Sort of paella-y thing

You may recall that last month we went for a holiday to Spain where it was very cold and poured with rain all the time. However we DID enjoy some delicious meals while we were there, and brought home some tins of pimenton (smoked paprika) from the local market. 

One of the dishes I loved was paella, but I can't make that for Mark as he is allergic to fish and seafood, gets an upset tummy if he eats peppers and doesn't like saffron (unless it's baked into a Cornish saffron cake!). However thanks to a fridge dive, I came up with a dish that most certainly isn't paella but  reminds me of it and is definitely delicious!

My fridge  dive produced

A cupful of leftover roast chicken scraps
Some stock made from the carcase
4 stalks of asparagus
half a tin of chickpeas
a third of a small chorizo
2 tomatoes

To that I added

1 tbs oil
150g paella rice (available from most supermarkets - you could use risotto rice instead but it gives a creamier texture)
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
about 50g frozen peas, defrosted
1½ teaspoons hot smoked paprika
½ teaspoon salt (omit if using bought stock)

This made two very generous servings.

First of all, chop the onion and dice the chorizo into small cubes. Cut the chicken into small bite sized pieced and the asparagus into pieces about 2-3 cm long. Drain and rinse the chickpeas, crush the garlic and chop the tomatoes quite roughly.

Heat the oil in a wide, shallow pan or lidded frying pan. Fry the onion gently for around 5 minutes, until it starts to soften, then add the chorizo and fry for about 3 minutes more until the red colour is released. Stir in the garlic and paprika and cook for another minute.

Add the rice, salt and around 350ml of stock. Bring to the boil and simmer very gently, uncovered, until the rice starts to soften - around 20 minutes. Keep an eye on the level of the liquid, adding more stock or water if it threatens to burn. After the first 10 minutes, stir in the chicken.

When the rice is almost cooked, add the asparagus, peas and chickpeas. Stir well, cover and continue to cook until the asparagus is tender - around 5 minutes (although mine was stubborn and took 10). Finally add the tomatoes and cook, stirring to prevent sticking, for another 2-3 minutes until starting to break down but not mushy. If there is any liquid remaining, give a quick blast of high heat to boil it off.

Serve immediately.

I'm linking up to Kitchen Clearout at Madhouse Family Reviews.