Valencian paella.

This hearty paella recipe from the northeast of Spain uses rabbit and chicken so I am told. However, you can make it with almost any thing as long as you follow the rules, a bit like risotto in Italy. Start by cooking the rice add the ingredient add the stock and let it all cook together , do not over cook the rice and use the best fresh ingredients you can get. Now I am sure that there is a lot of people who will disagree with the way I am going to tell you haw to cook this but this is what I do.

For this paella you will need,

125ml/4fl oz olive oil
200g/7oz rabbit meat, cut into bite-sized pieces
250g/9oz chicken breast fillets, cut into bite-sized pieces
Salt black pepper to taste
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
165g/5¾oz runner beans, trimmed and sliced
2 ripe tomatoes, skin and seeds removed, chopped
1 level tsp sweet paprika
1.9 litres/3¼ pints hot chicken stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper
700ml/1.25 pints Spanish paella rice,
130g/4oz canned large white lima beans, drained

Now if you have a paella dish use that or a large deep sided frying pan will do. Put the pan on a medium heat and add the oil. Add the meat to the pan and start by cooking that .
Then the onions and the garlic.

Now add the rice and sat to let that take on the flavours of the oil and the garlic .You want to see the rice start to go a little translucent. Now add the paprika and let that cook in to the rice. Finally add the beans and the tomatoes.

Once every thing has started to cook together if you like for presentation sort the meat out so you can see it in some sort of pattern and just let the whole thing cook till the rice is almost cooked . You will have to stir it every now and then to stop the rice from sticking. Then add the stock and the lima beans stir them in and take of the heat and it is ready to go.

From start to end, it takes about 30 to 40 minutes and you only have one pan to wash up