Fideua (Traditional Spanish seafood pasta)

This delicious Spanish seafood dish, is incredibly easy to make in around 30 minutes.

All you need to do, is find a half decent seafood mix, which is available in most supermarkets, and a good fish stock.(Tescos do a perfectly good one, in their Select range).

Don't use fish stock cubes to make your own stock, I've tried it and it really doesn't work!

INGREDIENTS

3 giant prawns,

seafood mix,

1 red pepper,

1 chilli pepper (optional),

1 onion,

1litre fish stock,

1/2 tin finely chopped tomatoes,

salt, olive oil, food colouring,

aioli*,

fideua** or similar pasta.

STEPS

1)Cut the peppers and dice the onions, then place them in a large frying pan to fry over a medium flame, in enough oil to cover 2/3 of the base of the pan.

2)When the onion begins to turn transparent, push it to the edges of the pan, along with the peppers, and put the giant prawns and the squid (assuming your seafood mix includes squid) in the centre. Fry them for 2-3 min each side, then remove them from the pan and set them aside.

3)Continue to fry the onions etc for a couple of minutes. (It is important not to brown, and certainly not burn, the onions and the peppers, as they will give an acidic taste to the dish if you do)

Add the tomato and fry until it reduces and becomes a thickish paste. (3-5 min.)

Whilst the tomato is reducing, bring the stock to boil in a pan.

4)Once the tomato has reduced and the stock has come to the boil, add the pasta to the pan and stir well in order to coat it evenly, then add the stock, and stir to make sure the pasta is evenly distributed around the pan.

5)When the pasta has absorbed the majority of the stock (10-12 min), add the seafood to the dish and stir in well so that it can cook while the pasta finishes cooking (3-5min).

Try to move the pasta as little as possible, as frequent moving will make the pasta stodgy.

6)Once almost all the stock has been absorbed, place the giant prawns on top, remove from the flame, cover and leave. The fideua will absorb all of the remaining stock without being heated.

7)It is best if left to settle for about five minutes.

All that's left is to serve with plenty of aioli !!!

* AIOLI.(Garlic with Oil)

Aioli is a garlic mayonnaise, available in most largish supermarkets. That said, the majority are pretty poor, the brand "Chovi" being an exception to the rule. Assuming that you don't live in the Castellon region of Spain, it is unlikely that you will be able to get "Carnes Murcia" aioli, which is by far the best I have tired, so you may as well make your own.

It is really easy!

Break an egg into a jug, add a pinch of salt and a couple of cloves of chopped garlic.

Put the handheld blender into the jug, then pour oil (sunflower or vegetable oil is far better than olive oil for this purpose), covering the head of the blender and about two inches of the shaft.

Turn on the blender, holding it firmly against the base of the jug. The oil will start to turn white and solid and will climb up the walls of the jug. Once this occurs you can start to move the bender up and down whilst adding oil as you do so. Just stop when you have what you consider to be sufficient aioli. You will have an aioli sufficiently thick to stand a spoon up in it.