To celebrate the launch of the beautiful online series Tasteology, we’ve put together a special recipe. Tasteology is a series that explores the science behind taste and combines crazy, beautiful film-making with comments from the world’s leading food experts. One of the themes in episode one is ‘foraging’ and nothing epitomises foraging quite like British coastal samphire! Watch the series whilst you eat tonight’s dinner at www.aeg.co.uk/tasteology
The quantities provided above are averages only.
Boxes and ingredients are packed in facilities that handles Peanut, Nuts, Sesame, Fish, Crustaceans, Milk, Egg, Mustard, Celery, Soya, Gluten and Sulphites. Due to the war in Ukraine, it has been necessary to substitute sunflower oil with rapeseed oil in some products without a label change. The FSA have advised that allergic reactions to rapeseed oil are rare.
1
Onion
1
Yellow Pepper
2
Garlic Clove
1
Black Olives
3
Chervil
1
Smoked Paprika
½
Ground Turmeric
¾
Risotto Rice
1
Vegetable Stock Pot
(Contains Celery, Sulphites)
1
Cherry Tomatoes
1
Samphire
1
Lemon
750
Water
Cut the onion in half through the root, peel and chop into roughly 1cm pieces. Remove the core from the pepper and slice into roughly 1cm pieces. Peel and grate the garlic (or use a garlic press if you have one!). Roughly chop the olives and roughly chop the chervil.
Put a large frying pan on medium heat and add a splash of oil and your onion. Fry the onion for 5 mins until soft, then add your pepper and turn the heat up slightly. Add a pinch of salt and a good grind of pepper and fry your onion and pepper together for another 5 mins until slightly browned. Add in the smoked paprika, turmeric and garlic and cook for another minute.
Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees for later. Add the arborio rice to the pan and stir it around so it gets a nice coating of your spices and oil, then add the water (as specified in the ingredients) and the vegetable stock pot.
Add a pinch of salt and a good grind of pepper. Stir everything together and bring to a gentle simmer (make sure your stock pot has dissolved). Simmer your paella for 15-20 mins until all the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is ‘al dente’. Tip: ‘Al dente’ simply means the rice is cooked through but has a tiny bit of firmness left in the middle. If the liquid has all been absorbed before your rice is cooked, just add another splash of water. Stir your paella from time to time while it is cooking, but not too much as a good paella has a nice crust on it from the bottom of the pan!
While your paella is cooking, cut the cherry tomatoes in half through the equator, put them on a baking tray, drizzle over some olive oil, sprinkle over a pinch of salt and grind over some black pepper. Put in your oven to cook for 10-15 mins. Once cooked, remove the cherry tomatoes from your oven and leave to the side.
Five mins before your paella is cooked, rinse the samphire in a colander under running water. Put a frying pan on medium heat and add a drizzle of oil and the samphire (don’t worry if it’s still a bit wet, this will help it cook). Grind over some black pepper and cook the samphire for 3 mins, then remove from the heat.
Once your paella is cooked, turn off the heat. Squeeze over a little lemon juice and add in your olives, roasted tomatoes and three quarters of your chervil. Stir everything together and serve in bowls with your samphire on top and the rest of your chervil sprinkled over. Cut any remaining lemon into wedges and squeeze these over if you want it extra lemony! Enjoy!