Paella - Rick Stein in Mallorca

1) Fry garlic in oil, add squid & black pepper.



2) Add onion.



3) Add bell pepper.



4) Add tomatoes.



5) Add rice and saffron (you can mix the saffron with the fish stock).



6) Add fish stock. Make sure it's salty enough. You can mix the stock with some lemon at this point.



7) Fry some prawns separately.



8) Let it simmer on the stove top until the rice is half done (15 minutes).



9) Put the paella in the oven until the rice is done and the paella has a crunchy top.

Paella de marisco (seafood paella)

This paella is based on seafood only. It's a basic recipe. You can substitute the gamba's for snails, the langoustine for chicken, rabbit and or bell pepper, add peas, substitute the fish stock for chicken stock or vegetable stock etc.

For 3-4 people:

Garnish:
4 langoustines (Spanish: cigalas)
4 big gamba's
mussels

For the stock:
400 gram cangrejo y galera (= sea crabs, you can also use shrimp)
400 gram gamba's or shrimp with head and tails (heads and tails for the stock, the gamba's need to be fried)
1 bay leaf
1 clove of garlic

Fry in pan:
olive oil
saffron
half an onion
salt
4 grated tomato's
1 cuttlefish (cut in small pieces)
Paella rice

Preparation
Boil plenty of water for the stock. Add "cangrejo y galera", bay leaf, 1 garlic clove (whole) and simmer. Peal gamba's and add the shells to the stock. Skim foam off stock. Add saffron to the stock. You can also make a stock with just the heads and tails of the gamba's, bay leaf and garlic (in that case skip the "cangrejo y galera").



Cut the cuttlefish in small pieces. Grate the tomatoes, discard the skin. Cut onion very finely. Clean the mussels.



Heat olive oil in paella pan. Fry mussels in oil, remove them and keep aside.



Fry langoustines and big gamba's, add a little salt. Remove them and keep warm.



Fry onion.



Add cuttlefish and small gamba's.



Fry tomato's together with the onion, cuttlefish and gamba's.



Add paella rice. Fry for a little while and add a glass of white wine. Let the wine absorb.



Add stock through a sieve. Add a little salt and simmer until the rice is half done. Instead of saffron you can add Spanish yellow food dye at this moment, although this is just for color and doesn't taste of anything (I was told).



Add langoustines, big gamba's and mussels to the pan and simmer until the rice is done.





Serve with lemon.

Note: a paella pan is very thin. When the rice in the middle was done, the rice near the sides was still uncooked. You really need an even fire.

Cocido montañés (vegetable meat stew from Cantabria)

Soak 250 grams of white beans overnight.

Fry smoked bacon in oil or butter; add one onion and soup bone.

Add soaked beans and plenty of water, salt, pepper. Cook for one hour.

Remove soup bone. Add 2 diced potato, sliced carrot and half a green cabbage, savoy cabbage (Dutch: boerenkool) or white cabbage, shredded. Stew for 10 minutes or until vegetables are done.

Fry 3 cloves of diced garlic in 2 table spoons of olive oil. Mash together with 1 teaspoon dried bell pepper in mortar. Add 'garlic sauce' to pot.

Add spicy chorizo and (optional) black pudding (Spanish: morcilla, Dutch: bloedworst, Spanish kind). Stew for a long time, even more than one hour. Remove chorizo and morcilla and cut into bite sized chunks. Return to pot and serve. Add pepper and salt according to taste.



Variations:
Chickpeas instead of white beans.

From Madrid: Cocido Madrileño

Also read: The REAL Cocido

Can be eaten in separate courses: the strained caldo (clear soup, broth) – maybe with some rice or noodles. The second course could be all the vegetables alone or the vegetables plus the meat.

The second time I made this recipe (June 2010):

Truita de patates

Heat plenty of olive oil in a skillet. Add 1 onion, finely chopped. Cook for 5 minutes.



Add 5 medium potatoes diced into small 1 cm cubes or chips. Cook for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.



Beat 4 eggs in a bowl and add salt to taste.

Drain potatoes and add them to the bowl with the whisked eggs. Clean out skillet.

Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to skillet and fry tortilla for 15 minutes on very low heat. Flip tortilla over to a plate. Clean skillet again and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Fry the other side for 15 minutes.

Bacalao con patatas

A very easy recipe. I don't speak Spanish but this is what I got from the video.

Boil sliced potato in salted water. Add a mix of olive oil, garlic and fresh parsley (use electric mixer) to the boiling potatoes. Add "colorante" to the potatoes. The recipe didn't specify what kind. It is orange when dry. Is it this product? Colorante Alimentario from Ducros. Maybe some real saffron is a better option.

In the meantime cover some large pieces of cod in flower and fry in olive oil.

When the potatoes are done add the cod to the pot and simmer for 7 minutes. Place on plate and add some lemon juice and fresh parsley.