Recipe: Seafood Rice

Seafood Rice
Source: David Casseres

1 1/2 cups long grain rice
1/2 lb medium prawns in the shell
1/2 to 1 lb of nice sausages, your favorite kind
6-10 clams
EITHER 1/2 cup milk and 1/4 tsp Spanish saffron
OR 1 medium tomato, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 1/2 tbsp salt
1 bay leaf
water
white wine
olive oil
A large frying pan or sauteuse, with a good cover

Peel the prawns. Put the shells into a small saucepan, cover well with water, add the salt, bay leaf and garlic, bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, cover.

Use either saffron or tomato to add color. If you use saffron, heat the milk to bit less than boiling, and add the saffron to it. If you use tomato, add it to the broth now.

Pierce the sausages and fry them gently in some olive oil in the frying pan for 10 minutes.

Then add 1/2 cup of wine, bring to a boil, reduce to a low simmer, and cover. Have a glass of wine while the sausages steam and the broth simmers. (Very good idea from the source!)

When the sausages have steamed for 15 minutes or so, take them out of the pan and set them aside. If there is still water in the pan, cook it off.

Then, if there is a lot of grease in the pan, pour it off but DON'T clean the pan! Slice the sausages into 1/2-inch slices, unless they are quite small.

Strain the broth into a measuring cup. You want 2-1/2 cups if you're using saffron and milk, 3 cups otherwise. If you have less than that, add water, and if you have more, cook it down some more with the cover off.

When your broth is ready, put a few tablespoons of olive oil in the frying pan, and heat over high heat. Add the rice and stir continuously until the grains turn from translucent to a bright, opaque white.

Immediately add the broth (careful, it may spatter as it hits the hot pan). Add the milk and saffron, if used. Stir once, and as soon as the broth boils again, reduce heat to a low simmer and cover.

After the rice has simmered about 10 minutes, add the sausages and cover again. After another 10 minutes, add the clams.

After 10 minutes, peek and see if the clams have opened. If they haven't, give them a little more time.

When the clams have opened, add the prawns. Cover and cook for maybe 2 minutes.

As soon as the prawns have definitely turned pink, put the pan on the table and call in the troops. By the time they sit down the prawns will be perfect.

Note: The thing that's so inauthentic about this seafood rice is that it's made on top of the stove, not baked. Also, I don't use chicken, though it would be easy to add. Highly observant gourmands will notice a cousinship with "Spanish rice."