Paella

Joint chicken and retain the breasts sliced lengthways into two, and the legs. Break up the remainder of carcass, and add along with the thighs to a large saucepan. Cover with two pints/litre of water. Add a peeled onion, one teaspoonful of salt and some crushed black peppercorns. Simmer uncovered for 45 minutes or so to make 1.5 pints of stock.

Half or quarter chorizos lengthways and cut into thin slices. Skin and quarter the tomatoes. Remove the stalks and seeds from the red peppers and cut into thin strips.

Cut away the bone from the monkfish, and then cut each half on the bias into medaillons around a centimetre thick.

Have a large warm shallow dish ready in addition to the paella dish itself before preparing the paella. If there seems to be a lot of steps below, they are just aimed at cooking each ingredients for the right amount of time.

Salt and pepper the chicken pieces and rub all over with paprika. Add the olive oil to the cooking pan and brown the chicken legs for around ten minutes. Add the chicken breast and chorizos and cook turning for another five minutes or so. Remove the chicken and chorizos with a slotted spoon to the warm dish.

Add the prawns to the pan and cook turning for a few minutes or so, don’t worry if they don’t go completely pink at this point. Salt and pepper the monkfish, add to the prawns and cook on both sides for a couple of minutes. Remove the prawns and fish to the warm dish.

Add the quartered tomatoes to the pan, and cook pressing down with a spatula until mushy. Add the red peppers and cook for a further few minutes. Add the stock and the chicken legs to the pan and simmer for ten minutes.

Add the chicken breasts, chorizo and prawns, and simmer for a further five minutes. Add the monkfish and cook for another two or three minutes. Remove all the ingredients to the warm pan except for the chicken legs.

Add the rice and a teaspoon of salt to the pan, and simmer stirring from time to time for fifteen minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the mussels, cleaning, removing beards and discarding any open ones. Cook in the white wine in a covered saucepan. When done, discard any mussels that did not open, add the cooking liquor to the paella pan, and re-cover the mussel saucepan (off the heat).

Take out a ladle of the stock from the paella pan. Crush the saffron in a mortar and add to the stock and pour back into the pan. Re-add all the ingredients except for the monkfish and the mussels to the paella. Cook for another fifteen minutes or so until the rice is tender.

Stir in the mussels and monkfish. Check the seasoning, cover the pan off the heat for ten minutes and then serve with lemon quarters.  Zoom