PAELLA--OLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Challenge from Daring Cooks was to make paella.  Something I'd always wanted to try but seemed daunting.  It isn't!  Mine isn't as fancy--pretty simple with just shrimp and sausage, but very delicious.

Whole family was here, so made two pans.  In one I put white rice, in other brown. Brown took longer to cook and rice was a bit chewier--which I loved!!

Mise en place for paella.  That's just kielbasa sausage that was sliced and fried up.  

Generally, paella includes seafoods--clams, mussels, shrimp, some sausage, sometimes chicken, sometimes lobster tails.  It can probably be just about anything you'd like and even vegetarian.  There are all sorts of recipes and many youtube type videos out there.  Mine included what's shown above and shrimp.  Best we could get here were frozen.  It usually also includes saffron but the challenger said we could use paprika, so that's what I did.  There is a special pan "paellera" that can be humongous as in one video online, or much smaller.  I used two different type of pans--one is a wide, curved side 12" skillet, other is a large saute pan.  I'd like another 12 inch skillet if I were doing two again, or the gorgeous copper paellera I saw--it was "only" in the three hundred dollar range!  Whatever, it all turned out deliciously and was enjoyed by almost all--a bit spicy for a couple of my little girlie girls.  

You really should try this--I know you'll love it!

Blog-checking lines: Our Daring Cooks’ September 2012 hostess was Inma of la Galletika. Inma brought us a taste of Spain and challenged us to make our very own delicious Paella!