Paella pan - recipes?

For our b-days, my sister gave Liz and me a paella pan with several accoutrements. It's a nice tinned copper one; my one was was cheap steel and rusted in humid weather and was tossed years ago. I am excited to make paella this weekend for the kids (Liz is out of town) and have a nice young Rioja with it. I was planning to use the recipe that came with the pan unless someone else has one they really like and is tried and tested.

I don't have a specific recipe to recommend -- although I have a whole book on Paella, "Paella!" by Penelope Casas, probably available from Amazon. It's little and inexpensive and you might want it if you plan to use your pan a lot.

What I want to recommend is care with the ingredients, specifically the rice. A lot of people just throw in some Carolina long grain rice or whatever. The original rice for paella is quite close to the expensive rice used in risotto. You really want a short grain rice that will absorb lots of broth. The classic choice is "Bomba" rice from Spain, but that can be hard to find, whereas Arborio rice (the risotto stuff) has become fairly common in supermarkets. You will get a paella with an interesting meaty "chew" and probably it will be easier to form the desirable crust on the bottom.

I've only had paella once, at a party at Jo Ann Henderson's. Here is a link to the event with photos and if you scroll down a bit, I describe her cooking it. http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=24433&p=208841

Thanks Frant and Howie. I know that some rice came with the pan, and I hope it's Bomba, Frank. Howie - I going to your link right now, thanks.

+ 1 on the book Paella.

+1 on the rice being important. In a pinch, a good sushi rice works well, but I still prefer risoto type rice.

I use a no oven method which cooks the rice 18-19 minutes from when the liquid hits the pan. Then, rest for 5 min. It is easy to over-cook the rice. I use 2.75 cups liquid per cup of rice. The pan should be quite hot when the liquid hits. Stir some for the first 10-12 min.

The cooking method is the part the takes time to perfect. There are lots of great ideas for ingredients.

Good luck!

Thanks, Andrew.

My 2¢:
• The rice is of critical importance. In principle, any japonicus (short grained) rice will do, but Calasparra is the preferred region and Bomba the choice variety. Like wine, Calasparra Bomba has its own DO.

• You can use almost any ingredients for the protein and vegetable. The "classic" version uses rabbit and artichoke, but most people in the US think of Paella Valenciana which uses seafood.

• The essential is to make a sofrito (sauteed onion, garlic, pepper in olive oil) to which is added the rice. The rice is cooked in the sofrito until it goes through a paritcular color change: opaque white to clear to clear with a white center. Continue cooking the rice until it starts to brown (this is distinct from risotto where the rice isn't browned).

• On a separate burner, heat good quality chicken stock to a simmer. You'll need a volume that is 2.5x that of the rice. You can heat the saffron threads atop the chicken stock.

• Once the rice begins to brown in the sofrito, you add an equivalent volume of stock* to the pan and add in whatever browned meats you're using and cover. You can cook the paella either on the stovetop or in the oven at 350°. Again, unlike risotto, you don't stir.

• After 10 minutes, you add in half of the remaining stock which includes the saffron threads in 1/4 cup of stock. If you're cooking shellfish, this is when you'd place them atop the paella to steam open.

• After another 10 minutes you add in the remaining stock and add whatever vegetables you're using. If you use artichokes you'd obviously need to add them much earlier in the process or precook them.

• After another 10 minutes of cooking, you're done. The rice should have absorbed almost all of the stock and become quite tender (moreso than in risotto).

• If you've cooked it on a stovetop or, more traditionally, over an open flame, the crust that has formed on the bottom is considered the choice part of the paella.

* The most traditional preparation is over an open flame in an open paella, in which the stock is added all at once. I tend not to operate that way, but I make no pretence of being a traditionalist, either.

Mark Lipton

Mark,

Not be argumentative, but several of the points in your post seem odd to me:

At one point you say to cover. As I understand, paella is never covered.

You mention 2x the volume of rice for liquid. I have made many and find 2.75 ideal, whether on an open wood flame, or on the stove top.

You say to add the liquid in two batches. I suggest adding it all at once.

You say not to stir. I find it best to stir occasionally up to about 10 minutes in, while the dish is still wet. This promotes uniform cooking of all the ingredients. Then stop stirring to allow the crust to form.

I am not going to claim that my way is the only good way, but I can say that I have made many and several experts have complimented me on those that I have made in public.

Thanks Mark and Andrew. You're getting me excited to try to make paella on my grill.

Would you say a little more about how to make sofrito, and can I make it without onion?

Just a follow up - the paella came out very nicely. I see now why some restaurants want you to order it in advance! Lots of time putting it together but well worth the effort. Among several other ingredients, I used Bomba rice, smoked paprika, Spanish sausage, chicken, scallops, shrimp and mussels. We had it with a nice Cava Rose made from Pinot Noir. I hope it keeps for a day or two as there was way too much for the four of us to finish.

