La Noche de la Paella!

My wife's aunt and uncle are up for the weekend.  This means two things...my kids get to play with their "big" cousin Eduardo who is 14.  But what may be even better is the fact that we always make a paella when Tia Maria Elena is in town.  Unfortunately for her, I have cooked a few paellas this year so I think I know what I'm doing...and if you couple that with my control freak nature of cooking we had a little battle going outside by the paella.  But, I think we ended up working together well enough to make a great paella.  

Here's a little step by step of the paella.

First, grab some propane and connect it to the paella burner stand that your wife's Salvadoran grandmother has somehow brought back from Spain.  (They're also available online at a number of places.)

Saute some chorizo, peppers, onions and garlic.

When the veggies are nice and soft, saute the rice for a little bit.  (I used traditional spanish paella rice...it's similar to arborio rice for risotto.  This was our first little disagreement.  Maria Elena and her mother swear by Uncle Ben's but I'm more of a traditionalist.  Lo siento Tio Benjamin!)  

After you saute whatever rice you choose for about 1-2 minutes add the stock.  I was lucky because Maria Elena had spent the entire day making a stock.

After the rice has had 10-15 minutes of cooking time add the seafood.  Tonight we had scallops, shrimp and clams but feel free to put in whatever you like and can find nice and fresh.  We're definitely lucky out here on the Cape.  We get our seafood at Chatham Fish & Lobster.

Alejandra was crowned as the new paella princess tonight.  Her new responsibilities included serving the paella.....and since she walked downstairs this morning with her crown and earrings on I assume she also had to sleep in the outfit.

I can only upload 5 pics at a time so you'll just have to believe me that the next step is to sit down with friends and family, drink wine, eat paella and just have a wonderful evening in the backyard.