Nourished Magazine :: Wisdom to thrive by

Perfect paella. Have you ever really experienced it? Probably not, unless you’ve been to Spain. And even then, you may have been served a lackluster rendition of what should be an addictively wonderful dish. Truly spectacular paella, in my opinion, must have a thin layer of rice (no thicker than a half-inch), it must feature a few other ingredients on top (but not so many as to smother the rice), and it must have been cooked and served directly in a real Spanish paella pan. Lastly, if the bottom layer of rice yields a golden caramelized crust, called socarrat, you know you’ve reached the pinnacle of paella greatness.

Entire books have been written (in Spanish, mostly) about the correct way to make paella. I haven’t read them all, but I’ve read enough of them to know that paella cooks are passionate and unyielding in their convictions. I have traveled far and wide in Spain, the U.S., and other countries, tasting, analyzing, and comparing notes with paella chefs. And I have discovered that each chef has his own method that he believes is best. I’m as opinionated as the next guy when it comes to paella, but if there’s one chef whose approach to paella parallels my own, it’s Norberto Jorge of Madrid, whose restaurant, Casa Benigna, specializes in authentic paellas and rice dishes. Norberto and I collaborated on a paella article for Fine Cooking magazine, in which he identified the following five essential elements to any paella:

[The following text is excerpted from the article, which appears in issue #33 of Fine Cooking]

1. The Rice: The rice should be medium grain. Spanish rice is rounded and short; it absorbs liquid very well, and it stays relatively firm during cooking. Those qualities make it ideal for paella, where the rice grains absorb flavor from the liquid. the rice should be dry and separate when done, not creamy like risotto. The most appreciated variety of Spanish rice is bomba, but you’ll have fine success with the widely available medium-grain rice sold by Goya. Arborio is an acceptable substitute; long-grain rices, however, are not.
2. The Pan: A true paella pan is wide, round, and shallow and has splayed sides. It does not have a lid. It has two looped handles and may dip slightly in the middle so the oil can pool there for the preliminary sauteing. The shape of the pan, which is called either a paella or paellera, helps ensure that the rice cooks in a thin layer. The Valencians say that the cooked rice should be only as thick as “un ditet,” or the width of one finger (about 1/2inch). The key is to maximize the amount of rice touching the bottom of the pan because that’s where the flavor lives. For that reason, paella pans grow in diameter rather than in height.
3. The Heat Source: Try to find a heat source that can accommodate the whole paella pan. Depending on the configuration of your burners, you’ll need to straddle the pan over two burners or set it on your largest burner. Either way, you’ll have to move and rotate the pan to distribute the heat. Or you can cook the paella outdoors on a large gas or charcoal grill, or even over a wood fire, which is how it’s done at paella competitions in Spain.
4. The Sofrito: A sauté of aromatics, called the sofrito, provides the flavor base. The components of the sofrito vary by region. Tomato, onion, and garlic are a popular trio for the sofrito. Some cooks use paprika, herbs, or a dried sweet red pepper called ñora. The technique is simple; sauté the vegetables over medium heat until they soften and the flavors meld, and the water from the tomato has evaporated. This mixture should be thick enough to hold its shape in a spoon.
5. The Cooking Liquid: A flavorful liquid cooks the rice, while imbuing it with additional character. If you don’t have a homemade stock on hand, improvise one with the ingredients in the paella. For paella with shrimp, for example, simmer the shells in salted water for a quick, flavorful stock. If you use canned stock, choose a low-salt one. You can also use water, as many home cooks do in Spain. Almost every paella recipe calls for the liquid to be infused with saffron, which contributes color as well as a subtle background flavor to the rice.

It isn’t difficult to make a fantastic paella (though getting the toasty socarrat to appear on that bottom layer does take a little practice), as long as you keep Norberto’s five elements in mind and are careful to avoid a couple of pitfalls. One of the most common mistakes is to overload the pan with too many ingredients, thereby suffocating the rice. When the rice in a paella is cooked well, nothing else matters-not the chicken, not the clams, not even the artichokes. These other ingredients do have a role to play in the pan, and that is to provide flavor to the rice. For great paella, add them with restraint, and let the rice take center stage.

