# Paella Recipe? Can anyone help



## masterrecipe (Mar 8, 2009)

After three years of living in Spain, I never got the chance to get the recipe for Paella with seafood. I know there are several types, but does anyone know a recipe for Paella?


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## gonefishin (Nov 6, 2004)

Hi Masterrecipe,

I like to make Paella a couple times throughout the year once the weather breaks. I usually make it in my Weber kettle. I haven't really found one recipe that I was happy with. For now...I just follow a certain flow :look:

I've had troubles finding really good andouille sausage in my area and have had similar troubles trying to find Spanish chorizo. One of these days I've also gotta give Bomba rice a try in place of Valencia.

I have to say that I'm certainly suspect about sharing a recipe with you after looking at your website Master-Recipe. The first three random recipes that I looked up from your website I had found word for word in other places on the internet. I don't know who had the original recipe but your website and intentions are certainly suspect, to me at least.

dan


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## just jim (Oct 18, 2007)

Did you notice that in checking the "choose a recipe from the images" section, when you click the "Spanish Recipes" there are no Spanish recipes?
Lots of Chinese, but no Spanish.
And in the banner at the top, no option for Spanish recipes.
:bounce:


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## gonefishin (Nov 6, 2004)

I seen that. I also checked a couple more recipes, each one that I checked was found word for word in other places online.

dan


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## kujirasan (Apr 8, 2008)

Ole! Paella, although it is now part of Spanish cuisine, its origin is in the Arab invasion of the Iberian peninsula!
Before Spain opened up to mass tourism it was a food mainly consumed by the peasantry, main ingredients were geared to produce calories for field work! The rice was basically saturated with olive oil and pinch of Saffron that grew in the wild, in the plains of La Mancha! The other main ingredient that was common and part of the dish, but now hardly even mentioned was the humble _*Snail*_! 
Recipe for Paella does not exist, and if there is one, it is just made up and is an improvisation, this dish is regional and seasonal, and basically is made up of what is available that day in the market! In the villages of Andalusia it is made of goat meat pork, chicken and on the coastal strip is made up of sea food and shell fish! 
Here is a My recipe, which I make it for my Japanese wife and her family, and the neighbors, but I never liked it:

First you must have the Paella Pan, which is large pan with small semi circular recesses in it in form of depression, so the rice wont stick to the pan! 
*1*.Prepare a nice chicken stock, around 20 Chicken wings, in a pot with one large brown onion quartered, salt and pepper and let it cook till the wings are tender to eat, then put aside.
*2*. You really need a rice called Arboreal rice, you can get it from Spanish Portuguese shops, otherwise get it from Italian delis , the Rice used for Risotto is similar! 
*3*. Soak few stems of saffron and leave it for few hours to get the most out of it! 
*4*.Ingredients(please note these are purely personal choice and not to be taken as a must, you can choose your own.) 
One chicken breast diced, tow pieces of pork chops diced, 20 baby octopus, about half kilo _*uncooked prawns or unshelled shrimps*_ (), a fillet of cod fish, 30 Mussels,
*5*.Fry the Chicken, and pork in olive oil, remove and fry the octopus and diced cod in butter for 5 minutes and remove.
*6*.Line button of a pot with Thyme(fresh or dried) and toss in the mussels, with just a class of water added, and put on high heat, when mussels open up, remove from heat.
*7*. oil the Paella pan with olive oil and rub well, put on the heat then add pork chicken, fish and octopus;
now throw in rice , how much rice depends on the size of the pan, usually the smallest pan is around twice larger than the standard home use fry-pan, do not put too much rice it will expand and stick to the pan, just put around three fist full!
now mix the rice with what was in the pan and add saffron, wait a minute and mix the contents, slowly add ladle by ladle the chicken stock, then remove one shell from the mussel and inserted into the rice by its edge, one by one, wait few minutes, add stock, now decorate the whole think with Prawn(shrimps), and place them in a circular fashion. Yo have to add stock as you go, you will notice it is reducing, 
As a decor , slice a capsicum (red colour) and add to it 
in strips! please use a low heat and it will take long to cook, once the rice is tender serve, you really need a special burner that is sold in Spanish shops, that heats the entire pan evenly and it is very cheap! I have photo, but I could not upload it! 
Sorry for the length of the recipe, but it is just being of service(_I hope_) to you all, very lovely people!

Post scrip-tum:

Addition of Onion and garlic in the is personal choice, I do use those, if there are few ingredients however; onion in rice tend to get a bit close to Chinese Fired Rice! If you are going to use snails and can get hold of them alive, and are adventurous, get hold of some Grape Vine leaves and let them feed on those for a day, then they really give a nice flavour and taste!


