Vegetable Paella (Paella de la Huerta)
Serves: 6
Preparation time: 45 min.
The original Paella dish came about as a way of cooking rice with vegetables from the garden, perhaps supplemented by bits of chicken or wild rabbit. This recipe is close to the original using only vegetables. A perfect summer dish easily prepared when season's bounty is plentiful.
Ingredients:
Use short-grained rice for paella (also called paella rice), so you get the right consistency. Don't use long-grained rice or the Italian Arborio rice. Include artichoke hearts in order to get a bit of piquancy.
- 1 cup thinly sliced onions
- 80 ml (5 tbsp) extra virgin olive oil
- 450 gr (16 oz) short grained rice
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
- 250 gr (about 1 cup) green and red peppers sliced into slivers
- 125 gr (about 1/2 cup) green beans cut into 2,5 cm (1 inch) pieces
- 125 gr ( about 1/2 cup) fresh green peas
- 4 small zucchinis, cut into slivers
- 6 artichoke hearts (frozen or canned), quartered
- 2 medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 teasp fresh rosemary finely chopped
- 700 ml (about 3 cups) dry white wine
- 800 ml (about 3 1/2 cups) chicken broth
- salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Preparation:
Warm olive oil over low heat. Add onions and sauté until golden brown. Stir in all remaining vegetables and the rice. Mix well making sure that rice is well coated with the oil.
Mix white wine with the chicken stock and warm it up almost to boil point. Add about a quarter of the stock-wine mix to the rice-vegetable mix. When liquid is almost all absorbed, add a little more stirring gently to distribute liquid evenly. Repeat the process until the vegetables and the rice are tender, about 25 minutes. Taste for salt and pepper.
The resulting dish should be moist, almost risotto consistency, not soupy.
