Fish Paella

Having spent an afternoon rowing on a local river, I arrived back home craving a fish paella-style meal. I had most of the ingredients, except for paella rice, so I combined risotto rice with brown rice and it was delicious.

Two of the most important elements of a paella dish are the smoked paprika and saffron strands, but this recipe goes to show that you can be versatile in your approach to the rest of the ingredients you add.

For this fish paella recipe I used fresh prawns, scallops and smoked cod. It has a subtle smoky flavour, punctuated by the earthy flavours of pan-fried red peppers, red onions and garlic.

You might like to add fish or chicken stock to the rice instead of water. I prefer to boil the rice in water, and then add fresh sea salt to the finished dish. I did however add the saffron strands to the rice to give it the yellow colour as well as give it the subtle, savoury, saffron flavour.

Quick tip: soak the saffron strands in hot water for a few minutes before adding to the rice pan. Soaking the saffron strands helps to open up the flavours of the saffron.

I added frozen vegetables and baby spinach leaves to this fish paella dish to help bump up its nutritional value.

Fish Paella

Serves 4 as a main course

300g risotto rice

200g brown rice

Or, 500g paella rice such as Calasparra

1 litre of boiling water (or chicken stock / fish stock)

500g smoked cod loin

300g raw king prawns

300g raw scallops

400g frozen mixed vegetables (optional)

Large knob of butter

2 medium red onions, sliced lengthways

6 cloves of garlic, chopped chunky

2 red peppers, rinsed and chopped

8 saffron strands

2 tsp smoked paprika

4 handfuls rocket or baby spinach leaves (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

How to prepare Fish Paella

Soak the saffron strands for a few minutes in hot water. Bring a pan of water to the boil, add the saffron strands and saffron water and stir in the rice. If you are using risotto rice, as I did for this recipe, stir the rice around as often as possible to help the risotto rice to become sticky.

If you are using paella rice, bring the water / stock to the boil, add the rice and saffron and lightly stir so the saffron is evenly distributed.

Simmer the rice for approximately 20 minutes.

While the rice is cooking, melt the butter in a large frying pan. Add the red onions and fry on a medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the garlic, peppers and smoked paprika. Cover the pan and fry on a medium heat for 10 minutes.

Once the peppers are wilting and just before the rice is ready, turn up the heat on the frying pan to medium hot and add the frozen vegetables. Lightly stir the vegetables to ensure they cook through. After adding the vegetables, add the prawns, scallops and smoked cod. Be careful not to over cook them. They will need approximately 3 minutes on each side. The cod will break up and scatter around the other ingredients. By the time the fish is cooked, the frozen vegetables should have warmed through.

Add the rice to the frying pan and combine well. Scatter the spinach / rocket leaves into the mix and serve straight from the pan.