This recipe for seafood paella is a typical dish of Spanish cuisine, well known outside our borders. There are many ways to prepare paella: chicken and rabbit paella, meat paella, vegetable paella, fish paella, or paellas that mix some of these ingredients… Among all these versions, rice with seafood is one of the most popular and preferred of all. Many.
Of Valencian origin, paella has become an icon of Spain. Although there are many ways to prepare it, the truth is that all its presentations are delicious. For this to be the case, the key to a good paella is, many times, in the use of the correct techniques and ingredients. For this reason, we are going to teach you step by step how to make easy seafood paella so that you can enjoy the flavors of the sea from the comfort of your home. Go for it!
Ingredients to make Seafood Paella:
- 400 grams of bomba rice
- 1 cuttlefish or squid
- 12 mussels
- 8 prawns or prawns
- 1 green bell pepper
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 tablespoons of crushed tomato or fresh tomato
- 4 milliliters of fish stock
- 4 threads of saffron
- 1 dessert spoon of coloring
- 1 dessert spoon of sweet paprika
- 1 splash of oil
- 1 pinch of salt
How to make Seafood Paella:
- Wash the mussels, cut the green pepper and chop the garlic. Also, clean and cut the squid.
- Tip: to wash the mussels, bathe them in cold water, remove impurities from their shells with a knife or aluminum scouring pad and cut the beards that appear between the shells with scissors.
- Put a paella on the fire with a good jet of oil. Sauté the prawns and squid or cuttlefish over high heat. Remove the prawns and reserve them.
- Trick: use a 40 cm diameter paella pan to prepare rice for 4-6 people.
- Put the squid and cuttlefish aside. If necessary, add a little more oil and add the green pepper. Let cook for 3-4 minutes and add the minced garlic. Stir so that the garlic does not burn and, before it takes on color, add the tomato. Stir and let cook a few more minutes.
- Add the mussels so that they open up. You can also pour a ladle of broth. Add the teaspoon of sweet paprika and the saffron threads. You can make a homemade fish broth by visiting our fish broth recipe.
- Incorporate the rice, stir everything so that the rice is impregnated with the flavor of all the ingredients.
- Add the rest of the broth (previously heated), test for salt and correct if necessary. Add the coloring and let the paella cook for about 15-18 minutes or until the rice is ready.
- Tip: never stir the rice while it is cooking.
- 5 minutes before the rice is ready, put the prawns on top and finish cooking the rice. Let the seafood paella rest for about 5 or 10 minutes. Ready to eat!
How to make seafood paella – The most important keys
- If you follow the steps as we have detailed them, this homemade recipe for seafood paella will be incredible. There are many tricks and techniques that exist to prepare an ideal paella, since each chef or cook has their rules. Here we leave you some of the most important points to make a perfect paella:
- Choose good quality ingredients, because the fresher they are, the more intensely their flavors will adhere to the dish.
- Always use bomba type rice or, failing that, sepia or bay type. Never use long rice.
- Try to prepare the recipe in a steel pan, as they transmit the heat more evenly.
- Taste the rice during preparation to make sure the flavor is right and that it hasn’t overcooked.
- In general, don’t mix meat with seafood.
- The sofrito for paella is very important, so make sure you have all the ingredients.