Making Paella - Preparing the Seafood Part II

Rob Carson: Once again I am Rob Carson, Javier Quiroga is with me from To Your Taste Catering, and we are making Paella. Javier Quiroga: Yes. So your shrimps are looking very good here. Rob Carson: Excellent, excellent. Javier Quiroga: There are squid, I want to take this out. Rob Carson: Right in here.

Javier Quiroga: Right in the Chorizo. You can eat them just like that. Rob Carson: Oh yeah, you know that will be good. Javier Quiroga: Just like that. Rob Carson: It's is like don't touch it. Stop it. Save it for the Paella. Javier Quiroga: We add little more olive oil on that. Rob Carson: Put more olive oil, good.

Javier Quiroga: Perfect.

Rob Carson: Javier Quiroga: And we are going to do the squid, and then we are going to do also the -- and again your pan has to be hot. You want to make sure it sizzles when you put it down. That's when you get a nice color like this. Rob Carson: You get a nice color, you also seal in the juices, you also -- you get a caramalization.

Javier Quiroga: Right, 100%.

Rob Carson: You want that flavor. Javier Quiroga: So we are going to that, we also are going to do the little scallops here. Rob Carson: The scallops is lovely. Javier Quiroga: When you buy fish, you got to make sure like, scallops have to smell fresh. When you buy regular fish it should smell like the ocean. And this shouldn't be slimy. Rob Carson: Not fishy, fishy, fishy. Javier Quiroga: Not fishy, fishy, fishy. No. You can move this here maybe, that's better idea or in the mean time what we are going to do with our pepper? Rob Carson: Okay let's do this. Now we are going to be using the pepper for a garnish. It's not necessarily an important ingredient for the flavor of the Paella and what we are going to be doing today is--.

Javier Quiroga: We are going to be roasting the garlic. You need to do it on open flame at home. Rob Carson: We are roasting the pepper. Right. Roasting the pepper, you're just putting it on the burner like this. This is not the good time to like, go outside or use the bathroom -- you want to stay right here when you do the pepper. Javier Quiroga: And this is going to give you nice fullest smell to you, it is going to smell really -- this is not burnt. Rob Carson: We are going to be browning the exterior and it will look pretty, and it will soften up the pepper a little bit. Javier Quiroga: Another thing we can be doing in the mean time, can we chop some of these onions? Just a little cubes. We are going to add all the vegetables so that to take it for the next step already, almost. Rob Carson: Everybody has got a different way to cut an onion. I am sure Javier is going to look at my technique and go. Really that's how you cut your onion? But this is how I do it. Javier Quiroga: But there is no rule into cooking, you know that? As long as you do it. Rob Carson: Well, I wouldn't say that, I have done some pretty weird things in the kitchen. Javier Quiroga: Really? What's the weirdest thing you have done in the kitchen, to drink chicken broth? Rob Carson: It didn't involve eating, but anyway. Javier Quiroga: The pan is hot right now, so again I am going to throw this in there, again the sizzling is very important. We let that go in. can I steal these guys from you? Rob Carson: You can. Javier Quiroga: Don't cut my fingers now. And they get this as very little olive oil in here, a little salt and pepper here, and it seems that we are using a lot of salt and pepper, but we are not, because you know it's in small amounts that we are doing. Then small amounts in every dish here. Everything is coming up together very very nicely here. Perfect. Rob Carson: One thing I learned from a guy, Scott Squire is a chef locally and he has moved out to Washington. When you are cutting and you are holding, leave your nails down like this, because if you do slip, it goes right off the nail. Rather than going -- Javier Quiroga:Right, right. It creates like a little wall.

Rob Carson: I mean your nail polish will be have to get it done everyday, because it will shave it right off. I like my nails to look really good. Javier Quiroga: Oh that's why you use acrylic. Rob Carson: Yeah. Alright so we got the pepper going here. Javier Quiroga: Yeah the pepper is looking blackened on that side. Rob Carson:It's looking pretty there. It's going to take a little while. Javier Quiroga: Alright, another thing that we got to think about, when it comes to the Paella, what I do the seafood, all the seafood I leave until the end. Because again, the over cooking part of it. I leave it at the end, once all that stuff is incorporated with the rice and everything else, and the vegetables and everything else, then I add the seafood, this should be almost at the end. Rob Carson: It is so much smaller and it's already done. How these clams look? Javier Quiroga: Oh yeah, looking good. Rob Carson: They are all looking good. They have opened up very nicely. Javier Quiroga: Imagine the clams you make with this Paella, the you mussels you make, the Paella mussels, that will be great. Rob Carson: You could do that. Javier Quiroga: You could do that. Rob Carson: Come back for more recipes from me, because I have got a mussel recipe that will just rock your world. Anyway, those are about done, these are about done, that's about done, and we are going to make some Paella here, and we will be right back to put it all together. J