Serves 6

Prep 35 minutes

Cook 45 minutes

Ingredients

1 large Spanish onion or 200g

canned Eazy onions

4 large garlic cloves, preferably

new season

4 tbsp olive oil

150g chorizo extra piquant

2 red peppers, preferably sweet pointed type

1 large beef tomato or

5 plum tomatoes

2 very generous pinches of saffron stamens softened in 1 tbsp hot water

1 kg monkfish tail fillet or 500g monkfish tail and 500g small prepared squid

1 litre fish stock or light chicken stock

350g calasparra, bomba or

Arborio rice

8 large shell-on raw prawns or 12 medium-sized ones

350g young spinach

For the parsley paste

40g bunch flat-leaf parsley

4 garlic cloves, preferably new season

2 generous pinches saffron stamens

3 tbsp olive oil

2 large lemons

Method

Heat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Keeping separate piles, peel, halve and finely chop the onion and garlic. Sprinkle the garlic with 1/2 tsp salt and use the flat of a small knife to crush it to a paste.

Run a knife down the chorizo and peel away the skin. Slice into chunks. Arrange the peppers on a roasting tin and bake for 10 minutes, turn and repeat. Remove to a plate, cover with clingfilm, leave for 10 minutes, then remove the skin. Halve them lengthways, scrape away the seeds and chop.

Heat the oil in a 35cm-diameter paella pan or in two large frying pans placed over a medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic and cook for 3-4 minutes before adding the chorizo. Cook for a further couple of minutes to release some of the fat and flavour from the chorizo. Pour boiling water over the tomato. Count to 20, drain away the water, remove the skin, and chop the tomato.

Add peppers to the onion. Stir well, then add the tomato and saffron. Leave to cook while you remove any trace of the slimy membrane covering the monkfish and chop it into kebab-size pieces.

If using squid, remove the tentacles from inside the sac and split the sac lengthways. Stir the fish into the onion mixture. Increase the heat slightly and cook for 5 minutes to seal the fish. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the unwashed rice and cook for a couple of minutes while you heat up the stock.

Stir the stock into the pan, return to boiling point, then reduce the heat to a steady simmer. Cook for 20 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed into the rice and the grains are swollen and tender. If necessary, fold the food together rather than stirring it, encouraging the paella to cook evenly.

Push the prawns into the rice. When they turn pink, cover the entire paella with spinach leaves. Cover with foil and punch a few steam holes. To make the parsley paste, blitz the parsley leaves, peeled garlic, saffron dissolved in 4 tbsp boiling water and olive oil, adding extra water if too stiff.

To serve, fold the wilted spinach and parsley paste into the rice. Serve the paella from the pan with lemon wedges.

Times Recommends

• Top Ten most searched for recipes
• Chalet Chef 2010: the winning menus
• Gin and pomegranate jellies