Pretty Paella
Photo courtesy @nicki_cooks
I just love Paella. It’s a reminder of happy hours, days and months spent in Spain. To me there’s nothing better than sitting in a Spanish beach bar in September with a pan of paella, even though a vegan paella in Spain has never quite managed to pack enough flavour for me.
I use fennel, both the veg and the seeds in my version of paella which makes for a seriously tasty pan of rice. The method is the same as the classic and I always ensure I have some paella rice, ideally Bomba to hand. Spanish rice is rounded and short. It absorbs liquid better than virtually any other rice on the planet and doesn’t break up in cooking. The grains really stay separate. The ability of this rice to absorb so much liquid is what makes this dish, and the rice, in particular, so flavoursome.
You don’t have to have a paella pan to make this, I use a non stick 28cm frying pan with steep sides for this quantity.
Make some red pepper pesto or aioli to dollop on top.
Ingredients
Serves 4 – 6
Special equipment — a large deep non stick frying pan or specialist paella pan
250g paella rice, ideally Bomba
100ml white wine
1 400g tin Spanish baby broad beans or 2 handfuls frozen baby broad beans
1 220g jar Spanish piquillo peppers, drained & sliced/optional
1 lemon, cut into wedges
30g fresh parsley, chopped
2 onions, peeled & finely sliced
2 green or 1 green and 1 orange pepper, de-seeded & finely sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 fennel bulbs, halved long ways & sliced
1 tsp fennel seeds
3 large pinches of Saffron soaked in 100ml hot water until the water turns deep golden
900ml veg stock (I use stock pots)
Method
Put your frying pan on the stove with some olive oil.
Throw in the onions and the fennel seeds and cook until soft and lightly browned about 7 minutes.
Add the fennel slices and green peppers and continue frying for a further 7-10 minutes or until the peppers begin to soften. Add the garlic and stir through when there’s one minute left on the timer.
Once the veggies have softened, add the rice stirring it through the vegetables until it’s coated and gleaming. Add 2 good pinches of salt.
You can at this point leave the pan off the heat and finish cooking half an hour before you want to eat.
Make sure the rice is warmed through then add the wine and let it reduce by about half.
Stir in the saffron and its liquid and the stock and bring to just simmering, any hotter and the rice will burn, any cooler and it won’t cook.
Let the rice do its thing for about 20-25 minutes without stirring (unless you think its burning). Watch the liquid disappear and the rice swell up.
Remove a little with a teaspoon and taste to see if the rice is almost cooked. If it is switch the heat to very low just to keep everything warm.
Add in the broad beans and half of the chopped parsley and some red pepper slices if using.
When you’re ready to serve, garnish the top with the rest of the red pepper slices if your are using them, and the parsley and take the pan to the table to wow your guests.
To crown the dish serve either with a red pepper pesto or a vegan aioli.
