Paella Valenciana - Spanish

You may recall that I posted a write-up on the Paella before. Well, I received a very encouraging comment from someone in Barcelona, who also left compliments as well as a suggestion that for a truly spanish paella, we should not put any chorizos in the paella.

We had a dinner party yesterday to celebrate my wife's birthday. I cooked the Paella to serve ten. This time I skipped the chorizos, which was only served it as part of the tapas. I think it worked well as the Chorizos does not distract from the milder seafood flavour). I think this is truly a Paella Valenciana!

I made a time-lapsed video showing the cooking of Paella from start to finish.

Below is a narrative to give you an idea what going on with the 'silent movie'.

It starts off with browning the chicken and pork, followed by the prawns. These are put aside. Next, chopped onions and garlic are sauteed in olive oil. Sliced capsicum are added to cook. The browned chicken and pork are then put back in to cook. Two cans of crushed tomatoes are emptied into the pan. The broth is allowed to thicken. The intensity of the flame is intermittently adjusted. The stock with saffron and short-grain rice are put into the pan.

At this point, as the guitar shredding is getting hotter... the seafood, i.e. the prawns, squids and blue swimmer crabs, are put in to cook with the rice. The sea mussels are then stabbed into the almost cooked rice. We let it simmered until the rice is cooked, adding water to maintain the moisture. Salt and pepper is added to taste. I have to occasionally stirred the rice up from the base to get the rice evenly cooked, if not you can end up with burnt rice at the bottom of the pan. Inevitably, there will be a thin layer of roasted rice soaked the broth at the hot spot of the pan. When the Paella is served, I love to go for these roasted bits which is so flavoursome.

When the rice is cooked it is ready to be served.

Paella - Spanish

The Paella is a traditional dish from Spain. It is basically short-grain rice cooked in stock with a selection of fresh seafood, i.e. mussels, prawns, squids, scallop, fish bits. We also add in some chorizos, porks and chicken.

As an alternative to BBQ, we cooked a Paella on our 4-ring outdoor gas burner. A large pan of Paella can cater for quite a big number of guest. We like serving the Paella in the middle of the table and let the guest scoop whatever they like from the pan. It's kind of communal feasting.

In Melbourne, there is a Spanish quarter along the Johnston Street, Fitzroy (annual Spanish festival is held here too).

There are several Spanish restaurant, e.g. Spanish Club, Kanela, etc., There is also a Spanish grocery, Casa Iberica (25, Johnston St) where we picked up the ingredients and cooking wares required for the Paella.

Spiced Duck with Pears - Spanish

Catching up with my cousins who lives in Melbourne, we cook them a dinner of baked duck in Spanish style.

The duck pieces are baked for one and a quarter

 hour. Then caramelized pears and the Picada sauce are added to the tray and baked for another fifteen minutes >