Paella Rice with Baby Octopus & Meyer Lemon

Paella Rice with Baby Octopus & Meyer Lemon

Paella Rice with Baby Octopus & Meyer Lemon
Peas, Fennel, Onion
Lemon Olive Oil, Basil, Black Pepper

“Cooking is a love affair. It’s all about falling in love with your ingredients.”
alain ducasse

Meyer Lemons
Ingredients. Ingredients were the inspiration for this “casserole.” A brown paper bag full of gorgeous Meyer Lemons from my friend Judy’s yard. A Christmas gift of heavenly Lemon Olive Oil from my friend Allison. (Thank you, ladies). A charming cloth bag of arroz tradicional from Spain. And irresistible fresh baby octopus at my local Korean market.

“You can’t cook well without good ingredients. If you don’t treat the ingredient and its flavors with respect, if you drown it in oil, even good olive oil, you spoil it.”
alain ducasse

Paella Rice with Baby Octopus & Meyer Lemon

In his fabulous new book Nature, French Master Chef Alain Ducasse shares “simple, healthy, and good” recipes featuring plenty of fruit and vegetables, grains with a little meat or fish, all cooked in olive oil. My dish is an adaptation of his “Spanish Rice with Squid and Lemon.”

Paella Rice with Baby Octopus & Meyer Lemon Recipe

Lemon Oil

Ingredients

  • 3 T. lemon olive oil
  • 3/4 c. fennel, diced
  • 3/4 c. white onion, diced
  • 3/4 lb. par boiled baby octopus, sliced
  • 1 c. paella rice
  • 3/4 c. frozen petite peas
  • 1 meyer lemon, sliced into half-wheels, seeded
  • 2 c. cold water
  • salt

Paella Rice with Baby Octopus & Meyer Lemon
Saute fennel and onion in lemon olive oil until translucent. Add the baby octopus, stir, and cook for a few more minutes.

paella rice

Add the rice, stir to coat the grains.

Paella Rice with Baby Octopus & Meyer Lemon
Add water, peas, lemon, and salt. Stir to combine, bring to a boil then immediately reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes until the rice is al dente.

Paella Rice with Baby Octopus & Meyer Lemon
Serve nice and hot in the cooking vessel.

Paella Rice with Baby Octopus & Meyer Lemon
Garnish with several grinds of black pepper, a drizzle of lemon olive oil, and ribbons of fresh basil.

Paella Rice with Baby Octopus & Meyer Lemon

Food Network’s

Comfort Food Feast

Taste With The Eyes

featuring 

casseroles

Comfort Food Feast is a season long franchise where Food Network editors team up with bloggers to share recipes about everyone’s favorite comfort foods. Be sure to check out the Pinterest Board with over 100,000 followers called Let’s Pull Up A Chair! And if this Paella Rice with Baby Octopus & Meyer Lemon Recipe got you in the mood for a comforting casserole, you might enjoy taking a peek at other creative recipes from some fabulous bloggers below…

The Heritage Cook: Tex-Mex Arroz con Pollo (Gluten-Free)
Jeanette’s Healthy Living: Smoked Sausage Chicken Cassoulet
Big Girls, Small Kitchen: Cheesy Butternut Squash Enchiladas
Dishin & Dishes: Black Bean Enchilada Pie
Weelicious: Chicken Wild Rice Casserole
Dishing with Divya: Chicken Mushroom and Black Bean Tortilla Casserole
Taste With The Eyes: Paella Rice with Baby Octopus & Meyer Lemon
Blue Apron: 11 Super Casserole Recipes for a Super Bowl Feast
Napa Farmhouse 1885: Pork Chop Casserole with Crimini Mushrooms
Red or Green: Stacked Cheese Enchiladas with New Mexican Red Chile Sauce
Elephants and the Coconut Trees: Chicken and Rice Casserole
The Sensitive Epicure: Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole (Gluten-Free)
Domesticate Me: Mushroom, White Bean and Brown Rice Casserole with Bacon and Gruyere
Daily*Dishin: Chicken Tetrazzini Casserole
FN Dish: The New Age of Casseroles

7 thoughts on “Paella Rice with Baby Octopus & Meyer Lemon”

  1. ‘Cooking is a love affair . . .’ [Ducasse] ` is it not ever!! Here you have taken a few ingredients most of us have at home . . . well, squid is hardly difficult to access and the offered baby octopus I can buy even in semi-rural Australia! Look what you have produced ~ I cannot wait to copy . . . thank you!!!!

  2. This is the year that I’m going way, way out on the limb with my cooking. The Paella Rice with Baby Octopus & Meyer Lemon looks like a great place to start. Unfortunately no one gifted me with any of those special food gifts but, what the heck. This looks like a lovely recipe.

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