OleoMed America - The Healthy Link to the Mediterranean

If you can saute, you can make a great paella! And if you have the right pan and are a good planner, you'll only have that one paella dish to clean. Paella is one of the simplest dishes and one of the most common Spanish dishes served when entertaining houseguests.

Ingredients:
1 Pound Chorizo, peeled, in small chunks
2 Cloves garlic, mashed or pressed, plus 10 cloves minced
3 T Parsley, minced
6 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Pinch Sea Salt
1/8 t freshly ground Black Pepper
2_ C cooked or canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
4 C well-seasoned chicken stock _ t
Saffron threads
2 large Red Bell peppers, cored, seeded, cut into 3/8-inch pieces _
C piquillo pepper, finely chopped 2 t paprika, preferably smoked
Spanish 2 C short-grain rice, preferably Spanish

Directions:
Combine chorizo with mashed garlic, 1T parsley, 1T olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside 20 minutes.

Place 1/2 C chickpeas and 1/2 C chicken stock in food processor and puree. Place remaining chicken stock (3 1/2 C) in sauce pan; add the pureed chickpea mixture to it. Add saffron, bring to a simmer and keep on low heat.

Preheat oven to 400. Warm a dinner plate under hot running water. Heat remaining olive oil (5T) in 13-inch paella pan. Lightly brown chorizo, then move to the warmed plate. Pork will not be fully cooked. Add red peppers to pan and saut� over medium heat about 1 minute. Add minced garlic, piquillo peppers and remaining 2T parsley. Saute 2 minutes.

Stir in paprika, browned chorizo and any pork juices. Add rice and stir to coat. Add the chicken broth/chickpea mixture and the 2C remaining chickpeas. Bring to a boil and cook fairly rapidly, about 5 minutes, until rice is no longer soupy, but there is still liquid in the pan. Stir.

Transfer pan to oven and cook until rice is almost done, about 12 minutes. Remove from oven, cover with foil, and set aside 10 minutes before serving.