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Paella Mixta

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Course Main Dish, Seafood
Cuisine Seafood

Ingredients
  

  • olive oil
  • 1 small onion diced
  • 1/4 cup red pepper, diced
  • 1 red pepper, roasted and cut into thick strips
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 2 packets saffron, dissolved in broth
  • 1 Tbsp pimenton agridulce or any other bittersweet, smoked paprika
  • 8-12 oz Spanish chorizo, chunks if fresh, or sliced
  • 2 oz tomatoes, chopped
  • Italian parsley, finely chopped
  • 8 oz Manila clams
  • 8 oz mussels, scrubbed
  • 8 oz white fish cut into 4-6 pieces cod, rock fish, halibut
  • 2 cups Arborio rice
  • 4 cups chicken or fish broth
  • Lemon wedges
  • salt to taste

Instructions
 

Ingredient Prep

  • Heat the paellera (pan) in a 400-500 degree wood-fired oven. Add 1 T olive oil. When it's hot, add the clams. Remove them from the pan as soon as they open. Hold them aside. Add the mussels. Remove them as soon as they open. Hold them aside. Do the same for the fish pieces, cooking them until they are just done.
  • Roast the pepper slices on a pizza pan and remove them when their skin is seared and wrinkled.

Bringing the Dish Together

  • Make a sofrito by gently sautéeing onion, diced red peppers, and garlic in olive oil for about 10-15 minutes, being careful not to brown it. Add chorizo and pimentón. Sauté until sausage is cooked and lightly colored. Add tomatoes, parsley, and saffron.
  • When heated through, add the rice and cook for about 5 minutes, until the rice has changed color. Then add the broth and cook, without stirring, for about 12 minutes.
  • Once the rice is nearly cooked, add the fish, as well as the clams and mussels, hinge-side down in the hot rice.
  • Without disturbing the rice too much, check the bottom layer of rice to ensure that the crispy, toasted socarrat has formed. If it hasn't, pull some of the hot coals forward and place the paella directly on the coals for a couple of minutes. Be attentive that the bottom doesn't burn.
  • Embellish the paella with the roasted red pepper strips and Italian parsley. Allow the paella to rest for a couple of minutes before serving, garnishing with lemon wedges. Allow it to rest for a bit (5-15 minutes,) and serve while still warm
  • Spanish tradition has this dish served straight from the pan on a round table family style. It is usually eaten right out of the pan using a spoon, and not on plates. This way, you don't disturb the structure of the rice too much by agitation. Guests start at the perimeter of the Paella, all eating the triangle in front of them, and work toward the center of the pan.

Notes

If using muscles, clams, or cockles, be sure to clean them first to remove grit by following these steps from RealSimple.com:

Step 1: Rinse

Rinse shellfish under running water to remove loose sediment, discarding any with broken or open shells. (Healthy shellfish close their shells when firmly tapped.)

Step 2: Transfer

Transfer shellfish to a large pot of cold salted water (like their natural environment) and then refrigerate, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.

Step 3: Lift

Just before cooking, carefully lift the shellfish out of the water by hand without disturbing any sediment remaining at the bottom of the pot. Mussels sometimes have small, fibrous "beards," which you should pinch off.
Keyword recipe, wood-fired oven, wood fired recipe, chef lea, paella, toscana, red pepper, chorizo, saffron, clams, mussels, arborio rice