HOT PLATES: Sonido Tupinamba’s Fideuà
Barcelona
Music curator, DJ and radio host, Sonido Tupinamba, is this week’s flavour in The Carvery kitchen. Primarily driven by her Latin American roots, Julia’s mixes weave in and out of tropical, disco, funk and house grooves from around the world. With regular shows on Dublab and Radio Primavera Sound, she is well-versed in how to lift spirits through her music and her mix for the Hot Plates series is no exception.
Barcelona has been her stomping ground for many years, inspiring not only her musical evolution but her culinary one too. To the table, she brings Fideuà, a reinvented paella using ‘fideo’ pasta rather than rice.
Fideuà de Marisco
Fideuà is essentially paella made with pasta instead of rice. Like paella it should be cooked in a big paella pan so if you’re cooking for large numbers it’s almost impossible to cook paella in an average kitchen because of the size of the pan. The best way to cook paella is outside on an open fire. However, this recipe works just fine in a normal frying pan, but only if you cook it for no more than three people, even better if you are just cooking for two.
Ingredients
Serves two
- 150 ml olive oil
- 200 g fideos (thin, short angel hair pasta) or any angel hair pasta broken into 2cm lengths
- 1 fresh squid (about 350g), cleaned and chopped into 3cm pieces
- 6 peeled prawns, defrosted if frozen
- 150 gr. sliced chicken breast (optional)
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1/4 Spanish onion, finely chopped
- 1/2 Red pepper (not hot)
- 2 Ñora peppers
- Pinch of saffron
- ½ tsp sweet pimentón (smoked hot Spanish paprika)
- ½ tsp fish broth powder or cube in 1 lt of water
Method
- Heat about one-third of the olive oil in a wide frying pan over a medium heat to prepare the sofrito. Add the onion, the red pepper, the garlic and the ñora pepper.
- When the onion turns soft add the squid and the chicken.
- Stir for 4 minutes, add the rest of the olive oil to the pan, and then add the dried pasta for about 3 minutes, or until it turns golden. Give it a quick stir and leave to cook for a couple more minutes. Don’t scrape the bottom of the pan, as that sticky layer on the bottom is essential for making a rich stock.
- When the squid has browned, add the peeled prawns, cook for another 5 minutes until everything is dark golden (this will happen fairly quickly because of the high heat). Add the saffron and pimentón mixed with some olive oil and stir constantly to dissolve the sticky bits on the bottom. This should take no longer than 2 minutes.
- Add the fish broth and put the heat higher. Bring to the boil and let it simmer for about 5-8 minutes. Check when there is just enough water left in the pan for the pasta to cook and absorb all the remaining liquid. Cover the pan and cook until the liquid has been absorbed.
- Remove from the heat and leave for 1 more minute, uncovered, to create a toasted layer of pasta on the bottom of the pan – it will taste like heaven. Enjoy with aliol and a glass of wine if you fancy!
Buen provecho y salud!
