Vegetable Paella

Paella is a Spanish rice dish that will often include seafood and sometimes meat. This is a vegetarian Paella dish that will serve about 6 people. We have been wanted to try making this dish for a while and we didn't realize how much work it was going to be! This is a recipe to make only if you are willing to slave over a hot stove for over an hour. Its tasty, but it is debatable whether its worth all of the work.

And we give you.....

Vegetable Paella

Ingredients:

1/2 liter (a little over 2 cups) Vegetable Stock- ours was a little dry, so maybe use more stock.

1 dried shiitake or porcini mushrooms (we opted out)

5 cloves garlic, 2 crushed and 3 finely chopped
Large pinch saffron
1/4 teaspoon sweet pimenton (did not use this either)
Coarse salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 aubergine (eggplant) cut into 8mm-thick slices, ends discarded
62 ml (2 oz) olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
1 large tomato
1 red peppers, seeds and stem removed, cut into 2.5cm pieces
200g (7 oz) Bomba rice (you can also use white risotto, we ended up using basmati)
4 small artichokes, trimmed and steamed for 20 minutes, cut in half and chokes discarded
75g (2.5 oz) frozen peas (we used more, since this seemed to be a small amount)
2 lemons, 2 cut into wedges

I recommend starting by steaming the artichokes:

Fill a pot with 1/2 inch of water and allow to come to a boil. Add the artichokes with the ends cut off by standing them up in the water, cover and set to medium-low heat for 20 minutes.

Now for the Recipe:

You will need a....

small sauce pan

large saute pan

40-45cm paella pan or a large shallow saute pan

Combine the stock with the mushrooms and the 2  cloves of crushed garlic
in a large saucepan and boil over high heat for 10 minutes.

Lower the heat, add the saffron and pimenton and simmer for an additional 10 minutes to
thoroughly combine the flavours.

The secret to this recipe is a well-seasoned broth, so season to taste with salt and pepper and more saffron and/or pimenton if necessary.Keep warm over a low heat.

Meanwhile, prepare the aubergine. Sprinkle both sides of the aubergine slices with a bit of salt and lay them between sheets of kitchen paper for at least 15 minutes.

Cut the aubergine into 2.5cm pieces.
Heat half the olive oil in a large sauté pan set over medium heat and cook 1 cloves of the chopped garlic until fragrant, about a minute.

Add the pieces of aubergine to the pan and cook for 12–15 minutes, stirring now and then, until browned and softened. Set aside.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining olive oil in a 40–45cm paella pan over high heat until just beginning to smoke.

At this point, your stove will be a bit crowded:

Turn the heat down to medium, add the onion and the 2 remaining cloves of chopped garlic, and cook, stirring, until just beginning to soften, about 5 minutes.

Coarsely grate (not sure what that means? Neither did we so chop it!) the tomato, discarding the skin. Stir together and cook for another 2 minutes.

Add the peppers and continue to cook the vegetables together until softened, another 10 minutes.

Stir in the cooked aubergine. At this point the vegetable mixture can be set aside for up to 2 hours or refrigerated overnight.

When you're ready to roll, place the paella pan with the vegetables over high heat and pour the rice into the pan in an even cross ( not necessary but many Spaniards do this). 

Add the stock and stir to combine everything. Bring to the boil and then lower the heat to a simmer.

Arrange the artichokes and peas on top and simmer until the rice is cooked through, about 35 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat source, cover with a large piece of foil and let it sit undisturbed for 15 minutes.

Alternatively you can cook the paella outside over a not-too-hot barbecue.

Squeeze the juice of the lemon over the paella and serve with lemon wedges. 

If you attempt this Vegetable Paella, let us know whether you found it worth the labor!