Quince Paella Recipe

My mother learned to make Paella on the coast of Spain over 50 years ago. I learned from her and started making paella about 25 years ago. My first paella was in an old teflon frying pan over an open oak fire on the banks of Lake Michigan. Since then I've progressed to a custom made fire pit cut from a stainless steel drum and progressively larger pans now as big as the drum. My big pan is 55 cm and uses a kilo of rice. I've never tried it in an oven or over a gas ring but know both methods work....it’s just boiled rice!

The history of Paella goes back to the Valencia region of Spain where they produce a short grain rice. Paellas can run from plain rice, to seafood, to mountain (meats), or mixtures. (My friends do a mushroom and asparagus paella that I hate.) One version goes that during the morning whatever could be found was collected for the midday meal....maybe collect some snails, shoot a rabbit, pick some vegetables...what have you.....then the Paella would be cooked in the fields for the noon day meal (at 3 o’clock)

Here's my mixed paella recipe done over an open fire: (It’s a forgiving boiled rice dish and the ingredients and process should help guide you. (If you like, track down the book by Penelope Casas called Paella...it's great)

Base Ingredients; 

Rice, and hot soup stock, three times the volume of short grain rice you will use (remember it boils off), known as caldo in Spain....it's key to a good paella

Olive oil, 

Chopped garlic and rosemary. 

 Ingredients for a mixed paella

 (or select what you like)

Seafoods? ...

Raw Shrimp with shell on, bigger are better

calamari, tubes and tennacles cut into pieces.

Fish, I've used perch, whitefish and catfish, boy any fish will do

mussels, whole live but you can use precooked without shells if you want

....what do you like? ....scallops? 

Meats? ...

Chicken rough cut with cleaver, leg quarters cut in 4 pieces (dark is better)

pork pieces with bone, 

rabbit, cut like the chicken

andouille sausage pieces

I think lamb or beef are too strong and I have not tried them

Vegetables? ....

garbanzo beans, rinsed

tomatoes, chopped

green beans, whole

onions, chopped

red peppers, sliced lengthwise

squash, sliced

Toasted almonds

Spices ....

chopped garlic and rosemary, sometimes parsley

saffron and/or smokey paprika, added to dry rice

Sometimes I add toasted almonds

boullion cubes or “better than bouillon”, added to soup stock (the salt basically)

Some rosemary branches to throw in the fire too.

Sliced lemons to squeeze over your plate and alioli for your fork.

The fire is hot initially and later will be cooler when the rice is boiling.

With a hot pan I add some olive oil and garlic. 

The shrimp are tossed in, turned over and pulled out quickly.

The calamari is then thrown in and taken out, very quickly.

The peppers can also be roasted and taken out for later.

Then I put in the pork and chicken, browning the pieces well. They can even look burnt but this will flavor the boiled rice and cook off.

As I'm doing the above items, I will often throw in some additional oil, garlic, rosemary or onions depending on how things are going.

When the meat is browned, not cooked, I open up the center of the pan, add some olive oil and dump in the chopped tomatoes. I think this step helps later when you're trying to get a bit of a crust on the bottom, some consider the best part.

I then add the rice and stir it around a bit to mix in the olive oil and tomatoes and fry it.

After a couple of minutes the heated caldo is added and the garbanzo's. (you must have a big enough pan to hold all your ingredients and soup stock!)

Now I add ingredients according to how much cooking time is needed and how you like things to be cooked.

the green beans.

Later the shrimp and calamari go back in placed on top with the Squash and roasted red peppers.

Fish laid on top last and mussels pushed into the mixture vertically. They will open and be cooked by the time it's served.

Now the trick is to pull your paella off/out early as it rests for the last 10 minutes before serving. (Most free liquid is gone). During this period it's covered with a lid/foil/cloth to conserve the heat and moisture. When the paella is taken off the fire, there is still some liquid in it that will be taken up by the rice while it rests.

Now I've heard stories of Spanish perfectionists that will throw out a whole paella because the rice is not done right.  All the ones I've done get eaten! And I've learned it's a pretty forgiving dish. (Except the one that got sand kicked in it, ....yes I cook with wine!)

I save leftovers and heat up later, adding a bit of liquid/white wine. Oven reheat is best, but a microvave is ok. My friends love it the next morning for breakfast.

Good luck.

If you have any questions, I'd be happy to try and answer.

And as I mentioned, the Casas book on Paella talks a lot about doing it in a conventional oven. I've just never done it. I've had gas rings for 20 years and have yet to try that method that most Spanish do nowadays.

Salut, Amor, Peseta y tiempo para guzarlos.

Jim