How would you make a Spanish Paella, South African style?

If you have followed me since I won MasterChef South Africa in 2022, you will know that I like to do things a little different. I enjoy playing around with both local ingredients, and external influences through my travels. And I also really enjoy challenging myself through different cooking methods.

With the long, wet winter Cape Town is experiencing currently (apparently it hasn’t rained this much since 1960!), I have been missing outdoor cooking, and so I decided on a bit of an indoor/outdoor experience using a skottel braai.

I love a Spanish paella, but what would it be to cook it South African style? I decided to find out, and used a skottel braai and an air fryer (a staple in any South African household), and it was delicious! Check the recipe below, and try it for yourself!

Paella Ingredients

The measurements below will make you a paella big enough to serve 6-8 people. Ideally, you need a large paella pan to cook it properly, but if you don’t have one you can use a smaller flat-bottom pan and cook a smaller portion.

• 1/2 cup Olive Oil

• 2 Red Onions (diced)

• 1 Red Pepper (diced)

• 6 Cloves of Garlic (finely chopped)

• 400g PnP Live Well Whole Peeled Tomatoes

• 1 Bay Leaf

• 2 tsp Smoked Paprika 

• 2  pinches saffron Threads

• Salt and Pepper

• ¼ cup Dry White Wine

• 1 PnP Chicken Braai Pack 8 Pack (thighs, wings and legs.) 

• 500g Boerewors lightly fried and cut in pieces (if you want to keep the paella more traditional, you can choose to add 200g chorizo instead) 

• ¼ cup fresh chopped Coriander (chopped)

• 2 cups Paella Rice (bomba is best but you can substitute with arborio) 

• 5 cups Chicken Broth

• 1/2 cup frozen peas

• 350g PnP Fishmonger's Pink Prawn Tails, Cut & Deveined

• 500g PnP Fishmonger's Half Shell Mussels

• 400g PnP Fishmonger's Calamari Rings

• Lemons, for garnish

How to Make a South African style Paella

1. Add olive oil to a skillet over medium heat.

2. Add the onion, bell peppers and garlic and cook until onion is translucent. 

3. Add can of tomato, bay leaf, paprika, saffron salt and pepper. Stir and cook for 5 minutes. 

4. Add white wine and cook for 10 minutes. Taste and add salt if needed.

5. Air fry the chicken pieces at 180 degrees for 15 minutes then Add chicken pieces to paella.

6. Add the rice evenly.

7. Pour the broth slowly all around the pan and jiggle the pan to get the rice into an even layer. (Do not stir the mixture.)

8. Bring mixture to a gentle simmer. Reduce heat to low. Cook for about 15-18 minutes (uncovered), giving the pan a gentle shake back and forth just once or twice during cooking to prevent the dish sticking to the bottom.

9. Add and nestle the shrimp, mussels and calamari, boerewors into the mixture, sprinkle peas on top and continue to cook for about 5 more minutes. 

10. Keep an eye on the pan and wait until most of the liquid is absorbed. Taste the rice and if it is not cooked yet, add ¼ cup more water or broth and continue cooking until the rice is ready to eat.

11. Remove pan from heat and cover pan with a lid or tinfoil and stand for 10 minutes.

12. Garnish your dish with fresh chopped coriander and lemon slices.

Enjoy! Please tag me on Instagram if you’ve made this recipe, I’d love to see it!

About Shawn Godfrey

Shawn Godfrey is an entrepreneur based in Cape Town, South Africa. After the Covid-19 lockdown saw his business in financial distress, cooking was the creative outlet that helped to keep him sane. To keep track of his recipes, and encourage friends and families to join him, he starts his instagram account The Roasted Dad.

Fast-forward to late 2021 - on a whim Shawn (encouraged by his wife Lianne) enters MasterChef South Africa. It is a crazy time of life: running a 200 people business and struggling to keep it profitable, two small children with a third on the way, and about to move into a new house. But when Shawn gets selected to be one of the 20 contestants participating in the fourth season of MasterChef South Africa, he decides to go all in. Leaving his 7-month-pregnant wife to look after their then three and one-year-old children, he battles it out and comes back home five weeks later with the trophy and a million rand prize money in his pocket.

It all started with an Instagram account, but The Roasted Dad is so much more now. Shawn has stayed his entrepreneurial self and whilst he hosts Private Dinner Parties and Cook-with-Me Demos, does Restaurant Take-Overs, he still runs the lighting company and several other businesses.

On his blog, Shawn shares Restaurant Reviews and Accommodation Reviews, and gives an insight into the wild and wonderful life he leads together with his wife Lianne, and their three children Aiden (6), Olivia (4) and Harvey (2).

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