According to Catalan cookery expert Rachel McCormack, when a Spanish man cooks rice, it’s called a paella. When a woman does it, it’s called a rice dish. Humph.
This is closer to a Spanish-style stir-fry, a version of what my in-laws call a chuck-in rice. It is nonetheless delicious and it’s very quick to make, assuming that you have some cooked basmati sitting in the fridge. If not, it’s worth cooking some just to make this.
It’s the perfect supper to eat out of a bowl while watching something brainless on the telly after a hard day’s work. Add a crisp green salad if you’re feeling energetic enough to toss it. Or find a man to do it for you.
Spanish-style Rice
Ingredients:
2 onions, peeled and chopped
2 peppers, red, green and/or yellow, de-seeded and diced
2 fat cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 rounded tspn sweet smoked paprika
50g spicy chorizo, sliced into rounds
Olive oil
12-14 raw king prawns, peeled and with the black thread removed
350g cooked basmati rice (roughly 140g uncooked weight)
A handful of parsley, roughly chopped plus a few sprigs to garnish
Lemon to squeeze over.
Method:
In a deep frying pan, cook the chorizo until it’s beginning to brown and its oil starts to run. Remove and set aside. Add a little olive oil, one or two tablespoons, and fry the onions until soft and golden.
Throw in the peppers and cook until softened. Now add the garlic and paprika and cook for a minute more.
Put the chorizo back in the pan, along with the rice, and stir-fry until the rice is heated through and the flavours have blended. Add the prawns and stir-fry until they’re pink and cooked through, just a couple of minutes.
Chuck in a handful of parsley and squeeze over some lemon juice. Stir to mix and serve with few sprigs of parsley to garnish and more lemon wedges on the side.
Whatever you call it your rice dish sounds delicious. I make “paella” regularly, longhand. We’re convinced there’s a lot of tourist tat paella in Spain. Nothing we had there tastes as good as homemade
Thanks, Sandra. I have had good ones but few and far between compared to home-made. I’ve had at least one I’m convinced came out of a packet. 🙁
The best paella I’ve had came from our local restaurant in France. Huge numbers of ex-Spanish live in that part of France (immigrant workers, civil war all kinds of reasons) and have made a huge impact on local cuisine. This was definitely a good influence!
A bit of cross-fertilisation can be a very good thing! 🙂
Humph, indeed!
This isn’t rice. This is my last meal! Gorgeous!
I’d be happy to cook it for you any time, Mimi, but certainly hope you’d live to eat another day! Thank you. Lxxx
I do love the Spanish but the men have a definite misogynistic undercurrent… I was taught it’s only paella if it’s in a proper paella pan and has that crusty bottom to it (I think that’s “socorrat”??). Anyway if yours is just a rice dish, it’s some rice dish! Looks lovely and I make a lot of similar meals so it’s right up my ‘calle’. x
It is indeed socorrat, similar in principle to the Persian tahdig. Lovely, if you can achieve it! But any rice dish works for me. Glad you approve! Lx
of course! Sounds lovely 🙂