Paella de la Albufera

I fell in love with paella in Barcelona.  In fact, I couldn’t get enough, so I tried every kind, game, seafood, squid ink, whatever they had to offer.   Yes, paella is a traditional rice dish from the Valencian Community, just south of Barcelona on the way to Madrid, but is now prevalent throughout Spain.  The name comes from the Valencian/Catalan word for a frying pan, which is the traditional pan used for cooking the dish over an open fire.

While the dish may have ancient origins, its modern version dates back to the mid-19th century in the rural area surrounding the Albufera lagoon near Valencia, Spain’s Mediterranean coast.

The traditional paella of Valencia, known as **paella valenciana**, features Valencian rice, olive oil, rabbit, chicken, saffron, tomato, flat green beans, lima beans, salt, and water. Occasionally, whole rosemary branches are used for seasoning. Traditionally, saffron imparts the dish’s distinctive yellow color, but turmeric and calendula can be used as alternatives. Seasonal ingredients such as artichoke hearts and stems may also be included. While bomba rice is the most commonly used variety, the senia cultivar is also popular in the Valencia region.

**Paella de marisco** (seafood paella) substitutes meat with seafood and excludes beans and green vegetables. **Paella mixta** (mixed paella) combines meat, seafood, vegetables, and occasionally beans, with the traditional rice. Variations of paella are enjoyed throughout the Mediterranean, Spain, and around the world, and each place has their own versions.

YOU WILL NEED:

• Rice, Bomba (or Koda Farms works nicely)
• Fish, game, seafood, etc.
• Kielbasa sausage, game, chicken, etc.
• Can of diced tomatoes, 12 oz.
• Some vegetables such as onions, green beans, fresh lima beans, spinach, artichokes, red pepper, etc.
• Chicken broth or water with a cube of bullion
• saffron, preferrably Spanish
• salt and pepper and optional rosemary
• lemon, if possible

Paella is typically a Sunday dish, in Spain, and its preparation is a social affair which takes place in the garden or the countryside over an open fire or a propane or butane burner.  We use a 20″ paella pan, which is called a paellera, for this dish for 6-8 persons, but a large 20” cast iron pan would work.  Paelleras are infinite in variety of sizes and vary from cast iron, to aluminum or nonstick.   Paellas are also diverse, so this is less of a recipe and more of a manual, from our friend Nick de Toldi at www.gourmetfly.com for whatever ingredients you choose to offer.  It’s a blank canvas of rice, but you choose how to paint it with the ingredients you choose.

Serves about 8

Place the paëllera (a large shallow two handled pan with slanted sides, which is sold in many sizes) on the dinner table but wait 10 minutes before opening or serving, allowing the flavors to meld and the guests to begin to simmer with anticipation.  We have a smaller one that we use over the burner and a larger one which we use for this dish over a wood fire or a large gas ring set on a tripod over a propane burner.   The small one is great for about 3 people, the larger 20” one for 6-8.  In Spain, they have them up to 6 feet in diameter.  This recipe is for a 20” pan.

Fresh quarters of lemon are a nice decoration and season for both meat or fish paëllas.

PREPARATION:

1- Buy the most classic old fashioned round rice, such as Italian rices sold for risotto.   I use Koda Farms rice, which is from the best farms of California’s Kukuho Rose plantations, which is the best rice farmed in America and is traditionally used for sushi, but works nicely for the Spanish dishes.  The Spanish typically use a medium grain rice, but now favor Bomba rice, an ancient strain of tiny round rice that has been resurrected and recently written about by celebrity chefs.  Who knew I was ahead of the trend?

2- Check how many people your paëllera can serve. Pour as many coffee cups as you can until you reach the rivets of the handles. Divide per two, this is the number of guests (in other words, you need more or less 100 grams of rice per guest).  For my 20″ paella pan, I use 3 cups of rice and 4 cups of chicken broth for cooking the rice.  If you want to make smaller version with the 20” pan, it also works with 2 cups of rice and 3.5 cups of water or chicken broth.

