Eileen, this is from my favourite Spanish cookbook. I've made it many different ways, by just substituting or eliminating different shellfish. Use the recipe has a guideline.

Paella A La Valenciana
======================
From:Penelope Casas: The Foods and Wines of Spain.
Chicken and Seafood Paella

6 cups very strong chicken broth, preferably homemade
1/2 teaspoon saffron
1 small onion peeled
2 small chicken or chicken pieces
Salt
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 pound Chorizo sauces cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 large pork chop, boned and diced
1/4 pound piece of cured ham, diced
1 medium onion chopped
4 green onions chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 pimientos, homemade or bottled, diced
1 pound small or medium shrimp shelled
2 small lobsters, divided into tail sections and claws
Or 4 lobster tails, split lengthwise, or 8 king crab claws or 8 jumbo shrimp in their shells
3 cups short-grain rice
5 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 bay leaves, crumbled
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 pound fresh or frozen peas
18 clams, cleaned
18 mussels, srubbed
Lemon Wedges for garnish
Chopped Parsley for Garnish
. Heat the broth with the saffron and the whole onion. Cover and simmer
15 minutes.

Remove onion from broth - you neeed exactly 5 1/2 cups of broth.

Cut chicken into small serving pieces - whole breasts cut into 4 parts
and each thigh into 2 parts, the bony tip of the leg chopped off, the
wing tip discarded and the rest of the wings separated into two parts.
Dry pieces well and sprinkle with salt. In a metal paella pan, with
about a 15 inch base, heat the oil. Add the chicken pieces and fry over
high heat until golden. Remove to a warm platter. Add the chorizo,
pork and ham to the pan and stir fry about 10 minutes. Add the chopped
oinion, green onions, garlic and pimientos and saute until the onion is
wilted. Add the srimp and teh lobster and saute about 3 mintues more,
or until the shrimp and lobster barely turn pink (the lobsters will
cook more in the oven). Remove the shrimp and the lobster to the
platter with the chicken. Add the rice to the pan and stir to coat it
well with the oil. Sprinkle in the 5 tablespoons chopped parsley and
the crumbled bay leaves. (Make in advance up to this point).

Stir in the chicken broth, boiling hot, the wine, lemon juice and peas.
Salt to taste. Bring to a boil and cook, uncovered and stirring
occasionally, over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes. Bury the
shrimp and the chicken in the rice. Add the clams and the mussels,
pusing them into the rice with the edge that will open facing up.
Decorate the paella with the lobster pieces, then bake at 325°F
uncovered for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit on top of
the stove, lightly covered with foil for about 10 minutes. To serve ,
decorate with lemon wedges and chopped parsley.

Oh yum, what a nice gift.

Paprika? How about Hungarian Goulash or Chicken Paprikash?

I made paella once. It was delicious and I loved it, but for some reason never made it again, I think it was the lobster claws, which I love but are very expensive here.

Annie

The classic paella is rabbit, snails, and green beans. Peasant food. The hoity toity seafood paellas came later. But, like sangria, paella is at heart at improvisational dish, I think. The poor Spanish peasants wouldn't have turned their noses up at chicken or mutton if they could have gotten it, and there were probably times when the bunnies were scarce.

Here is what I usually do. Make a hot wood fire - or a heap of really hot coals. Heat the paella (the word actually refers to the pan itself) to really, really hot. When you squirt a bit of oil on it, the oil should instantly smoke and even flame up.

Throw on your rabbit or chicken. The pieces should be cut into serving-size (rabbit quarters, or chicken thighs), tossed in salt and lots of oil. The oil on the meat will help it not-stick and the cold meat will cool the pan enough that you can squirt more oil on it without igniting a fire. Using long tongs and gloves (the fire and pan are still really hot), flip the pieces to get all sides browned. Don't try to cook them through, you're just browning. Remove the meat and set aside.

Dump a bunch of chopped garlic, onion, celery, a bit of tomato, a couple of seeded not-too-hot peppers, and whatever else you like in a soffrito, in the paella. Move it around to cook it without burning, add oil if there isn't enough left from the meat. As soon as the aromatics are soft, remove them.

Add more oil and your green beans - you can use another vegetable, but beans stand up to the whole cooking process without getting mushy, which is more than you can say for the lesser veggies. The fire or coals are cooling and the pan, while still very hot, is not the smelter that it initially was, and you won't have to work so frenetically or wince at the heat. Remove beans when softened.

Then cook the snails, of course canned snails don't really have to be cooked but they want to be kissed with the paella anyway. If you're going to wuss out and substitute prawns, then they get a kiss too.

Now add oil and chorizo. No, that's not in the purist's paella, but if those Spanish peasants had had chorizo I'm sure they would have used it. Cook the chorizo for awhile, it is a wet sloppy Joe sort of stuff so it takes some time. Remove the chorizo, leaving its oils and residue in the paella.

Pour the arborio rice into the paella, fry it just a little, and then pour in some hot chicken stock, just enough to barely cover the rice. I'm assuming you don't have any rabbit stock handy. Add the saffron and the soffrito, and stir. Smooth out the the rice in a flat layer, as the stock bubbles and starts to get absorbed into the grains.

