Paella!

Mmm... iPhone photo...

This dish is based on this recipe from the LCBO Food and Drink Magazine. For those of you who don't live in Ontario, you're missing out on a great, free magazine. 

Anyhow. I needed to make some changes since I was dining with a friend who doesn't eat land animals, plus I had merguez sausage, not chorizo, and no black cod.

Ingredients

• 900ml vegetable stock
• 1/2 tsp saffron threads
• 2 cups frozen shrimp, thawed and deveined, shells reserved
• 1/2 lb sausage
• 1 cup crushed tomatoes
• 1 tsp paprika
• 2 small onions, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup rice (I used basmati. Next time I'd go for regular short grain brown rice... less mushy)
• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro

Let's do it!

1. Heat up a bit of oil in a pan and fry the sausage until cooked, turning halfway through cooking. Put aside for later. Slice into bite-sized pieces when cool.
2. Place veggie stock in a pot and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, deshell and devein the shrimp, putting the shells in the veggie stock to create a seafood stock. Crumble in saffron. Keep this simmering, covered, while you do the other stuff.
3. In a large pan/pot with a lid, heat up some oil and add in garlic, onions and paprika. Cook until softened.
4. Add tomatoes and scrape up any bits that might have stuck to the bottom of the pan.
5. Add rice and stir for a couple of minutes. If you're not serving pescatarians, you can add the sausage in here.
6. Strain stock and add a couple of ladles at a time. Simmer, covered. Check on it every once in a while to see if it's done. When it dries out, add more stock. Keep going until the rice is cooked. You may not use all the stock. If there isn't enough, add water.
7. Add shrimp  and stir until cooked.
8. Add chopped cilantro. Add salt and pepper to taste.
9. This is where I added the sausage, after separating a portion for my friend.

Lunch it up!

This dish is really easy to bring for lunch. Just put it in a dish. No extra work needed. I made a side of broccoli to make this meal a bit more well rounded.