How to make broad bean and pea paella – recipe

We eat an awful lot of rice. Paella is a particular favourite and makes for a convivial teatime with the kids scooping and scraping the rice from the paella dish at the table. In our house, paellas vary wildly throughout the year, depending on what's readily available. With tomatoes or peppers, or without. Sometimes pork, others chicken, fish, prawns and more.

My butcher gave me a bag of pork bones at the weekend to make stock and there were some lovely looking broad beans and peas in the veg shop, so that's the direction this one took – and lovely it was, too.

(Serves 4)
5 saffron strands
750ml pork, chicken or vegetable stock, hot
200g shelled broad beans
150g shelled peas
1 large onion, finely diced
2 or 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 thin rashers of bacon or pancetta, chopped (optional)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp sweet pimento or paprika
300g short grain paella rice, such as calasparra or bomba
1 pinch fine sea salt
1 large sprig rosemary

Toast the saffron in a dry frying pan for a few seconds over a moderate heat, then tip into the hot stock and set aside.

Bring a pan of water to the boil. Drop in the broad beans, bring back to the boil and cook for 2 minutes. Drain, then pop the broad beans out of their skins, leaving any tender small ones unpeeled.

Heat the olive oil in a paella pan or shallow flameproof casserole dish over a medium heat. Add the onion, then the garlic, and sweat for 8–10 minutes, making sure it doesn't catch but sweats until golden and completely soft. Add the bacon (if using) and continue to fry for 1-2 minutes until lightly coloured.

Pour the peas and broad beans into the pan and stir to combine, then add the rice and pimento or paprika and fry for 1 minute more. Then add the rice, stirring to coat it with the spice and onion mix.

Pour in the hot saffron stock, some salt if you like, and bring to the boil. Shake the pan gently to evenly distribute the rice and bed down the vegetables among it. From now, do not be tempted to stir the rice as this will dismantle the fabled crust beneath (socarrat).

Lower the heat a bit, add the rosemary sprig, and simmer for 5 minutes. Then lower the heat further and leave to simmer gently for about 15 minutes more, until all the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is tender, but still with a bit of a bite to it.

Remove the pan from the heat, cover with a large lid or clean tea towel and leave to rest for 5 minutes before serving.