Community Press Day: Paella Sneak Peak!

Posted by Olivia on Thu, November 04, 2010

In case you haven’t heard by now, we are gearing up for Community Press Day, slated for November 28th—less than one month away! It promises to be a full afternoon of feasting and fun.

While we’ll be busy pressing your olives into fabulous olive oil all day, that won’t stop us from partaking in other activities! We’ll be sampling our new Olio Nuovo, the first olive oil of this season’s harvest, and sipping on wine. To complement the oils and wines, we’ll be joined by an authentic Spanish paella chef, who’ll be cooking up authentic paella from his family’s recipe.

To give you a sneak peak of the Spanish paella (which will be the best you ever experience outside of Spain!), we convinced our chef to let us share his recipe with you. He’ll be on site during Community Press Day to offer samples of the authentic recipe, help you select the finest ingredients, and even supply you with the cookware you’ll need to recreate this masterpiece at home.

Yaya Family Paella
Ingredients:
1 pound assorted mussels and clams
½ cup The Olive Press extra virgin olive oil
10 pieces split chicken wings or wing drumettes
1 pound pork short ribs
½ to 1 cup tomate frito, tomato sauce, or tomato puree
3 to 6 piquillo peppers, slices, plus a few slices for garnish
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups paella rice
½ cup peas
1 cup green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
½ pound shrimp, shell-on
3 large scallops, halved
1 teaspoon saffron threads, or ½ teaspoon powdered
4 to 6 cups shellfish broth (recipe below) or substitute chicken broth
Salt, to taste

Directions:
For the shellfish broth:
1.  Boil the mussels and clams in 6 cups of water until the shells start to open.
Drain, reserve the liquid, and discard any unopened shells.
For the sofrito:
2.  Add the olive oil to the paella pan and sauté the chicken wings and pork for 5 to 10
minutes under medium-high heat.
3.  Add the tomate frito, piquillo peppers, and garlic. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
Build the Paella:
4.  Add the rice and stir the mixture to coat, about 1 minute.
5.  Add the peas, green beans, shrimp, scallops, and saffron. Stir under medium heat
for 1 minute to incorporate the mixture.