Things to do with stuff you have lying around in the fridge...

Peasant's paella:

1 cup paella rice
1/2 onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
4 manky-looking cherry tomatoes, quartered
3 plum tomatoes from that tin you opened but didn't know what to do with
1/2 leftover tin of butter beans
Chorizo, diced
The rest of that seafood cocktail packet lurking in the back of your freezer
1/2 frozen peas
A few strands of saffron, finely ground with a pinch of salt
1 cube chicken stock, dissolved in 2 cups warm water

For those who can't be bothered to do anything else on a Saturday evening but sit in front of the tube watching football with a generous serving of starch-laden calories, this is perfect. You don't even need to defrost your seafood cocktail and peas. Heat up some olive oil in a paella pan (you can use a large, non-stick pan, but it's really not the same). Add the onion and garlic and sautée until soft. The sofrito, as it's called, is said to be the key to any paella, and some recipes even recommend frying the onion and garlic for half an hour before doing anything else. But the game starts in 45 minutes, and you really don't have time for that kind of thing. The trick, however, is to stir it around gently and make sure you have enough oil so that it doesn't stick or burn, but instead acquires shimmering glaze. When it's ready, you should be able to smell the infusion of onion and garlic. Next, add the chorizo and beans. Chorizo is the ideal emergency protein, which you can add to pretty much anything when you're in a bind to add flavour and colour. I always have some lying around in my fridge. Stir around for a couple of minutes then add the tomatoes, making sure you break them up so they're not too lumpy. Then add the rice, stirring around to coat the grains in all the juices. Add a tablespoon of stock to the ground saffron to dissolve it and add to the pan, stirring evenly into the rice. Pour over the two cups of stock and add the peas and seafood cocktail. Salt and pepper to taste. It's usually difficult to get an even heat distribution around the edges of a paella pan, so I usually place it off-centre on the ring and turn it every few minutes so that all the rice cooks evenly. The stock should be simmering constantly, but stir the rice as little as possible. Note that a paella pan isn't non-stick. In fact, the rice should stick to the pan and form a skin, which some allege is the best part of the paella, although that's probably because they only ever get the leftovers. When the rice is more or less tender, take off the heat, cover the pan and leave for 10 minutes. Serve with a wedge of lemon.