MY PAELLA

Okay, so last night I made paella for the first time (I wrote this in December 2009).  My mom used to make paella on occasion, and while I enjoyed it, I always felt it was a little bland.  Hence, time for, as we say in the corporate world, a "redeployment" of ingredients.  My goal was to make it a wee bit more flavorful and a lot bit healthier (grammar fail).   I completely overestimated what I needed to feed ten people, and my paella pan was a little too big for my oven, forcing me to get creative, much like Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson in Die Hard 3 when evil Jeremy Irons, aka Hans Gruber's brother, sent them on a wild goose chase of seemingly impossible riddles.  But I digress. Rather than cook the paella in the oven, I cooked the items separately and assemble in the paella pan (which should be heated before the paella is put in the paella pan, or put in the oven (sans the seafood), to stay warm.  Even if I did want to cook the paella in the oven, there was no chance since my pan is too big! So here it is....I have edited it to served 4-6 generously

2 links of spanish chorizo, six links sliced and two cut in to small chunks.

1 chicken thigh, bones removed. cut in to pieces

1 chicken breast boneless, skinless chicken breasts (four halves)

garbanzo bean flour

garlic powder

salt

pepper

smoked paprika

1/4 pound mussels

1.4 pound small clams

1/4 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined, tail left on

1/2 can diced tomatoes, drained,chopped in to finer dice, and drained again

1/2 cup small green peas

1/2 diced red pepper

1 cup of brown rice

1 onion, chopped

6 cloves garlic, chopped

1/4 tsp. saffron

1/2 cup white wine

1 1/2 cups chicken stock

olive oil

chopped parsley

1. Measure wine, add saffron threads and chopped garlic to wine. Set aside.

2. In heavy cast iron pot or dutch oven (like Le Creuset), coat with a small amount of olive oil.

3. Add chorizo to cook and render off some of the fat, remove from pot

4. Add chicken thighs, brown, remove from pot. Place chicken thighs in oven safe pan and cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. set aside with chorizo.

5. Remove all but two tbsp of the oil/fat in pot.

6. add onions and cook until translucent.

7. add rice. Stir to coat.

8. add wine mixture to rice, bring to boil.

9. add chicken stock to rice, bring to boil.

10. reduce heat to lowest setting and cook for approximately 50 minutes, covered.

11. mix garbanzo bean flour with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

12. Cut chicken breast in to chunks, dredge in flour mixture.

13. Saute chicken breast chunks in olive oil coated pan over medium high until cooked. After they are cooked, hit it with a little white wine and reduce. Set aside.

All of the above can be done early in the day. 30 minutes before serving. Steam clams and mussels in a mixture of white wine, garlic, and water, until open. set aside. Saute shrimp in pan.  Add all of this to your paella.   Make sure to check if any of your guests are allergic to seafood, which I of course didn't, and if they are, have a steak on hand for them, unless of course you learn they are vegetarians, in which case, you better high tail it out for some vegetable stock and arborio rice and make them some sort of kick ass risotto.  Unless of course, they are vegan, in which case, you need to jump in your vegan approved vehicle and grab the ingredients for ratatouille....and maybe some sweet potato fries......it's not that I don't love the vegans, I do, but cooking for them when you are generally free from restrictions in your kitchen can prove to be difficult on short notice.