Paella

 I miss walking the Camino.  I wish I could have walked longer. All the way from France. I miss the family I made along the way. Needless to say, I miss the food.

And so when I found a paella contest in the New York Times between an award winning chef and a cook who had watched her grandfather cook paella for every family celebration, I could not wait to join the race. There was the paella of the land with juicy serrano jamon, whole chicken with the skin and fresh chorizo.  Then there was the paella of the sea with not just paprika and saffron, but with thyme and cumin, and the with the usual clams and shrimp.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/17/dining/paella-by-land-and-sea.html.

I picked the paella of the sea. There is nothing more tactile and sensual than prying a chunk of rice with saffron soaked moist clam meat out of its tenacious connection to its shell.

Although the recipe looks complicated, if you divide this into 3 major steps, it becomes easier.  And a bottle of sherry definitely helps. A splash into the rice, and a sip for the cook – make sure you finish the bottle.

Step 1:

Make the broth combination for cooking the rice. 3 cups of chicken stock, 2 cups of dry crisp white wine and 2 cups of clam juice added to a pot and simmered.

Step 2:

Make the flavoring by adding 3 tbs of toasted cumin seeds, 3 tbs of smoked paprika, a bunch of thyme, 4 bay leaves, 1 tbs of saffron to 1 cup of dry sherry and simmer and reduce.

Step 3:

Sauté the vegetables, onions, garlic, red pepper and tomato with chorizo and then add 4 cups of short grained rice followed by the brothy mixture and the flavoring.

Step 4:

Bury the clams and shrimp into the rice. Juste Milieu flame: not too high and not too low. Since I had the pan over 2 burners I  twisted the paella pan by 45% every 10 min but did not mix or stir the rice.The most difficult task is not to stir the rice. It will be crispy at the bottom to give you the famous socarrat. Tantalizing not to stir but let the juices and spices take their course through the rice, clam and shrimp.

Is that not what life is about? Not the destination but the tantalizing wait. Well my wait was cushioned by Mr. Sweet Potato and a bottle of sherry.

Bon Appetite and happy cooking.

The ingredients

4 cups of chicken broth, 2 cups of white wine and 2 cups of clam stock

Into a pot and simmer

3 tbs of cumin, 3 tbs of smoked paprika, 4 bay leaves and 1 tbs of saffron

Toast the cumin

Add  1 cup of sherry to the cumin

Add the paprika, saffron and thyme

Simmer and reduce

The vegetables, 2 onions, 2 red peppers, 4 tomatoes, handful of garlic

Cut and dice

The Paella pan

Coat with oil

Add the onion and garlic

The chorizo

In goes the chorizo

Next the pepper

And then the tomatoes

4 cups of short grained absorbent rice

In it goes

Remove the thyme from the flavor mixture

Add the broth mixture and the flavor mixture to the rice

Bury the clams and shrimp in

Cook but do not stir

Do not stir but rotate the  pan 45 % every 10 min.

after 30 min decorate with cooked red peppers, lemon wedges and roasted pine nuts

Bon Appetite!
Please enjoy the rak rak or blackened  rice.