Ingredients:
- Rice
- Meat (chicken
(thighs, drumsticks, wings), it is also possible to use rabbit, if you
like it). One piece (thigh, drumstick, wing...) of chicken per person is
a reasonable measure.
- 3 or 4 garlic cloves.
- 1 average size peeled tomato.
- green beans (a few per person (fpp), optionally white beans (fpp), a few stripes of red bell peppers.
- Optionally you can use artichokes, green peas, chopped green bell peppers, etc.
- salt, water and olive oil.
Directions:
Start
frying the meat at high heat with very little oil and adding some salt
to the pan and the meat. It may be a good idea to cut the meat in small
pieces. The salt is supposed to draw the juice out of the meat.
Similarly, I believe, too much oil while you fry the meat, may form a
film around the meat and keep the juices to come out.
The meat has to be well done, well golden. When it is done, push it
aside and add the chopped garlic. Cook the garlic at low heat. Add the
chopped peeled tomato. You can add more olive oil if you want (around
three tablespoons). I believe the longer you cook the tomato the better.
Make sure you set the heat really low and you can keep it for hours. Do
not worry if it starts taking a really dark color. After you add the
tomato, you will also have to cook the rest of the vegetables (green
beans, artichokes, white bean, peas, bell peppers... depending on what
you prefer). At the end you can also add some 'pimenton' (or Spanish
paprika). Keep the heat low after you add the paprika, if you allow the
paprika to get burned, your
paella will be ruined
In theory, you will pour water on the pan as soon as you add the
vegetables. Many people think it is easier and yields the same results
if you only pour the water after you add the rice. It may also be a good
idea to use chicken broth instead of plain water.
There are a lot of theories on how much rice to use and what is the
exact proportion of rice and water. Some people will go as far as to say
only water from Valencia will work. As a basic rule, add a little cup
of rice per person. It is recommended to use high-quality rice that will
not overcook. At the end, rice should be tender, but not overcooked (think al dente like correctly cooked pasta).
As a general rule, you should add a little bit more than twice as
much water than rice. If you poured the water right after the
vegetables, you should use more water than this rule prescribes, because
you will lose quite some water before you add the rice (that is why it
is easier to pour the water after you add the rice). In any case, the
level of water should be such that all the rice is well covered by the
water. You may want to test for salt, in case you need to add some
Finally, raise the fire to high heat, add a bit of saffron and cook
the rice, vegetables and meat at high heat for ten minutes. After this
time, the water should barely cover the rice. Some rice should start
popping out. If you have too much water, let it cook a little longer on
high heat to reduce the amount of water. Possibly, increase the heat. If
you have too little water and the rice is still pretty raw, you may
want to add some water.
After the first ten minutes at high heat, turn the heat low, cover
the pan with tin foil and let it cook for ten more minutes. If
everything goes well, after this second period of ten minutes, all rice
should be evenly cooked (but not overcooked) and there should be barely
any water left. If you run out of water before the rice is cooked, you
used too little water. keep the pan covered with foil and try to have
the rice finish
cooking on low heat). If you
have much water left by the time the rice is cooked, you used too much
water. Uncover the pan, increase the heat and try to evaporate some
water. A little excess of water in the
paella is not such a big deal anyway.
After finishing
cooking the rice, leave the
paella sit for five minutes and eat right away.
Paella is not supposed to be reheated, so after all that work, make sure you do not leave anything on the pan.
Photos:
*read the directions above thoroughly. The directions provided with the photos are not really sufficient to make a good paella. They are only there to help you understand the photos.
Prepare the chicken legs and thighs. We take off the skin, cut some of the meat off the bones, and salt the meat thoroughly.
You can boil the tomatoes to take off the peel. This is not obligatory, but a good idea.
A lot of garlic is used (but never onion!). You can mince very finely, or even just put through a garlic press.
Use very little oil when you start with the chicken.
Put the chicken in the pot when the oil gets hot enough. Put the skin, bones, meat - everything. You can take the skin out later, but putting it in at the beginning adds a lot of flavor.
Once the chicken has browned a little you can add the minced garlic.
Peel the tomatoes and chop finely on a plate to retain the liquid.
Add the tomatoes to the chicken and garlic. You can move the chicken over to the side so the tomatoes get thoroughly cooked. You may even want to take it out. In our case we left it in for a little while with the tomato, but eventually took it out when we were going to add the peppers.
Chop the bell peppers. We chop the green bell peppers into small 1cm cubes, and the red bell pepper are 1cmx3 or 4cm long.
Add the bell peppers to the pan with the thoroughly cooked tomato. In our case we took the chicken out.
Prepare the green beans. We cut them about 3 or 4cm long.
When the peppers are partially cooked, add the green beans.
Once the veggies are cooked, you can add the meat back into the pan (if you took it out). Then you can add the smoked Spanish paprika (pimenton).
Because it is easier for us and we do not like to use up too much propane with our big paellero (a big pan for cooking paella), we usually cook everything in a smaller pan on the stove first. Once all the vegetables and meat are cooked, we then move it into the paellero. Probably this is not common. It is absolutely fine to cook everything in the big pan. Most people will not have a paellero, so they will need to cook everything in one big pan on the stove.
Now everything is in the pan, we are adding water, and we are waiting for it to simmer.
Once simmering, separate the vegetables and chicken to make a wall of rice in the center. You can then mix it with everything else. Make sure to read thoroughly the instructions on cooking the rice above. This is the most delicate part of making a paella!
!!DONT FORGET THE SAFFRON AROUND THIS TIME!!
After you have simmered the rice for a while, you will cover the pan and turn down the heat. It takes time to learn this process and get the cooking of the rice correct. Don't worry if you overcook the rice the first time you make this. It takes practice!
Check the rice after a while and if it is ready turn off the burner. Let sit for a few minutes.
Enjoy!
