Spanish Seafood Paella for a family meal

Today we want to share a very special recipe for us. Paella is one of the most well-known dishes of Spanish cuisine worldwide and, although there’s many different types, seafood paella is hands-down our favourite. It has a spectacular flavour that varies greatly depending on what produce do you use and particularly how we make the fumet (seafood stock).

It brings back millions of memories with our family, enjoying a dish that we all love.

Delicious Seafood Spanish Paella

With our seafood paella recipe and very good quality ingredients, you will achieve a rice with the perfect texture and full of awesome flavour. We decided to make sure that the protagonist in the dish is the stock, and therefore we only add king prawns on top of the rice, but you can include mussels and clams if you want.

We hope you like it!

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Prep Time 1 hr

Cook Time 40 mins

Resting time 5 mins

Total Time 1 hr 45 mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mediterranean, Spanish

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

  

• 750 mL water
• 1 medium onion for the stock
• olive oil
• 250 g monkfish
• 6-7 king prawns (3 for the stock, the rest for the rice)
• springs of parsley to taste
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 green pepper
• 1 red pepper
• 2 medium tomatoes or 1 big
• 6-8 strands of saffron
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tablespoon Spanish mild pimentón or mild paprika
• 200 g bomba rice or albufera rice
• salt to taste

Instructions

 

• First, we are going to prepare a fumet (a seafood stock), which will give the dish a very distinctive flavour.

  In a big pot at medium-low heat we sauté an onion cut in half with some olive oil.
  
• Once it gets translucent, we also add the monkfish in smaller chunks (and whole king prawns if we have some) so that everything browns a little bit.
  
• After 5 minutes, we add 750 mL of water to the pot, as well as some parsley and bay leaves and let this in a boiling for an hour.

  If it reduces too much, feel free to add more water.

  In the meantime, we are going to prepare the rest of ingredients.
  
• Whilst the stock is boiling, we chop the peppers in small chunks. We also do the same with the garlic.
  
• In our case you want to, we have remove the tomato skin prior to blending. You can find how in the notes section at the end of this other recipe.
  
• Now we can blend the tomatoes.

  Once we have obtained a very liquid, soup-like texture we add half a teaspoon of sugar to the tomatoes.
  
• After the stock has been boiling for an hour or so, we strain the content of the pot. For this dish we will use the liquid, but you can find a recipe to use the seafood leftovers at the end of this recipe.

  We should have around 500-525 mL of stock, otherwise we add more water.

  In a mortar we crush the strands of saffron and add them to the strained liquid. Add salt to taste and mix everything very well.

  The idea is that we adjust the salt levels to the stock now so that we don’t have to add more salt to the rice later.

  In a pan that does not have a Teflon surface we add a bit of olive oil at medium heat to sauté the prawns.

  Once the prawns start turning slightly brown or dark pink, we incorporate the half onion we have triturated earlier and after a couple of minutes, the sliced garlic.
  
• Once the stock is ready, it’s time to prepare the rice.

  In a pan that does not have a Teflon surface we add a bit of olive oil at medium-high heat to sauté the prawns until golden brown in the surface. A few minutes per side should be enough.

  Once they are golden, remove from the pan and reserve.
  
• At medium heat, we sauté the pepper in the pan with a tablespoon of olive oil.
  
• Once the pepper is tender and slightly brown, we add the chopped garlic.
  
• After 3 or 4 minutes we add the tomatoes to the pan.
  
• Once the liquid of the tomatoes has reduced quite a lot, we incorporate the Spanish pimentón (or mild paprika) and mix everything very well.

  It is very important to keep mixing so that the spices don’t get burnt.
  
• After half a minute, we add the rice and mix very well once more.
  
• Now it is the time to add all the stock (fumet) and increase the heat level to high so that it starts boiling.

  Once it reaches the boiling point, we cover the pan and let it cook at low-medium heat for around 15 minutes.

  In our case we have a ceramic hob with 9 levels and placed it on level 3.

  After those 15 minutes, we uncover it, place the cooked prawns on the surface of the rice and let it cook at the same heat level for 3 more minutes to reduce the liquid. After this time, it should look like there is not a lot of moisture, otherwise leave it for a couple more minutes.

  Finally, if you want to get a crunchy layer at the bottom (socarrat), you can put the heat at maximum level for 30 seconds.

  Then remove it from the heat and let it rest for 5 minutes.
  
• And… our Seafood Paella is ready! Bon appétit
  

Notes

1. You can prepare some amazing Spanish croquetas (croquettes) with the leftover seafood. You can follow our recipe and just change the “cochinita pibil” filling for seafood. Make sure you use a food processor or a blender to get a homogeneous mixture of seafood before starting to prepare the dish.
2. If you prefer it, you can just use green pepper, less sweet than the red one.
3. You can add clams or mussels if you want.
4. For a more authentic paella, use a pan as big as possible so that the layer of rice is super thin.
5. If you can find Spanish mild pimentón, it is way better for this recipe than any other type of paprika.

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