Another egregious offense is to serve the paella on a plate rather than from the pan. I think that this destroys the texture of the rice, which when cooked properly creates a thin cohesive blanket across the paella pan. I urge you to seat yourself and your guests around the paella pan (a round or square table works best), and eat the paella right from the pan, starting from the perimeter and working toward the center. This communal style is the traditional way to eat paella, and I can vouch for at least one family in Granada that still does it, every Sunday afternoon without fail.

Paella with Chicken, Artichoke, and Red Peppers

Serves four (ideal for a 13- or 14-inch paella pan).

• 3 cups chicken stock; more if necessary
• Pinch of saffron threads, toasted and steeped in 1/2 cup hot stock
• Salt to taste
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil (I’m sure Spanish cultures traditionally used animal fat for this as the oil gets quite hot - Ed)
• 4 skinless chicken thighs, chopped in halves and seasoned with salt and pepper
• 1 red pepper, cored, seeded, and cut in 1-inch wide strips
• 1 small whole head garlic; plus 6 medium garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 artichokes
• 3 oz. green beans, trimmed
• 1/2 medium onion, grated on the largest holes of a box grater
• 1 ripe tomato, halved horizontally and grated on the largest holes of a box grater (discard the skin)
• 1 1/2 cups medium grain rice
• 1/4 cup cooked garbanzo beans (chick peas), rinsed and drained (optional)
• 1 lemon, cut in wedges for garnish

In a saucepan, bring the stock to a boil; lower to a simmer. Add the saffron-infused liquid. Taste; the stock should be well-seasoned, so add salt if necessary. Remove from heat until ready to add to the rice.

Set a paella pan (14-inch diameter) over medium high heat with the olive oil, noticing if the pan sits level. If not, choose another burner or try to create a level surface. When the oil is hot, sauté the chicken pieces until golden and cooked through, 10 to 15 min. Transfer the chicken to a platter and set aside.

Reduce the heat to medium low. In the paella pan, sauté the red pepper, head of garlic, and garlic cloves until the peppers are quite soft but not brown, 15 to 20 min. Meanwhile, prepare the artichokes. Slice off the upper two-thirds of the leaves and trim the stem. Pare away the tough outer leaves, scrape out the choke fibers and quarter the hearts.

Transfer the peppers and garlic cloves to a plate (the intact head always stays in the pan), cover with aluminum foil, and set aside to cool. Sauté the artichokes in the paella pan until they’re tender, about 15 min. Transfer to a plate. Sauté the green beans in the pan until they’re soft and wrinkly, 5 to 10 min. Meanwhile, finish preparing the red peppers. Peel them (discarding the skin), and set the garlic cloves apart from the peeled peppers. When the green beans are done, remove the pan from the heat and transfer green beans to a plate.

If there is more than 1 Tbs. of olive oil in the pan, pour out the excess. Increase the heat to medium and sauté the onion until soft, about 5 min. Add the tomato and the reserved garlic to the pan. Season well with salt, and sauté until the water from the tomato has cooked out and the mixture has darkened to a burgundy color and is a very thick purée, 10 to 15 min. If not cooking the rice immediately, remove the paella pan from the heat. (This tomato-onion-garlic mixture, called the sofrito, is the flavor base for the paella.) You may make the paella several hours ahead up to this point.

About a half hour before you’re ready to eat, bring the stock back to a simmer and set the pan with the sofrito over your largest burner (or over two burners) on medium high heat. When the sofrito is hot, add the rice, stirring until it’s translucent, 1 to 2 min.

Stir or shake the pan to evenly distribute the rice, push the head of garlic to the center, and pour in the simmering stock. As the stock comes to a boil, lay the peppers and green beans in the pan, star-fashion. Add the artichokes and chicken pieces, and distribute the garbanzo beans, if using, on top. Do not stir the rice once the water is boiling. Cook on medium high, rotating and moving the pan over one and two burners to distribute the heat and cook the rice as evenly as possible. When the rice begins to appear above the liquid, after 8 to 10 min., reduce the heat to medium low.

Continue to simmer, rotating the pan as necessary, until the liquid has been absorbed, about 10 min. more. Taste a grain just below the top layer of rice; it should be al dente, with a tiny white dot in the center. (If the rice is not done but all the liquid has been absorbed, add a bit more hot stock or water to the pan and cook a few minutes more.)

