Sausage paella

Sausage paella – what a brilliant idea! Learn how to make an incredible sausage and spare rib paella with Spanish chef Omar Allibhoy. This hearty rice dish combines a Spanish classic with a favourite British ingredient.

• Flexible dish: “I think the real beauty of paella, when compared to other famous rice dishes such as biryani or risotto, is that it can take pretty much any ingredient you can think of,” says Omar. “I never used to eat sausages as a kid other than in a hot dog, but since I moved to the UK 20 years ago, I have discovered how good they can be and how well they work inside paellas.”
• Bold flavours: This paella is packed with the rich flavours of sausages, spare ribs, red onions and earthy mushrooms, all simmered together in a mixture of stock and red wine.

Top tips for great sausage paella:

• Quality rice matters: It’s essential to use paella rice and the bomba variety is the best (available in most supermarkets). The rice should be the focal point, so don’t overcrowd the pan with other ingredients.
• Use good stock: Invest in good stock as it delivers a lot of the flavour in the paella – homemade is best if possible. The more collagen in the stock, the better the texture of the paella will be.”
• Choose the right pan: A paella pan is the top choice – a wide surface area is important for cooking the rice (it should be almost in a single layer). A wide frying pan will work – a 46cm pan is ideal for cooking paella for four people.
• Heat source: Cooking over wood is the most traditional method but many paella cooks use round gas burners – and a hob is fine too. The important bit is using an even heat source that you can control. Using two burners or combining induction zones will help make sure there’s no one heat spot beneath the pan.
• Avoid stirring: The less a paella is stirred the better – but do brush any errant grains of rice stuck to ingredients back into the stock so they can cook. It’s essential not to stir the paella in the final 8-10 minutes of cooking though to allow the rice to settle and begin to fry, creating the famous crispy base (socarrat).

Keep an eye on our social channels (@deliciousmag) to see chef Omar cooking paella in the sun at delicious. HQ.