Saffron

 

On our final night at Baan Rim Nam we visited Saffron on Sea; a restaurant that we had heard was the best on Koh Chang.  Our host Ian confirmed this could well be the case and said he always liked to take people who thought they had seen most of what Thai food had to offer.  Ian recommended some dishes to try, including a banana flower salad, some pork and prawn parcels and the whole fish dishes; apparently they serve the fish on their side as if about to swim off your plate.  Ian arranged a pick up taxi to come and collect us and right on time the affable Mr Jum arrived to whizz us along the island roads to Saffron.

The restaurant is located right on the cliffs overlooking the sea.  We should really have come at dusk to see what I can only imagine would be awesome views of the sun setting over the sea, but as it was it was perfectly tranquil with a covered bar and restaurant area and a larger open terrace. 
 
We'd had a couple of Changs on the deck at Baan Rim Nam, (an impossible dusk pastime to resist) so we ordered large refreshing glasses of papaya and lemon juice to drink. 
 

We asked for the pork and prawn parcels but sadly they were off the menu, so we opted for the banana flower salad to share.  The food took a while to come but everything is made fresh from scratch, the kitchen is open plan and if you want to you can go and watch your food being created.  I say created as there is real creative flair in the beautifully presented dishes that they serve here.  The presentation of the food and the freshness of the ingredients really made the food exceptional.

The banana flower salad was an artful pile of huge sweet prawns, banana flower, (which we'd never had before) the most pungent and aromatic thai basil, fierce chillis, peanuts, and shredded green papya, carrot and probably a myriad other herbs and spices that I'd struggle to name.  Altogether it worked in a symphony of zingy, sweet (but not too sweet) and sour, aromatic freshness; Thai food at its best, even better when servied in a banana leaf.


I probably should have given more consideration to my main course as I opted for prawns (again) with a tamarind sauce.  This time the prawns came with head and tail attached and were just as delicious but the tamarind sauce was, in my opinion, a little too heavy on the sweet and not enough on the sour.  


The boy went for another big fish, white snapper again.  The fish, as promised, was served placed artfully on its side, dressed with chillis, holy basil, green mango, coriander and cashew nuts.  I had fish envy.

Saffron is run by a lovely lady called Ting, who was at pains to tell us that she had just employed lots of new staff who were just learning the ropes.  As it was our first visit we didn't notice any dip in quality.  We rounded off the night watching Chinese lanterns being floated off from the beach below and digesting one of the freshest, most refined  meals we ate during our stay here.

Phu Talay

  We stayed at a lovely place called Baan Rim Nam (House on the water), an old fisherman's house on stilts, right on the "klong" or estuary near Klong Prao beach.  Baan Rim Nam is run by Ian, an Englishman with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the island and author of the best Koh Chang website:
iamkohchang.com

We spent our first night on the island in one of Porn's Bungalows (Porn is a common Thai nickname, apparently) a tiny wooden beach hut, with what felt like a multitude of unidentifiable wildlife clamouring to get in .  After this rustic experience Baan Rim Nam felt like proper luxury, at about £20 a night.  We had a large, tastefully decorated (in a rustic Thai style), air conditioned room and en-suite bathroom, with double doors opening out onto a huge deck on stilts over the Klong.  The deck was a wonderfully serene place to be at night, (or anytime) with all the comforts you could require; super comfy hammock, fridge full of cold beer running on an honesty box policy etc.  There is no restaurant here but for a nominal charge Ian will do you toast and and a pot of proper English tea for brekkie, the best (and only) tea I had on the island.  The lack of a restuarant isn't a problem when, just across the Klong, there are several top notch seafood restaurants.  Delighfully, a boatman will come over and pick you up and take you to your restaurant of choice.  On our first night we picked Phu Talay seafood restaurant.

What followed was a smorgasbord of seafood...steamed mussels with holy basil, chilli and lemongrass...

Peppered soft shell crab...