FOR THE COOKING:

3- Prepare your fire and put a nice coat of olive oil on the bottom of the paëllera. Put 2 or 3 garlic teeth in the oil. Put your meat or fish cut in small parts in the oil and brown gently. Add salt and paprika on the birds, rabbits, meat or fish. Be skimpy with the birds, rabbit, meat or fish, as the paëlla is a rice dish. The rice is the star.  I usually pre-cook the meat and any seafood, remove them from the pan and wait until the end when it is all inserted back in together with the rice for the last few minutes, in order to avoid overcooking, which is the opposite way from what is traditionally done.

4- Add a small sized tinned can of peeled tomatoes cut in small pieces -pomodori pelati- Once the tomatoes are well hot and boiling, add the rest of vegetables (spinach leaves, small artichokes, green flat beans, red or green pepper).

5- Once all this is well hot and boiling, add the required quantity of water

ALTERNATE VERSION FROM NICK

Nicolas (Nick) de Toldi
MINIMALIST PAELLA FOR A START
FOUR GOOD VIDEOS (watch at least the best one, or better the 4)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tCywOUzvUs (mute)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0XvDO_5-Z8 (in Valenciano with English subtitles)
The best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeruM9XVm9A (in Spanish, nice system of indoor
log fire)
Arroz Pepica, “paella gaz et oven”, rice started like a risotto, 12 min gaz + 8 min oven 150° C+
socarraet on the gaz again, like at La Pepica, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmK4nPyCXvk
INGREDIENTS FOR 10
1 kg of round rice to cook for at least 17 to 20 minutes. Round dessert rice, or risotto rice.
2 liters of water. Be careful with Spanish rice “Bomba” it absorbs 3 times its volume of liquid
instead of 2. Salt, paprika or sweet pepper (pimenton), 2 sachets of paellero Carmencita or 2 doses
of saffron powder. Avoid saffron pistils which are complicated to use.
1 head of garlic, cloves “in their skin” (do not peel, choose new garlic, tender if possible)
3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
10 “flat coco” green beans cut into 1 cm pieces.
1 handful of fresh spinach, stemmed, roughly chopped with a knife.
10 chicken thighs each cut into 3 or 4 pieces with skin and bone.
1 can of 24 frozen prawns (thawed)
1 small can of whole peeled tomatoes in juice, chopped into small pieces with a knife. But above
all, do not buy pulp or anything similar. 2 or 3 lemons. If the garnish seems insufficient, remember
that it is a rice dish! (prawns are not obligatory and are even discouraged by Valencian purists).
STEP BY STEP METHOD
Prepare the fire under a support that allows you to add wood without lifting the paella
Put the olive oil in the paella as well as the chicken and garlic in its skin. Salt the chicken. Put on
low heat.
Let the chicken brown well. Once browned, sprinkle generously with paprika.
Rekindle the fire with kindling.
Add half of the prawns, let them take color while stirring.
Add the vegetables, rosemary, let heat well while stirring.
Pour in the water and salt it as for very salty pasta. Add wood to boil well.
Add the Carmencita paellero or the doses of powdered saffron. Distribute.
Let it boil very strongly.
When it boils strongly, add the rice in lines and distribute it.
On top of the rice, distribute the other half of the prawns in a circle (these will only cook by the
steam).
From then on, do not stir, do not touch anything.
Let it cook for 17 or 20 minutes on a moderate heat.
After 17 (if there is no more water), or 20 minutes, take the paella out and place it on the embers
for 1 minute to obtain the socarraet (grilled bottom).
Then wait at least 10 minutes before serving it with lemon slices.
NB: Check as in the video that the water does not exceed the rivets. If 10 people is too much,
count one coffee cup of rice and 2 cups of water per person (or 3 if Bomba rice) and 1 chicken
tigh.

@+ Nico
Tel +33 (0) 6 83 25 84 09 – Email: Nickdetoldi @ Gmail.com
Website www. Gourmetfly . com