Paella: A Labour of Love

There was one family reunion when I was still a kid, New Year's day lunch, that I remember so vividly. Lots of laughter and stories. Playing with kids around the house. And more so of this dish that I ate for the first time. It was a sticky and yellow-coloured rice with shrimps and bell pepper and sliced eggs. They called it Arroz Valenciana. I liked it so much that when we went to a Spanish restaurant to celebrate a special occasion, I tried to order their Paella Valenciana thinking it was the same. But upon tasting it I knew it was so different. The very rich flavoured rice, the soccarat or toasted rice at the bottom of the pan, the variety of seafood and the smell of it! Way better tasting, yum! When I got older I found out that Arroz Valenciana is like the low down version of Paella Valenciana. It uses glutinous rice, turmeric to make the yellow hue and sliced eggs as garnish. So if we do eat out at Spanish restaurants I made sure to order the paella valenciana or seafood  paella.

Unfortunately, when we moved to Singapore, it was hard to find a good one. Reviews on restaurant Bomba and Serendipity were mixed. From the best paella to utterly disappointing. And so in my attempt to embark on finding authentic paella, I scoured the net to get to know more about this dish.

Paella it seems was a dish that uses rice farmed from Valencia, Spain cooked over wooden fire. Farmers would throw in tomatoes, onions, snails and a few beans. If they got lucky, rabbit or chicken were added. And occasionally they would infuse it with saffron for really special occasions. They ate it directly from the pan using wooden spoons. It was from this humble beginnings that Valencia "Paella", which means "pan", originated from. It was said that the word "paella" was derived from the Latin word "patella" which also means "pan". Over the years, variations of paella were created from seafood paella, valencia paella, squid ink paella and a whole lot more.

Knowing all this I decided to make my own classic paella. I still decided to cook the seafood version since my family prefers seafood over meat. Since paella's secret is from its sofrito, I started from there. I  cooked my sofrito weeks before so I forgot to take pictures of it. If possible, I try to cook/bake in phases being that I have a restless and attention seeker Toddler.

Photo courtesy of the Husband.

Sofrito
adapted from Marketmanila, will yield about a 1 1/2 cup
    A bag of white onions (about 700g)
    1/2 tbsp of diced garlic
    2 cans of diced tomato or 5 whole tomatoes diced
    A pinch of saffron
    a dash of paprika
    2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

Instructions:
   1. Thinly slice onions.

   2. Heat sauté pan and add EVOO. Once hot add onions.
   3. Turn the heat low and cook onions until fully caramelized, about an hour. Stir occasionally to avoid burning.
   4. Put saffron in a bowl with a small amount of water and set aside for 10 mins.
   5. Add the garlic and stir for about 5 minutes.
   6. Add tomatoes, saffron and paprika and stir occasionally.
   7. Cook for another hour or until it has a jam like consistency.
   8. From this point you can purée it on a blender or a hand-held blender. I skipped this part and just let it cool down. I like the rustic home made look of the sofrito. Though to be honest I just got lazy in pulling out the blender.
   9. After its cooled down put in an air tight container. If you're not going to use it yet, you can put it in the freezer for about a month.


Seafood Paella
adapted from Marketmanila, good for 3-4 servings
    1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
    a cup of bomba rice (I used organic short grained rice since I couldn't find one near our area)
    2/3 cup of sofrito
    a pinch of saffron
    a pinch of paprika
    250 grams of spanish chorizo
    10 pieces of shrimp
    a cup of chicken broth (I used water instead since my sofrito is already rich in flavour)
    4 pieces of squid cleaned without the ink sack and sliced
    1/2 cup of frozen peas (optional)

Instructions:
   1. Heat sauté pan and EVOO. As per Chef José Andrés Puerta, if you don't have a paellera pan you can use a heavy bottomed sauté pan.
   2. Dump chorizo and let it render its fat.

   3. Put saffron in a bowl with a small amount of hot water. Let it sit for 5 mins.
   4  Mix in your rice and make sure that every grain is covered with oil.
   5. Add in your sofrito, saffron and paprika.
   6. Add in your broth or water and mix everything once. DO NOT STIR any more after this point. If paella seems a little dry and rice still far from being cooked, add a small amount of water or broth.
   7. 10 minutes from being cooked (paella starts to absorb broth and rice a little cooked), add in your shrimp and squid.
   8. Once shrimp and squid is cooked, about 5-7 mind add in your frozen peas.
   9. Turn the heat off once paella has absorbed all the broth and rice is already done. This means hopefully you get a soccarat or toasted rice at the bottom of the pan.
   10. Let it cool down for about 5 minutes to get a more strong flavour and serve as is.

Whew! That was a tedious process eh? The time and effort to create this wonderful aromatic and flavourful dish was indeed for special occasions. But since I cooked my safrito ahead of time, I was able to cut cook time and had the paella ready to eat in 40 mins. I love it! I can now treat any normal day as a special occasion with a dish made from love.