetables:

Ingredients for aprox. 2-3 littres (67oz-101oz) of Fish Stock:

1 kg (2,20 lb) of rockfish and or white fish, small crabs and head of monkfish.
1 tomato
1 onion
1 leek
2 potatos
3-4 litres of water

Preparation:

In a big pot, fry all the vegetables with olive oil during 4 or 5 minutes.

Then add all the fish, crabs, etc and fry them together with the vegetables for a few more minutes.

After that, add the water and leave it boiling for a maximum time of 30 minutes. And we will have the stock ready. As simple as that. This could be prepared the day before or the same day that we are cooking the rice, but it also could be kept in the freezer for a couple of months.

FISH (PAELLA) RICE

Now let’s go to the ingredients and preparation of this Mediterranean dish.

Ingredients for 6-8 people:

1 kg (2,20 lb) of calamari or cuttlefish cut in very small parts
300 gr (10 oz) of prawns
200 gr (7 oz) of swordfish cut in small cubes
250 gr (9 oz) of mussels
3-4 grated tomatoes
2 garlic clove with peel
1 kg of white rice
200 cl olive oil
Saffron
Paprika
Salt

Tools:

Paella pan. It is necessary a flat big pan for cooking any of the Valencian rices, as one of the key factor is that layer of rice must be the thinest possible. A deep rice layer will never be as good.

Gas stove: it is also recommended a circular gas stove that covers all the paella pan. If it is difficult for you to find it, maybe could be cooked using all the stoves of the kitchen at once, but your strengh will be requiered to make sure that fire is equaly shared all around the pan.


Preparation:

Pour the oil in the paella pan and, when hot, put the garlic and pranws, salt them, and fry for a couple of minutes, after that move the prawns away, we will add them at the end.





Then put the swordfish and fry it during 3-4 minutes. Add the calamari or cuttlefish, salt and keep frying everything all together. Be carefull because it can splash and pieces of calamari could fly to you.




 Try the calamary, and when it is tender enough to be eaten, not seeming gum, put a coffe size spoon of paprika and pour the greated tomatoes.




Fry the tomato for aproximately 5 min. and after that add the rice and fry it for another 3-5 min. It is very important to stir frequently otherwise it will stick on to the pan.




Pour the stock, must be taken in consideration that double quantity of stock in litres will be needed, than the rice we want to put in kilos. So, in our recipe for 6-8 people, we will pour 2 litres of stock as we are preparing 1 kg of rice. Add salt at your choice trying the stock with a spoon.

Add the clean mussles, they will be cooked with the own vapor of the boiling stock, you will see how they open by themselves. Add the prawns too.




Cook it with middle fire until the stock is over, then put out the fire. It should take between 12 to 15 minutes. If less, cover the pan with paper or aluminium foil after puting out the fire and leave it for a few minutes. If after 15 minuntes, a bit of stock still remains in the pan, put out the fire and do not cover it, the rice will absorve it.





One trick, keep some stock a part and, if you find that after few minutes boiling the rice, there is too few stock, you can pour some more in order to finnish the cooking well.

Well, I tried to explain it the best I could, if you have any doubts about how to cook it or any suggestions about how to improve my culinary english, please be welcome to write me.

Bon profit!