Miguel Maestre Masterclass- Seafood Paella

Last night I was fortunate enough to attend a masterclass with the incredibly talented and ultra charismatic Miguel Maestro. Said in my best Troy McClure voice, 'You may remember him from such shows as Masterchef and Boy's weekend'. I could listen to him (Miguel, not Troy) speak with that amazing accent for hours and hours. You should watch out for his new tv show, The Living Room with Amanda Keller, Dr Chris Brown and Barry Du Bois. If Miguel's in it, I know it will be good.

Miguel demonstrated his signature Seafood Paella, which looked amazing and tasted even better. I confess- I do not eat seafood, but I was very brave and actually ate around the seafood- probably the first time since I've eaten anything touching seafood since I stopped eating it 16 years ago. It was absolutely delicious and, I'm very glad to say, the rice didn't taste at all fishy. Needless to say, my mother and sister were very proud of me for trying.

Thanks Rach, Neish, Amanda and Katja for a lovely night. Thanks Miguel for the fantastic demonstration. I'm looking forward to using my new Spanish cooking book. First stop this weekend is the shops to buy a Paella pan and Bomba rice.

Paella a la Maestre- recipe by Miguel Maestre

note: as Miguel told us, you can add whatever meat or seafood you like and feel free to change the vegetables and herbs as you please. The one he made last night was, in fact, quite different from the below recipe.

Serves: 4

Prep timr: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Equiptment needed: Paella pan and Paella burner, Food processor, medium sized pot, mixing bowls, spoons, ladles, chopping board, tea towels and serving plate

Ingredients

1 tbspn olive oil

400g Calsparra/Bomba rice

500g Mussels (cleaned)

2 King prawns

1 blue swimmer crab, cleaned and quartered

4 Baby calamari hoods, cleaned

4 yabbies

2L fish or chicken stock

salt and pepper

200g peas (fresh or frozen)

2 lemons, halved

2limes, halved

chopped parsley

For the Sofrito

150 ml Olive oil

15ml Sherry vinegar

3 large ripe oxheart tomatoes

1/2 chorizo sausage

3 pink shallors, peeled

4 cloves garlic, peeled

4 piquillo peppers

1/2 bunch thyme

1/2 bunch mint

1/2 bunch parsley

1/2 bunch coriander

1 bunch chives

1 tsp saffron

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp spicy paprika

1 tsp smoked paprika

Method

For the sofrito, place all ingredients in a food processor. Process till smooth.

Heat oil in a large Paella pan. Add rice. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until it chages colour from white to transparent.

Stir in 12 tablespoons of sofrito mix. Cook for 3 minutes. Add seafood and stock. Seson. Cook over medium heat, without stirring, for about 25 minutes or unitl stock has been absorbed and rice is almost tender. Reduce heat to low and cook for a further 3 minutes to form a nice 'soccarrada'or crust on the bottom of the pan. Add peas and remove from heat. Stand, covered with a tea towel for 5 minutes. Squeeze over lemons and limes and season. Garnish with parsley. Serve paella warm, not steaming hot.