Take all the stuff you set aside - the rabbit, snails, beans - and nestle the pieces into the rice in a pretty design. As the stock gets absorbed by the rice, add some more. Taste the rice occasionally to make sure you don't get it too soggy. The fire is mellowed out now, it is content to simmer the stock and gently cook the rice and all the yummy stuff in it.

When the rice is cooked, stop adding stock but keep the paella on the fire. Have a drink. After 10 minutes, use a chopstick or fork to feel the bottom of the rice, where it touches the paella (pan). Is it crusted and part-burned? No? Then keep cooking until it is. Sometimes you can tell that the desired crust has formed, by smelling a wafting toastiness. But feeling is more reliable.

Don't skimp on this step. The crust is important, some think it is the best part of the paella. When you get crust, as confirmed by sone excavation, move paella to table and dive in.

The whole process takes around two hours. More or less. Maybe more. I'm usually a bit drunk by the end.

A cheap thin steel paella - carbon steel with red plastic wrapped loop handles - costs maybe $25 and you need it, but you don't need or want an expensive, pretty paella. Because you're going to get that pan freaky hot, maybe over a wood fire, it will turn black, the plastic will burn off, your hands will burn off if you don't have gloves, and if you bought a $250 polished copper paella, you'd just cry. The cheap steel pan just needs to be oiled and hung up for next time.

This post was edited by johnliu on Tue, Apr 9, 13 at 22:52

There is even a name for the crust. Soccarat. It is vital.

http://m.toledoblade.com/Food/2012/10/09/When-making-paella-the-crust-is-the-key.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Soccarat - How To Get It

John, I'd be happy with a paella with rabbit and snails. That might have been peasant food way back when, but rabbit isn't peasant food any more. Not at the price it sells for here.

Eileen, here is a thread from a few years back with some of Sharon's (Canarybird) recipes. There are a few that use saffron.

Here is a link that might be useful: Spanish Recipes

Yeah, I think chicken (dark meat) can sub for rabbit.

But what to sub for snails, which aren't cheap either? It is kind of irritating than snails are so expensive. The imported canned French escargot is just your ordinary garden snail. You can simply harvest them in the flower bed. Assuming you don't use poisons there. Give them a few days in a cornmeal bed, to eliminate whatever unsanctioned stuff they've been eating. Then boil them until they're done.

This post was edited by johnliu on Tue, Apr 9, 13 at 23:32

Hungarian Paprika! Be still my heart!
I would probably make a Porkolt - a Hungarian stew (you can use beef, pork, chicken, etc) that does not have dairy. Paprikash is usually finished with sour cream in the sauce, so that may not work for your dairy free request.

Anyway, as with all "peasant" dishes, there are as many recipes as there are cooks, so this is close to what my mother makes. I sometimes omit the caraway (I have a confirmed caraway hater in the house) but the rest of the flavors are sturdy enough to carry the dish with or without the caraway.

Beef Porkolt (can sub pork or chicken)
Ingredients
2 tbsp oil, lard or bacon fat
1 large onion, minced
1 large garlic clove, minced
1/2 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 lb. beef stew meat
2 tbsp sweet (mild) paprika - Hungarian paprika is best
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 large tomato, cored and chopped
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley for garnish (optional)

In a large saute pan, heat oil over medium. Add minced onion and saute for about 8 minutes till softened. Add the garlic and green bell pepper. Continue to saute for another 5 minutes till garlic is fragrant and bell pepper is tender-crisp.

Add the beef to the pan and season lightly with salt and pepper. Cook for 5-6 more minutes, stirring twice, till meat is browned.
Sprinkle paprika and caraway seeds evenly across the top of the meat. Add diced tomatoes to the pan. Pour 4-5 cups of hot water into the pan, till the meat is almost covered. Stir and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to a simmer and cover to pan. Let the mixture simmer slowly for about 90-100 minutes, replenishing the water as needed to keep it from getting dry.

The stew is ready when the meat is fork tender and the sauce is thick. Season with additional salt and pepper to taste before serving, if desired.

Serve over spaetzle, potatoes, rice or noodles.

I have dreamed about going to the spice merchants in Istanbul! Neat.

Given the high cost of seafood, I occasionally make side dish of Paella Habana which is a more vegetable focused paella and allows for a separate meat dish.

Paella Habana

Pinch of saffron
1/2 cup uncooked white rice
1/8 teaspoon yellow food coloring
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 sliced chorizo
1/3 cup cooked yucca
1 small sweet potato, peeled and cut in chunks
1 ripe plantain, peeled and sliced in 1 inch chunks
1/2 cup cooked black beans
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup white wine
1 tablespoon cooked green peas for garnish
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in shallow ovenproof skillet or paella pan. Saute onions, peppers, tomatoes, and garlic. Add pork and cook over low heat until tender; if needed, add a little broth. Add yucca, potatoes, plantains, black beans, saffron, salt, and pepper. Add chicken broth, rice, and food coloring.

Stir well and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Sprinkle with wine and garnish with peas.

Mark Bittman was just on the Today Show featuring his paella.

One thing I learned from his segment was that 'paella' is the mixture of rice and liquid.

All other additions are just additions.

i never thought about it that way, because I love my paella with all the 'additions'.

ML