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## koukouvagia (Apr 3, 2008)

I'm not an authority on paella, and neither am I Spanish. But I think of paella as a technique rather than a recipe. You sautee onions, garlic, and whatever other vegetables, aromatics, and meats you like, then add the rice and sautee like risotto, then add the stock and let it cook uncovered, preferrably in a paella pan... more or less.

My basic paella flavors are sauteed onion, garlic, fresh tomato, and snails. I used snails in it even before I found out that they were a prominant paella ingredient. I don't know why, the rice just seemed to beg for the snails I guess.


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

In Spain, speaking very roughly there are three types of paellas: _Valenciana, Mariscos_ and _Mixta_. _Valenciana_ is the one with snails plus a few other things. Not like there's only one way to skin the _Valenciana_ cat, but the ingredient lists tend be pretty stable.

Mixta, on the other hand, is kind of freeform. Most Americans think of a mixta with an unholy combintation of sausage, chicken, and shellfish as "Paella Valenciana." Fortunately, you seem more sophisticated.

Mariscos ("seafood") is what you're asking about. You get a little more play than you would with a Valenciana, but not as much as you might take with a mixta.

Paella is one set of a class of dishes called arroces. Predictably, paella is all about the rice. I hate to disagree with kujira-san, but arborio (I think that's what he meant by "arborial") is one of the worst possible choices. You're looking for a rice which is neither creamy nor sticky, but will cook tender, but stay distinct and dry. The best Spanish types are Calasparra (from Murcia) and bomba (around Valencia). They're both short-grained almost round rices, but they're not like most other short rices which tend to be creamy and/or sticky. If you can't get hold of Calasparra or bomba or feel they're too expensive (they are!) your best second choice is going to be an Indian or Persian style basmati. You don't want a rice that makes good risotto or pudding. Paella is on the absolute other end of the scale -- more like a biryani or pillau.

Cookbooks and newspaper recipes will often offer arborio as a substitute for the Spanish rices. I suspect this is a reflexive "imported is better," or "Europe first" thing -- because the rices have nothing in common other than shortish bodies. 
I usually mix aged Indian with "fresh" American or Mexican basmati -- the same blend I use for _arroz con pollo_ and other New World arroces. To my mind, the length of the raw grain is less important than its surface starch and other texutre qualities. Bear in mind, that Spanish rices are unique in that they elongate as they cook -- rather than swelling though the center -- so even though they start rather short grain, they cook rather long grain. This is all very nuanced. You can make a good paella with Arborio or CalRose, just not as good.

You can't really make a good paella without a paella pan -- called a paellera. The rice must be spread in a very thin layer. If you're trying to recreate the Spanish experience in a frying pan, you're doomed to failure. Fortunately, excellent carbon steel paelleri\as are available in the United States for very little money. Not all good paella pans have little dimples, in fact most carbon steel pans don't. With further apologies to kujira-san the purpose of the dimples is to promote, even heat diffusion, and rigidity, and prevent warping. After all, having the rice stick and make _socarrat_ is one of the objects of the exercise!

As always, what goes into your Paella Mariscos depends on what you can get fresh.

OK. Enough fooling around, let's get cooking.

*MARISCOS CON PESCADO en PAELLA*

(Four to Sixish)

_*Ingredients (Paella)*_:
6 cups fumet, recipe follows
Pinch saffron
1/2 cup onion, chopped fine
6 - 8 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 cup grated tomatoes
6oz cod or halibut fillet, filleted monkfish tail, or other firm white fish, cubed
6 squid bodies, cleaned and cut into rings
2 cups rice
12 mussels
12 large shrimp
6 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup dry white wine
Bay leaf
tbs kosher or sea salt
2 cups rice

_*Ingredients (Fumet)*_:
1 onion
1 stalk of celery
1 medium carrot
1 tomato
Bay leaf
extra virgin olive oil
1 cup dry white wine
5 cups water
1 bottles clam juice
6 black pepper corns
salt

_*Technique (Fumet)*_:
Chop the vegetables, coarsely. Heat some olive oil in the bottom of a kettle, add all the vegetables but the tomatoes, and saute until the onion is transulcent. Add the tomato and cook briefly.

Deglaze with the white wine. Add the water. Strain the clam juice into the broth and add the peppercorns and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, lower heat to a simmer and reduce to 6 cups (about 30 minutes). Taste and adjust for salt. Strain, pressing the vegetables with the back of a spoon to get their essence into the broth. Reserve the fumet, discard the vegetables and bay leaf.

_*Technique (Paella)*_:
Measure 3-3/4 cups of fumet into a pot, place on the stove top, and bring to a simmer. Hold the other 2-1/4 cups in a microwaveable bowl or cup. Add the saffron to the simmering fumet and allow it to bloom during the rest of the preparation process.

Meanwhile, chop the onion. Reserve. Chop the garlic (should be about 1/4 cup). Reserve. Grate 3 or 4 Roma tomatoes on the coarsest side of a box grater, skin, seeds and all (discard whatever won't go through the grater easily). Should be enough tomatoes for a cup of mush.

