Seafood Paella

To me, there is nothing more luxurious than seafood - even better is a dish that uses a selection of it. I first had seafood paella at a seaside restaurant called La Bahia in the Costa Blanca. I wasn’t big into fish at the time and probably wouldn’t have ordered it had I not been bolstered on by the jug of sangria I’d had as an apéritif. As it happened, I fell in love with the dish and have returned to La Bahia again and again, unashamedly ordering the same thing each time. The only negative thing to come of it is that it has ruined me for life when it comes to paella. Any other place I’ve had it has never come close to creating anything as perfect as they consistently do. Of course, those other places didn't have glorious sea views, a climate that doesn’t require wearing a jacket in the evening or even a lovely little man playing a keyboard and singing Elvis songs on a loop. However, it wasn’t until I attempted to make the dish myself that I realised their secret ingredient - restraint. Paella needs to be very delicate and it takes nerve to know when to stop with your seasoning. It would be much simpler to do what I did on my first attempt and be overly generous with the paprika. Yes, the resulting dish will be tasty but it will lack the subtlety that makes a paella truly delicious and worth coming back to time and time again. 

Stock is the heart of the paella and it’s worth making it from scratch because it doesn’t take an awful lot of work. It’s better to use white fish bones for your stock as the results will be clearer than that of oily fish. It also means you won't have to skim off any fat from the liquid when it cools. My fishmonger (Steve Hatt on Essex Road) gave me a huge halibut carcass and the bones of a couple of sea bass. There was a nice amount of fish on the bones which makes all the difference to the flavour of the stock.

It’s just a matter of bunging the bones into a large pot with some vegetables. Onion and carrot are essential to the flavour of any broth but to make it more fish specific, add a chopped fennel bulb and a handful of parsley. Normally I would add a few peppercorns but I left them out for this as I wanted the flavour to be as subtle as possible.

Pepper is not the only seasoning absent in this dish, it also happens to have no added salt. This was a worry for me as I’m a huge lover of salt - I would much rather stick my finger in the salt pig than the sugar bowl. It really is unnecessary here though. The dish has a delicate flavour, but a complex one. When using saffron (a herb more expensive than gold) it would be a shame to mask the flavour of it.

The rice is the star of the paella. Even though it plays host to a variety of wonderful seafood, it is the carrier of all the flavours in the dish. With this in mind it is worth sourcing the best rice possible. This wasn’t actually as difficult as I thought it was going to be - I was third time lucky finding paella rice in M&S, a place i only go to out of sheer desperation. It was also the ultimate paella rice I came across - Calasparra - which I wasn’t even expecting to find. Try to use this if you can, but the “Spanish Bomba” rice more widely available is also perfectly acceptable. Whilst on the subject of “authentic” ingredients, the Spanish La Chinata smoked paprika powder is a great addition to a paella as it doesn’t have the bitterness often found in certain paprikas.

Choosing the fish for the paella is the fun bit. On a shallow note, shellfish looks really impressive. For this reason, I leave the prawns in their shells. As long as there is a finger bowl in close proximity I can’t really see the issue. I know some people can be funny about seeing the eyes of their food staring at them but they should probably eat something else - shelling the prawns at the table is part of the joy. I prefer mussels to clams in this dish. Not only are they significantly cheaper, they have more presence than their tiny cousins. Squid is a must and then you can have whatever white fish you fancy. I used monkfish which tastes great and as it has a meaty texture, and retains its shape during cooking.

I like to preface my paella with a simple salad of iceberg lettuce, sliced white onion, yellow pepper and black olives. Not only because the main is almost devoid of vegetables but because it’s what I have at La Bahia. One last note - garden peas have no place in a paella. A liberal scattering of parsley lifts the colour of the dish without resorting to Jamie Oliver-esque methods….

Recipe (Serves 2, generously)

For the stock

Around 1 kg of fish carcass, preferably from white fish

1 onion, roughly chopped

1 carrot, roughly chopped

1 fennel bulb, roughly sliced

A handful of parsley, torn

For the paella

1 onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves

300g Calasparra rice

200g chopped tomatoes

1 level tsp smoked paprika

Generous pinch of saffron, soaked in a teaspoon of water

100ml olive oil

200g mussels, de-bearded and cleaned

6 large king prawns

150g squid, cut into rings

200g monkfish, cut into chunks around 1cm

To serve

Handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

1 lemon, quartered

First, make the stock. Place the fish bones along with the prepared vegetables into a large pot and cover with water. Bring to the boil and skim off the white foam that surfaces at the top. Lower the temperature and simmer gently with the lid on for a couple of hours. After straining you want to be left with around 500ml of stock.

