Sometimes I'd like to ask God why He allows poverty, famine and injustice when He could do something about it. But I'm afraid God might ask me the same question.

Friday, December 4, 2009

As promised... Paella (the cheater version)

You can find my favorite recipe for Paella here I usually add shrimp and clams when I make it. It is fantastic and worth the effort when you have a crowd or for special occasions but it is not for weeknight cooking, not in my house anyway. Here is the cheater version I came up with that is super yummy and takes a fraction of the time.
Prepackaged yellow rice mix
Olive oil
Onion (chopped)
Garlic (3-4 cloves chopped)
Chorizo (3-4 links)
Large can diced tomatoes
Parsley
Frozen peas (about 1 cup)
2 pounds Raw shrimp (peeled and deveined)
cilantro (for garnish)
lemon wedges (for garnish)

The Chorizo is what makes it...you can play around with every other ingredient, but leave this one alone. It will give it all the flavor. You can find it anywhere, you probably just never looked. First step, make a batch of this yellow rice, just like the instructions say...While it is cooking we will make the rest of the dish... by the time the rice is done it will all come together.
Put some olive oil in the bottom of your pan/skillet what have you, throw in your chopped onion and garlic. Cook it for a minute or two add in the chorizo and break it up real good.
In about 5 minutes it will look like this.
add in the can of dices tomatoes about a tablespoon of parsley and the cup of frozen peas. Then let it simmer until the rice has 5 minutes left to cook.

Add the raw shrimp and then COVER (it will cook the shrimp) It will take about 5 minutes to get all nice and pink. You can stir it once or twice while it cooks. When it looks like this it's done. Hopefully at the same time as the rice. Dump the cooked yellow rice in a dish. Now pour the shrimp mixture over the top. Garnish with the cilantro and lemon wedges. 25 minutes...as my 5 year old would say...easy peasy lemon squeezy.
p.s. I knew I hated taking photos of food, especially because I cook in the evening so I have to use the flash. I may need to figure something out if I am going to keep posting food photos, it sure looks better in real life than in these photos, once again I have pw envy...

7 comments:

Sarabeth Hudson said...

Looks good to me! Not sure if it would go over with some of my picky eaters, but sometimes I just don't care :)

Amy Rankin said...

I think the pics look great...I am hitting the grocery store after the Christmas parade and we are eating this tonight!
Been ages since I had paella!
Can't wait to taste this!!
Amy

Anonymous said...

Oh my Goodness Amy! Who knew you had all these awesome recipes on your blog? I haven't had the chance to stop by your blog lately, I'm so glad I checked it out today....needed a good idea for dinner. Thank you!
Hope all is well with you!
C3J2

Gretchen said...

YUM!! I love paella! Living here in Tampa we get a great variety of Cuban food! I make a pretty good Ropa Veja!! The cuban bread here is authentic and absolutely wonderful to smell when it is fresh baked and warm.

Keep the recipes coming!

Mollie B said...

Can I just say YUMMMMMMY.

Mollie B said...

Can I just say YUMMMMMMY.

Ms Hennessy said...

I’m a single person, so I freeze family size meals in single portions. Can this be frozen? I love paella!