paella!

Peek-a-boo. You can't really tell what it is but it was super exciting to make. I've actually always wanted to make this. Yupp it's PAELLA!! I finally got the courage to try something super exciting.

Meet saffron. Guess how much it costs? MORE THAN GOLD! YEAH!! Ridiculousness! And for that amount...but so worth it. It is a must, for sure, not just for the color (you could use yellow food coloring) but for the special taste.

I was super excited also cause I was going to use seafood! Yay for clams and scallops. Very exciting indeed. You can use practically any seafood like mussels, shrimp, etc but scallops are my favorite and even though I personally do not like clams, M likes them.

My attempt at step by step photos. I had to make the stock first in which I slightly failed, but it still worked out. Had to saute the bell peppers, onions, garlic first. Once they were done, I added in chicken apple sausage (supposed to use chorizo or something Spanish, but I love chicken apple sausage). After that was the arborio rice and to that I added some of the stock that covered just over the rice. Cook on medium low heat. You're not supposed to stir the rice or you'll lose the yummy crispiness on the bottom which is typical in a paella. Unfortunately... I did not have a paella pan and used a cast iron skillet instead so I did not get crispiness. Anyways, wait for the liquid to be absorbed and add more of the stock until the rice is almost cooked (al dente). Be patient!! Let the paella be and cook or your rice won't cook if you keep uncovering the lid (Haha, I am definitely not patient). Once the rice is mostly cooked, toss in the seafood!

MMMMMM....look at that yummyness. Mix it around so that the seafood is evenly distributed and pour in rest of stock and cover with the lid. Cook until seafood is done...you can tell when clams start to open and there you have it!

So I actually took several recipes and kinda went along with what I thought would work. So I guess you can look up paella on foodnetwork.com (I forgot which one I used...I can't find it) and I also kinda used this recipe. Yeah its not completely right and yes it's a little winged. But I believe that if I can randomly make it happen... it's very possible.

- n