PAELLA
(pie-ay-ah)
Paella is a traditional dish of Spain, and its original home is in the
region of Valencia. The name Paella comes from the name of the dish in
which it is cooked using flat round pans made of steel with two handles. It
is traditionally cooked over a wood fire outdoors. Although there are as
many ways of cooking paella as there are little towns in the region, the
paella will always contain ferraura (wide-pod green beans) and garrofo
(dried butter beans). The most common meat used in the paella is chicken
and rabbit, and in some cases even wild duck. For extra flavour some
people use snails known as xonetes or vaquetes. In the towns along the
coast the paella is enjoyed with fresh sea-food (mussels and langostines)
and for the tourist, there is always the paella mixta (meat and fish).
The principal ingredient of the paella has to be the rice. Originated in
Asia around 3000BC it was introduced in Spain by the Moors in the eighth
century. They also introduced the complex irrigation system and began
the cultivation of oranges and a rich variety of vegetables and fruit.
Most of the rice produced in Spain comes from the area of the Albufera,
south of the city of Valencia, near Sueca. The Albufera is nowadays a
Nature Reserve area and in the town situated in the middle (Perellonet)
you can taste the best paella ever. In paella, the short grain rice is
much better than long grain rice, simply because short grain soaks up
all the flavours from the stock more fully.
Other variants to the paella could be Arros negre (black rice from the
squids’ ink). Arros a banda (made with fish stock and served with
allioli on the side). Arros caldos (rice stew) and , of course la fideua,
a type of paella cooked with special type of noodles, fish stock and sea
food originating in Gandia.
. The Guinness Book of World Records documents one instance in which
paella was made for 50,000 people using 10,000 pounds of rice with the
paella pan measuring 60 feet across. More realistically, paella is
frequently sold in restaurants as a dinner for two. . Valencians consume
more than fifty pounds of rice a year per person, and much of this rice
is found in paella. Paella suits every taste and budget: Based upon what
ingredients one decides to add to it, paella can be a poor man's dish or
an extravagant blend of expensive meats and seafood.
Jose Lluna,
eatPaella.