Clean the squid, cut the bodies into rings and the tentacles into bite size pieces. Reserve. Cut the fish into bit size cubes, about 3/4" x 3/4" x3/4". Reserve. Clean the mussels. Reserve. You may leave the shrimp head and shell on, or peel and clean -- as you prefer. (Optional: If you're using lobster tails, split them.)

Heat the _paellera_ very briefly over a medium-high fire. Watch closely because _paelleras_ are thin and prone to warpage. As soon as the pan is hot, add a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil. Then add the onions. Stir until they become translucent, add the garlic. When the garlic becomes aromatic (before it browns!), about 1 minute, add the tomatoes.

Cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture (called a _soforito_), is mostly dry and reduced to about 1/2 cup total. Empty the pan. Reserve the sofrito, and wipe the pan clean.

Return the pan to the fire, heat it, and add enough oil to saute. Sear the squid and the fish, about 1 minute. Add the reserved sofrito and heat it unitl it begins to boil, and stick to the bottom of the paellera, about 2 minutes. Add the white wine and deglaze. Cook long enough to take the raw off the wine, about 1 minute. Stir to make sure all of the fond is off the bottom of the pan, and combined with the sofrito.

Add all of the simmering fumet (with the saffron), the salt and the bay leaf, and bring to a boil.

When the fumet is boiling, add the rice. Spread it evenly around the pan.

The rice should be completely submerged. If it isn't, enough of the remaining fumet to cover it (smart, huh?). Return to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.

Throughout the cooking period, you'll have to move the pan around to make sure all parts of the bottom receive an even amount of heat. If the pan is large enough to cook using two burners -- do so. But you'll still have to move and rotate it.

Simmer gently without stirring for about 7 minutes. Arrange the shrimp and mussels on top of the rice. After another 10 minutes, the rice should be mostly dry on top, the mussels open and shrimp cooked to a nice pink. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and allow it to cook 3 minutes more. If you want to try for _socarrat_, now's the time (see Note 3).

Turn off the heat, and allow the paella to rest for ten minutes before serving.

Note 1: You can add whatever you like to fill out the sea food ingredients. I used a very abbreviated, easy to find sort of ingredient list. Be loose, be adventurous, be Sapnish! Spiny lobster tails, whole, small spiny lobsters, clams, langostino, crawfish, eel, whatever. The trick is to figure out how long it's going to take to cook so as to time it's addition appropriately -- not a biggie. Although not a _mariscos_ standard, I love artichoke in nearly all _paellas_

Note 2: More on rice. It really helps to know how long it takes for your particular rice to cook and what the ideal ratio of water to rice is; while remembering you're going for individual rather than clumpy grains. You also have to allow for evaporation because you're cooking. So, if you're using something besides bomba or calasparra, allow an additional 10% to 15% water, because you're cooking open. For instance, I'd use 3-1/2 cups of liquid to cook basmati type rice, but for paella I'd add another 1/3 cup -- _un poquito_ less than 4 cups.

Note 3: You're probably sophisticated enough to want _socarrat_ (crispy rice). Turn off the phone, for the last two minutes of cooking. Crank the heat and keep your head near the pan. Listen for the crackle of the rice, and smell the aroma of toasting. As soon as you do, turn the heat off.

Buena suerte,
BDL

PS. _The usual boilerplate. This is my original recipe -- in the sense that any recipe can be said to be original. If you want to share it, you have my permission to do so as long as you credit me, Boar D. Laze for its creation. I would consider it an additional kindness if you would also mention my eventually forthcoming book, *COOK FOOD GOOD: American Cooking and Technique for Beginners and Intermediates*, to anyone who will sit still long enough._


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## kujirasan (Apr 8, 2008)

I posted that recipe after the person that requested it was accused of some ridiculous indiscretion, as though the accusers are absolute saints, I was not and I am not in business of street fighting or disparaging people.
Spanish and Portuguese cuisine have no recipe and are pure improvisation, the recipe for any food is in proportional to number of house wife in Spain as each cooks to their individual taste! 
As for the rice, The choice of Arborial rice is for the reason to absorb the juices and the stock! The use of Iranian type(which you call Persian rice) and Kashmir rice the Basmati, verges on some sort of derangement, nice to do INTERNET search and some cut and Past but Internet can be a stream of raw sewer , the Iranian rice is know as Black Tail, which has tiny black part at one end,is the driest and is the Par excellent for the crispy type of cooking, 
or what is know as PELOV, which is standard rice preparation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iran always been Iran, foreigners referred to it by the Greek name PerSEEYA , or Persia, in 1922 it officially requested recognition of that name from then League of Nation! 
The rice in Spain was introduced from Egypt, and it was the Egyptian farmers that were brought in to grow it. The other varieties are just fancied names, Bomba means pump , or irrigated! 
The association of Paella with Province Valencia is a fabrication of the tourism industry, any body and his dog knows that Spanish heritage does come from one Area, and that is Andalusia, in Particular the Guadalquivir Valley, Sevilla, Cordoba, Granada , Toledo! 
The greatest merit of Spanish cooking is that it is home cooking, and has no nexus to the elaborate and exceptionally turgid and preposterous set of regulated recipes that are the domain of the so called Haut/High Cuisine !
Therefore printing text book recipe may be in demand in America, but around Andalusia, it will only evoke contempt and indignation.


