Olympics Day 3: Paella

Gail made paella tonight in honor of Spain. We used oysters instead of the clams and a wild boar sausage instead of the traditional chorizo. Gail did a great job paring down the recipe for just the two of us. I love how the saffron ties the seafood and chicken flavors together.

Paella
Serves 8

For stock:
2-lb broiler-fryer chicken, whole or cut up
1 sm onion, peeled
1 carrot, scrubbed
1 stalk celery, scrubbed
1 bay leaf
1 sprig parsley
1 t salt
2 black peppercorns

¼ c oil
2 cloves garlic, pressed
4 c chopped bell pepper
1 ½ c chopped onion
¼ c parsley
1 t saffron
1 ½ t paprika
½ t oregano
1/16 t ground black pepper
2 c white rice, uncooked
6 oz canned whole clams or 4 fresh clams in shells
8 oz raw shrimp
8 oz chorizo or hard Spanish sausage

1. Carve raw chicken; refrigerate breasts, wings, thighs, and drumsticks.
2. With remaining chicken bones, make stock in large soup pot: Cover bones with 2 qt water. Add peeled onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf, parsley sprig, salt and whole black peppers; simmer until meat falls off bone and liquid is reduced to 1 qt, about 2 hr. Strain stock; discard solids. Return stock to pot.
3. Meanwhile, in large frying pan, brown chicken pieces in oil.
4. Add garlic, peppers and chopped onion; cook until tender.
5. Stir in spices; set aside.
6. When stock is finished, preheat oven to 350 F; bring stock to boil; add rice. Boil 10 min to start rice cooking (it will finish in oven).
7. Transfer contents of soup pot to a large, deep roasting pan. Place hot chicken and vegetables on top of rice and bake until rice is tender, about 1 hr. Check after 30 min and add more liquid (clam juice, on-hand broth) if all is absorbed and rice is not soft.
8. Meanwhile, scrub the clams, shell and devein the shrimp, and thinly slice the chorizo.
9. When rice is tender, place clams, shrimp, and chorizo on top of mixture. Cover with a dome of foil and return to oven to steam for 15-20 min, until clams open and shrimp is fully cooked. Remove foil and serve immediately with a salad.

My Spanish beer pairing was Estrella Damm Inedit. The flavors were delicious, although somewhat confusing. It had a low-hops, sweet-sour flavor like the ReAle Extra from yesterday, but not quite the same. I see from their website that those flavors come from orange peel, coriander and licorice. Overall a decent beer. The sour flavors make it more of a sipper.