Green Paella - Sunday dinner

I was at a loss for what to make for Sunday dinner last night. It had to be fairly painless and quick, as I had a splitting headache since Saturday afternoon. Using whatever ingredients I had on hand, I modified Tyler Florence's "Ultimate Paella" recipe. (As you'll see, I didn't have about 50% of the recipe's ingredients.) It quickly evolved into what I term "Green Paella", as I happened to use a lot of green ingredients: green peppers instead of the traditional roasted red ones, and plenty of mixed herbs from my garden buckets instead of just parsley.

Here's the scaled-down version with the substitutes/quantities I had available. It was delish, and a 3 on the Easy-Peasy scale (5 being the most difficult):

Ingredients

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup of smoked ham, cut into chunks

1/4 cup ready-made sofrito*

4 cups yellow rice

6 cups water, warm

Generous pinch saffron spice or threads

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

A handful of littleneck clams, scrubbed

1/2 lb shrimp, cooked

A handful of mussels

1 green bell pepper, sliced in strips

Huge handful of mixed herbs (Greek oregano and lemon-thyme)

Lemon juice

Lime juice

Directions

Heat oil in a paella pan over medium-high heat. Saute the ham until browned, remove and reserve.

In the same pan, heat the sofrito on medium heat until bubbling. Fold in the rice and stir-fry to coat the grains. Pour in water and simmer for 10 minutes, gently moving the pan around so the rice cooks evenly and absorbs the liquid. Add ham, saffron, clams, and mussels, tucking them into the rice. Arrange the green peppers in a circular fashion around the pan. Give the paella a good shake and let it simmer, without stirring, until the rice is al dente, for about 15 minutes. 

During the last 5 minutes of cooking, when the rice is filling the pan, add the cooked shrimp and mixed herbs. (Since the shrimp is pre-cooked, it just needs to warm through near the end.) When the rice looks fluffy and moist, turn the heat up for 40 seconds until you can smell the rice toast at the bottom, then it's perfect.

Remove from heat and rest for 5 minutes. Squeeze lemon and lime juice, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Cook's note: The ideal paella has a toasted rice bottom called socarrat. 

Cook's tip: You can boil the mussels and clams in advance to ensure that they open a bit, before adding them to the paella pan for finishing.

*Sofrito – this is a tomato, pepper, and onion mixture, often used as a base for soups and sauces.

{ quick paella made in paella pan, brought all the way home from Granada, Spain }