Does anyone know / remember The Libertines song “Music When The Lights Go Out”?  The hook line in this piece of indie-pop boy love runs “All the highs and the lows and the to’s and fro’s, they left me dizzy”.   That is exactly how I felt when making John Hillerman’s Paella.  No doubt about it, this was a tough cook.  But oh boy did it pay off!

The Lows

• Converted rice?  Not available for love or money.
• Clams in clam juice ?  Nada.
• Bottled clam juice?  No, nay, never.
• Polish Sausage…probably could have bought some but I had chorizo in the freezer which seemed more paella-ish anyway

I made this during the height of the ‘rona lockdown. But I honestly feel that my inability to get hold of these ingredients were not limited to that insane time of food shortages.

So, had this been one of my recipes?  I would have ripped it up and we would have never more heard of it.  But this was was not my recipe, this was John Hillerman’s Paella recipe that I was testing for Jenny for her Murder She Wrote Cookbook so onward and upward it was.

The To’s and And The Fro’s

I didn’t have converted rice.  I didn’t have clam juice.  Which meant I could not follow the first step of the recipe.

I had:

• Bomba paella rice.
• Fresh clams.
• Frozen fish stock.

This meant that if I found another recipe that got me through that first step of cooking the rice, then the rest should fall into place like one of those Rube Goldberg machines I have become obsessed with during lockdown.

The recipe I used was the one below.  I followed all the directions for cooking the rice per that recipe. But then switched back to John Hillerman’s Paella recipe from the step where he says to “saute the chicken in olive oil”.

Sorry, they won’t let me link it directly so here is the URL: https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/chicken-paella-with-squid-and-beans/

Here is John’s recipe:

I was literally toing and froing between the two recipes and the pan and the ingredients, making sure everything cooked properly!

The Highs

Have you seen the photos?  This dish was lush!!!  It was so pretty, so colourful, so full of joy!

It looked gorgeous, smelled like heaven and tasted even better.

John Hillerman’s Paella brought the smell and taste of Spain into a very grey wintery Melbourne day.  It was seriously like a ray of sunshine!

I LOVED this!!!!  So, so, so good!!!!!  The end result made it all worthwhile!!!

Thank you Jenny for the recipe!  This is the best paella I have ever made and I will be sure to make it again!  When travel opens up and we can spend time together again, this definitely needs to be on our menu!  In my imagination, we are sitting in your garden with Mr R and Battenberg Belle and having a lovely long lunch of paella, great conversation, lots of vino, and some great tunes courtesy of Mr Rathbone. Some ’60’s bossa nova maybe?

Oh, also for those of you like me who do not know who John Hillerman was?  His best-known role was as the incredibly suave Higgins In Magnum PI but he also appeared in Blazing Saddles, Chinatown (high on my must-see list), Murder She Wrote (obvs), and A Very Brady Sequal among many, many other films and tv shows!

Have a fabulous week friends!

Stay safe, eat paella, watch John Hillerman on the tv and listen to The Libertines!

Sounds like a pretty good way to spend the weekend to me!