The star of the show of Sunday lunch-time in Spain is, of course, Paella. The word “paella” comes from the Catalonian word for frying pan, and we have all seen them - huge, flat and double-handled - at restaurants and public cook-outs. What a lot of people do not know is how easy and healthy it is to make paella at home because all you need is a frying pan and a bag of rice (the rest depends upon your imagination and whatever there is lying around your kitchen). Home-made paella is always certain to please your family and impress your guests. Photos of your culinary work of art will be marvelled at, passed around and even posted onto Internet!

Ingredients (for 6 servings):
400g (12 oz) of paella or risotto rice
4 tbsp olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
2-6 garlic cloves (some recipes use a whole head of garlic, it’s up to you!)
1 litre or so of fish or chicken stock (home-made is best)
10 strands of saffron
3 tbsp of canned tomato sauce
Pinch of paprika and cayenne pepper
250g (8 oz) of raw prawns
6 chicken thighs (optional) or you can even use chorizo (boiled up before) instead!
250g (8 oz) mussels, cleaned
250g (8 oz) clams, cleaned
50g of frozen peas
1 red pepper coarsely chopped
Wash the rice in a sieve. While it is draining, fry the chicken for 10 minutes each side and put the stock in a pot on to boil. In the paella pan, fry the onion in the olive oil. When it softens, add the garlic and red pepper. After frying the vegetables for 2 minutes, add the rice, saffron strands, paprika, cayenne pepper and tomato sauce along with a cup of the stock. Stir carefully and remove from the heat.
By now, the stock pot should be boiling nicely. This is when you tip in the uncooked sea-food, bring the stock back to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. After this, fish out all the prawns, mussels and clams with a slotted spoon so that they don’t overcook and keep them on a plate to one side. Remember, there is no hard and fast rule that says what type of sea-food you use.

Tip the stock into the rice mixture in the paella pan and let it cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes. Then stir in the peas and the chicken (making sure that they are embedded in the rice), turn the heat down a little and let it cook for another 10 minutes or until all of the stock has been absorbed (try not to let it go for more than 25 minutes because then the rice gets mushy!). Decorate your paella with the cooked sea-food, cover with a lid and let it rest for 5 minutes. Serve with wedges of lemon. Delicious!
Just in case all this cooking has made you thirsty, why not try your hand at making…

Sangria!
In a large jug, mix a bottle of red wine (or red grape juice for non-alcoholics and children), the juice of a large orange, half a lemon, two tablespoons of sugar, a chopped up peach and a stick of cinnamon. Leave the mixture in the fridge for two or three hours so that it cools properly and the flavours develop. Just before serving, add a generous amount of white lemonade or “gaseosa” and stir with a wooden spoon. You can get fancy and wrap the orange peel around the end of the spoon, and I love to add sprigs of fresh mint, too.