They are really good soaked in a dry sherry. For me, not so good with a sweet one. It adds something a little different to this dish.
This is a recipe a friend gave from from an English language Spanish inspired cook book. I have modified the recipe over time.
Ingredients
100g sun dried toms (dry, not in oil)
120ml olive oil
175 ml dry sherry
500g boneless chicken breasts - cubed
1 medium onion
peppers - chopped - 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 green
2 cloves of garlic chopped
300g paella rice
1 litre chicken stock
200g sliced mushrooms
1 teaspoon dried basil
paella colouring
Method
1. Soak the sun dried toms in the dry sherry for at least 30 minutes
2. Heat half of the oil in a paella pan over a medium heat. Add the chicken and fry until the outside of the chicken is lightly cooked. Set the chicken aside.
3. Fry the onion, garlic and peppers for a minute or two in the rest of the olive oil.
4. Add the sun dried toms and any sherry that has not been soaked up. Also, add the basil. Cook for another couple of minutes then remove from the pan.
5. Clean the pan.
6. Just before you want to finish cooking you need to "build" the dish.
7. Add the paella colouring and paella rice first. So it spreads across the bottom of the paella dish.
8. Then add the the veg mixture on top of the rice. Do not mix it up.
9. Add the partly cooked chicken on top of the the rice and veg. Again, do not mix it up.
10. Add the 1 litre of chicken stock. Then bring to the boil and simmer for 25 minutes.
11. 10 minutes from the end of cooking add the mushrooms to the top of the dish.
12. Serve immediately.
As mentioned above a gas bbq is great for cooking this dish. As you can apply even heat to all of the paella dish at the same time.
Here is a photo of the component parts. Ready to finish off on the bbq later.
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