Seafood Paella: Step by step recipe

How are you, friends? Welcome back to Paulina Cocina. Today I'm bringing you the master guide to learning how to make a great Seafood Paella.

If you want to know what a paella is? How to make it? What ingredients does it contain? How to cook seafood? Or how long does it take? Today we'll answer all these questions, and you'll leave knowing how to make a perfect paella that never goes wrong and looks great.

This seafood paella recipe , and recipes in general with seafood, those that are unique, special to cook, are always very interesting to impress someone or simply to delight ourselves, preparing a date with ourselves, cooking delicious food and drinking a good wine.

I recommend you try this squid rice . It's a wonderful idea for something simple and delicious. You know, rice recipes are the ones I like the most. I'm a fan of risottos, chicken rice, and not to mention seafood paella, which I find a unique delight (and which also takes a lot of work to prepare).

About seafood paella

What is the origin of paella?

Paella is a dish originating and characteristic of Spain, Valencia. Its main ingredient is rice, and it's cooked with fish, seafood, poultry, meat, vegetables, legumes , and other ingredients.

Its name is in honor of the large pan used to cook it, "La Paellera," a round, shallow metal container with two side handles. There are different paella recipes: Valencian paella (the authentic one), meat paella, seafood paella, mixed paella, black paella (black rice), white paella, and more!

Beyond being a typical Spanish dish, seafood paella is famous worldwide and can be found, for example, in various Latin American countries. Now's the time to write to your family group and ask who has a paella pan. You know the perfect recipe for seafood paella and want to cook for them. You organize a family lunch and break it.

Otherwise, we can replace it with another container that has a flat, round bottom and is large enough, and that's it!

What is the best rice for making paella?

As we already said, our main ingredient will be rice , so we're going to look among all the options for the rice suitable for this preparation , so let's pay attention to this important fact.

Did you know? There are more than 40,000 types of rice known around the world, and it's the most important grain in the human diet . We also have many varieties of rice, but don't worry... it's easy to distinguish them by grain shape (long, medium, and short), color, texture, and aroma.

For this dish, the rice originally used in Spain and recommended by experts is Bomba rice , a round rice known for allowing the grain to absorb plenty of flavor without losing its shape and remaining separate from the other rice grains. This is the perfect rice for cooking any paella, and it's generally recommended to use 4 parts water for every part of rice, cooking it for about 18 minutes.

If you're in Argentina and can't find bomba rice, the best option is double Carolina . It's a long, wide rice widely used in Argentina. The idea is to prevent our rice from sticking together and to absorb all the water needed for the beautiful seafood paella. While this rice isn't the original paella rice, it does the job perfectly.

Saffron, a must in a good seafood paella

It's another ingredient we can't miss to make a typical Spanish paella . Saffron is one of the most popular condiments in Spain. If you don't have or can't find it, you can easily substitute it with rice seasoning or turmeric.

You already know that here on Paulina's blog, if we can't make it perfectly, we'll still do it, and just like with bomba rice, which can be replaced with something with similar characteristics, the same thing happens with saffron, and whether we use rice seasoning or turmeric, the desired effect will be the same.

Come on! This isn't the time to give up, because we're just a few steps away from achieving our exquisite dish.

The rest of the ingredients for the seafood paella

We can choose the seafood we like best. Any edible invertebrate marine animal, that is, all types of mollusks and crustaceans such as shrimp, clams, lobster, prawns, squid, and oysters , among others.

If you prefer, you can also add chopped chicken. This is a good option, since chicken and yellow rice go very well together, especially if you're planning to make a paella for the whole family. This will be the most economical and equally tasty option.

Seafood Paella Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 Red belling
• 1 green bell pepper
• 2 onions
• 1 medium tomato
• 200 gr of double Carolina rice
• 1 tbsp sweet paprika
• 2 garlic cloves
• Saffron or rice seasoning (to taste)
• 500 gr of squid
• 200 gr of mussels
• 400 gr of prawns
• 200 gr of clams
• 200 gr of cockles
• 700 ml of vegetable broth

How to make seafood paella step by step

1. Wash all the seafood thoroughly and set aside. Scrub the clams if necessary. Clean and slice the squid.
2. In a paella pan, heat a little olive oil and sauté the prawns for 3-4 minutes, until they turn pink. Set aside.
3. In the same pan, sauté the squid for 3-4 minutes. Then add the finely diced onions, garlic, bell peppers, and tomatoes. Add salt to taste and cook over medium-low heat for 8 minutes.
4. Add the rice and distribute it evenly. Stir in the saffron or rice seasoning. Add the hot broth and mix.
5. Cook over medium heat, without stirring, for 25-30 minutes, until the rice is tender and drained of liquid. If the rice dries out too much before it's ready, add more broth or hot water.
6. After 5 minutes of cooking, add the sweet paprika (if desired). Adjust the liquid level if necessary.
7. Add the clams and cook for 5 minutes, until they open. Discard any that don't open.
8. Add the mussels and cockles and cook for 10 more minutes over low heat.
9. Finally, add the reserved prawns and cook for 5 more minutes.
10. Remove from the heat and let the paella rest, covered with a clean cloth, for a few minutes before serving.