Shakin’ the Tree Paella Recipe

Directions

1. Using the largest holes on a box grater, grate both the tomato and onion.
2. Toast the saffron threads in a hot empty skillet, let them cool a little, grind and add to fish stock in saucepan. Heat, but don’t boil or reduce. You will need all four cups of stock for one cup of rice.
3. Heat the paella pan over medium fire on the Big Green Egg®.
4. Add olive oil, grated tomato, onion and a little Shakin’ the Tree. This is called the ‘sofrito’. Take your time over low-moderate fire to cook that mixture. It will slowly darken in color (approximately 20 minutes). If it gets too dry during this process, you can add a little more oil as needed. Towards the end of this part, go ahead and add your minced garlic. I don’t add this in the beginning, it would be too dark by the time your sofrito is ready.
5. When sofrito is darkened to your liking, de-glaze the pan with white wine. Stir.
6. Add rice and stir to coat the rice. Distribute rice and sofrito evenly across the bottom of the pan.
7. Now gently pour in your hot stock/saffron mixture. You’re trying to keep the rice mixture even across the pan. Slowly let this cook over low-moderate fire.
8. Taste a bit of the rice after 20 minutes to see how close to done it is. When you think the rice is about done, add the seafood that has also been sprinkled w/ Shakin’ the Tree.
9. Let this cook until seafood is done and you hear snapping sound coming from the bottom of the pan. You are trying to achieve a nice golden crust on the bottom of the pan. This is called the ‘socarrat’. Even if you don’t achieve the socorrat, your paella will be great!

***While these instructions for the traditional Spanish dish instruct you to cook it on a Big Green Egg, you can easily adapt it to any cooker or stove top by simply cooking over medium heat.