The difficult part of making paella is knowing when to stop cooking it. You want to have a nice brown crust on the bottom, but not burned, while at the same time having the rice done enough, but not overdone. This takes practice. You can use a steel paella pan, but it’s easier if you just use a large non-stick skillet. I use a very large, shallow griddle made by Berndes (who also makes a paella pan), but you can also use a silverstone skillet or cast iron. The steel paella pans require very close attention to the heat to prevent burning.
The type of rice is critical to the dish. Short-grained rice, such as Arborio, is ideal, but a medium grain rice may be used. Arborio is also used to make risotto. The reason for its use is that it absorbs a huge amount of liquid and produces a creamy product (for risotto), while retaining its nutlike flavor and ‘bite’ at the core.
Here’s sort of what I did:
Olive oil
1 lb scallops
1 lb medium shrimp, shelled
1/2 pound sausage (substitute or add chicken, if you like)
1/2 large onion, minced
small bunch scallions, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
5-7 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium tomato, diced
2 cups dried Arborio or Spanish paella rice
6-7 cups stock - chicken, fish or veggie
1/4-1/2 tsp saffron, crushed
2-3 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp sweet Spanish paprika (NOT Hungarian)
White wine
Salt to taste
Heat the stock in a saucepan with the thyme, paprika and saffron and a 1/2 cup of wine. Heat several TBSP of oil in a skillet until very hot. Add the shrimp and quickly brown and remove. Add the scallops and do the same. Set aside with the shrimp. You don’t want the seafood cooked through. Brown the sausage (or chicken) and remove. Add a little more oil, reduce heat, and saute the onions, scallions and red pepper, adding the garlic at the end for only a minute, then stir in the tomato. Add the 2 cups of Arborio rice and coat with the mixture. Add 1/2 cup of wine and let the rice simmer in it for a couple of minutes.
Increase the heat to medium and add a couple of cups of stock, stirring. Let the dish simmer with a lace of bubbles on top. When the liquid starts to disappear, add a couple more cups. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, then add the last two cups and the sausage. From this point on, you don’t want to stir it. Let the liquid cook down and absorb. This whole process will take about 20 minutes. Near the end, test taste a few grains of rice from the edge. If it’s too chewy, you may need to add more liquid.
If the rice is about right, arrange the seafood quickly on top of the rice. You can check for the crust before doing this, by using a spatula to take a peek at what’s happening at the bottom of the pan. Between this and trusting your nose, you should be able to get the dish right after 2-3 times or so. Once you put the seafood on top, cover the pan and remove it from the heat (or leave on heat on low for five minutes) to allow the seafood to cook through.
The finished dish is beautiful to look at and impressive to serve in the pan at a table of guests. In Casas’ book, she bakes her paella with the seafood already on top. I tried this once, but the fish literally disappeared and the shrimp was tough.
This appears daunting, but is not all that difficult once you get the hang of it. aruvqan’s recipe sounds terrific, and I would rather use chorizo (or andouille)when I can find it, but the beauty of paella is that you can use almost anything with success.