Paella a la Maestre
"In Spain, there are more than 50 different ways to cook paella, depending on the region and the produce available. This is my way. After spending many years pursuing the perfect technique, I came up with the idea to puree the sofrito (vegetable base), which defines the final flavour of the paella. It all came about at my restaurant, El Toro Loco, where I cooked paella to order. I had to come up with a way to achieve the perfect flavour balance in half the time and so, after much experimentation, the ‘sofrito a la Maestre’ was born. The puree hits the pan with all the base flavours and becomes juicy and pulpy as the water from the tomato slowly evaporates. When all the stock has been absorbed, be sure to cook the paella for an extra few minutes to achieve the socarrat (the famous crust on the bottom of the pan)." – Miguel Maestre.
You’ll need a 40cm-wide paella pan or frypan for this recipe (see recipe notes).
Ingredients (22)
- 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
- 4 baby calamari tubes, cleaned (cut into rings if large)
- 2L fish or chicken stock, plus extra, if required
- 2 cups (400g) Calasparra rice (from Spanish delis and specialty grocers)
- 10 black mussels, cleaned, debearded
- 4 green king prawns, peeled (tails intact), deveined
- 2 bugs, halved (we used Balmain bugs)
- 10 pipis, pre-purged (or see recipe notes)
- 4 scallops on the shell
- 100g snapper (or any firm white fish) fillet, skinned, boned, cut into 2.5cm cubes
- Chopped flat-leaf parsley, to serve
- Lemon halves, to serve
- Aioli, to serve
Sofrito
- 150ml extra virgin olive oil
- 3 large ripe ox-heart tomatoes
- 5 jarred piquillo peppers
- 8 garlic cloves
- 1/2 bunch thyme, leaves picked
- 1/2 bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked
- 1 bunch chives, roughly chopped
- 2 1/2 tbs smoked paprika (pimenton)
- 1 tsp saffron threads
Don't forget you can add these ingredients to your Woolworths shopping list.
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1.For the sofrito, place all the ingredients in a food processor and whiz until smooth (or see recipe notes).
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2.Heat a 40cm paella pan or frypan over high heat for 2 minutes. Add oil and calamari and sear for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown. Set calamari aside. Add 1 cup (250ml) sofrito (see recipe notes) and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomato starts to break down and become juicy. Pour in the stock and bring to the boil. Scatter over rice in an even layer. Add calamari and the remaining seafood, spreading it out evenly (with scallops and bugs flesh-side up), and cook, without stirring, for 15 minutes, or until stock has been absorbed and rice is almost tender. Add a splash of extra stock if it gets a bit dry. Reduce heat to low and cook, without stirring, for a further 3 minutes to form a nice ‘socarrat’, or crust on the bottom. If your hotplate is not as big as the pan, move the pan around a little during cooking to ensure the crust forms evenly. Remove from heat.
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3.If there’s still a little stock that hasn’t been absorbed, cover pan with a tea towel and stand for 5 minutes.
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4.Squeeze over lemon juice and season. Garnish with parsley and serve warm, not hot, with lemon wedges and aioli.
Recipe Notes
If not using pre-purged pipis, soak pipis in cold salted water for 30 minutes to purge any impurities. Drain, rinse under cold running water, then drain again.
The size of the pan is important. You want a wide pan so the rice cooks evenly while the stock is being absorbed to allow a beautiful crust to develop at the bottom. If your pan isn’t as wide, you’ll need a bit less stock.
If you don’t have a food processor, roughly chop the tomatoes and peppers and finely chop the garlic, thyme, parsley and chives, then combine with the oil, paprika and saffron in a mixing bowl.
Use leftover sofrito in pasta sauce, or freeze for another time.
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