Silver Travel Cook Club - July 2019

This month our Silver Travel Cook Club welcomes back CV Villas as Guest Editors with a fabulous recipe for traditional Spanish Paella. Plus you could win a copy of  Brindisa, The True Food of Spain.

Francesc is a talented Catalan chef, born in a small city called Tarrega outside Barcelona, who trained for 5 years in the cookery school of Lleida.

By the time he left Spain in 2005 he had three years’ experience as a Head Chef and had worked at a range of the most prestigious restaurants including 3-star Michelin restaurant El Celler de Can Roca and hotels in Spain such as 5-star Luxury Hotel Relais & Chateaux Mas de Torrent in Girona.

Since living in London, Francesc has grown to love traditional British cooking and has worked with chefs such as Gordon Ramsay. He currently splits the summer season between the Costa Brava and Ibiza, which he has been doing for the last 10 years.

Francesc has a small company specializing in private catering and events and has cooked for a range of celebrities and very important people; though he insists that he puts the same amount of love and passion into his work when he cooks for his family and friends.

“Fresh, local & organic are the key ingredients for a successful meal and I always recommend Catalan and local wines, I especially like a vineyard in Formentera called Bodega Terramoll.”

Francesc has kindly shared one of his favourite recipes with us, for traditional Spanish paella.

Recipe: Mixed Paella

Ingredients (for 8): 

• Paella base
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 2 onions
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 green pepper
• 2 grated tomatoes
• 1 cuttlefish
• 100g pancetta or sausages or chorizo
• 8 chicken wings
• A pinch of saffron
• A pinch of chopped parsley
• 500g bomba rice or paella rice
• 1 litre of fish or chicken stock (I prefer fish)
• 16 mussels
• 16 clams
• 16 prawns
• 8 langoustines 

Preparation:

•  We start the paella by cooking the prawns and langoustines in a paella pan with a generous drizzle of EVO oil. Cook them for one minute each side and reserve.

•  Chop small onions, garlic & pepper and cook them all together in the paella pan on a low heat, stirring often until the onion is a caramel colour.

•  At that point add the rest of ingredients of the paella base and cook slowly for another 20 minutes.

•  When the paella base is ready, we can add the rice and mix it all together.

•  Bring the stock to boil in a pot and then pour it over the paella pan, the rice will take around 15 minutes to cook.

•  When 5 minutes have passed, add the mussels and clams so they will open nicely.

•  5 minutes later, add the prawns and langoustines.

•  Decorate the paella nicely with all the seafood on top, we can add some strings of roasted red pepper, and some chopped parsley.

Francesc has worked as a chef in a selection of CV Villas properties in Ibiza including Villa Ca’n Castello and Ca’n Caballos. He now owns his own catering company, and is available to cook for you in all of the CV villas in Ibiza.

If you’re feeling inspired to start planning a Spanish adventure, browse the CV Villas selection of villas in Spain and The Balearics.  

How to win a copy of Brindisa, The True Food of Spain

Simply add a comment below about your favourite Spanish meal and the best entry will win a copy of this lovely hardback book.

Read more about all of our Silver Travel Cook Club recipes.

Tweet