In a 26cm paella dish, or saucepan, heat the oil gently and add the monkfish sealing on all sides. Set aside. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened before stirring in the paprika. Add the saffron along with the soaking water, the chopped tomatoes and the rice and stir until well combined. With the back of a wooden spoon, press down the rice mixture so that it is evenly distributed along the dish and pour over the stock. Bring the temperature up so it simmers vigorously. After 5 minutes place the squid on top, being carful not to disturb the rice.

This is stage that requires some nerve - it can be tempting to add more liquid when the rice looks like it's drying out but the rice is supposed to be fairly dry in texture and shouldn’t have the consistency of a risotto. Five minutes after adding the squid, place the rest of the seafood on top of the rice, again making an effort not to move it around too much. Let it simmer for a further 10 minutes, gently turning the prawns halfway through cooking. 

Cover the paella with foil and allow to rest for around 10 minutes. This is a dish that benefits from being eaten warm as opposed to piping hot. Garnish with the chopped parsley and lemon wedge and serve immediately.

Shrove Tuesday: Crispy Chinese Duck with Hoisin Sauce and Pancakes

In an increasingly secular society, Shrove Tuesday manages to retain popularity. Although it is doubtful that a religious celebration revolving around pancakes could ever fall out of favour. Even Lent, the practice of fasting to commemorate Jesus’ suffering in the desert has been appropriated by the detox brigade. It is redemption - a second chance at failed New Year’s Resolutions and the rebirth of the opportunity to give up coffee, chocolate or whatever vice you may have. 

Shrove Tuesday was originally a way of using pancakes as a carrier for eggs, sugar and whatever rich foods you had lurking in the cupboard that you wanted rid of before Lent. Personally, if I attempted to rid my cupboards of rich foods it would likely take me longer than forty days so I tend not to approach it this way but rather as an excuse to eat pancakes for dinner on a school night. 

I’m a fan of having two courses of pancakes (three would just be gluttony) so I have the traditional crêpes with lashings of sugar and lemon as a dessert and crispy duck with hoisin sauce as the savoury course. Chinese New Year begins the day before Shrove Tuesday, so this is a nice way of celebrating both occasions (if you don't mind double cultural appropriation!).

Crispy shredded duck pancakes (Serves 2 and assumes a crêpe dessert afterwards)

For the duck

1 duck crown

3 tbsp chinese five spice (shop-bought or 1 tbsp fennel seeds, 1 tbsp szechuan pepper, 2 star anise, 1 tsp cloves and 1 tsp ground cinnamon)

4 tbsp honey

For the hoisin sauce

5 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp smooth peanut butter

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp sesame seed oil

1 tbsp Gochujang (or any hot sauce)

1 tsp dark muscovado sugar

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

For the pancakes

225g plain flour

175ml boiling water

To serve

3 spring onions, shredded
Half a cucumber, center removed and julienned


If possible, try and marinate the duck the day before in order to let the flavours fully develop. Score the skin of the duck and buff away as much moisture as you can with kitchen paper. 
If making the five spice from scratch, simply combine the spices in a food processor or hand blender and blitz until most of it is powder.

Cover the skin of the crown with the honey and then massage in the the five spice powder, ensuring the duck is evenly covered. 

Place in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees and cook until the juices of the duck run clear and the skin is crisp. This should take 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on the size of your crown. Crispier skin can be achieved by placed the duck under a hot grill for a few minutes. Cover the crown with foil and allow to rest for at least fifteen minutes.

To make the pancakes, place the flour in a large bowl and add the boiling water. Mix with a wooden spoon to combine the mixture and then bring in together with your hands, kneading until smooth.

Divide the dough into balls weighing around 25g (you should get around 18 and you don't have to use them all). Roll the balls out on a floured surface to around the depth of a 5p coin.

Sprinkle some flour onto a frying pan and heat gently. Place the pancakes into the pan and allow to cook until golden spots appear. Set aside.

To make the hoisin sauce simply combine the all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add more hot sauce to taste if you fancy it. 

Begin shredding the duck with two forks, it should come away from the carcass easily. Don't discard the skin- it's arguably the best bit. To heat the pancakes, place in a steamer for a few minutes until warmed through. I use a vegetable steamer, but if you have a proper Chinese one it would obviously be ideal.

Place everything on the table (not forgetting the spring onions and cucumber) and assemble your pancakes as you see fit. Enjoy!