another publication by IMAGE asia

Seafood Paella

by La Bodega Tapas Bar

  Patong

Ingredients

  • 1 small onion
  • 1 green pepper
  • 1 red pepper
  • 1 glove of garlic
  • 200 gm green beans
  • 1 squid (½ kg baby squid)
  • 300 gm baby octopus
  • 1 tiger prawn per person
  • ½ kg mussels
  • ½ kg clams
  • 1 tsp sweet paprika
  • 500 gm of short grain rice (ideally Japanese or alborio)

Method:

In a flat, not too high but large pan or casserole, cook the chopped pepper and onions in olive oil for a long time – until the point when you have only sweetness and the fried flavour of the vegetables. In the middle of this process add the finely chopped garlic.

Add the squid and baby octopus chopped into small pieces, sauté, then take off the heat, add the paprika, and put back on the heat. Add 2½ times the rice volume of water and bring to boil.

Then add a few threads of saffron if possible, salt, the green beans, the mussels and the clams and then the rice. From here the dish is going a need approximately 17-20 minutes to finish, so half-way though add the tiger prawns.

You will know when it is ready as it is the moment when the rice is cooked, but add a little bit more time, especially when you use Japanese rice.

About Chef Raul Velarde

Raul Velarde was born in Madrid, but started cooking in London in 1998. For five years he moved around many restaurants to experience working with Italian, French and British Chefs. He then left to go back to Madrid and worked for two years with a top chef, “Maestro”. He then moved to Barcelona in the catering department of chain restaurant company. Next a move to Copenhagen to be chef in a Spanish restaurant for two years, followed by another two years in Bangkok, where he opened two Spanish restaurants: Tapas Café and Spanish On4. After Bangkok, he moved back to Denmark for almost two years until he was tempted by the offer to open La Bodega in Phuket.

  • Chef Raul Velarde

La Bodega Tapas Bar
[email protected]

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