Mixed Meat and Seafood Paella from Palma

On a recent visit to Palma, Mallorca, we made this meat and seafood paella in a pan large enough to serve about 40 people, a common practice for community gatherings and festivals throughout Spain. The recipe has been scaled to serve 8.

• Preparation Time: 1 hr 5 mins
• Cooking Time: 55 mins
• Total Time: 2 hr
• Calories: 908 Calories

Ingredients

• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound mussels, cleaned and debearded
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced into strips
• sea salt to taste
• 1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• ½ pound fresh green beans, trimmed
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges
• freshly ground pepper to taste
• ½ cup minced fresh parsley
• 2 large tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 1 saffron thread, or more to taste
• 1 ¼ pounds pork spareribs, cut into small pieces
• ½ pound rabbit, cut into small pieces
• 1 (2.5 pound) whole chicken, cut into small pieces
• ½ pound squid, cut into small pieces
• 2 ½ cups short-grain rice (such as Bomba or Calasparra)
• ½ pound frozen peas
• 4 cups hot chicken stock
• 4 sprigs flat-leaf parsley

Recipe Instructions

Step 1

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add green beans and cook uncovered until bright green in color, about 3 minutes. Drain in a colander and immediately immerse in ice water for several minutes to stop the cooking process. Drain.

Step 2

Place parsley, garlic, saffron, and salt in a small bowl or mortar. Mash into a paste.

Step 3

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add pork and rabbit and cook, stirring frequently, until browned on all sides and cooked through, 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer meat to a platter. Repeat cooking, stirring, and transferring, this time with the chicken pieces. Add squid to the skillet. Cook and stir until slightly tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer cooked squid to the platter.

Step 4

Place tomato, onion, and red pepper in the skillet; cook and stir until softened but not browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Return the cooked pork, rabbit, chicken, and squid to the skillet. Stir in the garlic-parsley paste, the green beans, rice, peas, and lemon juice. Cook until peas are tender, 2 to 3 minutes.

Step 5

Pour chicken stock into the skillet. Stir and bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer until rice is more tender, about 10 minutes. Tuck the shrimp and mussels into the paella and simmer until shrimp is opaque and rice is fully tender, about 10 minutes more.

Step 6

Discard any mussels that do not open. Season paella with pepper. Remove from heat and cover to let rice absorb any excess liquid, about 10 minutes. Garnish with lemon wedges and parsley sprigs.