Sunday Paella

I have not been my usual creative self when it comes to cooking since I have moved down under. In fact cooking has become a down right struggle and I have had several pounds/kg of chicken go bad as I would buy it on the weekend with a plan, then fail to execute on it but not wanting to admit failure and feeling the need to make myself healthy meals I would leave it in the fridge (not freezer) for the entire week each day thinking "today I will come home from work and cook something". But then the week would go by and the chicken starts to smell and I have to toss it out.

However, this weekend I felt inspired to make Paella - Seafood paella to be specific so I set off to Woolworths with my list. Unfortunately after two days and two stores I could not get any squid (they had it two weeks ago when I didn't need it) or mussels. I recalled a similar dish we made back home called Pilau in which you could put any thing you wanted so I decided I would use chicken thighs and shrimp and make the dish the traditional Spanish way which calls for not stirring the rice so that you get a crust on the bottom in addition to having saffron.

Ingredients:
Shrimp - they came with heads, tails and feet I had to peel, clean and devein
Boneless skinless chicken thighs
Onion
Tomatoes
Garlic
Saffron
Chicken Broth
Arborio Rice
Olive Oil

 

 

Only needed 3 cloves of the garlic  

 Some day I will get a real Paella pan but for a dish I make only occasionally I use just a good skillet. If there was a pan out there that was both a paella pan and a risotto pan I would get one as it would get used 2x as often  

Finished Product

Made a pitcher of Sangria to go along with the Paella - I used a sparkling shiraz for the red wine because bubbles make me happy