Paella!

I made Paella last night, mmmm!!!!

Paella used to scare me.  It looks like it's hard to make, and I don't like shellfish.  But then one year for Christmas, my mom said she wanted a Paella pan (inspired by my recent trip to Spain), so I got her one.  And she got me one!  So ready or not, I felt obliged to at least try cooking Paella. Our first attempt was New Years Dinner 2012, a mix of chicken, seafood, and vegetable paellas.  We tried cooking two at once, which was a little overwhelming to say the least!  They were decent, but I was a little worn out from trying and decided to just stick to my crockpot risotto for a while.

Paella New Years Eve 2011-2012

Then one day a few months ago, my sister came to visit and we felt adventurous!  After browsing through my Paella cookbooks, we selected a recipe for Chorizo and Olive Paella from this cookbook.  I love chorizo!  And it turns out I love this Paella!  I made it again last night, though I skipped the addition of fancy (or any) ham, because all I had were some slices of maple ham from the deli, and I wasn't sure they'd go well with chorizo and olives!

Last night's Chorizo Paella!

Making Paella is actually very simple, and it's ok if you don't have a fancy pan.  Any wide shallow pan that is oven safe would work, and this enormous specialty pan I have makes enough for 6 or 7 people - you don't need that much!  It's similar to making risotto, but less labor intensive, almost as easy as my rice cooker risotto but much more delicious!

I don't feel it would be appropriate to post the recipe I used since I didn't write it, however, I feel that Paella recipes are likely to be very forgiving, as long as you get the rice/liquid recipe right.   This recipe that made a looooot of food used 3 cups of Arroz Bomba (fancy spanish version of arborio rice, arborio rice is fine to use for this) and 6-7 cups of broth (I say 6-7 is because the recipe calls for 6, but I put 7 cups on to boil since I knew some would evaporate).

The basic methodology is: 

• chop all your ingredients (garlic and lots of parsley are key),
• saute the meat and flavors (garlic, etc) in lots of oil, 
• stir in the rice to coat it all in flavor, 
• pour in hot broth (bring to a boil separately), 
• cook over one or two burners rotating pan and stirring occasionally until the liquid is mostly absorbed (in other words, until the risk of spilling while transferring to the oven is minimal), 
• add in any soft vegetables (snow peas in this case)
• cook in a hot oven for 10 minutes, and 
• rest under foil for 10 minutes.

Don't be afraid!  It looks scarier than it is!