Paella on the Big Green Egg is simple but stunning. Authentic paella has an excellent crispy base called socarrat, and the Spanish will fight over it.

Baby octopus looks and tastes fabulous in this paella. Give them a go. I buy them frozen in a packet from my local Asian supermarket.

For this recipe, we use the MiniMax paella pan which is 24cm in diameter. It’s perfect for two people. You can scale the recipe for more people.

Serves 2

Method

To prepare your octopus

1. Place the frozen octopus into a pan of cold water, it will defrost in here.
2. Add 1 tbsp salt to the water.
3. Bring to a boil and then simmer gently until the octopus becomes tender, this will take about 1.5 hours.
4. Once cooked drain and set aside.

To make your paella

1. Setup your Egg at 180°C with the stainless grid. 
2. In your small paella pan or saucepan, fry off the onion, garlic and chorizo until the chorizo is starting to go crunchy.
3. Pour in the paella rice and stir to coat with the oil. You need to cook it for about 2 or 3 minutes, the grains will start to turn translucent and crack.
4. Add the paprika and stir through.
5. Mix the saffron, stock pots and water together and pour over the rice and chorizo. You are looking to cover the rice by about 1/2 cm. Add additional water if needed.
6. Leave the paella to cook without stirring, you want a crispy base to start forming on the bottom of the pan, and the rice to soak up all the water. 
7. Once the rice has asborbed the water, add the red pepper, octopus and lemon wedges, you’ll get more juice from the lemons if they are cooked.
8. Leave to cook for a further 5-7 minutes.
9. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.