mad crab paella

Another sunny Saturday felt like the ideal time for a Lyn's style paella, which in this case was going to be more of an "arroz con buey". I had brought a mud crab from Claudio's, which was still alive. 

I like this crab choice because it always provides an amazing sweetness and seafood flavour to the dish. Red capsicum, tomatoes, garlic, onion, saffron, paprika, crab stock , crab meat, green king prawns, "calasparra" rice, plus extra virgin olive oil and sea salt.

Around ninety minutes later our paella was ready to come to the table. It was dark by the time we were seating down, but the balcony didn't feel cold at all, so we had dinner watching the always fascinating night city lights of the CBD and the harbour, plus a few confused bats in their way from the botanical gardens.

Once it was served on the plate we added a slice of lemon. Its juice over the warm and sweet rice brings a really mouth watering sense of freshness; definitely much more exciting.

Another chardonnay from the Yarra Valley (Lilydale, VIC) was the choice of the evening to help us digesting this new display of Lyn's paella powers. A 2006 Mount Mary almost made it a miraculous meal. A perfectly structured wine with a quite unique flavour; wonderful experience from the beginning to the end, but I am afraid it is not my number one.