Paella

Vegetable paella with artichokes and piquillo peppers

Moro's wonderful paella. Serves 4 as a main course.

6 tbsp olive oil
a large Spanish onion, finely chopped
a green pepper, seeded and finely chopped
2 dried noras peppers, seeds and stalks removed, broken into small pieces and covered with boiling water or 1 tsp sweet paprika
3 large globe artichokes, prepared
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
a level tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 litre of vegetable stock
a pinch of saffron (about 40 threads)
1 dessert spoon tomato puree
250g calasparra (paella) rice
1 tsp sweet paprika
5 piquillo peppers (85g), sliced into strips, or 3 red peppers, grilled, skinned and seeded

To serve:

2 tbsp roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 lemon, cut into wedges

Heat the oil in a 35-40cm paella pan or frying pan, and soften the onion, green and noras peppers over a medium to high heat. Cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cut each artichoke in half and then into six wedges. Add these, along with the rosemary and garlic, to the softening onions and peppers. Fry for a few minutes, then cover with foil or a lid and cook for a further 8-10 minutes over a medium heat, stirring every now and then. Bring the vegetable stock to the boil and add the saffron and tomato puree to infuse.

Now start cooking the paella. Over a medium heat add the rice and paprika to the vegetables in the pan. Stir the rice well for 2 minutes before adding the stock. Bring to the boil then season the liquor. When the rice appears above the stock, don't stir it: just lower the heat to prevent it sticking to the pan. Cook for another 10-15 minutes until 80 per cent of the stock has been absorbed into the rice. Remove from the heat. Scatter the strips of pepper over the top of the paella and cover the pan tightly with foil before letting it rest for 10 minutes. Take off the foil, sprinkle with parsley and serve with the lemon wedges and perhaps a green salad with a sherry vinegar dressing.

my Catalonian uncle is in town and is making his famous paella tonight!

pic from last time he made one.
http://i.imgur.com/avJBTMK.jpg

I'm planning on making one this weekend, anyone have any tips? Should I buy a paella pan or could I use any large pan?

oh wow i want paella so much

My wife can't eat shrimp, so I'm thinking I'll use lobster, chicken thighs, clams or mussels, and maybe rabbit?

I've notice a few paella recipes have rabbit, but does it even taste good?

rabbit is ok, never done much for me either way. it's kind of neutral so good for paella imo.

yeah, rabbit is bland, but that can be a virtue sometimes.