Recipe for vegetarian paella and overnight rice pudding

I've stayed in the UK, working on my house and garden, painting rusty gates, weeding, and saying things like 'ooh sun's over the yard arm, time for a drink' as it approaches 5pm.

In spring, I invested in an awning so even the rain hasn't stopped me eating outdoors. It's been lovely, my nine-month-old granddaughter Ophelia in a high chair, eating the same food as the adults in what's known as baby-led weaning.

Kerstin has been staying in her Kilburn flat this summer taking care of the garden and dreaming up recipes from Spain. (Image: Kerstin Rodgers)

It's a moment to recreate a holiday vibe by cooking vacation food. This is an unconventional recipe for paella, probably Spain's most famous dish, because it contains no seafood, or as in the case of Valencian paella, chicken.

The most important ingredient in paella is the rice. I'm using a short-grained type called La Bomba. Brindisa sell a single estate variety 'illa de Riu' from Tarragona. Monika Linton, the founder of Brindisa, describes it as "the Japonica type, which is plump and slightly opaque with a bright white concentration of starch in the centre of the grain".

From my research, both risotto and paella contain short-grained rice, but risotto grains form a binding creamy sauce, while paella grains swell, absorbing up to three times their size without breaking. Paella rice should remain separate, slightly dry, and even a bit crispy, part of the famous soccarat 'crust' at the bottom.

I used a traditional black and white steel enamel paellera, picked up in Spain for about four euros, which you can buy at souschef.co.uk. Like cast iron pans, this pan has been seasoned with oil, then cooled, to create a non-stick base over time.

In Spain, they cook paella over a wood fire, so it could be made over a barbecue for instance, but our rainy summer obliged me to cook indoors over a gas hob. A paella should not be stirred, so you have to watch the sides carefully to make sure all the liquid is absorbed evenly.

Again using La Bomba paella rice, there is a recipe for overnight orange rice pudding, which can be eaten cold, or hot in the colder months.

Kerstin makers her vegetarian paella with La Bomba paella rice (Image: Kerstin Rodgers)

Vegetarian Paella (Serves 6)

I've made this vegan/vegetarian version of paella with a mix of peppers and slightly unconventional ingredients, usually used as tapa-style snacks

Ingredients:

A paella pan or wide flat shallow frying pan

100 ml olive oil
6 shallots, finely sliced
3 red peppers, deseeded, stems and white pith removed, thinly sliced
2 long green peppers, deseeded, stems and white pith removed, thinly sliced or use a dozen whole padron peppers
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 kg La bomba rice
3 nyora dried peppers, soaked in hot water
Pinch saffron
100 ml white white or dry sherry
3 L hot vegetable stock including nyora water
1 can green olives
75 g smoked almonds
Bunch of parsley
1 lemon, cut into wedges

Method:

Prep all the ingredients and have them ready.
Put the paella pan on the hob or fire on a medium to low heat, with the olive oil.
When the oil is hot, add the shallots, fry until pale gold.
Add the fresh peppers, fry until the edges are slightly crispy, then the garlic.
Add La Bomba rice, stirring as you fry it.
Remove the dried nyoras from the hot water, removing the seeds and stems but reserving the water which you will add to the stock.
In a mortar and pestle, grind the saffron strands with the nyora peppers.
Add this mixture with the white wine or sherry to the paella pan. Stir into the rice.
From this point on you stop stirring. Gradually add the stock until it is all absorbed. You can put foil over the pan if you don't have a lid, so that the rice steams. Make sure it's on a low heat so that while a crust is formed on the bottom it doesn't burn.
Cook for 20 minutes until all the grains swell up. Make sure the stock is added to the edges of the pan, not just the middle.
Add the almonds, olives, parsley.
Serve with lemon wedges.

Using the same rice, flavoured with orange, cinnamon and vanilla, you can make a comforting baked pudding (Image: Kerstin Rodgers)Overnight Rice Pudding (Serves 8)

This also makes a very good breakfast as an alternative to overnight oats. It can be made vegan by replacing the cows’ milk with nut milk.

Ingredients:

A lidded heavy casserole or thick bottomed baking tin suitable for the oven
2 L full fat milk
100 g paella rice
100 g sugar
1 vanilla stick
1 cinnamon stick
1 orange zest
1 tbsp orange flower water

Method:

Put all the ingredients into a lidded casserole, then into a low oven at 140ºC for approximately two hours or overnight at 100ºC. You could also try it in a slow cooker.

Remove in morning. Eat for breakfast or leave till later.