Mountain Rice Paella

Ingredients

Preparation

• Ingredients:
  1. 2 back plus 2 front legs fresh wild rabbit, cut into pieces at the joins
     1 or 2 quail
     
     Sherry and juniper marinade:
     1 teaspoon dried juniper berries (bagas zimbro Espiga)
     1 teaspoon black peppercorns
     1 teaspoon salt flakes
     3 cloves garlic roughly chopped
     60ml olive oil
     60ml dry sherry
     
     Paella:
     60ml olive oil
     2 quail, legs removed, remainder halved
     1 morcilla (black pudding), cut into slices
     1 chorizo, diced
     3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
     1/2 bunch of thyme, leaves only
     1/2 bunch of oregano leaves, chopped
     150g red bell pepper, 2cm diced
     50g blanched almonds
     1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
     1/2 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
     60ml dry sherry
     1L chicken stock
     Salt and pepper
     400g bomba rice
• Preparation
  1. 1 For sherry and juniper marinade, combine all ingredients in a mortar and pestle and mix to a paste. Add rabbit pieces and toss to combine. Refrigerate, covered, overnight.
     
     2 For paella, heat half the oil in a large heavy-based paella pan or frying pan until sizzling over high heat. Add the rabbit and marinade, quail, morcilla and chorizo and cook turning occasionally, until deep golden brown. Remove and set aside. Reduce heat.
     
     3 Add remaining oil to same pan. Add garlic, thyme and oregano. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute, being careful not to burn the garlic.
     
     4 Stir in bell pepper, almonds, saffron, paprika, sherry and stock and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer. Return rabbit, quail, morcilla and chorizo to the pan and sprinkle rice evenly over top. Gently shake pan to submerge the rice in the stock. From this point on do not stir so that the crust can form on the bottom.
     
     5 Cook for 20-25 minutes or until stock has been absorbed and rice is almost tender. Increase heat slightly and cook for a further 3-5 minutes to form a nice soccarrada, or crust.