Paella

Paella

Paella looks like a very challenging dish but it's actually quite easy to make. The challenge comes from getting all the ingredients in Singapore.  

Paella looks like a very challenging dish but it's actually quite easy to make. The challenge comes from getting all the ingredients in Singapore.

For 5 Pax

Ingredients

• 1 Onion, finely diced
• I clove garlic, finely diced 
• 1 red bell peppers
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of 
• pepper
• 1 Tomato ( Skin the tomato, de-seed and dice finely)
• Olive oil
• 1 bay leaf 
• a generous pinch of saffron ( Saffron is a very expensive spice and cannot be bought at ntuc. I bought mine at an Indian shop where they sell lots of spices.) Soak the Saffron in a little bit of water. This is the spice that will give your rice the nice yellow colour. 

• 10 prawns, peeled. ( you may also put in other seafood such as mussels.)
• 10 pieces of fresh scallops.
• 2 Sotongs (cut into rings)
• chicken fillet ( cut into strips and add a little bit of chicken marinate.)
• Salmon (to pan fry and add on at the end)
• 2 cups of paella rice ( Almost impossible to find in Singapore. Substitute with Arborio rice. For my first attempt, I substituted with Japanese pearl rice. It tasted good but apparently, Japanese pearl rice is a poor substitute.)
• 2 cups of chicken stock

Cooking Method

Step 1: Heat the olive oil in a pan. Stir fry the seafood. Once the seafood is cooked, place them on a plate for later use.

Step 2: Fry the chicken fillet until golden brown. 

Step 3: Add in the onion, garlic, bell peppers, tomato, salt and pepper and fry.

Step 4: Pour in the cooked rice and stir until evenly mixed.

Step 5: Add the Chicken broth, bay leaf and saffron ( I only pour in the water). Do not stir the paella again. 

Step 6: Add in the seafood and let it simmer for a while until the chicken broth have been absorbed into the rice. You can choose how dry you want your rice to be. For those who like their rice drier, just simmer it for a longer time.
Step 7: Scoop out the portion of paella for each individual and add on the Salmon. Then it's ready to be served.