Paella with Boston Lager
Ingredients:
8” Paella Pan
½ cup Bomba Rice
1 cup of chicken stock
1 cup Boston Lager
1T Sofrito
1T Confit onions
1 pinch Saffron
1 pinch Espellette
5 littleneck clams
5 mussels
1 oz of sliced calamari and 2 tentacles
1 oz of sweet Maine baby shrimp
1 ounce of lobster
2 razor clams
½ cup of beech shoots
2 T of confit yellow and red peppers for garnish
A pinch of sea beans (blanched in unsalted water) for garnish
A pinch of sliced scallions for garnish
Method:
Preliminary: Sofrito is made by cooking down tomato puree and garlic until it is tomato paste consistency. Confit onions are diced Spanish onions slowly cooked in olive oil. We make our confit peppers the same way, although we peel them before dicing them.
Execution: Take your rice, onions and sofrito and toast in the paella pan until fragrant. Add in the stocks, espellette and saffron. With a wooden spoon, spread the rice around until it is even and then turn the flame to high heat. Start using a timer. After 9 minutes, add in the littlenecks. After 6 more minutes, add in the mussels and beech shoots. Once the shell fish is opened, mix things around and add in your lobster and calamari. Cook for another 3 minutes. It takes 18 minutes for the Bomba rice to cook. At this point, shellfish should be opened, shoots wilted and fish cooked. We now need to add our sweet shrimp, garnishes and form the sucre. Places the garnishes scattered about and tuck the shrimp into the rice (it cooks super fast). Blast the heat one last time to form a crust of browned rice that should stick to the bottom of the pan.
Cook the razor clams as a centerpiece for the dish in a broiler or grill. The final touch is olive oil on top.