Monday, December 24, 2012

My Favorite Culinary Christmas Tradition



The Simpson Family Christmas Eve Paella

Not a real Paella in the strict sense of the traditional recipe. Once upon a time it was a traditional recipe but over the 40 years since I’ve first prepared it I’ve adjusted the recipe to fit the tastes of my family and the friends who have attended my family’s Christmas Eve celebration.

This is not a recipe of exact proportion this a more of how you feel, how many folks are coming over kind of recipe. Experiment with adding seafood and other vegetable your family may like. This is also a great dish to usher in the new year.


Ingredients
1/4 cup of butter
2 large green bell pepper sliced 
Two or three bunches of green onions sliced
6 large skinless, boneless chicken breast boiled, then sliced small 
4 cups of chicken broth
2lbs or more of polish or smoke sausage sliced
1 lb or more of ham sliced into strips
 3 cups (16 oz) rice
32 oz uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined ( more if you like more sea food)
2 large green bell pepper, diced.

Preparation
Heat the butter in a pan and saute green pepper and onions until tender remove and set aside.
Cook sausage until done pour off excess oil and set aside in large mixing bowl.
Cook ham until done and mix with sausage.
Sautee shimp until done (do not overcook) retain the juice.
Boil rice in chicken broth until done pour off excess broth.
In a large pan add rice, shrimp, sausage, ham bell peppers, onions and mix together well. Season to taste with salt at this point.

May the joy of the season be with you all year.