Chicken Paella

'Paella' is an authentic Valencian rice dish. It is widely popular at many spanish resturants. The word 'Paella' is used by Valencians for all pans, including the specialized shallow pan used for cooking paellas.

Paella (pan)

There are countless paella recipes. The Seafood version being the most common one. This is my adaptation of the Paella and as I prefer chicken, I prepared Chicken Paella version. It is a free-style combination of chicken, chorizo, prawn, mixed peppers and rice. For your reference, most chefs use 'calasparra' or 'bomba' rice when making Paella (as it cooks faster). I did not have this type of rice in stock with me, so I used basmati rice instead. Other key ingredients include saffron and olive oil. Seasoning depends greatly on individual preferences and regional influences. 

Ingredients:

- 2 cup Rice (washed and set aside)

- 1 cup chopped onions

- 1 cup chopped mixed bell peppers

- 1 tbsp garlic powder/paste

- 1 cup chopped tomatoes

- 1 cup (2 Chicken breast-washed and cleaned) chopped into small cube size pieces

- 250g prawn (washed and cleaned)

- 1 cup chorizo chopped (sausages)

- 2 tsp paprika powder (optional)

- 1/4 tsp saffron (and/or food coloring)

- 3 cup hot broth (stir in 1 chicken stock cube in hot water) 

- 1 tsp rosemary/oregano for seasoning (optional)

- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

- coriander leaves to garnish

- salt to taste

Method:

- Pre-heat oven at 180*C

- Heat the olive oil in a paellera.
- Add onions, garlic and bell peppers. Sauté until vegetables are tender. Add a pinch of salt to ooze out all the flavor of the onions and peppers.

- Add the chopped tomatoes and sauté.
- Add dry seasonings(paprika, rosemary) except for salt.

- Add chicken and chorizo (sausage) and sauté for 1 min (do not over cook it as you will cook it again in the oven).

- Add salt to taste.

- Add rice, saffron and mix well. and blend it well with the mixture.

(NB. If you do not have a Paella pan you can transfer this stir fry mix onto a baking tray instead.)

- poke the prawns into the rice mixture evenly

- Now add the broth. 

- Cover the pan with foil paper tightly and place it in the pre-heated oven.

- Oven bake it at 240*C for 30mins. 

Your kitchen would be very aromatic with the flavors of Paella now and that means your paella is all set and ready to be served.

Garnish with coriander leaves and drizzle in some olive oil on top.

Enjoy! ;)!

Seetha's Nasi Goreng

I had some left over cooked thai rice and shredded chicken in my refridgerator from last night. Pondering over on how I would spice up my rice for dinner, I shuffled through my fridge to see if I had enough ingredients to make fried rice. Yep! I did.
However I am not going to make any old fried-rice.. This time I am making Nasi Goreng.
Nasi Goreng is an Indonesian/ Malay style Fried Rice. Its quite popular in Sri lanka and Singapore too. It has adapted many versions of it all over the world and this will be my version of it. Hope you like it. :)!

The main distinctions is the sweet soy sauce and 'sambal' giving it preference of stronger and spicier taste.

Ingredients

Pre-cooked Rice (3 cup).. You can use left over rice.

2tbsp seseame oil

1 large Onion choped

1 cup Red,Yellow, Green bell peppers - chopped

3 eggs (2 eggs scrambled and 1 fried [bullseye] to garnish)

1 cup sambal (check below for ingredients/  use sambal paste from any grocery store)

Meat - 2 cup stir fried shredded Chicken, Prawn (You can add any meat and seafood of your prefrence)

1/4 cup of sweet soya sauce

1/4 sweet chilli sauce

Few thai basil leaves (optional) / you can use lemon grass or any other aromatic leaves with a tangy lime scent and flavor instead.

For Sambal

2 tbsp chilli-shrimp paste

10 shallots

1tsp garlic

1/4 cup tamarind juice

1 tbsp sugar

1/2tsp salt

stir fried for 5mins and blend into paste

Method

-In a hot wok stir fry the onions in some seseame oil for 1min.

-Add the sambal and stir again till you get the aroma of the paste.

-Add and stir in the chopped bell peppers.

-Add the cooked stir fry chicken, prawn and scrambled egg. Blend this in nicely with the mixture in low heat.

-Add salt to taste.

-Sprinkle in the sweet soya sauce and sweet chilli sauce. ( You could alter the proportion according to your taste)

-Now add the pre-cooked rice. Fold it in evenly.

-Add the thai basil leaves. Stir.

-Transfer to rice bowl.

Garnish with fried egg, crushed black pepper, shredded fried cripy shallots.

Serve with some prawn crackers /chilli paste

Enjoy! :)!