Feasting Local: Valencian Paella
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Don’t be fooled. If you’ve had paella, it’s probably not authentic, Valencian paella. The country side of Valencia is the birthplace of paella, and a way of life here. Locals will turn their noses at paella made in other parts of Spain. Find the ingredients and recipe below!
Here are some fun facts about authentic, Valencian paella:
It never contains seafood or chorizo, always rabbit and chicken. Why? Because it’s origins are from the country side, you use what you have available - chicken and rabbits.
It’s always eaten with a spoon (never a fork)
It’s always eaten for lunch (never for dinner)
You eat it directly from the pan
Before eating, you divide up the paella into equal parts (like a pizza) and eat in your portion.
Naturally, you can negotiate to trade what’s in someone else’s section.
Ingredients:
Recommended paella pan size: 46 cm diameter
Servings: 4
400g/14oz of Bomba rice (preferably, if not available use short-grain rice)
500g/18oz of chicken, cut into 50-60g/2-2,5oz pieces
500g/18oz of rabbit, cut into 50-60g/2-2,5oz pieces
200g/7oz. of ferradura (batxoqueta or wide green/runner beans)
150g/6oz of clean “garrofón” (local variety of big white lima bean)
2 medium size ripe tomatoes
1 teaspoonful of sweet paprika
A few saffron threads
120ml/5fl oz of soft flavoured virgin olive oil
A fresh Rosemary twig
4 or 5 parts of water for one part of rice
Process:
Before lighting the fire, add the oil to the Paella pan and check that the oil is in the centre.
Light the fire and fry the meat (chicken and rabbit) It is important to have the meat really well fried.
Spread the meat around the edges of the paella and add runner and butter beans in the centre. Sear them till the vegetables have a gold colour.
Move aside the vegetables to the outer part of the pan and pour the grated tomato in the middle. We know that the tomato is ready when it has lost all its water
When all the ingredients are ready, add a teaspoon of sweet paprika powder, move it to fry it a bit and quickly add the water. Add saffron or food colour and a bit of salt.
Leave the ingredients simmering for 20/ 25 minutes.
Before adding the rice taste the broth and check the salt. It is ok if it is a bit salty because when you add the rice the flavour will be less salty.
Add the rice, making a line from one side of the paella to the other. You should see the top of this line of rice out of the broth (as we did in the course) that means you have enough broth. With a spatula spread the rice, meat and vegetables around the paella to ensure that it is well distributed and bring to the boil.
Leave the rice simmering for 10 minutes with a strong heat. During the last 7 minutes play with the heat (leaving it strong or slowing it) depending on the amount of broth left.
At the end of the 17 minutes the rice should be completely dry. To make the “socarrat” (the crispy fried rice in the bottom) use the outside fire with a lot of heat for a couple of minutes. Have a close look and turn off the heat before the rice burns.
Let the rice stand for a couple of minutes.
If you tried it, let us know what you think!
