For several years, we hesitated to open the Basmati rice that we brought from one of our travels (from a past life). But the time has come ;) After reading information about seafood paella, we decided to prepare such a combination, having experience in cooking pilaf but zero experience with seafood and basmati...
Ingredients:
300 g of rinsed basmati rice
seafood: 400 g of frozen mix, 200 g of seafood cocktail, 100 g of mussels
1 large onion
4 cloves of garlic
half of a large red bell pepper
1 medium-sized tomato
150 g of frozen green peas
300 ml of water
spices (curry, smoked paprika, salt, hot red chili pepper)
olive oil for frying
набір продуктів, які знадобляться на 2 етапі
використані спеції
Stage 1: Preliminary preparation of ingredients
Thoroughly rinse the rice. Do this until the water in which we wash it becomes completely clear.
Chop the onion. Cut the garlic (we practice crushing the clove with the knife blade first, then cutting it). Cut the pepper into large cubes, and the tomato can be cut the same way.
Defrost the seafood and peas. Prepare the water that we will add in two stages.
Stage 2: Cooking
We will cook the dish in a pan with thick walls. Heat it well and add a small amount of olive oil.
прогріваємо пательню
When the pan with oil is heated, add the garlic. We will fry it for literally 30-40 seconds, stirring very actively with a spatula. It should release its aroma into the oil.
вводимо часник
After that, add the onion and fry until it changes color to a light golden. We do these processes over medium heat.Add the bell pepper and tomatoes. Here we will cook them until almost all the juice from the tomatoes evaporates.
додаємо томати та перець
In general, these stages are very similar to preparing the filling for the Empanada pie, which we have already written about (and cooked) earlier, as these are +- dishes from the same cuisine. But further processes change somewhat.
When the excess liquid from the tomatoes has evaporated, it’s time to add the rice.
вводимо рис
We will periodically stir it so that it does not stick to the bottom of the pan. As soon as it starts to become slightly transparent, add half a cup of the water we prepared at the previous stage.
просмажуємо рис
When the water has almost evaporated, add the raw seafood and fry, stirring occasionally, for 3-4 minutes. This is where we decided to add most of the spices: salt, smoked paprika, and chili pepper. We decided not to add simple black pepper, as chili is already nuclear on its own. We added it on the tip of a knife.
вводимо морепродукти та спеції
After that, add the green peas and fry for a few more minutes.
вводимо горошок
Finally, add the seafood cocktail, curry, pour in the remaining water, taste for salt, stir, and cover with a lid.
вводимо коктейль з морепродуктів
закриваємо кришкою, більше не перемішуємо
After this stage, we will not stir or open the lid until the dish is ready. This will take about 15 minutes, as basmati cooks quite quickly. The main thing is to reduce the heat to the minimum.
Since the lid of the pan is transparent, it is easy to visually control the readiness of the dish. The rice will increase in volume, absorbing the water. In the paella recipe, we saw that instead of water, meat broth is used, but we decided not to complicate things this time.
It’s time to turn off the gas and let our rice rest under the lid for another 10 minutes.
Stage 3: Tasting
Since seafood “goes well” with sour flavors, we decided to drizzle the finished dish with lime juice. We also seasoned the rice with a glass of dry white wine. This is also a good complement to mussels, octopus, squid, shrimp, rice, and vegetables. Enjoy! ;)
готова страва
ось така вечеря
If you enjoy our posts and recipes, you can always support our blog on the Buy Me a Coffee service. Your donations will inspire us to create new and useful Ukrainian-language content. We will be able to buy new ingredients, devices, and interesting cookbooks. This will allow us to regularly adapt recipes for easy and understandable cooking at home. Or you can simply share this post on social media, which will also help the Tseivo platform to grow ;)
