Spanish Paella

You can't really go to Spain without eating and falling in love with one of the nations favourite dishes: paella. A simple and hearty pan of meat, seafood, vegetables and rice, delicately flavoured with paprika, saffron and garlic. It's perfectly made to share with family and friends.

Our church sent a team of 5 representatives to Spain last week to visit David and Jacky, the missionary couple who we have been supporting for the past few years. The team's mission was to visit, share and help with pratical things such as painting the retreat centre. Along the way they tried the local food, picked almonds, and helped themselves to the abundance of fresh grapes straight from the vine. The paella was good enough for my mum to buy a packet of spice mix to make it for us to try!

I remember when I went to Barcelona, back in 2003, with four other school friends. It was the first time that I went abroad without my family. Thinking back, it was a bit of a random trip and I don't really remember much about it. It was so hot....so hot that a couple of my friends didn't want to leave the hotel. When we finally managed to leave, we went to the half-finished Sagrada Familia, which was amazing, and we hopped onto a tour bus and went to the zoo and the beach, for free.....The only thing that I remember eating was paella and pizza! May be I even tried some of the local Sangria!      

RECIPE for SEAFOOD PAELLA

Not sure how authentic this is, but it tastes pretty good

STEP 1: Fry some chopped garlic and onion in a little oil until softened.

 Add chopped vegetables (any that you like)

 STEP 2: When the vegetables have soften, add the rice, chicken stock and the paella mix (saffron and paprika)

 

STEP 3: When the rice has about 10 minutes left to cook, add the seafood to the pan. Unshelled seafood tastes amazing, but shelled will also be sufficient. The fresher the fish, the better. 

 Arrange the seafood over the rice, in a beautiful way.
Leave to cook until seafood is cooked. Cover with foil and lid if not cooking well. Take care to make sure that the bottom of the pan does not burn.

STEP 4: EAT and ENJOY with other people!!

Definately worth going to Spain for!