And a delicious soft shell crab stew, not pictured!  We thoroughly relaxed sitting on a deck right by the water, with a warm breeze and no sound but wind charms, lapping waves and softly spoken Russian from the table next to us (we encountered a  lot of Eastern Europeans on Koh Chang and this restaurant boasted a Russian menu; slightly confusing when I got an English menu and the boy got a Russian one, both with different dishes on, but we muddled through).  It was a lovely, romantic setting and the food was fantastic, super fresh seafood flavoured with aromatic herbs and spices, and some strange vegetables I hadn't encountered before (I later found out that these were baby aubergines).

If you are ever on Koh Chang I would whole heartedly recommend stayng at Baan Rim Nam for a few nights if you can, and being ferried across the water to Phu Talay or one of the other seafood places here, a really great experience!

Thai Feast...

 I can't really do our Thailand trip justice in one blog, so I'll do it bit by bit, highlight by highlight.  We ate loads of really good food, some in fairly upmarket restaurants, some from street stalls and a range in between.  I love the spicy salads and ate loads of these, som tum, laab etc.  I also had a devious method of fulfilling my inner Western stodge craving; club sandwiches.  Available on every menu, small or large, these were my fallback safety food, and always delicious.  We even had one Mexican meal, after the restaurant was recommended to us and we were not disappointed.  We only had one stumble, when the boy, craving beef towards the end of the holiday, ordered a fillet mignon from the resort restaurant; bad choice!  He was presented with a solid, grey, fibrous lump which looked liked it had been thawed and refrozen numerous times.   I did miss a nice glass of wine, I had one glass the whole time I was there and that was a thimble full.  Made up for it on the Chang beer though... 

Anyway, Ill let the pictures do most of the talking.

Our first proper Thai meal, at Ka Ti restaurant, Koh Chang, also turned out to be waaaaaaaaaaaaaay the hottest meal we had! 

 The tastiest ever seafood tempura with sweet chilli sauce to start with...

 Followed by what I think is the hottest chicken laab I've ever had!  Ate it all though.

 The boy opted for a dish called "Angry Snapper".  Think the clue was in the name really...

 Despite choking on his first mouthful of chilli and being openly laughed at (very good naturedly) by our Thai waiter, the boy did an admirable job of demolishing this, declaring it delicious.

Jack Rabbits

IMAG0532, a photo by Gingerferret2008 on Flickr.

This is probably the best Ploughman's I have ever eaten, at Jack Rabbits cafe in Derby. Isn't it beautiful?

I mentioned their superb sandwiches and take away ready meals in an earlier blog, they have now branched out into cafe territory. About time!

The owner is a very friendly and smiley lady who obviously cares about the food she is serving and makes a point of asking how it was.

The staff are pleasant and unflappable despite the fact that there seems to be a queue out of the door most of the time.

The cafe is housed in a light and airy glass fronted room opposite the cathedral. This used the be the Glasshouse, a bar where I misspent much of my Derby youth. Nice to see it being put to such civil and bustling use, it feels right to be back somehow!

Since this visit I've already returned for a wonderful and substantial brunch, and I plan to become a regular here. Well done Derby.

A Can of Canard.

IMAG0589, a photo by Gingerferret2008 on Flickr.

Not when this is the end result! The tin contained 5 cooked duck legs immersed in velvety fat. You wipe most, but not all the fat off the legs, then roast them at around gas mark 6 for 15 minutes.
We served with potatoes, sliced into rounds about the thickness of a pound coin, and baked in a deep dish with garlic, thyme and of course, some of the surplus duck fat, for about an hour.
Serve with a crisp green salad with a mustardy dressing to cut through all that rich duck lard. Beautiful.
We did intend to have guests for this meal but they were a no show, which means we are having oriental style duck pancakes for dinner with the leftovers...result!
If you go to France I urge you to bring one of these back with you, as they cost a fortune here. Get one for yourself as well...

