Skillet Paella, Car Camp Version
Saffron rice with shrimp, mussels, and clams from cans and pouches. One skillet over a fire ring.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 74
- protein
- 28 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 40 min
- total time
- 55 min
- water
- 950 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Arborio rice | 2 1/2 cups | short grain only, long grain will not go creamy |
|---|---|---|
| Vegetable bouillon | 4 cups worth | cubes or paste, made up with 950 ml water |
| Ground saffron | 1/2 tsp | |
| Smoked paprika | 2 tsp | divided |
| Salt | 2 tsp | divided |
| Black pepper | 1 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 3 tbsp | replaces the butter, no cooler needed |
| Canned shrimp | two 4 oz cans | drained |
| Canned mussels | one 4 oz can | |
| Canned clams | one 6.5 oz can | save the juice |
| Dried onion flakes | 1/3 cup | |
| Garlic, minced | 6 cloves | or 2 tbsp jarred |
| Sun-dried tomatoes | 1/2 cup | chopped, not oil-packed |
| Jarred roasted red pepper | 1/2 cup | drained, cut in strips |
| White wine | 1/2 cup | or swap in more stock |
| Freeze-dried peas | 1/2 cup | |
| Dried parsley | 2 tbsp | |
| Lemon | 1 | cut in wedges at camp |
Method
- Get a bed of coals going, or set the skillet on a grill grate over a low flame. You want steady moderate heat, not a bonfire.
- Boil the 950 ml of water in a separate pot, stir in the bouillon, saffron, and 1 tsp salt, then pull it off the heat and keep it warm at the edge of the fire.
- Heat the oil in the skillet. Add the onion flakes, garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes and cook two minutes until the onion rehydrates and stops smelling raw.
- Stir in the rice, 1 tsp paprika, the remaining salt, and the pepper. Keep it moving for a minute so every grain gets coated.
- Pour in the wine and the clam juice, let it hiss down, then add all the hot stock at once. Level the rice and stop stirring.
- Cook uncovered 20 to 25 minutes. Move the skillet, not the rice, if one side is running hotter than the other.
- When the liquid is nearly gone, scatter the shrimp, mussels, clams, red pepper strips, peas, and remaining paprika across the top. Cover with foil and leave it on low heat for 5 minutes.
- Rest it off the fire for 5 minutes. Add parsley and lemon at the table.
Paella is a rice technique wearing a seafood costume. The technique is what travels: short grain rice, hot seasoned liquid added once, and no stirring after that, so the grains cook in place and the bottom layer catches. A cast iron skillet on coals does this better than a stove burner because the iron spreads heat instead of concentrating it under one spot.
Everything perishable got swapped. Canned shellfish for fresh, since raw shrimp and live mussels are a cooler problem you do not need. Onion flakes and sun-dried tomatoes for the fresh versions, olive oil for the butter, freeze-dried peas for frozen. The canned seafood is already cooked, so it goes on at the end under foil and just warms through. Add it early and it turns to rubber.
Packing
Rice, saffron, paprika, salt, pepper, onion flakes, and parsley go in one bag as a dry base. Cans, jar, oil, and wine ride in the food crate. Lemon goes in last so it does not get crushed.
Variations
- Skip the seafood cans and use a pouch of chickpeas instead. Then it is vegan.
- A pinch of cayenne with the paprika covers for the smoke a real fire would have given it.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/cast-iron-skillet-seafood-paella