Those of you who have visited the Alicante region will have found this paella del señorito or arroz del senyoret in many of the menus of the city’s restaurants. It is a seafood rice, but for the “lords”, that is to say with peeled shrimp, squid cut into small pieces… A paella where everything is ready to eat with your eyes closed without any complications.
Ingredients for the Paella del Señorito
- 500 ml of home-made fumet or fish stock
- 200 g peeled shrimps
- 350 g of squid
- ½ onion
- ½ red pepper
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 1 medium tomato
- ½ teaspoon of sweet paprika
- Parsley quilted for decoration
- 250 g round rice
- Olive oil
- Salt and black pepper
- A few sprigs of saffron
Preparation of the paella del señorito
- First of all, the sofrito must be prepared, the basis of the flavour of all paellas. To do this, add a good drizzle of olive oil in a frying pan. Add the onion and red pepper cut into small cubes with a bit of salt and pepper. Once these vegetables are well browned, add the very thin pricked garlic. Finally, add the grated tomato and leave to cook for 10 minutes until you have a thick tomato purée. Adjust the sugar seasoning (to balance the acidity of the tomato). Then add the diced squid and cook for 10 min.
- Once your sofrito is ready, it is time to prepare the shrimp of your Paella del Señorito. Peel them and set aside to add them at the end of cooking. At this stage, all the ingredients for the paella are ready. It is important to bear in mind that the fish stock must be very hot before adding it to the rice.
- With all the ingredients prepared, add the rice to the pan where the sofrito is and cook it well. Once the rice is well mixed, add the paprika to brown it for just a few seconds.
- Add all the fumet (here is the recipe) or hot fish soup to the pan and the saffron sprigs. Stir well at the beginning so that the rice grains are well separated during cooking. This is the time to rectify the salt if necessary.
- Cook over high heat for 5 minutes to add immediately after the shrimp while decorating the surface of the rice. Continue to cook the rice over medium-low heat for another 15 minutes, without stirring the rice: the rice should only be stirred at the beginning of the cooking when the stock is added.
- Once the cooking time has passed, turn off the heat and leave the rice to rest for a few minutes and serve your paella del señorito decorated with fresh finely pricked parsley.
