Paella Alberto Herraiz ##TOP##
Lorie Silano
Soccarat: the elusive and ethereal crust of rice that forms at the bottom of the paella pan. Impassioned fans of the dish will literally fight over this, much in the same way as the impassioned football fans of FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.
On the particular night in question, more than 16 years ago, we were so obliterated we had no idea what a soccarat was, or for that matter how to even make a proper paella without burning it. As mentioned previously, I did make a paella last week, and I did indeed pour a libation for my buddy Joe.
At the behest of our friends Josh & Nicola, my wife and I enjoyed Barcelona style paella at Los Caracoles on our second to last night in Spain. There, we met Brendan Perry from Dead Can Dance and got miracled to the sold out show the following night. Our paella de Barcelona was a magical experience.
This paella is made on Thursdays in the bars and neighbourhood restaurants (or casas de comidas) of Barcelona, where it is often the daily special. It is cooked on a large hotplate and is served straight onto plates.
An aromatic, flavoursome mixture cooked in olive oil, sofrito is the first stage of cooking paella. This recipe is for a versatile everyday sofrito and can also be used for many other recipes. Sofrito can be frozen in smaller batches to keep on hand ready for use.
Add the smoked paprika, stir through and cook over moderate heat for a few seconds, taking care that it does not burn. Pour in the hot fish fumet, stir until combined and spread out the ingredients evenly in the pan. Add the saffron and grate the zest of the lime over the paella, and bring to the boil. If you have a timer, set it to 17 minutes. Cook over high heat for 5 minutes until the rice rises to the surface of the liquid. Taste and season with salt if necessary, bearing in mind that the flavours will become more pronounced as the liquid evaporates. Put the paella in the preheated oven for 9 minutes.
Coming from a long line of cooks, paëlla master Alberto Herraiz has made a name for himself running Spanish institution Fogon Ultramarinos in the 7th arrondissement. For 25 years now, the famous chef has been bringing the best of his native cuisine to the heart of Paris.
Nobody expected it but Alberto made us a paella in the first round, he couldn't hold back!
Step 4: When the rice is cooked, remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool at room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap, making sure it is in direct contact with the entire surface of the rice. Transfer the paella pan to the refrigerator and chill until needed. Just before serving, decorate the top of the paella with the preserved cherries.
Make sure that the paella pan is completely level to ensure that the paella is evenly cooked. Heat the olive oil in the pan over low heat, and gently sauté the chicken pieces without letting them brown too much (you will need to position the paella pan at the correct distance from the heat source). Push the chicken pieces towards the edge of the pan, and sauté the langoustines gently in the centre until half cooked. Remove the langoustines from the pan and keep warm to one side, covered with aluminium foil. Sauté the garlic gently in the centre of the pan, then add the vegetables. Gently sauté until starting to soften. Push the vegetables towards the edge of the pan, and gently sauté the squid rings in the centre until they are half cooked. Push these away to the side of the pan. Add the grated tomato to the centre of the pan, and cook over low heat until thickened and reduced.
Preheat the barbecue or grill. Lightly toast all the spices and flavourings in a dry frying pan or skillet over medium-high heat until fragrant. Put into a muslin (cheesecloth) bouquet garni bag and secure tightly. Cut the lobsters lengthwise into two equal halves. Remove the leathery, gritty stomach sac from their heads. If you are using only 1 lobster, separate the head from the tail. Cut the head in half lengthwise and slice the tail into large medallions. Retrieve all the liquid released from the lobster to use in the paella.
Make sure that the paella pan is completely level to ensure that the paella cooks evenly. Heat the olive oil in the paella pan over very high heat. Sauté the almonds, garlic cloves and ñora pepper until lightly browned. Remove with a slotted spoon, put into a mortar and pound with a pestle. Add the saffron and parsley, and pound with the pestle until you have a smooth paste. Set aside.
After 5 minutes, taste once more and adjust the amount of salt, if needed. Reduce the heat and remove and discard the bouquet garni bag. When the rice begins to rise to the surface, position the paella pan much further away from the heat source and continue cooking at a very gentle simmer.
