Until recently I used to be intimidated about making Paella. It seemed complex because there are usually a great many ingredients, it calls for a special pan, it usually makes much more than we can eat, and I always worry about undercooking the rice. The other night I created one that solved all those problems, and now I am more confident when making this dish.

I was in the mood for Paella. Normally, I would have used one of our frozen homemade vegetable stocks for the broth. However, I had a bunch of frozen shrimp shells in the freezer, and I stumbled across an intriguing paella recipe using those shells, so I made the broth first. It was rich, savory, and absolutely delicious.

The next step was assembling the vegetables I wanted to use. This is always a superb opportunity to employ leftovers of all sorts: 1/2 zucchini, a few sautéed mushrooms, a small carrot, and some frozen corn kernels from this summer. I defrosted and shelled 10 EZ-peel shrimp, measured about a cup of Calasparra rice, chopped some red onions and sweet red pepper, and saved 2 cups of the tomato-shrimp shell broth. Now we are ready to cook.

Preheated the oven to 425° F. Using my small (12-inch) paella steel pan, I sautéed the onions and peppers until tender, then added the other vegetables to cook quickly. The next step was adding all the rice and cooking it for a few minutes until well-coated with olive oil and moisture from the vegetables. I cut up half the shrimp and added them to the pan. Finally, I added all the broth at once, turned up the heat to high to get the liquid boiling, and then put the paella pan in the oven (uncovered) to cook for about 20 minutes.

I sliced the few remaining shrimp lengthwise and added them to the pan at about 18 minutes. The only was I know to ensure the rice is cooked enough is to taste it. At the 20-minute mark it was mostly-done, with just a little chalkiness, so I figured it would finish cooking during the last step. Taking the pan out of the oven, I covered it with aluminum foil and left it on top of the stove for another 20 minutes. The rice continues to steam during that time, and it is just the right texture when we are ready to eat.

A 2017 Safra,. a Spanish Garnacha, was a very good match for the wine.