Monday 7 February 2011

Sustainable seafood paella!

You may have seen by now the little ‘fish fight’ widget on this blog! I feel quite strongly about this campaign and, as a consequence, have started to buy more sustainable seafood. Obviously I’m not saying reject cod and salmon but it’s definitely worth substituting these fish for something more sustainable that tastes just as good! So take the pressure of our nation’s favourite white meat and try out this recipe that includes three of the most sustainable seafood items!
I chose to celebrate whiting, one of cod’s close relatives, dab, a very cheap smooth flat fish and mussels, really plentiful shellfish that also add a bit of fun to my golden paella!

Ingredients
Serves 2-4
·         1 medium whiting fillet
·         1 filleted dab
·         1kg of live mussels
·         Half a spicy chorizo
·         125g paella (short grain) rice
·        300 ml Fish stock
·         6 cherry tomatoes
·         A pinch of saffron
·         1 teaspoon of paprika
·         1 red onion
·         2 garlic cloves
·         4 tbsp of olive oil
·         ½  teaspoon of chilli flakes (or medium fresh chilli)
·         100ml white wine
·         2 tablespoons of curly parsley
·         Half a lemon or lime to garnish

Despite the long list of ingredients, this dish is actually fairly simple to make. Get the prep of the mussels out of the way first and you can relax with a glass of wine later!
Preparing the mussels
Empty the mussels in a colander and run under cold water. Tap any open shells and if they don’t start to close straight away, get rid of them, as well as any chipped mussels! Now that you have all your live mussels, one by one, take away their little beards by grasping the beard and giving it a sharp yank out and toward the hinge end of the mussel. This is quite a tedious activity but will be worthwhile in the end! Once your mussels are prepared for cooking, put them back in the colander and put the colander in a tap filled with cold water until you are ready to cook them in about 20 minutes!
Preparing the paella filling
First, simmer the stock in a pan and add the saffron strands. Roughly chop the onion (so you can still see inch-long strands running through it for colour and texture), chorizo, garlic and then halve the cherry tomatoes. Cut the whiting fillets into large chunks and fillet your dab (if you haven’t bought it already filleted). I left the skin on but feel free to remove it if you don’t like it!
Cooking
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the pan and stir the onions, until softened. Add the garlic, chorizo, chilli flakes and parika and stir for a further minute to create concentrated flavours. Stir in all the rice and add a further drop of olive oil so that its all covered, before adding ¾ of the stock. Shake the pan in one vigorous motion so all the rice is level then leave for 2 minutes. Do not stir or cover! After the 3 minutes, place the tomatoes, whiting and dab fillets over the rice and pour the rest of the stock (unless the rice is still very watery) and simmer for a further 8 minutes, at which point the fillets should be cooked and flaky! Take off the heat, stir the paella and cover with a lid or foil.

Meanwhile, pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil and any stock that may be left over into a big pan. Once very hot, pour in the mussels and the wine then quickly cover with a lid. Do not open until 3 minutes have passed, then check if all the shells have opened. If they have, serve immediately by draining in a colander (over a bowl so you can reserve those lovely juices!) if not, wait a further minute or two until they have. Discard any unopened shells!

Put some of the mussels in their shell over the paella to serve with, and the rest in separate bowls or a pan with the reserved juices poured over! Garnish the rice with parsley and lime (or lemon)!

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