Most of the work of making the paella, cleaning the seafood, toasting the fideos and chopping the vegetables, can be done long before your guests arrive. Allow about 35 minutes for the cooking of the paella during the party.
2 10-ounce packages fideos (rolled vermicelli noodles), broken into about 1/2-inch lengths
Olive oil
1-1/2 pounds New Zealand (green-tipped) mussels
1-1/2 pounds black mussels
1-1/2 pounds Manila clams
3/4 pound calamari
1/2 pound rock shrimp
2 lobsters
1 onion, coarsely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced 1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 green bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 dried ancho chile
6 cups lobster stock plus additional water
3/4 pound shelled fresh or frozen petit or English peas
1 lemon
1 bunch chives
2 teaspoons hot sauce (optional)
To make noodles:
Spread lengths of fideo on large baking sheet or pan and drizzle 1/4 cup olive oil over top. Mix noodles and oil evenly so noodles are coated all around. Toast in oven at 350 degrees until noodles turn medium brown, 8 to 10 minutes. You may have to stir noodles occasionally during cooking to ensure even toasting.
To make seafood:
Clean mussels and clams by brushing them under cold running water and pulling off beards from mussels if necessary. Set aside. Clean calamari by removing cartilage and cutting body into 1/2-inch strips. Set aside.
Clean and devein rock shrimp. Set aside.
Rinse lobsters and remove claws and knuckles. Cut lobster tails with shells into medallions (take advantage of natural separations and use sharp serrated knife).
To make paella:
Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in large paella pan or turkey roaster over medium-high heat. Add onions and sauté 3 to 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté about 3 minutes. Add red, green and yellow bell peppers along with whole ancho chile and sauté 3 to 5 minutes.
Add toasted noodles and 3 cups hot stock and cook, stirring constantly, 3 to 5 minutes or until noodles absorb most of the liquid.
Add New Zealand (large) mussels and lobster claws (if uncooked; may also be poached in Lobster Stock, then added at end of cooking to warm through) along with 3 cups additional stock; bury shellfish under noodles for faster cooking. (Be careful when adding seafood; a lot of steam may rise from pan.) Maintain watch over pan, stirring as needed to prevent noodles from sticking. Add 1 to 2 cups water as needed during cooking when noodles absorb liquid.
After 5 to 8 minutes of cooking large mussels, add smaller black mussels and clams, burying them under noodles as with larger mussels and stirring and adding stock as needed.
When some of the shellfish begin to open, about 10 minutes after adding small mussels and clams, add shrimp, calamari, lobster tail meat (and claws if lobsters were cooked previously in lobster stock), peas and 1 to 2 cups additional water. Cook, stirring, until almost all seafood shells have opened and noodles have absorbed most of stock and water (it should not be dry), 3 to 5 more minutes.
Discard any shellfish that have not opened, add lemon wedges on side of pan, sprinkle generously with chives and serve family-style in pan. Serve hot sauce on the side, if desired.
Makes 8 servings