Seafood Paella with Shrimp-Shell Stock and Real Socarrat

By Sprig Originals ✓ · cooked up in Sprig

A restaurant-caliber seafood paella built in a big home skillet. You make a fast stock from the shrimp shells for the deep, briny backbone that water or boxed broth can't fake, build a slow sofrito, then add the shrimp, mussels, clams, and squid only in the last few minutes so nothing turns rubbery. The final move is the socarrat: crank the heat and use your ears and nose to catch the toasted rice crust at the bottom right before it burns.

Ingredients

• 1 lb large shell-on shrimp (16/20), peeled and deveined, shells and heads reserved
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small onion, quartered
• 1 carrot, cut into chunks
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 5 cups water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 strip lemon peel

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 cups canned crushed tomatoes or grated fresh tomato
• 1 1/2 tsp sweet paprika (pimentón dulce)
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 large pinch saffron threads (about 1/2 tsp), crumbled
• 1 1/2 cups bomba or Calasparra short-grain rice
• 1 1/4 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste

• 12 mussels, scrubbed and debearded
• 12 small clams (littleneck or Manila), scrubbed
• 6 oz cleaned squid bodies, sliced into 1/2-inch rings
• 1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 3 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges
• Flaky sea salt and black pepper

Instructions

1. Peel and devein the shrimp, keeping every shell and head. Refrigerate the shrimp meat, tossed with a pinch of salt. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high and add the shells and heads. Cook 4–5 minutes, pressing on the heads with a wooden spoon, until the shells turn deep pink-orange and smell sweet and toasty.
2. Add the quartered onion, carrot, and smashed garlic and cook 3 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and cook 1 minute until it darkens. Pour in the white wine, scrape the pan, and simmer 2 minutes. Add 5 cups water, the bay leaf, and lemon peel. Bring to a bare simmer and cook uncovered 25 minutes — do not boil hard or the stock turns bitter.
3. Strain the stock through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing the solids firmly to extract everything, then discard the solids. You want 4 cups; add water if short. Keep it hot over low heat and season lightly with salt so it tastes like mild seafood broth.
4. In a 12- to 14-inch skillet (cast iron, carbon steel, or a paella pan) heat 1/4 cup olive oil over medium. Add the chopped onion and bell pepper with a pinch of salt and cook 10–12 minutes, stirring often, until very soft and just starting to color. Add the minced garlic and cook 1 minute.
5. Add the crushed tomatoes, sweet paprika, and smoked paprika. Cook 8–10 minutes over medium, stirring, until the mixture darkens to brick red, pulls away from the sides of the pan, and no watery liquid remains. This is the sofrito and it is the flavor floor of the dish — don't rush it.
6. Crumble the saffron into 1/4 cup of the hot stock and let it steep 2 minutes. Add the rice to the sofrito and stir 1–2 minutes to coat every grain in the oil and tomato. Pour in the saffron stock and the remaining 3 3/4 cups hot stock, add 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt, and stir once to distribute the rice evenly.
7. Bring to a strong simmer over medium-high, then reduce to medium and cook 10 minutes without stirring again — from here on, paella is never stirred. Shake the pan gently by the handle if it looks like one side is cooking faster. Taste the liquid at the 5-minute mark and adjust salt; it should be assertively seasoned.
8. At 10 minutes, nestle the clams and mussels hinge-side down into the rice, then tuck in the squid rings and scatter the peas over the top. Arrange the shrimp on the surface. Cook 6–8 minutes more, until the shells open, the shrimp are pink and opaque, and the liquid has dropped below the rice. Discard any shellfish that stay shut.
9. Now the socarrat: raise the heat to medium-high and listen. For 90 seconds to 3 minutes you'll hear the sizzle change from a wet bubbling to a dry, crackling snap — that's rice frying in oil at the bottom. The moment you smell toasted nuttiness (like popcorn), pull it off the heat. If you smell anything sharp or acrid, you're 10 seconds late; kill the heat immediately. You can also test with a spoon tip at the edge — the rice should feel crisp and release with a scrape.
10. Cover the pan loosely with foil or a clean kitchen towel and rest off the heat for 5–8 minutes; this finishes the rice and firms the crust. Shower with parsley, add flaky salt and black pepper, and serve straight from the skillet with lemon wedges, scraping up the socarrat with each portion.

Chef's tips

Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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