Paella Recipe
What is the authentic paella
There are many different recipes of paella. There are many rice dishes in Spain: Paella, Arroz a Banda, Arroz Reina, etc., etc. Paella is just one of them and not necessarily the best. Many people like other rice dishes better. Paella Valenciana is a dish originated in Valencia, in Eastern Spain, at the Mediterranean coast. However, contrary to common belief, Paella is an inland dish, created by farmers, not by seamen. Paella is not a seafood dish. Many people believe that a good paella is the one that has lots of expensive fish and shellfish. This is incorrect. Paella is an inland dish made out of meat (chicken and/or rabbit), vegetable and rice. The secret of a good paella is to get the meat and vegetable juices absorbed by the rice.
How to make a good paella
Many years ago I shared apartment with some guy from Valencia. We were both in Graduate school and did not have much time to party, but we thought we will set time aside every Sunday to cook some paella valenciana. My roommate used to enjoy saying that in order to make a good paella, you need to be from Valencia, or at least feel like if you were Valencian. One Sunday that he was away, I decided to still cook the paella by myself. Since I am not from Valencia, I could not expect much of that paella. However, as a matter of fact, it turned out that that paella that I cooked by myself came out awesome. Even my roommate couldn't help to admit it. The sad side of the story is that always since then I have tried to reproduce that result, unfortunately, with little success. To date, I still do not know what is that I did so very well that time that resulted in such an awesome paella.
I do not know what is the key for a good paella, but I have some insight. It is something about how you do the first steps: how you cook the meat and the first vegetables. Most reciepes stress the relevance of the last step: how to cook the rice. While it may ruin a good paella if you do not cook the rice well, the key for a good paella lies at the beginning.
What Paella pan should be used
Preferably you should use the widest pan available. It doesn't have to be the biggest, certainly not the deepest, but, in principle, the wider, the better. The reason why we want a wide pan is so that the rice doesn't pile up. In other words, the paella should be as short (in height) as possible. We want to make sure that the rice that lies at the top receives the same heat as the rice that lies at the bottom. If the paella is 'tall', rice at the bottom would overcook, while rice accumulated at the top would remain raw. Do not forget you are not supposed to stir the paella once you add the rice. So, you will not be able to use the simple trick of stirring the rice to ensure it cooks evenly.
There is however a caveat about using a wide pan. Probably, your stove's burner is of normal size, probably, much smaller that the width of the pan. Now, you face the risk that you will overcook the rice in the center, while the rest of the rice will remain raw. There are two options to overcome this problem. The first option is as simple as moving the pan around over burner to ensure that all parts receive the same amount of heat (this is only necessary in the last cooking stage: after the rice is added). The other option is to use some accessory attachable to the burner or some camping stove with a wider burner, so that the heat is spread out all over the pan's surface.
The Recipe
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.
- 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!