Mark,

Not be argumentative, but several of the points in your post seem odd to me:

At one point you say to cover. As I understand, paella is never covered.

See my footnote, Andrew. I diverge from the tradition by covering the pan and consequently using less liquid. I also usually place in the oven rather than cooking it over an open flame (after cooking the sofrito and rice and bringing to a boil on the stovetop).

You mention 2x the volume of rice for liquid. I have made many and find 2.75 ideal, whether on an open wood flame, or on the stove top.

Looking back at my notes, I use 2.5 x, not 2 x as I stated. I have amended the erroneous statement. The precise amount will depend on the amount of evaporative loss and so must be judged on the fly. I typically simmer an excess of stock so have enough on hand to adjust the moisture of the dish as needed.

You say to add the liquid in two batches. I suggest adding it all at once.

You are using the traditional approach. I get better results using the approach described. It's worth noting that most of my guests don't have a fondness for the crust, so my method seeks to minimize its formation.

You say not to stir. I find it best to stir occasionally up to about 10 minutes in, while the dish is still wet. This promotes uniform cooking of all the ingredients. Then stop stirring to allow the crust to form.

This is likely tied to your having added the liquid in one portion, giving rise to a more liquid dish in the early stages. The proscription against stirring is tied to the formation of the crust, as you note.

I am not going to claim that my way is the only good way, but I can say that I have made many and several experts have complimented me on those that I have made in public.

I love traditionally prepared paella, which is very much in keeping with your approach. I also love the version I make.

Mark Lipton

Thanks Mark and Andrew. You're getting me excited to try to make paella on my grill.

Would you say a little more about how to make sofrito, and can I make it without onion?

To make a sofrito, you finely chop the onion, garlic and pepper and sauté in EVOO to the point of full softness. I can't really imagine how one would make a sofrito that omits the onion, Jeff, as that's a key ingredient, but you could use some fennel bulb instead for a different flavor, I suppose. Are shallots a no-no, too?

Mark Lipton

Just a follow up - the paella came out very nicely. I see now why some restaurants want you to order it in advance! Lots of time putting it together but well worth the effort. Among several other ingredients, I used Bomba rice, smoked paprika, Spanish sausage, chicken, scallops, shrimp and mussels. We had it with a nice Cava Rose made from Pinot Noir. I hope it keeps for a day or two as there was way too much for the four of us to finish.

Congrats, Jon! I love reheated paella, which in my opinion doesn't lose much.

Mark Lipton

Thanks Mark and Andrew, thought provoking stuff!!

I knew the 2:1 ratio sounded wrong since that is what I use for Basmati rice.

For risotto you can go up to nearly 5:1 with similar rice but you are aiming at a very different texture in the end.

Right after I got the Paella book I made the classic recipe with rabbit. But handling the carcass was so much like petting a cat it really kind of put me off doing that again.

PS for "lurkers" in this thread, despite what I said (and everyone else) -- paella with "regular" rice is way better than no paella at all. If you don't want to bother with the expensive rice just go ahead and cook it without. The flavors will be the same, just the texture is different

To make a sofrito, you finely chop the onion, garlic and pepper and sauté in EVOO to the point of full softness. I can't really imagine how one would make a sofrito that omits the onion, Jeff, as that's a key ingredient, but you could use some fennel bulb instead for a different flavor, I suppose. Are shallots a no-no, too?

Well, if the cooking is to full softness then I may use onions. That should cook out any bitterness. (For example, my partner is fine with onion soup.)

I suppose a formal recipe will suggest how much sofrito for how much rice/meat/veg?

PS for "lurkers" in this thread, despite what I said (and everyone else) -- paella with "regular" rice is way better than no paella at all. If you don't want to bother with the expensive rice just go ahead and cook it without. The flavors will be the same, just the texture is different

Frank,
Have you (or anyone else, for that matter) ever used Calrose rice in place of the usual suspects? That's pretty cheap and widely available. I've used Carnaroli before when I couldn't get my hands on any Bomba and the results were pretty good.

Mark Lipton

PS for "lurkers" in this thread, despite what I said (and everyone else) -- paella with "regular" rice is way better than no paella at all. If you don't want to bother with the expensive rice just go ahead and cook it without. The flavors will be the same, just the texture is different

Thanks for pointing this out Frank. I think too many times folks won't be adventurous with cooking because someone was stuffy on which rice, or any other ingredient to use. Cooking should be fun, not scary. Cooking is a practice, and we do it until we find out what works best.....for US!

