A Seafood Story

Although I grew up on the East Coast, my sister and I loathed seafood.  I blame my parents because they didn’t expose us, being Jewish because Jews don’t eat shell fish, and seafood itself because sometimes it is smelly and chewy.  All of these factors combined produced an unwarranted prejudice against creatures of the sea.

Dullstroom Trout 2010

When I first moved to Cape Town, I desperately needed a job and kharma landed me a job at a seafood restaurant.  On a daily basis I had to handle seafood, sell it, and hear my customers rave about it, which disgusted me at first but wore me down until I finally gave in and tried white fish.  Incorporating seafood into my eating repertoire is probably the best thing I’ve ever done for my tastebuds; it is the ultimate food lover’s food-gasm!  In an attempt to make up for lost time, I eat seafood whenever I can, especially prawns, and still cannot believe I lived so long without it.

Recently I started exploring the joys of cooking seafood at home.  Last year Jacquie (my cooking buddy) and I made paella for Darren (her husband) and Ty.  Having never made it before, we clumsily went for it adding copious amounts of everything, and ended up with paella flowing out of our ears.  Luckily it was delicious because it proceeded to sustain us for quite a few days thereafter.

This year, we decided to refine our recipe and put a bit more finesse into it.

K&J’s Paella (serves 4 + some leftovers)

Ingredients

For the seafood

• 4 chopped garlic cloves
• 2 tbl oil
• 2 tbl margarine
• 500g calamari
• about 20-30 jumbo prawns (de-headed and de-vained)
• 6 sliced crab sticks
• 4 sliced chorizo sausages
• 2 tsp salt
• lots of freshly ground pepper
• 1 tbl paprika
• 1 tbl portugese chicken spice
• 1 tbl garlic powder
• 1-2 squeezed lemons
• 2 cups white wine

For the veggies

• 2 sliced onions
• 1 chopped garlic clove
• 1 julienned red pepper
• 1 julienned yellow pepper
• 250g chopped brown mushrooms

For the rice

• 1 ½ cup jasmine rice
• 1 tbl turmeric
• 3 cups chicken stock
• few dashes of salt

Instructions

Cook the jasmine rice in chicken stock, turmeric, and salt for about 25 minutes.  While the rice is cooking, in a large wok, sauté the garlic in margarine and oil.  Add the seafood, chorizo, and spices, and sauté on high for a few minutes until fragrant.  Next add the white wine and lemon juice.  Bring the sauce to a boil and then reduce to medium heat for about 10 minutes. At the same time while cooking the seafood, but in another pan, sauté the onions and garlic in oil until golden.  Then add the veggies and a dash of salt and pepper.  Once the veggies are partially cooked, add them to the seafood.  Stir and let the paella simmer for a few more minutes.  Spoon copious amounts of paella on top of the rice and enjoy with a glass of white wine and great company!

Our Yearly Paella Parties