There was a crazy sale on huge shrimp at Whole Foods so I did what I know best with them. When I was growing up we ate paella like this all the time. This recipe isn’t exactly paella, but it’s very similar in flavor and is easy to do on a weeknight.

You can throw anything you want in this recipe and it’ll work great, so don’t worry if you only have one kind of shellfish or something that I don’t mention here. This recipe is easy and will knock your fucking socks off.

Ingredients:

Rice

1 cup of Rice
Extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup of finely diced onion
diced bell pepper (you can decide on the proportion here)
minced garlic (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon of loosely packed saffron
1 1/4 cup water
Salt and Pepper to taste

Seafood:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
At least 2 cloves of garlic
1 hot pepper (optional)
1 1/2 cups diced tomato
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1 teaspoon herbes de provence
Salt and Pepper to taste

You can use anywhere between a pound and 2 pounds of seafood with this recipe and it’ll work great. Vary the mix according to taste and availability. I used a pound of shrimp this time, but my favorite has a mix of everything and lots of squid.

Littleneck clams
Mussels
Shrimp
Scallops
Squid

Once you’ve prepped everything, the first thing you’ve got to do is get the rice going. Since most of this stuff cooks pretty quickly, you can work on the seafood while the rice is going.

Heat some olive oil in a saucepan on medium heat, then throw the onion, bell pepper, and garlic in there. When it’s all started to wilt a little, add the saffron and cook for 2 minutes. Keep things moving and watch the saffron give the whole mess some color. Next, add the water, rice, and some salt and pepper. Cover it all up and let it cook on low for 17 minutes.

It’s important to know your stove and your cookwear with rice and know when to take it off the heat. You can let it sit for several minutes after it’s done cooking without threatening the consistency.

Get a quarter cup of olive oil heated in a pot and cook the onion and garlic until wilted. Then throw in the tomatoes, wine, herbes de provence, and hot pepper. Let the alcohol burn off the mix for a minute or two, then let it simmer covered. After ten minutes or so, you should be ready to add the seafood.

Clams and Mussels go first and should cook about 3 minutes before you add anything else. Then comes scallops and squid for 2-3 minutes. All I had was shrimp so I just tossed that in for about 2 minutes or so.

DON’T OVERCOOK THE SHRIMP. They cook fast and they will taste like crap at more than a minute or two over the minimum cooking time. Take off heat IMMEDIATELY after they are cooked.

While the shrimp cooks, serve the rice in a ring around a plate to create a little well for the seafood. Then use a laddle to scoop out the seafood into the center. If you want you can mix it up into paella, but I prefer to serve it separated. Have a baguette ready to sop up the sauce, you won’t want any of it to go to waste.

• Festivus Gastronomicus Rating: Crapicus

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 31st, 2006 at 5:59 pm and is filed under Chez Moi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.