How to throw a paella party

Wednesday night was my first ever official dinner party.

For me, it's always stood as a signifier of adulthood. Being of an age where I have a stable group of mature friends who won't just scoff at the idea and I can invite over for a glass of wine and a nice meal. Which I cook. And we eat. I've had small groups of people over when I've attempted to cook 3 courses, pot luck brunches, dinners and barbecues and I've cooked for my flatmates many times throughout the years, and those experiences have always been fun - but on Wednesday night I set myself a challenge and then sat down at the dinner table to be judged for my efforts.

It might not sound like the biggest deal, but for me it kind of was.

My former flatmate, colleague and good friend Akari arrived in London on Wednesday afternoon for a whirlwind visit, and her arrival was the main reason I wanted to have the dinner party. I invited another former colleague from dine by Peter Gordon, the restaurant we all worked at in Auckland and it was a nice, but brief reunion, which ended with Akari passed out at the dinner table before the end of the night. Another friend, Clea, has just arrived from the United States, so it was a welcome dinner for her as well. I also invited a couple of my current work colleagues, most of whom came, and it was nice to mix my old and new friends and meet some new people that Mario and Akari brought with them. The biggest relief of the night for me was actually having people show up. Towards the time it was supposed to start, I started receiving the "something's come up! I'm not coming!" texts and started to get a bit worried, but at the very least I knew I would have Akari, and she would eat as much as needed to make me feel like it was worth my time and effort. In the end 12 people showed, which was more than I expected, but a number I could easily accommodate.

I've watched a shitload of cooking shows since arriving in London, which has actually been a good thing for an aspiring food-blogger like myself and I got the idea from one of them to make paella. What really hooked me on the idea was seeing an amateur chef flame-grill capsicums on a naked gas hob in preparation for his paella. I love playing with fire, so this was a logical addition to my dish.

Before I even attempted that, I started with what turned out to be my (much needed) vegetarian option - a Spanish tortilla de patatas. I completely forgot that I had invited 2 vegetarians and thanked my lucky stars that I had this on stand by. A tortilla is effectively a frittata, except that it is Spanish... and it usually only contains potato and onion. I added spinach, as we could all use more vegetables in our lives. It was pretty easy to make - I Beat 12 eggs together with some salt and pepper. Cooked off a 500gram bag of spinach and drain all the water out of it by wringing it through a tea-towel (which was ruined as a result, but spinach juice is the worst thing in the world, ever). Quartered, par-boiled and sauteed about 12 baby potatoes with one large red onion, thinly sliced. When the potatoes and onions were softened and slightly sweet, I folded them with the spinach into the egg mixture. Once bound together, bake it in the oven for about 25 mins until the centre is cooked. The most important thing to remember about making a good omelette or fritatta or tortilla - season and

cook your core raw ingredients to their desirable form before putting them into your egg mixture. I cannot stress this enough. Once raw shit is in there - the damage is done.

Eggs cook incredibly fast, and so anything in there that isn't cheese or tomato is not going to get cooked thoroughly. Raw onion, soggy spinach, bland boiled potatoes - these items have ruined far to many egg dishes in my day, and they must be stopped. My tortilla turned out beautifully, so I let it rest for a couple of hours, as a tortilla de patatas is traditionally served at room temperature. This made my life much easier.

Next up was the big challenge: prawn, chicken and chorizo paella. I put this off as long as I could. Partly because I wanted it to be ready to eat just as everyone was ready to eat, but mostly because I was shit scared that once I started it, it would get out of control and get the best of me, and I was already in quite an emotional state from all the drugs I had been taking and all the Golden Girls I had been watching. I researched quite extensively and consulted a number of recipes, taking only the best bits. For example, despite their recurrence I omitted peas, because I find them weird. I also omitted squid, because unless served freshly cooked, it is incredibly rubbery and unappealing, and fish, because English fish is eww. I largely took my ingredient cues from one of Jamie Oliver's many paella recipes on the net, as I liked the addition of chorizo, and because he's a pretty respectable fella. However, methodology I got from elsewhere and I can't remember why or where - but I remember having good reason at the time. I didn't follow the recipe strictly, but kept checking back to see what order things needed to be assembled in. Quantities I guessed because it's paella, you can't do it wrong (unless you under/overcook the rice). One thing I DID forget to do, was to take photos of the paella in its various stages - at least ones that make it look like a delicious dish anyway.

My first task was to roast the capsicums, or red peppers if you will. I did this by sticking them straight on top of my gas hob. This worked a treat and gave them an amazing smoky flavour and softened them right up - the burnt bits just rubbed off. I then cooked the natural oil out of the chorizo, and added pancetta, onions, garlic and the diced capsicum. Meanwhile, I dusted 4 chicken breasts in flour, browned them in the pan and set them aside. I then infused 2 litres of chicken stock with 3 large piches of saffron. (This was fun, as I had never cooked with saffron before, and would now love to try something totally new with it. It is rather expensive through! Once I was organised, I added Spanish paprika and about 850 grams of calasparra rice to my chorizo and onion mixture. At this point, I realized that within minutes of adding the stock, my paella was going to double to twice its size. I scooped out about a third and placed it into a deep pot and carried on preparing - making sure to treat both parts of the paella as equals. With everything under control, and my guests slowly arriving I

started adding my stock and the paella began to take shape. It was a pretty wonderful sight - to see something that took quite alot of time, money and effort come together with minimal drama was quite a feat. Once the rice was cooked, I added the chicken and some 'fresh' prawns' and let the paella sit and soak up the rest of the liquid for about 20 minutes while I chilled out. Once everyone was sitting around the dinner table, I squeezed over the juice of 1 lemon, and sprinkled some chopped tomato and parsley over the top.

This is what it looked like just before the entire pan was demolished. I wish I had taken better photos but I will have to make do with what I got. The dinner, and the paella, were both pretty well received I think. It's something I will definitely do again soon, but perhaps with a much smaller group and with a more challenging set of dishes. Either way, I felt a great sense of accomplishment and had an awesome time cooking and sharing the meal with my friends. Despite doctors orders, I had a few beers and a glass of wine with dinner to reward myself for a job well done, and miraculously had no side effects from the penicillin. I guess it hasn't worked quite as effectively as I would have hoped, but they were some much needed beers, let me tell you.