Day 12 - Spain - World Cup Eating Challenge

I can honestly say that this World Cup has had a lot of surprises. I really thought Spain was going to make it out of group stage so I wasn't planning on attempting Paella until much later in the cup. This last round of group stage games has led me to do a lot of shuffling and I'm kind of sad about some of the countries that I'm going to have to skip. Luckily, I was able to shuffle my plans and get Spain in.

I had already been planning on having a couple of friends over for dinner. When I saw my country options, I immediately knew I was going to do a big Brazilian black bean stew. However, that clearly didn't work out and nobody minded when I said I was switching to Paella.

I scoured Pinterest and settled on the recipe I thought would be the most authentic. I followed this pretty closely except for a handful of changes. I'm pretty allergic to mussels so those were out. The only chorizo I could find at Safeway was more of a ground chorizo than a sliceable sausage. I thought about switching it out but I really wanted the flavor profile to be the same so I stuck with what I had. I also skipped the saffron. When I saw that it was $20/ bottle, I figured we'd manage without it. The paprika and chorizo both have such strong flavors, it didn't seem like it would matter. In the end, I was right about the chorizo. It kind of broke apart when it was cooked with the rice and really infiltrated it with tons of flavor. There were no discernible meaty chunks but you could taste it throughout. I really love the flavor of chorizo so this made me super happy.

I have always loved Paella so I'm really pleased that I was able to make it on my own and that it came out so tasty. I'm also pretty happy with the cost. This ended up being one of the more expensive dishes but I know I could make it again with a much lower cost. Half of the expense was just seafood and I would be totally happy just making it with shrimp. I actually ended up buying too much broth and rice so I have more than enough to make this dish again. All I would need to buy are more shrimp, chorizo, and another bell pepper. I could definitely round all of that up for about $12. That's definitely not bad for how much is made. It fed all four of us easily with enough for me to take leftovers.

My guests also brought a salad which went really well with it. Paella is pretty heavy so having fresh veggies on the side helped a ton.

So honestly... how soon is too soon to make this again?