2am paella

Introduction

Its 2am and your hungry, but you look in the noodle cupboard and you realise your out of instant ramen 😱.

Here is a quick way to eat some vegetables, prep some soul filling food and have nummies done in 20ish minutes (which is not bad for something from scratch). This is not a traditional recipe, It kinda is similar but its not authentic in any way, shape or form.

The things you will use

Ingredience

rice, about a cup

this is the base and pretty non negotiable, pasta may work in a pinch but it will throw off some ratios and be harder to manage.

vegetables

this can be anything, except maybe lettuce, here is what I used.

• mushrooms of some kind.
• an onion, I use spring onions as it also work as a garnish.
• bell peppers
• and sweet potatoes but again anything will work.

spices

I used turmeric, chilli flakes garlic and garam marsala as that’s what i had on hand but if you had some harisa powder it would work really well here. But play with the flavours. Its a blank canvas.

protein

now this is kinda optional as the things mentioned before would work wonders on its own but if you have chicken pieces or something similar tossing them in will not hurt. That being said if you do I would try and keep the skin (if there is any) above the water line to help browning later.

utensils

• chopping board and knife
• i.e plate
• this is because we will stick it under the broiler but if you don’t have one then this dish will still be good without broiling the top.

the basic method

1. preheat the broiler
2. add some oil to a pan and start to fry your protein. this is to give it a head start and prevent some nasty smells (boiling unbrowned meat smells like corpses).
3. start prepping your veg. you can do this before but this saves on a little time. Cut them into manageable pieces, they don’t need to be clean or even as it will all be boiled till tender.
4. add the veg into the pan and fry it all together.
5. add in rice to toast as well as the spices before, fry till they are fragrant.
6. add water to the pan and boil till rice is soft, keep topping the water up as needed.
   • While its boiling you can basically wash up the chopping board.
7. once rice is cooked, turn off the heat and put the pan under the hot broiler, cook until the top is brown (this will happen quick so watch it closely).
8. eat. Optionally garnish with something green, green bit on spring onions, coriander leaves go nuts!

Finishing thoughts

This is a fun little dish that acts as a blank canvas. chuck in whatever you have and let it simmer for a bit and your done!