Paella - Spanish Fried Rice

I served this dish to my Chinese colleague the other day. His comment was that it looked and tasted like fried rice. Well, I yet to eat any Spanish fried rice before, Paella could have been the closest form of fried rice after all.

Anyway, here are the ingredients to make it: fish, prawns, mussels, Chorizo (plenty of it), rice, green peas, onions, sliced green/red peppers and chopped tomatoes.


Heats up some oils (I like it oily, to avoid feeling guilty, I used olive oil). Stir fries the chopped onions till they are translucent. Adds in Chorizo and continues the process. Put in the chopped tomatoes, then the peppers.


Adds in the rice. Stir fry for a while.


Adds chicken stock (enough to cook the rice) and some salts. The water level is vital; getting it wrong and you will be ended up eating rice cracker (too little water) or porridge (too much water). Then, adds in the prawns, fish and mussels. Sprinkles the green peas on top.


Covers it, and let it simmers for 20 mins (it should be cooked by then, if not, simmers it longer). Serves it with lemon:


Note: It is quite easy to cook (takes around 1 hour). The hardest part for me is the water level - being so used to rely on rice cooker to cook the rice, I find cooking rice in a pot can be a challenging task. So far, I manage to get 98% cooked properly, with a bit of burnt rice at the bottom of the pot. Well, more stuffs to feed the cat :)