Seafood Paella

For a number of years, my friends have been having paella on the beach cooked over an open fire in Santa Cruz, California.  We always started our paella with sofrito - a flavorful saute of onion, garlic, tomato and seasonings made with short-grain rice such as bomba rice or arborio rice.   We regularly used scallops, chorizo, mussels and shrimp however it is a flexible dish in which people swap other seafood.  I am replacing the mussels here with crab claws which I prefer.  Now that I'm living in Reno, Nevada, I've begun making paella over our Weber gas grill.

The goal is to have a coveted crispy layer of rice on the bottom of the pan known as socarrat, best achieved by using a proper paella pan known as a paellera.

• 5 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 can stewed tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• a pinch of saffron threads
• 2 cups of short-grain rice
• 4 cups broth (seafood, vegetable or chicken)
• 1/2 pound shrimp
• 1/2 pound scallops
• 1 pound crab claws
• 1 pound Spanish chorizo, sliced
• 1 cup white wine (optionally replace 1 cup of chicken broth with wine)

Light the webber grill and set to a medium-high heat.  Place the paella pan on top of the webber grill and drizzle the oil into the pan.  Fry the onion and bell pepper until soft, stirring often.  Add the sliced chorizo sausage. Stir in the garlic, and before it begins to brown, add the tomatoes.    Add paprika, saffron and salt to taste.  Cook until the mixture has reduced and thickened.  Add the rice and stir making sure it is coated with the sauce.    Add the broth to the rice mixture and bring to a boil.  Turn down the heat to a low heat such that the rice is at a simmer moving the pan around so that the heat is distributed on the bottom of the pan.  When the rice is close to being cooked, add the shrimp, scallops and crab legs to the pan.  Cover the pan with foil to steam the seafood cooking roughly 8-10 minutes.