I am inexplicably addicted to the cheap jambalaya that they serve at Popeye's. So the other day, realizing I had mussels, shrimps, sausages and a chicken thigh sitting idly in my freezer, I decided to do a rice dish for dinner. Last minute jambalaya meant I still needed to do my internet research and go to the store to get the right spices and I didn't have the time, so I decided to make it easier on myself by making paella (or close) using my imagination.
Gary and I went to King's Seafood to buy saffron (I didn't think the tomatoes would make the rice red/yellow enough) but they wouldn't let me use Visa for anything under $15 so we went to the tiny Filipino store by Duane instead.
When we got home, I started to cook rice (using uncooked rice on my "paella" seemed too complicated) and boil the chicken while we watched TV Patrol. By the end of the program, I was chopping garlic, onion, tomatoes, green and red bell pepper, the seafood and sausage while my rice was happily getting cold in the freezer. I stir fried everything, fished the stuff out except for the sauce after 10 minutes, then dumped the rice in my pan. I added a chicken-flavored cube dissolved in my chicken stock, the saffron, red chili pepper and some fish sauce and then assembled everything in my baking dish.
Voila! My makeshift paella that earned me heart-warming praises from the boy. Beginner's luck, so I have no idea how I'd manage to do it again--as obviously there will be requests to have this dish on the table in the future :P
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