A Can of Canard.

IMAG0586, a photo by Gingerferret2008 on Flickr.

Some people might think that duck legs preserved in duck fat and sealed into a massive tin sounds gross, but not me!
We've had this delight stashed away for over a year, just waiting for the right moment....

Spanish Fry...

I managed to get hold of some  pimientos de Padrón last week from an exclusive deli in Nottingham...okay from Lidl on Hucknall road.  Lidl seems to have them every September, when these delicious small green Galician peppers are coming to the end of their season.  I've never seen them in any other supermarket or grocery.  I decided to take it to the next level and rather than just having them as a bar snack I incorporated them in a recipe I'd had my eye on for a while...

Huevos Fritos con Ajo y pimientos de Padrón:  

Fried eggs with garlic and Padron peppers.  It sounds so much better in Spanish!
You need (for 4)
Olive oil
4 large garlic cloves
12 small green Padron peppers
Sea salt and cracked black pepper
4 eggs (duck eggs if you can get them, we couldn't)

Stir fry chopped garlic and whole peppers in olive oil.   (I used the same pan I'd used to cook some chorizo which we added to some diced potatoes and roasted in the oven, to have with the eggs and peppers.)

Remove with a slotted spoon when the peppers start to brown and blister; this won't take long.
Crack the eggs into the pan and as the whites start to solidify, add the peppers and garlic back into the pan.

Cook eggs as you like them.

Serve with crusty bread, or with the chorizo potatoes that we had.  The chorizo oil really added another dimension to the eggs / peppers / garlic combo.  Happy days.

I'm going to be craving a Spanish fry up instead of a full English for the forseeably future!

PS I didn't have this for breakfast, just in case you were wondering...

Thai Tea

Thai Tea, a set on Flickr.

 A visit to Chung Wah in search of green papaya resulted in me taking a trip down memory lane.  I remember eating these fish balls whilst living in Brunei aged about 7 or 8.  Every time I've been in Chung Wah I've wanted to buy some and this time I did!  With a big bottle of sweet chilli dipping sauce to go with them...msg-tastic.
The fish balls possess a rather unique texture, kind of like surimi (fish sticks) but not quite,  Biting into them is not unlike biting into a frankfurter sausage, the same "skin pop" sensation, with a dense and smooth inside.  I'm selling it to you, non?
I was delighted to find I had remembered texture and flavour (spicy and fishy) accurately, and thoroughly enjoyed eating them.  The boy wasn't so sure about them, he claimed, although he still scoffed the lot.
The green papaya?  Yippee!  We found one.  I wanted one to make Som Tum, my new favourite Thai salad, recipe to follow.  I got a bit of a shock when I got to the cash register though, the lovely lady who owns Chung Wah put this bad boy on the scales and it clocked in at over £6!  Could I have used a marrow instead?  No, not really...

To me, Som Tum is the epitome of Thai food.  The sweet, sour, salty, fishy, spicy balance is close to perfection.  A wonderful mix of textures too.  You need (per person):
1 small green papaya
1 tsp palm sugar
a pinch of chopped garlic
a pinch of chopped red bird's eye chilli
5 french beans halved lenghthways
a few roasted peanute, coarsley chopped
a pinch of chopped, dried shrimp
1 tbsp of fish sauce
1 tbsp of tamarind water
4 cherry plum tomatoes, halved
juice of 1 lime.
I got everything in Chung Wah.  You can make tamarind water by soaking a lump of tamarind pulp the size of a tangerine in 150ml warmish water, then agitating the pulp with your fingers until the seeds are released.  Drain it through a sieve and the resulting liquid is tamarind water. 
Peel the papaya and shred it using a mandolin, or large sharp knife.  We bought a mandolin especially for this purpose (£12, Lakeland) and I shredded my thumb too!
Discard the core and seeds of the fruit.  Put the shredded papaya in a bowl.
Put the garlic, chilli and green beans in a mortar and bruise lightly with a pestle.
Add the sugar (moistened with a little water), peanuts, shrimp, fish sauce, tamarind water and lime juice and bruise everything again.  Think muddling a mojito.
Pour this mixture over your shredded papaya, mix well and serve at once! 

