Paella in Covent Garden

It was very interesting to see a big crowd in this particular open air restaurant in Covent Garden, London.

We didn't even managed to have a taste of it as it was not in our agenda that day. We were running out of time as we were meeting friends somewhere else.

I vowed to myself that I should try to cook Paella one of these days to compensate myself.

From my Mary Berry Cookbook which I've now retrieved from our previous home, I've got this recipe to follow. For the moment, I'm just mentally preparing myself and bookmarked this for when I've got the ingredients all ready. Not too keen on eating shellfish, so I've omitted the mussel suggested in the book.

How to cook simple Paella:

3 Tbsp olive oil

6 chicken thighs

250 g bacon strips

1 large chopped onions

1 litre chicken stock

250g chopped tomatoes

2 garlic cloves crushed

a few pinches of saffron thread soaked in little hot water

500 g short grain rice

1 red and 1 green sweet pepper sliced

125 g peas

salt and pepper

125 g cooked prawns

To Finish

12 black olives

6 larged cooked prawns

lemon wedges

1 Tbsp chopped parsley

• Heat the oil in a large pan.
• Add the chicken and cook on medium heat for 10 minutes until brown all over
• Add the bacon and onion and cook for another 5 minutes
• Stir in the stock, tomatoes, garlic and the saffron with it's soaking liquid. Bring to a boil.
• Add the rice. Add the red and green peppers, peas and season with salt and pepper.
• Cover and bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 35-40 minutes until rice is nearly tender and the stock has been absorbed.
• Stir the cooked prawns into the paella, cook for another 5 minutes on.
• Arrange large prawns and lemon wedges on top. Serve hot and sprinkle with parsley.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could cook the Paella in one of those big BIG cauldron...for nice effect...but perhaps we wouldn't manage to finish the dish... LOL!