Rice heresy

Jo Ann,Thanks for posting the recipe.....it has all the ingredients I love.

For what it's worth you should do both. Use smoked paprika AND cook over a wood fire.

What's more the chorizos will also contain smoked paprika, that's how they are made.

F

Jo Ann,
I like your recipe and advice in most respects, but I find the use of tomato and celery salt a bit non-traditional. Here's my paella recipe, adapted from one my mother gave me:

Paella Valenciana
Ingredients
1 whole chicken, cut up with skin on
1 lb sausage such as Spanish chorizo, Andouille or linguica
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red pepper, diced
2 cups bomba rice
4-5 cups chicken stock
2 pinches saffron threads
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 lb 12-to-16 ct shrimp*
12 clams or mussels
1/2 cup peas, snap peas, snow peas, etc.

Procedure
Heat olive oil in paella pan or large skillet. In a separate pan fitted with a tight lid, heat chicken stock to a simmer. Put saffron threads in a small foil boat on top of pan with chicken stock to heat. Brown chicken parts and sausage in oil. Remove browned meat from pan, leaving browned bits in the pan, pour out all but 2 Tbsp oil and add onion, garlic, pepper and rice. Heat with frequent stirring over medium-high heat until rice turns clear, then back to opaque white and it begins to yellow. At that point, add 2 cups of chicken stock to pan and bring to boil. Fit with tight-fitting lid and either continue cooking over a flame or transfer to an oven preheated to 375°. Cook for 10 minutes. During this time, dissolve saffron in 1/4 cup of hot stock. After 10 minutes, tuck shrimp into rice and place shellfish on top to steam open. Pour another cup of stock that includes saffron and paprika and replace lid. Cook for another 10 minutes, add peas and another cup of stock and cook for 10 more minutes.

At this point, the rice should be moist and tender and the shellfish should have steamed open. Should the rice appear dry or hard, add more stock as needed and continue cooking another 10 minutes. Feeds 6 hungry adults.

Options: use rabbit instead of chicken, use roasted pepper rather than fresh, use artichokes or black olives, use lobster tail rather than shrimp, omit seafood altogether

* I prefer to cook shrimp with shells on for the flavor, but YMMV.

Mark Lipton

Mark
The celery (season) salt is my addition. (I think I noted that I made some changes.) I noticed that there was a flavor component missing from many of the Paella's that I tasted which was subtle, but unmistakable. When I added the season salt (though a small amount) I noticed that it heightened the saffron in a way that I otherwise didn't taste. Also, as you are aware, there are many versions of Paella Valencia, just like gumbo or jumabalaya. I have seen recipes with and without tomato. Some serve it with lemons cooked on top of it or served with it after cooking, some without. As you have noted, many of the early recipes included rabbit, some with seafood (other combinations), some without. If the recipe started in and is recognized by the region -- I consider it authentic. I never claimed my recipe to be so, but I started with a recipe that in fact was from the region. Thank you very much!

Jo Ann,
Yes, with a dish such a paella, the biggest mistake is in thinking that there is only one "correct" way to do things. Most dishes are adaptable, but this one more than most. The biggest rule is to use whatever is at hand and looks tasty. All else is mutable.

Mark Lipton

[Jenise]

I have seen recipes with and without tomato.

As have I. Let me tell you one way NOT to do it, however, is to make what someone made and served at a neighborhood party I was at last night: based on what I tasted it was rice, shrimp (the pre-cooked kind, so the second cooking rendered them the texture of hard little tires), canned tomatoes and enough water to ensure that when it was done, the rice had butterflied and cooked to a porridge-like consistency. The scary thing is that whoever brought this considered it one of her best dishes--it was one of three that together created the "main course".

How do people get so far in life without discerning the difference between 'possible to eat' and 'good food'?

For an authentic smoky flavor, guys, cook it outside over hardwood!

Couldn't agree more. -RP

How do people get so far in life without discerning the difference between 'possible to eat' and 'good food'?

It is not any different from any other aspect of life. Some people have good taste and some do not. Some drive a Jaguar and some drive a beat up Pinto. Some wear Versace and some wear a John Deere hat. Some drink Bordeaux and some drink Carlo Rossi.

It may also be that your friend has never had good paella and therefore thinks her version is as good as it gets. You could show her how to make it correctly some time.

How do people get so far in life without discerning the difference between 'possible to eat' and 'good food'?

I think eating well is something you learn over time (like learning about good wine), and good food is a matter of personal taste. If you grew up with Chef Boyardee spaghetti, you don't know nothin' from al dente, or what a real Spaghetti Carbonara tastes like. And, some people can't be trained out of it. You've met them, those people who, no matter what you put in front of them, how prepared, or the quality of the food, will always ask for a piece of bread to eat with it. And, usually, they are looking for a slice of Wonder bread (in my house, it's a piece of cornbread)!

You just go, Randy! You know you BAADDDDD!

[Jenise]

It may also be that your friend has never had good paella and therefore thinks her version is as good as it gets.

No, it's worse than that. This was made by someone who would eat a great paella and be totally unchanged by that experience. They could turn around and days later eat the dish I described and not discern that there was a major difference. And to the extent that they noticed a minor difference, it would not be a difference that mattered. That's how bad cooks stay bad cooks.

I see. Well in that case I'd say she is hopeless. I, on the other hand, hope to one day graduate from driving my beat up Pinto.

[Jenise]

I see. Well in that case I'd say she is hopeless. I, on the other hand, hope to one day graduate from driving my beat up Pinto.

I don't even know who the she in question is, I wasn't being personally derogatory about a person, just a type of person. The type who never really leaves the groove life made for them.

Re that Pinto--when are you taking delivery of your new Fiesta?

JoAnn,
I made your Paella. It was very good. I jazzed it up a bit with a hot pepper and some fresh lemon juice. We had some of the leftovers for lunch today - great! Thanks again.

JoAnn,
I made your Paella. It was very good. I jazzed it up a bit with a hot pepper and some fresh lemon juice. We had some of the leftovers for lunch today - great! Thanks again.

Glad you liked it Karen. Yep, jazzing it up to suit your taste is the key (IMO). Do you have a picture?

We only use arborio for rice pudding.

I buy Bomba in Barcelona. And make a kind of Biriyani in a paellera with it.

Now that's heresy, Jenise.