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

kujirasan,

Sorry if you were so disturbed by my post. No offense was meant. We disagree on what types of rice are best for paella, and perhaps a few other things. Certainly not enough reason to get upset.

Thank you,
BDL


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## gonefishin (Nov 6, 2004)

Hi Kujirasan  Welcome to ChefTalk!


It's great that your trying to encourage other posters. I've been around the discussion forums for some time and feel that it's just horrible when a new poster gets run off for some silly reason. 

If that's how you read my earliest post in this thread then I apologies to the original poster, you and others that may read this thread. Because I've got an interest in all things paella I decided to give this post a read. When I got done I noticed that the original poster had a link to their website, so I decided to take a look.

Once I got to the website I had noticed that the poster had a bunch of recipes. How cool I thought to myself. I noticed that not one recipe that I looked at gave any mention to the original author. Did the poster write all of these recipes? Were these just general "been around for ever" recipes? Both of these answers could have been true. 

I decided to copy the written portion of one of the recipes and plug it word for word into the yahoo search engine. The recipe came back with many hits that were word for word the same, but from a different website. I did this again and again with a good number of recipes that were posted on the website and (so far) there was not one original recipe to this poster. In fact, it appears that every recipe that I read had been copied word for word from another website.

Some of the recipes were found word for word at several different sites. I could see how a recipe like this may be difficult to find the original author. But you could still give credit to the website where you got it from. There were also several recipes where the other websites DID give credit to an individual. Every website that I looked at (with the same recipe, word for word) would give credit to the individual, except Masterrecipe. This was the only time that I found any editing. You guessed it...the name of the person responsible for the recipe was omitted at master-recipe.

Because of this I was certainly suspicious. I let the poster know exactly what had raised my suspicion and was hoping to hear if it was valid or not. I would have had no problem apologizing if my suspicions were off base. But I also did want to let others know that this person did have a website that was filled with recipes that were taken from other websites and posted as his/her own. If someone wanted to post a recipe in this thread that's certainly not my business. But I did want to call attention to the fact that a recipe that is shared in this thread may not be taken in good faith. That's all I wrote the post for. Sorry if you took it differently. 


Me, a Saint? Nope, I am a sinner and an imperfect person 

take care,
dan


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## gonefishin (Nov 6, 2004)

on to *Paella!* I got my paellera a few days ago from Amazon:bounce: I seasoned it as soon as the box was open...I just couldn't wait. The pan went from a nice metal finish to a deep bronze. Oh how I wanted to get cookin' in my new pan. But my Bomba rice wasn't in yet...so I had to wait.

Today I finally made my first paella dish in my paellera. Because of the lovely spring temperatures in the Chicagoland area (low 40's and rain) I couldn't cook outside on my Weber. But don't worry, temperatures are supposed to be in the 80's in a few days 

I followed the general recipe/methods at Paellapans.com for a seafood paella. Because the pan was so large I used 3 cups rice for the 18" pan. Even though everything turned out really nice I think the rice was a little overloaded. This is my first attempt to cook in my new pan,, and it certainly won't be my last.

I've still got another 3 cups of Bomba rice, so I'll soon be looking for more or a replacement soon. Everything was pretty good. Things cooked up quicker than they used to...the rice had more tooth (?)... caramelization, socarrat, was better and more consistent. Although I could have taken it a little further. I didn't want to start burning the bottom so I pulled it off the heat.

All in all...

I can't wait for next time!

Thanks to everyone for their advice here and inthis thread.

dan


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## theautomaton (Apr 24, 2009)

GoneFishin had every right to post what he did about the OP's website, in my opinion. He's not being catty or out-of-line. He's just posting some FYI for anyone who might be thinking of posting a personal recipe that maybe they came up with themselves. It's very, very annoying to post something on the internet and then have other people turn around and take credit for it themselves. Ask anyone with any talent who has ever been foolish enough to post their artwork on Deviantart.com. Suddenly there are ten people claiming that piece as their own. It's pretty obvious that that is what the OP here is doing, since as Gone stated: the only editing they do is to edit out the true author's name so that they can take the credit.


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

While I agree Basmati isn't traditional, it makes the best paella I've had. I've made it arborio once and didn't like it at all.


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