Spanish Paella

Paella is probably one of the best known Spanish dishes outside Spain and one that you will find in a hundred variations when you visit the country. Basically a rice dish cooked with various meats, seafood and vegetables together in a huge paella pan it has a long history behind it, beginning with the Moorish occupation of Spain.

While the Romans brought irrigation to the Eastern coast of Spain it was the Moors who introduced rice and made it one of the staple crops of the Valencia region. Rice dishes with spices and fish were prepared as part of religious feast days. The name paella comes from the pan that the dish is cooked in, a large shallow frying pan. Paella continued to be a dish cooked for celebrations, rather than an everyday dish. Very often it was cooked in the open air over a fire, on the beach or in the orchards and it came to be traditional for men to be the ones who cooked the paella, much like our barbecues today. Everyone would sit around in a circle and eat directly from the pan, each marking out a pie wedge section for themselves.

Valencia is the original home of paella and many will argue still produces the best paellas today, even though most regions of Spain will have their own version. A genuine Valencian paella will include meat, green vegetables and snails, as well as beans. An authentic mixed paella can include many combinations of seafood and meat, though most often will combine chicken and seafood such as prawns, clams and fish. Tomato, olive oil, paprika and saffron are the other traditional ingredients. The other main variety of paella current today is the seafood paella, with mussels, lobster, shrimp and cuttlefish.

The cooking of Valencian paella differs from the Italian risotto method, in that the meats and vegetables are first sauted, spices added and then the broth poured over and simmered before the rice is added.  Other paellas add the rice before the broth, but the main difference from risotto is that the rice is not stirred constantly, but left to simmer with all the ingredients until it is cooked and has absorbed the broth. The crust that a paella develops on the bottom of the pan over an open fire is considered a delicacy and the aroma of toasted rice essential to the flavour.

A paella should rest for five minutes and then be served immediately, so the dish should be prepared freshly to order, which is why it is usually cooked for a minimum of two people and often for a whole group. Expect it to take at least thirty minutes to be cooked for you in a restaurant and much longer if you are cooking it alfresco with a group of friends from scratch and making a whole occasion of it.