In case you haven’t read about it already, I have quite a passion for Paella. Ever since the first time I tried it, at a market in the South of France, where they gave us mussel shells to use in place of cutlery, I’ve been somewhat obsessed with this dish.
While travelling in Spain I found there are many, MANY more versions of this dish than I had ever imagined. I’m happy to say I still prefer my recipe, but I loved seeing all of the variations.
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The words on this Paella pan at a restaurant outside of the market in Barcelona are spelled out with rice.
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Paella can be one of those great “what’s in the larder?” creations. Whatever is available can be added to the rice and a meal is created. But, as with anything in the culinary world, better quality ingredients result in a better tasting final dish.
One of the great attractions to this dish for me is the inclusion of Saffron, as many of you may have read, I’m Just Mad about Saffron. Another ingredient I find to be critical {and I always notice my guests always love it too} is fresh chorizo sausage.
I’m sure you can imagine my disappointment when our first paella {at the cooking class} did not contain any saffron at all, but instead a “Colorante” {an orange colored powder, from an oversized plastic box, I might add} was used. Not quite the romantic notion I had in mind for my introduction to paella in Spain. When I asked the chef, he said that this is typically what is used in Spain. I guess most people aren’t willing to pay for the “real thing” {saffron threads}.
I picked up this little sachet of “Salsafran” at a store. The ingredients are corn meal, artificial colors and “especias”, or spices…..but I don’t taste any saffron at all, I’m guessing maybe they used tumeric.
Our next dance with paella was a couple of nights later. The local gardener, Manolo, was said to be a paella prince, willing to come to the house and make a pan for visitors. We eagerly took him up on the offer. But, before dinner I picked up a box of saffron threads in town and gave them to Manolo. When I gave it to him he said something about the saffron being “natural”, and mentioned he usually used the artificial colorante as well.
Manolo’s Paella was better, though I wish he had used more of the saffron. He made up for it by being incredibly charming and using plenty of very fresh langostines and prawns. The meal was enjoyed by all.
When I asked each of our Mallorcan chefs about chorizo sausage, they said it wasn’t a typical ingredient in Paella on the island.
When we visited the market in Palma we saw even more interpretations…. Including a macaroni based paella,
and paella with “arroz negro”, or rice colored with black squid ink, typical of the region.
Our final tango with this dish featuring “round” rice was our favorite. On the Platja de Pals, part of the Costa Brava in Spain, we decided to try paella again when we saw this on the cover of the menu:
The growing and harvesting of rice in Pals dates back to medieval times, and this restaurant follow a procedure established by this organization.
The rice is actually grown in paddy’s very near this restaurant.
When I make Paella, I always try to create a golden brown crust on the bottom of the rice, as I’d read is the tradition {and I find the added texture and flavor is very nice}. This was the first time we experienced such a crust, but this crust was on the top instead of the bottom. They achieved it by finishing the pan in the oven {maybe under a broiler}.Our seafood paella contained prawns and plenty of calamari. It was creamy and flavorful and we loved the chewy crust on top.
Please, pass the lemons.
YUM!! What a fabulously delicious post. I adore paella but have never attempted to make it myself – perhaps this will be the year for me to try, using your tried and true recipe!!
WOW! This has me famished…I LOVE paella. When we lived in the city and one of my husbands good friends from college was visting, he loved to cook and we all made it together (oh to be 21 and feel like you can do anything) well it came out quite incredible. His dad is a famous chef, so the playing field was not level. This is one of my favortie dishes, combining my favorites, seafood, rice and soooo aromatic with the saffron…beautiful dish!