Homemade paella

Recipe for paella on a budget

One of the best meals I have made whilst being in Malta is Paella. It is pretty inexpensive to make and when made in bulk, can actually last you for a lot of meals.

I recently made a paella that made six evening meals. Yes that’s right – six.

This little shop only cost me €12 which meant that each meal would cost €2 – what a great little bargain.

For this paella you will need

• Chicken breast (2)

• Prawns (3 cups)

• Mussels (2 cups)

• Chorizo (1 pack)

• Onion (1 chopped)

• Bell Pepper (1 chopped)

• Peas (2 cups)

• Arborio rice or any short-grain rice (3 cups)

• Garlic (5 cloves)

• Chicken broth (3 cups)

• Chopped tomatoes (1 can)

• Lemons (2)

• Fresh Parsley (2 cups)

• Olive Oil (4 tbsp.)

• Paprika (1 tsp)

• Oregano (1tsp)

• Cayenne pepper (1tsp)

• Salt (pinch)

• Pepper (half a tsp)

All of these ingredients were pretty inexpensive apart from the mussels, so you can always leave these out if you wish to.

Begin by making the marinade / paste. You will to get a clean bowl and add 1tbsp of olive oil, with the juice of half a lemon and a handful of chopped parsley. I season the marinade as well, just so that it has a bit of extra flavour.

Set this to one side and begin to cook off some of your ingredients. Start by chopping your chicken breasts into small cubes and place them into a wok or large frying pan and cook through. Whilst your chicken is cooking, start to warm up your chicken broth in a pan but don’t let it boil, this burns off the flavour of the juices from the chicken and leaves you with a bland, watery taste.

Once your chicken breasts have cooked through, place them into bowl and put them to one side.

Next add your chorizo into the large pan and let this brown softly. Do not overcook the chorizo as it can become stiff and bouncy in texture. You want to let the fats melt out of the chorizo so that it oozes juicy goodness. Chorizo normally takes two-three minutes to brown off nicely, so it shouldn’t take long. Set these to one side, in the same bowl as the chicken.

Next, add a splash of oil into the same wok or frying pan and begin to cook off your vegetables. Start by sautéing the onions on a low heat, and add in 3 cloves of chopped garlic. Cook these on a low heat so that they release some but not all of their flavour. After five minutes, add in the chopped bell pepper and cook this off nicely in the pan.

Then, add back into the pan your chicken and chorizo, along with the nicely warmed broth. Let this simmer for a minute or so and then add in your marinade / paste along with the chopped tomatoes and the prawns. Let this simmer for two-three minutes with the lid covering the pan so that the prawns can cook all the way through. Next add in your peas and rice, stirring the mix constantly for two minutes, so that the rice can be distributed evenly and begin to soak up the liquid base of the paella.

Then, add your cayenne pepper, paprika, pepper and salt into the mix and mix through. Let the entire mix cook for ten minutes on a low slow boil, mixing every so often. After ten minutes a lot of the liquid should have been absorbed. Next, add in your mussels and also add some lemon wedges into the mixture and cook for a further three-four minutes with a lid covering the mix.

The paella should have completely reduced down and you should be left with a sticky rice base with no liquid left in the bottom of the pan.

Serve straight away and garnish with two lemon wedges and a sprinkling of fresh parsley.

Put the rest of the mix into containers and pop them into the freezer for when you are ready to next eat them!