When I find fresh seafood, the first word that comes to my mind is paella. This dish brings back childhood memories, and after all these years it's still one of those foods that I find exciting to cook and delicious to eat.
Paella is a baked (or charcoal-simmered) rice dish typical of Spain. The basic paella would be a white rice simmered in saffron-infused stock, sauteed onions and peppers. From this versatile base people concocted all sorts of variations. You can add everything from chicken wings to the classic mixture of fish and shellfish to this dish.
In this recipe, I used fresh seafood as the main ingredient. I was out of white rice one day and decided to use jasmine rice instead. To my surprise, it turned out to be a fantastic combination of scents and flavor.
This article appears in Jul 22-28, 2009.