PAELLA VALENCIANA

serves / 4 prep / 20 minutes cook / 60 minutes

Ingredients

200g chicken thigh diced into

4cm pieces

200g rabbit de-boned and roughly chopped

12 snails in brine (optional)

50g lima beans soaked overnight

50g flat green beans or green beans

½ cup ripe tomato pulp 2 cloves garlic crushed

150ml olive oil

6 cups chicken stock

1 rosemary sprig

2 cups bomba rice

1 tbs Spanish paprika Saffron S and saffron powder

Method

Place the saffron in a small bowl and add a little hot water to it to allow the colour to be released.

In a paella pan add a generous amount of olive oil, add the chicken and rabbit and gently pan fry allowing the bottom of the pan to brown. Season with salt.

Add the garlic and paprika, stir and quickly before the garlic can burn, add the tomato and deglaze the pan.

Drain the lima beans and add along with the green beans, then add the chicken stock and the infused saffron.

Bring to boil, add the rosemary sprig, snails (if using) and allow to simmer and reduce by ¼.

Remove the rosemary then add the rice evenly. The rice should be completely submerged in the stock at this point. If not you will need to add more stock. This will need to be done now not later.

Reduce heat to low and cook until rice has completely absorbed the stock, about 20 min. Then continue to cook a further 5 minutes on low heat to form the perfect crust.

Notes

Ensure the beans have soaked overnight otherwise they will not soften in time.

The better the quality of the chicken stock the better the end product will be. Essentially the chicken stock will flavour the paella.

To achieve a good crust it is important that you start the cooking process with a generous amount of olive oil.