Flavorful, garlicky rice is a given, but what you put on top is up to you! In Spain, a myriad of seafood, veggies, meat and game appear in paella such as clams, squid, veal, mussels, shrimp, sausage, mushrooms, rabbit, quail or whatever else is fresh that day.
*Naptime tip: Homemade stock really is the best for paella. You can make it and the sofrito well in advance, freezing any leftovers for future paellas. Use the shrimp shells in your stock and the meat to top your paella.
In a large, oven proof skillet or paella pan, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the rice, stirring to toast 3-5 minutes or until just starting to brown. Carefully stir in the sofrito, 1 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika and the saffron. Once bubbling, pour in the stock and stir.
Let's make paella! You can absolutely do it, and for this veg-centric, California-inspired take on the Spanish classic, you don't need a special pan. Many paellas feature various meats and seafoods, but vegetarian paella can be a revelation. This version is fully loaded with a rainbow of seasonal vegetables cooked into a saffron and paprika-scented rice based dream.
If you have a traditional paella pan, great! Use it. That said, don't let the lack of a special pan foil your paella endeavors. I've successfully cooked paella in copper pans (a favorite), as well as stainless steel, and cast iron. Use what you have, the wider the better. I'm including instructions for two different sized pans in the recipe, please reference the head notes.
Paella can be a great, realistic go-to weeknight recipe if you do one thing. Keep this sofrito on hand. Have some ready in the refrigerator, keep back up in the freezer. If you have a bit of saffron and paprika around, with some broth, rice, and seasonal vegetables, you're ready to make paella. And it's quite simple.
Choosing the right rice for paella is key. Ideally, you want a short-grain, stubby paella rice, something like this, or this. Look for Bomba. Paella rices are celebrated for being able to absorb more water (or broth) than other rices, while maintaining structure. This translates to a paella with definition between grains - no mushy rice. I also love this article about choosing rice for paella with Russ Moore (of Camino in Oakland, CA). He uses a well-rinsed, local, Japanese short-grain varietal, and his paella is beautiful. If you do experiment with non-paella rice varietals, you'll need to play around a bit and adjust the liquids.
I've tried. I've tested 100% brown rice paella, and blends. Here's the problem. Brown rice takes a lot longer to cook comparatively. So, the way paella comes together is the following. You get all your ingredients in the pan, stir once, and then leave it alone. This is half the battle when it comes to achieving a golden-crusted bottom (desirable!), see below. When you use brown rice, you end up with overcooked vegetables, because you need to cook it so long. My advice? Stick with tradition and use a short-grain paella rice.
Today's recipe focuses on paella made indoors, in a modern kitchen. That said, many paella are cooked grilled, over open flame. One of the things you hope to achieve in either scenario is socarrat - that golden crusted rice bottom. The skill, of course, coming from just the right amount of toastiness - not too little, not burned. If you're brave, give your paella a moment or so on a burner, after removing from the oven, to increase your likelihood of some good socarrat! Takes some practice.
I started making risotto with carnaroli rice and have been getting much better results, now I have 2kg of arborio left over that I don't know what to do with. I'm not a big fan of rice pudding, and I already have bomba rice for making paella. Arancini comes to mind but it's not as efficient as using leftover risotto. I'm out of ideas.
A proper paella, with its crunchy bottom crust, its perfectly cooked rice and its abundance of vegetables and meat or fish, is an edible masterpiece. But a badly cooked one, with mushy rice and confusion of flavours, is a crime against gastronomy, if the critics are to be believed. Not even the great Jamie Oliver could escape retribution when he had the audacity to adulterate his paella with chorizo (and then defend its use!), instigating a #paellagate media storm.
There, under the kind tutelage of Eduardo and Tracy, of Rustic Escapes, I took a paella crash course and learned that, with the right ingredients and a few pointers, anyone can make paella to be proud of.
Get your fire going to medium-high heat. Get your broth warm, but not boiling, on the stove. Warm the saffron/wine/paprika mixture in a separate pot. Put on your paella pan on the fire and once it is hot, add the olive oil. Do NOT let the oil start to smoke. Add shrimp, generously sprinkle with salt and sautee until shells start to turn pink and shrimp is ALMOST cooked through ("par-cooking"). Overcooking is BAD. Take shrimp out of pan and set aside on a clean plate.
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