Cooking a paella on holiday in Mallorca or at home

This is one dish that will delight your family, guests, neighbours and new friends. A freshly cooked paella served outdoors on the terrace is a great way to entertain and enjoy your holiday in Mallorca. It is local, tasty, healthy and can be tailored to suit anyone’s dietary needs. You can make it as meaty, fishy or vegan as you like. You can even make two versions at the same time, to accommodate for everyone. Cooking a paella in Mallorca or a Mallorcan paella at home You will need a paella pan, or a large frying pan and will be cooking this on the hob. They do make paella cooking hob rings for outdoor cooking, but it may be a little excessive to go out an buy one for one meal. Some villas will supply this, and if they don’t you can always ask to borrow one… Paella Ingredients: Paella rice Olive oil Garlic Salt Pepper Paprika Fish heads for the stock Tomatoes Onions Red peppers Artichokes Peas Chicken Pork Rabbit Prawns Crab Mussels Shrimps Cuttlefish Where to buy your paella ingredients in Mallorca Shop locally for the vegetables if you can. You will find there is a weekly farmer’s markets in every village and town in Mallorca, so wherever you are staying, there will be a market near you. For fish and seafood, try the fish counters in the bigger supermarkets. For meat, shop at the local butcher if you can, the meat will be beter, fresher, local. Let’s get cooking! If you are feeling specially confident, why not invite your guests to watch. And help! And cook the paella outdoors. While you enjoy a pre meal drink. First of all you will need to make a fish stock… by boiling away all the bits of fish, prawn and fish heads, crab. Cuttlefish is nice to use too. This is good way to use up all the bits of the seafood that you don’t actually want, like prawn heads. Add garlic. All this is going to boil into a delicious fishy stock. Then we make the sofrito, which is the base if any Mallorcan dish. Tomatoes bought direct from the local farmer’s at the market in Pollensa, onions, red peppers, sauteed in olive oil in the paella dish. Now you are going to add the rice. Choose the bomba round rice which works best to soak up the tastes from the stock. And stir it into the sofrito, slowly adding the fish stock and cook the rice for ten minutes or so. You can add pretty much anything to your paella. It can have meat and fish, fish only, seafood or vegetarian. It can be blind, as in shell and bone free and it can have all manner of extras thrown in. Traditional paellas usually have green peas, artichoke, rabbit, chicken and pork, as well as a whole range of seafood delights. Dress yours with your favourite toppings: prawns, mussels, crab, lobster. This is a wonderfully simple and deliciously healthy summer dish, which can be served with a green side salad and bowls of lemon, green peppers and mini radishes. Accompany with chilled rose or white wine. Bon profit from Mallorca!