I went to Barcelona for five hours, and it changed my life. Have you every tried paella? It is the most delicious and flavorful thing you may ever eat. But not everyone can just hop on over to Barcelona for a few hours to get some authentic paella, so we may have to learn to be fake Spanish cooks. This is what I’ve done in the past few months, and I am here to teach you my American-Spanish ways.
The real stuff from Barcelona!
The most important thing: the sofrito. It’s fun to say, isn’t it? Sofrito. It’s the base of the paella, a beautiful mixture of puréed fruits that cooks down into a paste and flavors up your rice. I am in no way a sofrito expert, but here is what it looks like when you make it. For a good explanation of it, I would look at this recipe and instructions. But that recipe makes a huge batch, these are the amounts that I use for cooking for four to five people (these are just the sofrito ingredients).
2 red bell peppers
2 green bell peppers
4 tomatoes
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
however much cilantro you want
If you don’t have a paella pan, you can use a wide flat pan, just make sure that the edges are not very low, you’ll need them to cook the rice. So basically, you puree your peppers, onion, garlic, and cilantro together, and cook on the stove at low heat until all the moisture is cooked out. It can take a while, but you’ll know because it will look like a paste and will separate easily when you run a spoon through it. Once the moisture is gone, put the pureed tomatoes in and cook out that moisture (this will really take a long time).
Because making the softrito takes a really long time, I sometimes make double batches and freeze half. That way I do the work for two (which isn’t too difficult) but I can whip up some quick paella later when I want. If you want to do it, you’ll need two pans with the ingredients split between them.
Now the fun part! You should use a short or medium grain rice; add a half a cup uncooked per person. Put the rice in with the sofrito and mix it up and let it cook dry for a bit. Then add one cup of chicken or seafood stock per half cup or rice to the pan. Then flatten the sofrito and rice across the whole pan so it’s even, and carefully pour the stock over it completely (that’s what you need those pan sides for). Then, cook on low or med-low heat until the rice absorbs all of the liquid. This can take a while, and because your stove probably doesn’t have an enormous fire, you may want to rotate the pan so the heat can cook different sides.
Meanwhile, cook whatever meat you want in your paella. I am partial to shrimp, scallops and chorizo, but pork ribs, chicken, fish, or whatever else you want is good too. The amount of each that you use depends on how many people you’re serving, and how hungry you all are! I usually cook that separately in some sweet chili sauce and balsamic vinaigrette, but it can be flavored however you want. When they are cooked and before the rice has fully absorbed the stock, neatly place the meats all over the top of your rice (yes, they will sit in the liquid). Continue cooking for a while on low heat until all of the liquid is absorbed, you will begin to see some nice crusting around the edges of the pan. When you are ready to eat, you should see some sort of burned/crusty rice on the bottom. Don’t freak out, that’s the good stuff and totally supposed to happen!
If you’re really not sure if it’s done, you can taste a little of the rice from the side, if that’s cooked then you should be good to go. I usually let it rest a little after cooking, because it will be really hot. Then serve it up! I love a dry white wine with my paella, but I promise you either way it will change how you look at food. Talk about flavor!
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