Easy Peasy Paella (From The Argus)

Easy Peasy Paella

2:49pm Wednesday 24th February 2010 in Blogs By Dana Jerling - Dana's home cooking

I love food and want to make your kitchen a less scary place. Even if you try just one thing a month, I believe you should try something new and see what you can do.

For those of you who are already a whizz in the kitchen I'd just love to give inspiration for you to create something new.

This isn’t strictly a paella but when you need a meal in 20 minutes this hits the spot. You can make the rice as part of an indian meal and it fits in just as well. The paella mixture can be changed by using chicken instead of prawns - just put the chicken in with the onions and peppers. Vegetarians can change this by using vegetable stock for the rice and mushrooms instead of prawns.

Serves 4

3 cups of chicken stock
1 tsp turmeric
2 cups of basmati rice
2 tbsp Olive oil
1/2 a ring of chorizo (cut into thick slices)
1 red pepper (sliced)
1 medium onion (sliced)
1 clove of garlic
250g prawns
½ cup frozen peas

1. Put your chicken stock in a medium pan and bring to the boil. Once boiling add your turmeric and rice.

2. Put a tight lid on the pan and leave on a medium heat for 10 minutes. Turn the heat off but leave the pan on the hob so the rice will contiunue to steam whiel you cook your prawn mixture. Don’t salt the rice as the chicken stock will be quite salty.

3. Heat your 1 tbsp of olive oil. Fry your chorizo until you get the nice red coloured oil.

4. Leave the chorizo to one side and add your onion and pepper and fry for 5 minutes.

5. Add your garlic and tomatoes and leave for another 1 minute. Add your prawns and leave until they are cooked it should not be more than 5 minutes.

6. Add your peas to your rice and stir through. The heat of the rice will thaw the peas but leave them with a nice bite.

7. Serve the beautiful rice topped with the paella mixture.