Thanks to Rick Stein for the recipe.
I'm making this again tomorrow.  Trancendental.
We also made Cambodian marinated beef with a lime and black pepper dipping sauce, but that's another story...

Cheesey Trimmings...

IMAG0386, a photo by Gingerferret2008 on Flickr.

Sometimes simple is best, especially post work on a Monday night, Melted smelly cheese, green salad, fresh bread, posh ham and cornichons. All that was missing was a glass of crisp, cold white wine. Gutted! Baking the cheese in its box worked really well, will definitely do this again (perhaps not too often...)

Melted Camembert

IMAG0385, a photo by Gingerferret2008 on Flickr.

I can feel the cheese hardening in my arteries as I write this, but it was worth it, and I did go for a run this morning...

To end up with this...

IMAG0384, a photo by Gingerferret2008 on Flickr.

served with sweet potato wedges seasoned with thyme. Easy, summery and filling, this makes a nice alternative to a Sunday roast. I'm making the most of the boys newfound love of capers, he had an aversion to them until he dared to sample one in France!

Fennel and lemons once caramelised...

IMAG0383-1, a photo by Gingerferret2008 on Flickr.

I pan fried some brill, skin side down for a few minutes, then placed it (skin side down) in a roasting tray. I added the aformentioned fennel and lemons, plus garlic, capers and cherry vine tomatoes. Then roasted...

Fennel and lemons, caramelising...

IMAG0382-1, a photo by Gingerferret2008 on Flickr.

The Wonky Table

IMAG0363, a photo by Gingerferret2008 on Flickr.

Cafe / bar / restaurant on Sadlergate. Fantastic food, lovely sounding cocktails, (to be tried) regular ladies nights (every Thursday) and nice little terrace out the back for consuming aforementioned cocktails on. What's not to like?

The pyclet man....

IMAG0361, a photo by Gingerferret2008 on Flickr.

There are two pyclet men called Mark and Martin, not sure if this is Mark or Martin, but he was very friendly, and his pyclets rock.

The Derby Pyclet stall.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of stumbling across the Derby Pyclet stall in the marketplace.  (Not literally, saved the stumbling for later on in the Greyhound).  I'd heard good things about these pyclets (a thin crumpet?) but as I was off to The Wonky Table for lunch (that's another story) I absteined from on the spot pyclets and bought some for home consumption instead.
The stall intends to be in the marketplace every Saturday from 10am to 5.30pm.  It is run by two gents called Mark and Martin, they were inspired to bake pyclets after Mark bought a house that used to be a bakery. 
They bake plain pyclets, and delicious herby ones; I opted for pyclets flavoured with dill, and followed the enthusiastic recommendation to serve them with smoked salmon and scrambled eggs...Sunday bliss!
If you are fed up of those flabby things from the supermarket, do sample a pyclet next time you are in town on a Saturday. the food loving man (and woman's) crumpet.

Dill pyclets with scrambled egg and smoked salmon.

IMAG0365, a photo by Gingerferret2008 on Flickr.

This is what we did with the pyclets; lightly toasted with a serving of the boys seamless scrambled eggs and some lovely smoked salmon. Stylish!

Les eclairs!

Les eclairs!, a photo by Gingerferret2008 on Flickr.

Coffee eclairs from the bakery across the road from mum and dad's.

Le fromage

Le fromage, a photo by Gingerferret2008 on Flickr.

The round cheese is Reblochon, like a smellier Camembert. Beautiful...

Encore du fromage et du vin

Encore du fromage et du vin, a photo by Gingerferret2008 on Flickr.

