Cookbook:Valencia Chicken & Seafood Paella

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Valencia Chicken & Seafood Paella

Category:	Spanish recipes
Servings:	2
Time:	50 minutes
Difficulty:

Cookbook | Recipes | Cuisine of Spain

The original Paella was a poor man's fare, which is why it is made with a little of everything one may have on hand in the kitchen. "Paella" is the name for frying pan in Valencian, although as popularity for this dish spread throughout Spain, the pan has come to be known as the paellera.

Paella is a typical dish from the Valencia Region. This recipe is for the traditional Paella Valenciana, which is where the dish was first created. But many different varieties of paella are enjoyed. For example, in some regions of Valencia paella is cooked using more seafood such as shrimp, mussels and clams.

This recipe is an excellent and restaurant-grade version of the traditional paella, which I discovered on the net and it's the only version I cook. I don't have the link to the page where I found the recipe, but I do know that the person who wrote it was taught it by a Spanish chef from the heart of Valencia, the home of this wonderful dish.

[edit] Important

The key to a good Paella relies on two pillars.

1. 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, which is widely available in the U.K and from the internet. Arborio is an acceptable substitute; long-grain rices, however, are not.

2. A true Paella pan.

A true paella pan is wide, round, and shallow and has splayed sides. It has two looped handles and may dip slightly in the middle so the oil can pool there for any preliminary sautéing. The shape of the pan, which is called either a paella or paellera (pah-ay-yair-ah), helps to 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 a small finger (about 1/2 inch). The key is to maximize the amount of rice touching the bottom of the pan because, as you'll see, that's where the flavor lives. For that reason, paella pans grow in diameter rather than in height. A 14-inch paella pan with un ditet of rice serves two to four people; an 18-inch pan serves six to eight.

A good paella pan is made of a very thin, conductive metal, usually plain or enameled steel. I've recently seen quite a few objects masquerading as paella pans. For example, those beautiful heavy and expensive copper or stainless-steel pans that some stores market as paella pans are actually better suited to braising than to making paella. And any pan that's sold with a lid is a dead-giveaway impostor: except for the final resting period, paella is cooked uncovered. Paella pans are best ordered online or from a good catering store. I ordered mine online from Valencia and it was pretty cheap, about £10. Please see the links below for places where you can buy them along with rice stockists.

If however you don't have a paella pan, the alternative is to use a skillet. A 13-inch or larger stainless-steel or aluminum skillet will work; otherwise, use two medium skillets (which is a little trickier logistically), dividing the ingredients between them. Avoid cast-iron skillets (they retain too much heat) and nonstick pans (they produce bland paellas).

[edit] Ingredients

A good paella pan that serves about 2 to 3 people (I use a traditional polished steel one)
Olive Oil
250g of Clams
10 to 12 Mussels
250g of small cooked Prawns
250g of Calamari or Squid cut into rings
4 to 6 large Prawns
Good pinch of Saffron
1 head of Garlic, crushed
400g of Chicken, (breasts or thighs, boned & skinned) sliced into small chunks
Half a Red Pepper, diced
Half a Green Pepper, diced
1 small Onion, diced
1 Chicken stock cube - I use Knorr, they are by far the best I've found, although feel free to use a different variety
1 cup of medium grain Paella Rice. I use Riso Galo Bomba paella rice, which is available in all good food stores, such as Waitrose or Sainsburys and even good local fishmongers. http://www.risogallo.it/risogallo/product_detail.jsp?id_family=7&domain=2&lang=2&id_product=223
Handful of frozen Peas
4 Pickled Red Peppers, rinsed
1 unwaxed Lemon, sliced into 4 wedges.

[edit] Method

This recipe is done in 3 stages: The most important part of this recipe is stage 1, the stock. It's important to get the amount of water for the stock right as this will impair the flavour if too much is used. The general method is 1 cup of water for every half a cup of rice "plus a bit". As we are serving 2 people and hence using 1 cup of rice, we use 2 cups of water "plus a bit", so about 2 & a half/3 cups of water, no more!

[edit] Stage 1 - Stock

The base of this stock is the clams and prawns, but you can use a (fresh) fish stock if you like. However this stock is so good you literally can drink it once it's ready, it's that good. Try it!

Peel the small prawns removing the shells and heads and place in a bowl, reserve the prawn meat until stage 3. Gently tap the mussels and discard any that don't close. Clean the mussels and remove the beards and scrape off any barnicles, put half of the mussels aside until stage 3.

Pour the measured water into a heavy pot and throw in the mussels and clams and bring to the boil. Gently boil until the shells have opened. Discard any mussels and clams that haven't opened. Remove the clams and mussels and any meat in the pot and put to one side. Next throw in the shells from the peeled prawns, add the majority of the saffron (but not all) and the chicken stock cube and bring back to the boil. (Note- this dish gets it salt from the stock cube so don't add anymore, there is more than enough in the stock cube.) In the meantime, separate all the meat from the boiled mussels and clams and discard the shells, put aside the meat until stage 3. Try and do this over a bowl and throw back into the pot any liquid that is left over.

Once the stock is boiling, gently simmer for about 5 minutes, until the stock has achieved a deep yellow colour from the saffron, then sieve out all the stock into a jug or pot, whatever. Discard the sieved shells and keep the stock until stage 3.

[edit] Stage 2 - Base

In a small pot, add enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pot, about 4-6 tablespoons, heat through then add the chicken. Cook gently for a few minutes until sizzling then add the crushed garlic, diced onions and red and green peppers. Cook through for about 6-7 minutes until all the onion and peppers are soft and there is a reasonable amount of juice in the bottom of the pot. Reserve to one side.

[edit] Stage 3 - Paella

Grab the paella pan and place over the stove or a gas burner. Add the contents of the base to the pan, then the rice, and quickly stir around until evened out. Then pour in the stock (don't worry if theres a bit more than usual, keep this as you may need to add it as the rice soaks up a lot of the liquid.) and add the rest of the saffron. Throw in the squid, the cooked clams and mussels, the small prawns & the frozen peas. Again stir around until even and then layer the large prawns, the mussels and the pickled red peppers and spread out so that it looks something like the above.

Lower the heat right down to a simmer, as low as it can go, and gently let it cook for 25-30 minutes. Try not to mess around with it too much, let it cook on its own but keep a watchful eye over it. Towards the end of the cooking time, I usually take the large prawns out and give it a good mix, making sure the whole paella is cooked through properly, theres nothing worse than raw rice.

Once this has cooked, turn off the heat, place the lemon wedges on top and put to one side for about 5 minutes & cover with a newspaper (try not to get the ink on the paella). Once ready, serve in the pan for a delightful meal for two with a nice bottle of red wine accompanying it, something from Rioja, like Faustino No.V (2001).

[edit] Variations

You can use this recipe to create a larger amount of servings if required. You will need a bigger pan though, but just use this recipe as the base for anything larger, just double everything etc but adjust the cooking time for the paella only (stage 3) by about 5 minutes for each increatment in size.

Rice is the most important ingredient in paella. The other ingredients are there to give the rice flavor; add enough to complement it but not so much that they overpower the rice. That said, paella lends itself well to experimentation. Use whatever fresh ingredients are available to you.

The soul of this dish is the saffron. Sold in threads, it is not cheap, but a little goes a long way. You can use “Colorante Alimentario” (food colouring) as a substitute but it is not real saffron and is far inferior to the real thing.