Zé's Aunt's Paella

The recipe below is from remembrance of thigs past – 40 odd years past!
The same sequence of informal Sunday lunch parties among fellow students that gave me my standard risotto recipe and some tasty curries also produced this ‘paella’ – I use the inverted commas deliberately because Zé’s aunt was Portuguese (well, he was, anyway). She always referred to the dish as ‘paella’. The use of a pinch of paprika is unusual, I think. Could it have been anything else? I don’t think it was chilli.
The recipe has been further modified with the help of our contributor Brava who wisely pointed out that the meat and fish might be a tad overdone if I adhered to the one I ‘remembered’!

As you can see from the amount of ingredients, it served umpteen!

Zé’s Aunt’s Paella

olive oil ( enough to cover the bottom of the paella pan)
4 chicken drumsticks
4 chicken thighs
4 chicken wings
1 rabbit, chopped into pieces
1 large Spanish onion, chopped fine
3 garlic cloves, chopped
130g white lima beans
250g prawns, unshelled preferred
350g mussels scrubbed
350g clams
250g fresh squid, cut into rings
200g chorizo, thickly-sliced
½ teaspoon of saffron
a good pinch pimenton (Spanish smoked paprika)
2 large ripe, tomatoes, chopped
130g french beans
130g peas, fresh or frozen
2 glasses dry white wine or fino sherry
boiling water or stock
3-4 cups of paella rice (‘bomba’ if available)
sea salt and black pepper to taste

Heat the oil in the paella pan,add the rabbit and chicken and brown. Remopve the meat from the pan then add the onions and garlic and the white beans and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Add the saffron and paprika at this stage. While this are cooking, make a ‘hole’ in the middle of the paella pan and fry the chopped tomatoes briefly. Add the green beans, the peas and two glasses of wine and stir briefly. Top up the pan with hot water or stock until it almost reaches the top of the pan. Season to taste and cook for 10-15 minutes. Add the rice, distributing it evenly, making sure the rice is covered with liquid. Return the meat to the pan and and add the prawns, mussels, clams, squid and chorizo, mix gently. Keep the heat up to maintain the the boil. Do not stir the rice but turn the pan round from time to time on the stove top. All the stock should be absorbed when finished and the rice should be ‘al dente’ but not grainy. Take the paella off the heat and allow stand for a few minutes with the top of the pan covered (cloth or sheets of newspaper).

Ze’s aunt always scooped a hole in the middle before bringing it to table. This she filled with chopped lemons and generous amounts of parsley and other aromatic herbs.