The finale to a wonderful 4.5 hour long lunch in France. Actually it wasn't the finale, it was followed by a homemade tarte, and homemade liquer coffees. Burp.

Mai Pen Rai!

I can't believe I have been penning this blog for nigh on a year and have not yet got around to mentioning Thai Boran.  This is a Derby institution tucked away out of town half way up Green Lane.  It appears unpreposessing from the exterior, with the aura of a greasy cafe.  They do open for breakfast but don't let that put you off.  This is by far the best, most authentic and consistently good Thai restaurant in Derby.  I come here at least once every 6 months or so (I last ate here in January but didn't blog, lazy).
There were 10 of us in attendance for a birthday celebration.
I'm guilty of usually having the same thing; the Tom Yum soup and the Laab being especially good.  Tonight the boy strictly informed me that I ought to try something else for a change.  The problem is that there is too much choice, a proliferation of delightful specials on offer. 
I went for the Thai fish cakes to start, something that others often have and i covet, but I've never actually ordered myself.  They proved delicious, crispy, hot and with a fantastically tasty sweet chilli dipping sauce to accompany them.
Next course I decided to be adventurous with my meat and went for duck for a change, duck choo chee to be exact. Choo chee is basically a red curry sauce without the coriander seeds or cumin.  I had a side order of jasmine rice and Som Tum salad, the spicy unripe papaya salad with dried shrimp and peanuts.  All were outstanding, especially the Som Tum, which I must try to re-create at home.

The food here is extremely good value, quality, authentic Thai food, presented with care and attention.  The staff are unwaveringly lovely and friendly, even when I decided to practice my non existent Thai on them after a few glasses of wine.  The birthday girl even got cake.  As ever, we'll be back.

Birthday Girl in the Greyhound.

IMAG0206, a photo by Gingerferret2008 on Flickr.

The Birthday Girl in the pub before Thai Boran.

Last night I went to Spice Lounge, the new (ish) Indian restaurant on Friargate in Derby.  Alright, it has been there a while now, but my relationship with curry has cooled substantially of late, following an unfortunate episode of food poisoning.  Not the curry's fault but that was what was coming up during the bout, and it has scarred me deep.  So anyway I'd wanted to try Spice Lounge for a while and had heard good things about it, but my desire for curry had been fairly lukewarm.  I went with the boy, the brother and a very old German friend who was staying in Derby on his whistle stop tour of the UK, collecting a car full of Walker's crisps, John Smith's bitter and Cadbury's chocolate.  Said German is rather eccentric.  I don't know why we thought curry would be a good idea, kind of a traditional English night out maybe?  Lots of lager and a Ruby Murray?  Anyway, it turned out he doesn't like spice of any description; so not the best start.  However we assured him there would be a non spicy option on the menu (there was) and continued with the plan.
Spice Lounge's menu is not cheap so we took advantage of their early bird offer; 7 days a week before 8pm you get poppadoms and pickles, a main course, rice, naan and a drink for £13.50, not bad.  Spice Lounge sells itself as an upmarket, gourmet option, not your run of the mill flock wallpapered establishment.  We arrived at 7.30pm and the place was heaving, the offer is shrewd as traditionally people tend to go out later for a curry, after  more lager, so this was getting them through the door from the beginning of the evening.  We were seated, in a flock wallpapered corner, and immediately brought our poppadoms, pickles and drinks.  Poppadoms were good, fresh and crispy, and pickles were usual, nothing that stood out as taking things to the next level yet.  Then came a wait of well over half an hour for our main course.  We finished our drinks and ordered another and it did cross my mind that the long wait was a cynical ploy to ensure you did just that.  During the wait we were "entertained" by increasing loud drunken screeching from the harridans at the table opposite...prompting our German guest to comment that this wasn't usual in Germany.  We assured him it wasn't usual here either (thankfully).  Surely they can't have been that hammered already?
Mains came eventually, and were perfectly pleasant, the boys chicken was tender and my paneer was lovely.  The German got his spice free butter chicken although felt it was a bit heavy handed on the sauce.  Mains come in at well over a tenner but I didn't feel they delivered on the "creative twist" claim made on their menu.  I'd rather go to somewhere like Balti International on the Uttoxeter road, food just as good and a lot cheaper, and bring your own booze.  Perhaps the place has bitten off more than it can chew with the demand for the early bird menu, they were trying to cram in too many covers, and staff were literally running around.  I wouldn't make a point of going again but it wasn't bad, just lacking the courage of its convictions and the comfortable and relaxed atmosphere of a lounge.
http://www.spicelounge-friargate.co.uk/index.html

