Competition Zindabad! Pakistan Zindabad! Good Paella Zindabad!

Good morning.  Still a bit chilly here in Melbourne, but the sun is out so that's good enough.  Speaking of good enough, India sure wasn't in their match against South Africa!  They lost by an entire innings and just got pounded into mush by the Saffies. 

Do you know what this means?

It means that my #1 all-time favourites, my lovely lads of Pakistan are indeed a deliciously good team because they managed to draw two of their test matches against South Africa.  The balance of power in international cricketdom is changing; no longer is one team totally dominating.  This is good!  I love competition, it brings the sport to a higher level, and we, the fans, benefit.  Every test match will be a nail-biter and we'll love every minute of it!  Competition Zindabad!  Pakistan Zindabad!  Good Food Zindabad!

That's right...good food Zindabad (forever)!  Without good food, sports suffer.  Without good food, everyone suffers.  It would be a bland world of boiled potatoes, plain pasta, and only hot water to drink.  Imagine that.  You would have no energy and no passion.  Yikes!  Good eating with good family and good friends is one of life's greatest pleasures.  So let's not waste any more time; live life to the fullest.  Get back in the kitchen and let's make life worth living.  Let's make Paella.

Misbah ul-Haq and Asad Shafiq on hearing Paella will be served at Tea-time.

Paella is a Spanish dish made with rice, and it's similar to pilao, but uses a different set of spices.  Almost every family has its' own recipe and cooking method.  There are two main types of paella:  one made with chicken and chorizo sausage, and one made with seafood and chorizo sausage.  Today I'll show you how to make the simpler chicken and sausage version so that you can get the spice and flavour balance to your liking without breaking the budget, and tomorrow I'll show you how to make the spectacular seafood version, also known as Paella Valenciana.  Right!  Enough talking from me.  Let's do this.

Paella
6 or 8 chicken drumsticks, skinned
about 1 cup of sliced chorizo sausage (you can use spicy halal sausage if you like)
1 onion, finely diced
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, very finely diced or crushed to a paste
1/2 tomato, very finely diced
1/2 cup of shelled peas
1 juliened green pepper (capsicum)
1/4 teaspoon tumeric
a little bit of lal mirch (red chili powder) if desired
3 cups of rice*
(I use basmati rice, but traditionally arborio rice is used.  If you use arborio, check the package to see what the water:rice ratio is.)
4.5 cups of chicken broth
about 10 strands of saffron (do not use more or your dish will taste like bleach)
salt to taste
regular olive oil for cooking*  (Do not use extra virgen olive oil, it will burn)

First, make your chicken broth.   If you don't have home-made broth, you can use store-bought broth if you like, or you can use the Knorr instant broth. 
Soak the saffron strands in the broth.  This will make the broth a yellowish/orange colour and will also gives the paella its' traditional earthy flavour.
Let the broth and saffron stand while you prepare everything else.

Heat up a little bit of olive oil in a large pan on medium-high heat, and brown the chicken drumsticks and the sausage.
Remove the chicken and sausage from the pan, and if there's a lot of oil and red coloured grease from the sausage left in the pan, remove most of it but leave some as this adds alot of flavour.
Fry the onion in the same pan with a bit of the leftover oil from the sausages.  Once it's browned, add the garlic, and fry for a minute or so.
Add the tomato, turmeric and lal mirch, and fry until reduced.
Add the juliened green capsicum and peas, fry a few seconds.
Add the rice, and fry for about two or three minutes, being careful not to burn the rice.
Add the broth.
Add the chicken and sausage.
Stir for a few seconds to make sure everything is evenly distributed.  Add salt at this point if it's necessary; but keep in mind that the liquid will reduce and concentrate the flavours.
Let the paella come to a boil, and let some of the liquid evaporate.  Turn heat to very low and cover.  Continue cooking on very low heat until the rice is cooked through, about 20 or 25 minutes.

This dish is served as a meal in itself; no side dishes or garnishes are required.

Good Paella Zindabad!  Have a try with this one, and once you've mastered it, try tomorrow's version.  Your dinner guests will be blown away by your kitchen expertise!  Have a good one, and let's enjoy all of the excellent competition we're seeing nowadays in international cricket.

Happy Eating!  Happy Cricket!