Start by frying onion, garlic and chopped tomato in lashings of olive oil in a paella pan, or large, flat base frying pan. Of course, you can leave the garlic out if you wish. The tomato helps add a good flavour base and rich colour.

In a separate pan or jug, prepare a simple stock for your paella. Either home-made chicken stock or good quality stock cubes can be used. Add a few strands of saffron and a sachet of Carmencita paella mix to get that authentic Spanish flavour. Add more paella colorant if you want a deeper yellow colour.

Once the onion is soft, add your basic ingredients, diced chicken, sliced green peppers, perhaps some green beans, peas and chorizo if you wish. Fry until the chicken is browned on the outside.

Next, add your paella rice – one cupful per person. Stir into the mix until the grains of rice are individually coated with olive oil.

At this point, add your stock. Start by adding enough to cover the rice plus about a finger’s depth – you can add more later if required. Mix the ingredients thoroughly and reduce the heat so the pan simmers. From this point on, you should not stir the paella at all. If it looks like all the stock is going to boil off and the rice is still uncooked, add more stock bit by bit.

Once the rice is cooked, decorate with strips of roasted piquillo peppers.

A big thank you to Jonathan at The Tapas Lunch Company who provided this foolproof recipe for us. Do visit their website, especially if you are still in the UK. They deliver all your Spanish favourites at extremely reasonable prices. Well… we know where to send our families for their shopping when we visit England eh?!