Yes please Yamas!

Last week I started working a day a week as a kind of marketing assistant for Perkins restaurant, escabeche and the Carriage Hall in Nottingham.  This means I have been rather busy setting stuff up for them but I just wanted to take 5 minutes to tell you about a fantastic little restaurant called Yamas which I went to in Nottingham over the bank holiday weekend.
Yamas bills itself as Greek and Spanish mezze and tapas, but I'd say it was more Cypriot than anything else, with a heavy emphasis on Halloumi (of which I can't get enough) and Cypriot beers on the menu.  It is tucked away down a side street (Thurland Street) in Nottingham city centre and was recommended heartily by several trusted food loving individuals.  We went at lunchtime on a Saturday, and although the interior decor is rather unprepossessing I couldn't help being struck by the lively atmosphere; it reminded me of the vibe having lunch at Polpo in Soho in London, lots of people having a really good time and some really good food and drink.
The staff were very welcoming and friendly and we were seated at a cosy corner table where we could people watch everyone enjoying their grub.  There are obviously a lot of regulars who come back again and again.  The lunch menu was disturbingly cheap at £6.95 for 3 dishes each so we decided to go for a sharing starter as well, this proved greedy.  We got a meat and cheese platter with the aforementioned halloumi, cheese stuffed peppers, and various cold meats.  This was accompanied by a basket of beautifully fresh, warmed pitta bread, obviously homemade.  The mezze came thick and fast after that, we ordered a selection which included Kalamari, Stifado, and delicious little deep fried whitebait with alioli.  We couldn't finish all the food which was a crying shame, so if you go for lunch then the lunch menu alone is adequate, you don't need to pimp it!  I look forward to going again, they do some cracking set menus in the evening.  Check it out.
http://www.yamasbar.co.uk/

Cock-a-hoop in Camden.

Recent weeks have rather been taken up with excessive booze intake and hen hilarity, as this year heralds the knot tying of some very dear friends indeed.  First up, the lovely Cat.  A weekend in London, staying in a fab little flat in Camden, culminated in fifteen or so of us partaking in a massively decadent and delicious meal at Pasha in Kensington. 
http://www.pasha-restaurant.co.uk/
Pasha specialises in North African cuisine and isn't cheap but it was a very special occasion and the decor didn't disappoint.  It was the epitome of opulence with carved tables, rose petals scattered everywhere and the air heavy with the smell of incense and hookah pipes.
We started proceedings with cocktails, mine was called a Sapphire Rose, and consisted of gin, lychee, pink grapefruit, lemon juice and rose petals.  It cost the best part of a tenner but it was so worth it....delectable.
We had all ordered a "feast" menu which consisted of several cold starter dishes or "Kemia" to share, followed by hot Kemia, a main of your choice and then dessert dishes to share.  I don't think any of us were expecting the sheer volume of food; it just kept coming!  Brought out in a continuous flow, it started off very healthy with lentil salads, hoummous, tabbouleh and the like.  Then came little hot pastries of chicken, feta and spinach and, not so healthy now, deep fried cheese.
All this was washed down with copious amounts of house wine.  The Kemia courses were rounded off by one very hot (and I don't mean temperature wise!) belly dancer gyrating right by our table, as we tried not to look her in the eye for too long in case she persuaded us to dance with her.  (Of course Cat and I were up dancing before the end of the night!)
The Kemia would have been a lovely meal in itself, but no, this was a feast, which meant everyone had to be uncomfortably groaning by the end of the evening!  I had chosen the "grill" option, as had most.  This was marinated chicken, lamb and delicious, spicy merguez sausages, served with a pile of cous cous and salad.  I didn't want to waste any food and it was gorgeous, the meat meltingly tender, but I was stuffed.  Fortunately I struck on that age old British tradition of asking for a doggy bag!  Hey presto, cold hangover feast for on the train back tomorrow.  (It went down very well indeed).  After more belly dancing dessert came and most of that went into the doggy bag too.  The meal was rounded off with an electric hookah pipe inside and an authentic shisha one outside, most enjoyable.  I drank gallons of mint tea which sorted me out and prepared me for the next phase of the evening; Mr Scruff at Koko in Camden, but that's another story...

