My NZ version of Paella: A seafood and meat one-pot dish

Seafood or meat? carbs or veggies? Why not all together in a gorgeous one-pot dish?
Today I'm sharing a rich nevertheless healthy Spanish-inspired one-pot casserole: A Paella.

Originally from the province of Valencia in Spain, there is not one version of the Paella, but many local or family versions. Here is my NZ quick - well relatively quick - and easy recipe!
Paella is a mix of white rice, green vegetables, meat (including rabbit, chicken and other) and/or seafood, beans, saffron-based seasoning and olive oil. This dish is originally cooked in a pan (not a pot as above) but you need a very large pan, so my version uses a pot (iron-cast). This cooking ustensil inspired the name of the Paella after the old French word for pan: paelle.

You'd be surprised how well this dish matches NZ food. It is actually a great dish to showcase the delicious - although a bit too big for my taste - green mussels from Coromandel and NZ shellfish like cockles freshly picked from Cockle Bay, Whangaparaoa - a great kid activity by the way! we love it!

Don't worry about the quantity of ingredients, it is still very easy to make. You can also adapt the recipe to your fridge and pantry, but my favourite version this mixed seafood and chichen Paella. Although today I had no prawns which also go very well in this dish.

Ingredients (6 servings)

- 750g cockles

- 24 green mussels

- 6 chicken drumsticks

- 1 whole squid, sliced*

- 1 whole hot chorizo, sliced*

- 2 tomatoes, peeled* and diced

- 250g green beans*
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 large red (or green) capsicum
- 1 onion, chopped
- 10g butter
- 1 sprig of parsley
- 1 shallot
- 1/2 cup white wine (Pinot gris)
- 1 cup of water
- 1 1/2 cup of parboiled rice
- 1 1/2 cup chicken stock*
- 1 1/2 cup seafood stock (included in this recipe)
- 1 dose of saffron*
- salt, pepper

Cooking instructions 

(~ 1.5 hour)

The preparation

First prepare all your ingredients: slice the chorizo, the squid and the capsicum; chop the onion and the shallot; peel and dice the tomatoes; cut the green beans' tails.