Paella

We decided to make a Fish Paella. Jason at Palate ordered shrimp, monkfish, scallops and sausage for us. We have made this recipe before and it is excellent. We use the recipe from MORO the Cookbook. We really like Moro it is located in London and is a Spanish-Moroccan restaurant. They have 3 cookbooks and they are all excellent.

We started with a Caesar Salad from The Zuni Café Cookbook. You can find the recipe in our blog of: July 25, 2009. Click the date to get the recipe. It is a great rendition of the famous salad. Because they don’t have you cut up the romaine leaves you can eat it with your hands. My kind of finger food!

Paella de rape con azafran
MONKFISI-I RICE WITH SAFFRON
MORO The Cookbook by Sam & Sam Clark

Clams or prawns can added to this rice with great success. Put the prawn shells in the stock for extra flavor.

Serves 6 as a starter, 4 as a main course

7 tablespoons olive oil
400g monkfish fillets, trimmed and cut into 2-3cm bite-sized pieces
2 large Spanish onions, finely chopped
2 green peppers, halved, seeded and finely chopped
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
800ml hot Fish Stock
1 teaspoon (about 100) saffron threads
250g calasparra (paella) rice
80 ml white wine or fino sherry
1 small bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon sweet smoked Spanish paprika
225g piquillo peppers, torn in strips
1 lemon, in wedges
sea salt and black pepper

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a 30=40cm paella pan or frying pan over a medium to high heat. Carefully add the monkfish to the pan and stir-fry until still fractionally undercooked in the centre. Pour the monkfish and any of its juices into a bowl and put to one side. Wipe the pan clean with kitchen paper, and put back on the heat. Add the remaining olive oil and when t is hot, the onions and peppers, and cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring every so often. Turn down the heat to medium, add the chopped garlic and fennel seeds, and cook for a further 10 minutes or until the garlic and onions have some colour and are sweet. Meanwhile bring the stock to the boil and
add the saffron to infuse for 10 minutes off the heat. Now add the rice to the pan and stir for 1 minute to coat with the vegetables and oil.
(Up to now everything can be done in advance, and you need only continue 20 minutes before you wish to eat.)

Put the heat to medium to high, and ad the white wine or sherry to the pan, followed by the hot stock. At this point, add half the parsley and the paprika and season perfectly with salt and pepper. Do not stir the rice after this as it affects the channels of stock, which allow the rice to cook evenly. Simmer for 10 minutes or until there is just a little liquid above the rice. Spread the monkfish out evenly over the rice along with its juices. Push each piece of monkfish under the stock. Gently shake the pan to prevent sticking and turn the heat down to medium to low. Cook for 5 more minutes or until there is just a little liquid left at the bottom of the rice. Turn off the heat and cover the pan tightly with foil. Let the rice sit for 3-5 minutes before serving. Decorate with strips of piquillo peppers, the rest of the chopped
parsley and the lemon. We would serve this paella with a salad.