Having been to Spain (Barcelona), I couldn’t resist trying the delicious Paella recipes. Of course they had to have a Sri Lankan touch !. It’s quite a simple recipe and a delicious dish. That’s was my first attempt at making Paella. Now through the cooking experiments, I’ve improved the recipe. So here it goes….by the way posh because of saffron, large Madagascar prawns and meaty monkfish. This will be a bit more expensive than my previous paella recipe, but it’s delicious.
Ingredients:
For 4 people
½ large onions
3 large cloves of garlic
½ large bell pepper (red)
olive oil
1 chicken stock cube
1 chicken chopped up into small pieces (could use cooked Tandoori chicken), or you can make this a pure seafood paella.
250g large tiger prawns , I use 12 large, fresh Madagascar prawns.
400g of Monk fish, these are quite meaty, cut this into small pieces of about ½ inch
Turmeric for colouring, this is what I used to use, now I prefer saffron.
4 cups Basmathi Rice (or you can use short grain rice)
4 green chilies for extra flavor
1 table spoon of salt (A lot of salt used in Barcelona !, so according to your health and blood pressure !)
I use a the rice cooker as the Paella pan !, this is very handy 
Preparation:
Authentic Paella is made in the same pot from start to finish. This is what I do, and I use the rice cooker.
1) Add enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pot, add a bit more, and let it heat up
2)Add the monk fish pieces and stir until fried and lightly brown.
3)Mix in the prawns, as soon as prawns are in the pot, they will get a nice reddish pink colour. Fry all a bit more and add chopped onion, pepper, green chilies and garlic. Fry gently for about 3 minutes, until everything is cooked. When it’s ready the onions get a pale colour.
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add the crushed stock cube and mixin
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Add rice and mix with the content until rice grains are well coated, add salt mix more. Soak a pinch (few strands) of saffron in warm water and this to the mixture, mix more
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add 8 ½ cups of warm water
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let it cook for 20 minutes while stirring occasionally, you have a nice paella. I am very surprised that this is not a Sri Lankan dish !