Quebec seafood paella
Seafood from Quebec makes its grand entrance in the spring, which is when we most enjoy making this amazing paella; that’s not to say that one should be deprived of this pleasure at other times of the year! The secret to making the best possible paella however, is to make the fish stock/fumet one’s self, using the trimmings from the seafood.
Ingredients
- 1 lobster, cooked
- 1 Snow Crab section
- ½ lb Matane shrimp, shelled
- ½ lb Matane shrimp, shell-on
- 1 lb Mussels
- 1 large Spanish onion
- ¼ lb smoked salmon
- ½ cup olive oil
- 2 cups Spanish OR Turkish rice
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 3 Tbsp paella spices, ground
- 2 tomatoes, chopped
- 1 cup Sherry OR white wine (opt.)
- 2 cups fresh OR frozen green peas
Method
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1
Heat the oven to 375 °F.
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2
Break off the claws and tail. Remove the lobster’s head and set aside to use as a decoration for the paella. Place the body in a large pan.
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3
Break the crab legs into sections and set aside. Add the pieces of legs and other remaining crab parts to the pan with the lobster.
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4
Sort through the shell-on shrimp, setting aside the prettiest ones garnish the paella. Shell and remove the heads from the remaining shrimp. Place the shells and heads in a pan with the smallest shrimp that might prove difficult to shell.
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5
Pour 6 glasses of water into a pan and let boil vigorously for 20 minutes. Strain, and set aside.
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6
Wash the mussels and set aside.
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7
Chop the onion and smoked salmon.
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8
Pour oil into a paella pan or another large pan. Lightly sauter the onion on medium heat along with the smoked salmon. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes until the onion is golden and the salmon is cooked.
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9
Incorporate the rice. Salt and pepper. Add the ground spices and mix well until the rice grains are evenly coloured.
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10
Add the tomato and mix. Pour 2 cups of fish stock and Sherry to the rice and mix well.
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11
Cook until the liquid is absorbed. Add 2 more cups of fish stock, mix and allow to be absorbed once again.
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12
Add peas, shelled shrimp and broken crab legs. Add one more cup of fish stock and mix.
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13
Press the mussels, the pretty shell-on shrimp, along with the remaining lobster pieces into the rice. Continue cooking in the oven for 15 minutes. Serve.