[Jenise]

Thanks for pointing this out Frank. I think too many times folks won't be adventurous with cooking because someone was stuffy on which rice, or any other ingredient to use. Cooking should be fun, not scary. Cooking is a practice, and we do it until we find out what works best.....for US!

Stuffy? Oh dear. I don't think it's stuffy at all to specify authentic ingredients. I once had a Dutch friend who was proud of himself for making risotto, but he did not know about arborio and its ilk. He just used the most commonly available rice in his part of Europe, parbo, wherein the rice is somehow preprocessed--what you buy is dry but I believe 'parbo' means partially pre-boiled--to cut cooking time down to about 10 minutes). And tasty as what he ended up with was, it failed completely in attaining the texture, mouthfeel and look of the real deal. He was plenty adventurous, he didn't know because the cookbook that was his bible for everything--a Larousse Gastronomic book of just recipes, merely specified "rice", and he'd otherwise not learned about authentic Italian ingredients. I know another who thought they were making risotto when they put all the ingredients in the pan, stuck a lid on it, and ate whatever was in there 20 or so minutes later. They were happy with the result, so it was for them just fine. But risotto? No.

Recipes aren't laws, they're just a record of what the author used to achieve a certain result. Anyone who uses them is free to make whatever substitutions they like and enjoy what they make, but that's no reason for the recipes themselves to be less true to their origins.

The ghastliest paella I ever ate was made by a friend, Candy, who I'm sure had never eaten a real paella and who found a recipe reccomending for one that involved a crock pot, long grain rice, dried shrimp and turmeric in place of saffron as if all saffron did was provide color, not distinctive flavor. The shrimp gave it a strong, nasty flavor, and the seriously overcooked texture was gruel-ish. Candy walked away from that thinking she hated paella, where the real problem was that poor execution and poor ingredient choices resulted in something unrecognizable as the dish it was supposed to be. Same reason(s) a lot of people in this world think they don't like certain foods they'd actually love if they just had them competently made.

Conversely, one of the best paellas I've ever had was also one of the most unusual, made by a friend who grew up in Spain. She substituted Italian pepperoni for chorizo, used an inexpensive short-grained rice and omitted saffron because of her secretarial budget, and the only other item in her paella was shrimp. But she used a paella pan and cooked it expertly. The flavor and texture were heavenly and taught me more about what to hope for in my own paellas than any paella I'd had before or made myself up to that point.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that highly experienced cooks bring good sense to when and how to make substutitions. And people who aren't do best to stick with authentic ingredients so that at least they understand what a dish should be. That said, I've found that paella works well with most short-grained rices, and I personally find Calrose much better than arborio if I'm out of Bomba--but I rinse it well because it seems to have more talc than Bomba. But no doubt, straight out of the jar Bomba is best.

Jenise, you are right on all points and exactly how I feel about my cooking. I was simply stating that Frank made a good point to lurkers or any beginning home cook who may feel that if they do not have Bomba, or Calrose rice, not to bother trying making the paella. It is the combination of flavors that make paella so darn good and if a medium grain rice is all one has at the moment, the encouragement to try it anyway is OK, and perhaps inspiration for the person to seek out the better rice for next time. I have been chided more than once here for attempting to make an ethnic or authentic dish only to be told I used the wrong ingredient. That is what I meant about being stuffy about the whole thing.
I simply felt that Frank made an excellent comment.

Perhaps there is some variation in the different types of arborio available. What I find here is very similar to bomba I have had. My second choice is premium sushi rice.

How does washing the rice work out? It seems to me that it would make it hard to toast the rice.

[Jenise]

Perhaps there is some variation in the different types of arborio available. What I find here is very similar to bomba I have had. My second choice is premium sushi rice.

How does washing the rice work out? It seems to me that it would make it hard to toast the rice.

Success with arborio seems to be quite variable. Did you notice that in presenting the recipe Bob Henricks quoted Victor de la Serna cautioned strongly against Arborio? It's been a looooong time since I tried and didn't like result--it was even before I ever discovered bomba rice or ate a paella in Spain. Up until then, my choices were conventional, Calrose or similar shortgrain sushi type rice, or Arborio, and I found the Calrose worked best at getting what I understood paella should be, and I wouldn't hesitate to make the same substitution now.

Re washing, some sushi style rices I've used needed it more than others. I didn't find it hard to toast the rice, just that it took longer, but offhand even if that were a slight problem it's a lesser one to my thinking than having too much starch in the rice.

Boy this talk is sure getting me all hot to make a paella.

I just used Kokuho Rose to make my Paella last night. It got a slightly crusty bottom and the grains are not sticky or creamy, but they have a nice consistancy, gently holding the dish together. A shocker to me was reading on my latest Italian Arborio rice box, that says it is from Northern Italy and is a long grain Arborio. I did not know there was such a thing.