Paella with octopus and chicken
I used to make this all the time with one of those bags of frozen seafood but it fell out of rotation for some reason. Then my husband came home with a whole octopus for absolutely no reason and we also had leftover roast chicken. We did not, however, have any paella rice. I used sushi rice and it worked absolutely fine!
I sautéd frozen chopped carrot, onion and celery mix with chopped peppers, stirred in the dry rice, smoked paprika and saffron strands until it was all yellow, then added S&P, a fish stock cube and enough water to just cover it.
Once it was bubbling nicely I chopped in the octopus that my husband had helpfully blanched and roasted (that’s lemon zest on it). If you don’t have a partner who impulsively purchases and prepares cephalopods for you, you can use any fresh or frozen seafood here—I like prawns, mussels, clams, squid rings etc.
I pulled some roast chicken off the bone and stirred that in, then just let it bubble until the stock had mostly disappeared and the rice wasn’t hard anymore. To do it authentically you’re not supposed to stir paella at all but I did poke it a bit as our gas ring has a habit of fusing food to pans. In the end it was a bit stuck but in the tasty, deliberate way.
I squeezed lemon all over it, chopped a few tomatoes for freshness and lamented my current lack of parsley and/or rocket (arugula). Where’s the green?!
