Recipe of the Month June 2019

Traditional Spanish Mixed Paella Recipe

Francesc is a talented Catalan chef, born in a small city called Tarrega outside Barcelona, who trained for 5 years in the cookery school of Lleida. He now owns his own catering company, and is available to cook for you in all of our villas in Ibiza. 

By the time he left Spain in 2005 he had three years’ experience as a Head Chef and had worked at a range of the most prestigious restaurants including 3*Michelin restaurant El Celler de Can Roca and hotels in Spain such as 5* Luxury Hotel Relais & Chateaux Mas de Torrent in Girona.

Since living in London, Francesc has grown to love traditional British cooking and has worked with chefs such as Gordon Ramsay. He currently splits the summer season between the Costa Brava and Ibiza, which he has been doing for the last 10 years.

Francesc has a small company specializing in private catering and events and has cooked for a range of celebrities and very important people; though he insists that he puts the same amount of love and passion into his work when he cooks for his family, friends or CV Villas customers.

“Fresh, local & organic are the key ingredients for a successful meal and I always recommend Catalan and local wines, I especially like a vineyard in Formentera called Bodega Terramoll.”

Francesc has kindly shared one of his favourite recipes with us, for traditional Spanish paella. For more recipe inspiration follow him on Instagram @Catalanchef

Mixed Paella Recipe for 8

 Ingredients:

 Paella base:

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 onions
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 green pepper
• 2 grated tomatoes
• 1 cuttlefish
• 100g pancetta or sausages or chorizo
• 8 chicken wings
• a pinch of saffron
• A pinch of chopped parsley
• 500g Bomba rice or paella rice
• 1 litre of fish or chicken stock (I prefer fish)
• 16 Mussels
• 16 Clams
• 16 Prawns
• 8 Langoustines

Recipe:

1. We start the paella by cooking the prawns and langoustines in a paella pan with a generous drizzle of EVO oil. Cook them for one minute each side and reserve.
2. Chop small onions, garlic & pepper and cook them all together in the paella pan on a low heat, stirring often until the onion is a caramel colour.
3.  At that point add the rest of ingredients of the paella base and cook slowly for another 20 minutes.
4.  When the paella base is ready, we can add the rice and mix it all together.
5. Bring the stock to boil in a pot and then pour it over the paella pan, the rice will take around 15 minutes to cook.
6. When 5 minutes have passed, add the mussels and clams so they will open nicely.
7. 5 minutes later, add the prawns and langoustines.
8. Decorate the paella nicely with all the seafood on top, we can add some strings of roasted red pepper, and some chopped parsley.

Francesc has worked as a chef in a selection of our villas in Ibiza including Ca’n Castello and Ca’n Caballos.

If you’re feeling inspired to start planning a Spanish adventure, browse our selection of villas in Spain and The Balearics, or find out more about our villas with a cook service.