It’s a Bomba Rice - Who Ate All The Paellas?
I love paella although my version is definitely not authentic being the modern eclectic mishmash of chicken, meat, seafood and veg. Every grain of rice seems to have a different ingredient as a counterpart. The beautiful thing about paella is the way the rice, stock and saffron are a base for a rich colour palette of flavours and textures. When you set the pan down on the table there is usually a gasp of appreciation (providing you are not dining alone) at the audacious scale of the dish and variety of treasures contained therein: the pinks of the prawns, the rusty brown of the chorizo, the refreshing green of peppers, peas, broad beans or fresh herbs, the shocking lippy red of peppers or pimentos, the blue of mussel shells… atop of bed of red-gold…
Paella is a rice dish which originated in Spain’s Valencian region near lake Albufera, a coastal lagoon in eastern Spain. Many non-Spaniards view paella as Spain’s national dish. Most Spaniards however, consider it to be a regional Valencian dish. Valencians, in turn, regard paella as one of their identity symbols.
There are three widely known types of paella: Valencian paella (Spanish: paella valenciana), seafood paella (Spanish: paella de marisco) and mixed paella (Spanish: paella mixta); but there are many others as well. Valencian paella consists of white rice, green vegetables, meat, snails, beans and seasoning. Seafood paella replaces meat and snails with seafood and omits beans and green vegetables. Mixed paella is a free-style combination of meat, seafood, vegetables and sometimes beans. In my version I normally include leg or thigh of chicken (dusted with smoked paprika), smoked ham and chorizo and then perm anything from mussels, clams, razor clams squid, shrimps and prawns. I’ve also had Galician dishes similar to paella only sloppier. Lobster rice is made with big chunks of lobster and flavoured with tomatoes.
Most paella chefs use Calasparra or Bomba rices for this dish. Other key ingredients include saffron, and olive oil. The preferred utensil is the Paellera, a pan which is traditionally round and shallow, made of polished steel with two handles.
On special occasions, 18th century Valencians used paelleras to cook rice in the open air of their orchards near lake Albufera. The rata de marjal (marsh rat) was one of the main ingredients of early paellas, along with eel and garrafones (butter beans). The rat-eating habits of the people of Valencia’s rice-growing region were immortalized by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez in his novel Cañas y barro, a realist account about life among the fishermen peasants of the Albufera marshes in Valencia.
Living standards rose with the sociological changes of the late 19th century in Spain, giving rise to reunions and outings in the countryside. By then the original ingredients were replaced by rabbit, chicken, duck, seafood and sometimes snails. This dish became so popular that in 1840 a local Spanish newspaper first used the phrase paella valenciana to refer to the recipe rather than the pan.
The most widely used ingredient list of this era was as follows: short-grain white rice, chicken, rabbit, snails (optional), duck (optional), butter beans, runner beans, artichoke (a substitute for runner beans in the winter), tomatoes, fresh rosemary, sweet paprika, saffron, garlic (optional), salt, olive oil and water. (Poorer Valencians, however, sometimes used nothing more than snails for meat.) It’s these ingredients, and only these, that Valencians insist go into making modern Valencian paella.
Coastal dwellers naturally substituted seafood for meat and beans, thereby inventing seafood paella. Later, Spaniards mixed seafood into the original Valencian recipe and mixed paella was born.
During the 20th century, paella’s popularity spread past Spain’s borders. As other cultures set out to make paella, the dish invariably acquired regional influences. Consequently, paella recipes went from being relatively simple to including a wide variety of seafood, meat, sausage, (the most popular being Spanish, vegetables and many different seasonings. However, the most globally popular recipe is seafood paella.
Mixed paella
There are countless mixed paella recipes. However, the following method is common to most of these. Seasoning depends greatly on individual preferences and regional influences. However, salt, saffron and garlic are almost always included. I love chorizo (the spicy sort) and strips of marinated peppers add colour to the golden rice.
• Make an intense broth from seafood, chicken stock, onions, garlic, bell peppers and bay leaf.
• Heat oil in a paellera or in a wide flat-bottomed saucepan
• Sear red bell pepper strips and set aside.
• Sear crustaceans and set aside.
• Sauté chicken until golden.
• Add garlic and sauté until brown.
• Add chopped tomatoes and sauté.
• Add onions and bell peppers. Sauté until vegetables are tender.
• Add dry seasonings (eg paprika) except for salt.
• Add rice.
• Braise rice until covered with sofrito. (Sofrito is a Spanish word for a well cooked and fragrant sauce. (The word is cognate with Italian soffritto, which means “sautéed”.) In Spanish cuisine, it contains garlic, onions, and tomatoes cooked in olive oil and is used as the base for many dishes.
• Add broth.
• Add salt to taste.
• Add saffron
• Simmer until rice is almost cooked.
• Replace crustaceans.
• Continue simmering until rice and crustaceans are finished cooking.
• Garnish with seared red pepper strips.
Other tips:
• If you have a griddle pan you can cook the prawns, the squid and chicken separately on that to give them extra smoky flavour.
• Fresh mussels and clams (in their shell) can be shoved into the rice at the last moment. The steam will cook them and they open. Any which don’t should be discarded.
• Ideally you want a crust to form on the bottom of the pan. I also like a crust on the top so I pop the pan under a hot grill for a couple of minutes.
• I normally finish the paella with some fresh herbs (parsley or chervil) and anoint with the best extra virgin olive oil and decorate with it lemon wedges.
• Serve with a salad of bitter chicory leaves and best sweet tomatoes.
Wine matches.
With seafood-dominant paellas the freshest, most chilled Manzanilla will go down a treat. Try the Las Medallas from Herederos Argueso.
I also love Albarino – the tangy, lemony acidity works brilliantly cutting through the many different flavours and textures on the plates and leaving the mouth refreshed. Abadia de San Campio from Bodegas Terras Gauda is a great example.
Something about paella screams rosé to me and that is what I usually end up guzzling. Both dry and very fruity with pronounced strawberry-juicy flavours the Marques de Alquezar Rosado from Bodegas Pirineos is a joy and arguably the perfect partner for this ultimate party dish.