A Spanish Fe-ast-a!

The boy's parents went to Lloret in Spain and returned bearing foody gifts; a bottle of rioja and a packet of saffron.  It would have been so rude not to use this fabulous saffron in making a paella, so that is exactly what I did.  Paella was also a good excuse to utilise the paprika I purchased at Gelupo in London.

I followed a basic recipe in Carlos Horrillo and Patrick Morcas's Tapas book, which is full of simple and lovely Spanish recipes.  The one glaring omission from Horrillo's recipe (in my humble opinion) is chorizo.  Whenever possible I buy my cooking chorizo from a little Polish stall in the Guildhall market, Derby.  It cannot be beaten on taste or price.  I hotfooted it to the market on Saturday and purchased said chorizo, chicken legs from the poultry stall which they cut up into portions for me, and massive raw gambas (prawns) from the fishmongers.  That's the meat selection covered, and not a sniff of supermarket.

 Paella.

12 dashes of olive oil
4 garlic cloves, finely sliced
2 medium onions, finely sliced
2 large tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 large red peppers, finely sliced (I only used one)
your choice of meat and fish, I used 2 small cooking chorizos, 4 bone in chicken portions and 6 massive gambas.  You can use squid, chicken breast, rabbit, mussels, clams, white fish.....
100ml white wine
1 tablespoon tomato puree
300g Paella rice of your choice
1.5 litres of stock of your choice (I used Kallo free range chicken)
pinch of saffron strands soaked in a splash of hot water
2 bay leaves
a teaspoon of paprika
1 dried chili
1 handful frozen peas, defrosted
chopped parsley
lemon wedges to serve

I used a big wok, as I don't have a paella pan.  Once you have everything sliced and diced, just heat the olive oil in the pan and stir fry the chorizo for a couple of minutes, then add the onion, garlic, tomato and pepper and stir fry on a gentle heat until soft.
Remove all this from the pan and add the chicken pieces and brown all over.  Remove the chicken and set aside.
Add the prawns and white wine, cover with a lid and simmer for a few minutes until pink.  Remove and set aside.

Return everything to the pan but the prawns.  Stir in the tomato puree and the rice.  Add half the stock, salt and pepper to taste, the paprika, saffron and bay leaves.
Bring to the boil and stir then simmer without stirring (you can give the pan a little shake from time to time) for around half an hour.  Add more stock as you go along, but don't stir, it isn't a risotto.

When the rice is cooked take the pan off the heat and stir in the peas, prawns and parsely.  Stand covered for five minutes.  Serve with lemon wedges on the side.  Make sure the chicken is cooked and the juices run clear.
The paprika, chili and parsley were my additions to this particular recipe, but are often included in paella.  The smooth and oaky rioja complemented the smoky, sweet and citrus flavours of the paella perfectly.
Lots of chopping but well easy to make after that, I'll definitely do this for guests next time as it made loads!  (Recipe is for four).