Rice with octopus, broad beans and artichokes

Everyone knows Spanish paella, but probably only few people know that apart from this traditional rice based dish there are many others called simply arroz, which means rice. Depending on the ingredients added to it there is: rice with chicken, with cod, with rabbit, with mushrooms, with a variety of vegetables, etc. Besides, rice dishes may vary depending on their consistency: paella is called dry rice (arroz seco), apart from this there is also arroz caldoso which has the consistency of soup and arroz meloso which is something between the two previous ones. Generally speaking, if you want the rice dish to absorb fully the broth during cooking you should add double the volume of broth in relation to the volume of rice - if you are using a typical paella rice called bomba. So, if you want the rice to be dry you need to add 2 cups of hot broth for every one cup of rice, but if you want the rice to be watery you should simply add more liquid.

Ingredients (serves 4):

300 g cooked octopus

4 artichokes

250 g broad beans

7 fresh sprigs of green garlic

1 cup bomba rice

7 tablespoons tomato puree or 2 ripe tomatoes, peeled and grated

pinch of saffron

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

3 cups fish broth

salt 

olive oil

Method:

First, cook the octopus. Bring to a boil plenty of water with a bay leaf, a few grains of pepper and salt. Add octopus and cook for about 1 hour, or until it is tender. Drain it and cut into 0,5 cm pieces. Water from cooking the octopus can be used, instead of fish broth, to prepare the rice, but if you prefer the broth you can find sample recipe here. Prepare the artichokes: trim off the tips of the leaves and remove the hard external leaves. Cut them into pieces. In a skillet heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil, add the artichokes and fry until golden brown. Season with salt and add the broad beans and chopped sprigs of green garlic. Stir, fry for 2 minutes and then add the tomato puree. Stir well and add the smoked paprika and saffron.  Stir in the rice. Mix well and after 1 minute add hot fish broth or the water from cooking the octopus. Reduce heat to low and cook, without stirring, for about 17-18 minutes, or as directed on the rice package. At the and of cooking, add the chopped octopus. Cover and let stand for about 5 minutes.

Source of inspiration: www.cuinant.blogspot.com

Enjoy !!!