Weekly Recipe: Spanish Rice (Paella)

Recipe Thursdays are BACK! We're starting up again with an old Spanish favorite of mine. This is our take on the paella. You can add any meat and any vegetables you like. We always mix it up veggie wise. We usually stick with chicken, because I'm not much of a meat eater. But you can add sausage and/or seafood. Typically it's done with short grain, white rice. However, this time we used long grain, brown rice. See? Completely versatile!

Spanish Rice (Paella)

2 cups brown rice (feeds 6 people)

About 4 cups water

1 onion

1 green/red pepper

1 medium to large tomato

3 cloves garlic
1 cup white wine

A mixture of assorted veggies like: peas, green beans, mushrooms, squash, zucchini...

Saffron (we used yellow food coloring instead for only $1!)

Seasonings to taste: pepper, salt, rosemary, oregano

1 lemon

Olive oil

Choice of meat (we used 6 drumsticks)

Dice up the onion, red/green pepper, tomato and garlic and sauté until soft with the olive oil in a pot. Once soft add the white wine. When it has cooked down a bit, and slightly looks like a sauce, add the chicken and the seasonings. Give it a stir forabout 2-3 minutes. Just to give the chicken some color. Then, add enough water to cover the meat and cook the rice. After that add the veggies and the saffron (or food coloring). It's done when the meat is cooked, the rice is tender, and the liquid has been absorbed. Adjust seasonings to taste and squeeze with lemon and serve.

The only thing we measure when cooking paella is the rice. Simply to make sure there is enough if we're feeding a lot of people. Other than that we just put as much of the above ingredients in as we like. Experiment!