Seafood Paella

Pa’ ella, Pa’ ti, Pa’ mi (for her, for you, for me)… That was an old saying my Señora would say when she served us Paella for dinner. Paella is a traditional Spanish dish and although my Señora only made it a few times, it was always a treat. So I gave this a try with the seafood ingredients I prefer and I even used some legit saffron that I bought in Spain 5 years ago.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups uncooked white rice
6 cups chicken stock, divided
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tsp curry powder
5 saffron threads
salt and ground black pepper to taste

1/4 cup olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cups mushrooms, chopped
1 cup green peas or white corn1 large red bell pepper, seeded then sliced
2 cups peeled and deveined shrimp
3 5oz lobster tails
1 2oz can mussels or clams (optional)

Directions:

Rinse the rice with cold water; drain; set aside.
Bring the chicken stock to a boil in a saucepan over medium-high heat, reduce the heat to low, cover, and keep warm.
Combine the garlic, parsley, curry powder, saffron threads, salt, black pepper, and 1/2 cup of the hot chicken stock together with a mortar and pestle until a smooth liquid forms; set the seasoning liquid aside.
Heat the olive oil in a paella pan or a wok over medium-high heat; add the onion, mushrooms, peas or corn, and bell pepper and saute until the onion is soft. Pour in the seasoning liquid. Stir and combine.

5. Pour the hot chicken stock into the pan. Stir in the shrimp, lobster, and clams; cook on medium-high heat and stir until the lobster is cooked all the way through, between 5 to10 minutes. Remove lobster tail from pan, remove lobster tail meat from shell and cut into pieces, add chopped lobster meat back to pan.
Add rice to pan, bring liquid to a boil, then simmer until the rice is nearly tender, about 15 minutes. Only stir two times. Remove from heat; cover and let stand until rice is soft and flaky, about 7 minutes.
Serve with lemons, squeeze lemon juice over rice, Enjoy!