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and cook gently for another 2 min. to help ensure that the top layer of rice is evenly cooked. With the foil still in place, increase the heat to medium-high and, rotating the pan, cook for about 2 min., until the bottom layer of rice starts to caramelize, creating the socarrat. The rice may crackle somewhat, but if it starts burning, remove the pan from the heat immediately.

Let the paella rest off the heat, still covered, for 5 min. Sit everyone down at a round or square table. Remove the foil and invite people to eat directly from the pan, starting at the perimeter, working toward the center, and squeezing lemon over their section, if they want.

Seafood Paella

Serves four (ideal for a 13- or 14-inch paella pan).

This paella is good when served with lemon wedges, but it’s even better when spread with a bit of alioli, a garlic mayonnaise that is the Spanish version of the French aioli. To make alioli, add a few cloves of chopped garlic and a large pinch of salt to a mini-food processor (or a mortar), process (or pound with a pestle) until very fine, and then slowly drizzle in olive oil to make a thick, mayonnaise-like consistency. Add lemon juice to taste, and process again. (This recipe is Allioli - from ‘all i oli’, Catalan for “garlic and oil”, a typical paste of Catalonia. It differs from Provençal aioli in that it does not use eggs. - to make the more Nourishing version add egg yolk - Ed)

• 1/3 lb. shrimp, peeled (reserve the shells for broth)
• Pinch of saffron threads
• Salt to taste
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil (I’m sure Spanish cultures traditionally used animal fat for this as the oil gets quite hot - Ed)
• 1/3 lb. scallops (or calamari, cut in rings)
• 1/2 onion, grated on the largest holes of a box grater
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 ripe tomato, halved and grated on the largest holes of a box grater (discard the skin)
• 1 1/2 cups medium grain rice
• 8 small mussels or clams (1/2 lb.), scrubbed
• 1 lemon, cut in wedges for garnish

In a medium saucepan, boil 3 1/2 cups of salted water. Add the shrimp shells and simmer, covered, for about 10 min. Strain the broth, and return it to the saucepan. Toast the saffron gently (in a dry skillet or toaster oven), crush the threads with the back of a spoon, and add to the shrimp shell broth. Taste for salt; the broth should be well-seasoned.

In a 14-inch paella pan, heat the oil on high. Meanwhile, pat dry the shrimp and scallops (or calamari). When the oil is hot, sauté the shrimp and scallops until almost cooked through, about 2 min. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Pour out all but 1 Tbs. of oil from the pan. Reduce the heat to medium and sauté the onion and garlic until the onion softens, about 5 min. Add the tomato, season with salt, and sauté until the mixture, called the sofrito, has darkened and is a thick purée, 10 to 15 min.

Meanwhile, bring the shrimp shell broth back to a simmer. When the tomato-onion sofrito is ready, add the rice to the pan. Sauté until the rice loses its opaqueness, about 1 min. Increase the heat to medium-high. Pour in 3 cups of the simmering broth (reserving the remaining 1/2 cup) and stir or shake the pan to evenly distribute the rice in the pan. As the liquid comes to a boil, arrange the mussels or clams in the pan, submerging them as much as possible below the level of the liquid. From this point on, do not stir the rice.

Cook the paella on medium-high, rotating and moving the pan over one or two burners to distribute the heat. When the rice begins to appear above the liquid, after 8 to 10 min., reduce the heat to medium low. Continue to simmer, rotating the pan as necessary, until the liquid has been absorbed, about 10 min. more. Taste a grain of rice just below the top layer; it should be al dente. (If the rice is not done but all the liquid has been absorbed, sprinkle a bit of hot broth to the pan and cook a few minutes more.) Arrange the shrimp and scallops (or calamari) in the pan.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and cook gently for another 2 min. to help ensure that the top layer of rice is evenly cooked. With the foil still in place, increase the heat to medium-high and, rotating the pan, cook for about 2 min., until the bottom layer of rice starts to caramelize, creating the socarrat. The rice may crackle somewhat, but if it starts burning, remove the pan from the heat immediately.

Let the paella rest off the heat, still covered, for 5 min. Sit everyone down at a round or square table. Remove the foil and invite people to eat directly from the pan, starting at the perimeter, working toward the center, and squeezing lemon over their section, if they want.

About the Author...

Sarah Jay, is the proprietor of PaellaPans.com. A traditional foodie, Sarah Jay sells traditional paella pans to Spanish and non Spanish people who want to recapture the taste of traditional Paella, the dish or Spain, all over the world.