# PAELLA - Cuban Style !!!



## ez2cdave (Oct 13, 2008)

*Three Guys Paella Cubana - Cuban Style Paella 

By Three Guys From Miami

http://icuban.com/food/paella_cubana.html

Prep time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour
Total time: 1 hour 25 minutes 
Yield: 8 servings

The Three Guy's Cuban version of this classic rice dish guarantees seafood in every bite.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup olive oil (more or less)
1 cup diced ham
1 cup chorizo sausage, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
2 1/2 cups onion, diced
1 1/2 cups green bell pepper, chopped
1 1/2 cups red bell pepper, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
3 1/2 cups parboiled rice
4 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup red wine
dash of Bijol powder
4 cans smoked clams or oysters with oil
2 teaspoons salt
2 pounds large raw shrimp, peeled and de-veined
1 1/2 pound scallops
1/2 pound crabmeat, frozen leg sections cut in pieces
4-8 medium lobster tails, meat removed from shell and cut in bite-size pieces
8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1 red or green bell pepper sliced and used as a garnish
1 cup green peas frozen
12 fresh clams or mussels in the shell (optional)

Heat the olive oil in a LARGE pan. Sauté the ham and chorizo sausage (Use only Spanish chorizo!) This will draw the oil from the chorizo and flavor the pan. Remove chorizo and ham and set aside.

Drop the onion, green pepper, and red pepper in the remaining oil and cook until the onions are translucent. Add garlic and sauté briefly. In a large covered pot, add the broth, wine, smoked clams/oysters, onion/pepper mixture and Bijol powder.

Fry chicken pieces in the remaining oil, until browned on both sides. Remove chicken and set aside.

Add the chicken, ham, chorizo, and rice to your pot. You should now have everything in the pot EXCEPT the shrimp, lobster, scallops, and crab meat. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer on the stove for 30 to 40 minutes, until the rice is fully cooked. (The rice should be a little wet, but not soupy at this point.)

While the rice is cooking, you need to sauté all of the seafood. It's important that the olive oil be "seasoned" with the chorizo, so sauté a few additional chorizo links as needed to give your oil a distinct pink appearance. Sauté the seafood in small batches. Don't overcrowd the pan!

Carefully remove the lobster meat from the tails, keeping the shells whole so that we can use them for a garnish. We also like to cut up the lobster meat to give everyone a chance at tasting this delicious treat!

When sautéing the seafood, you want to undercook it just a bit. Shrimp and lobster will be pink; scallops will become white and less translucent. Crab meat is usually pre-cooked, so a quick turn in the chorizo flavored oil is all that's necessary to give it that extra flavor. Remove each batch as you go and keep the seafood covered and warm so that it does not dry out.

If you have fresh clams and/or mussels, now is a good time to steam them in a little water and wine until they open. We like to use a New Zealand greenshell mussel, which comes precooked and frozen on the half shell. We simply steam them in a covered saucepan just until heated through.

OK, the rice mixture is now completely cooked and all of the seafood has been sautéed.

Now gently fold the seafood into the rice mixture. Then spoon everything into a round flat pan suitable for serving. (We like to use a brown cazuela, a round terra cotta dish that makes a nice presentation.) Garnish the top of the dish with crab leg sections, frozen green peas, lobster tail shells, slices of green or red bell pepper, clams, and mussels (in the shell.)

Once you've assembled the paella in the cazuela, place the dish in a preheated 350ºF oven for five minutes only, just long enough to meld the flavors and heat through. Do not overcook!

You can make this a day ahead!

We frequently make this dish a day ahead, it actually tastes better the second day! Simply cover tightly with aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight. The next day, heat in the oven at 350º F covered with foil (to prevent the rice on top from drying out) for about 30 minutes to one hour. Check the dish frequently when re-heating! You just want the dish heated through, not overcooked, which will ruin the seafood. Remove the foil during the last fifteen minutes of re-heating.

*


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## ez2cdave (Oct 13, 2008)

Has anyone tried this recipe yet ?


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## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

*cuban mess.*



ez2cdave said:


> Has anyone tried this recipe yet ?


I haven't tried it and I won't try it. Why anybody would waste totally good seafood in that mess is beyond me. I would be interested in what you have invested in one batch tho. Besides, it's over my limit of 6 ingredients.


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## ez2cdave (Oct 13, 2008)

wdbrand said:


> I haven't tried it and I won't try it. Why anybody would waste totally good seafood in that mess is beyond me. I would be interested in what you have invested in one batch tho. Besides, it's over my limit of 6 ingredients.


I grew up in South Florida ( Ft. Lauderdale ) and had a lot of Cuban friends, both there and in Miami . . . You wouldn't believe the huge parties with all the great food and music ! 

Unless you've experienced it, it's kind of hard to imagine, but Cuban food is fantastic !


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## surfmom (Nov 3, 2012)

looks great I have a paella pan for the grill and have made it a couple of times however Im still trying to perfect the rice crust.
and what do you mean waste perfectly good seafood Wdbrand


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## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

If you want to screw up good seafood with some Chef Tell recipe, have at it. Me, I can't see how you can improve on fresh seafood by itself.


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## ez2cdave (Oct 13, 2008)

wdbrand said:


> If you want to screw up good seafood with some Chef Tell recipe, have at it. Me, I can't see how you can improve on fresh seafood by itself.


I see that you're in Virginia. If you are ever in Manassas, you might want to try this restaurant for Paella !

*http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g60895-d496320-r201308296-Carmello_s-Manassas_Prince_William_County_Virginia.html*


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## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

not my stompin grounds. I'll take your word on it.


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## Outrigger (Nov 6, 2006)

I love paella. Some of the local restaurants feature the dish in individual servings about the size of a pie tin…wonderfully seasoned authentic Bomba rice with a mixture of available surf & turf proteins.

I took some classes at the Univ. of Md a few years ago and the gal sitting next to me extended the invite to her graduating party. She was from Spain, and her sister competed on the Iron Chef Spain edition or something to that effect. She cooked up some awesome paella in the backyard…YUM!

I love to watch the Livewellnetwork for great recipes from various shows and the paella episode really stood out. Scroll down for the start-to-finish preparations.

http://livewellnetwork.com/My-Famil...eafood-Paella-at-Rooftop-Bachelor-Pad/8951724


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