If you like paella, you don?t have to wait coming to Spain in order to have some. Below you will find the recipe for the best paella in the world: the one you will make at home. Surely, some field work will come in handy to adjust a few personal touches, and perhaps even buy some saffron to highlight your dish even more.
First thing is first: depending on the region of Spain, you will find paella comes with seafood, veggies, rabbit, pork, etc. Rice can have more broth (like risotto) or dry and loose. This is all a matter of personal preference and depends on your taste, but people say the ?original? Valencia paella has rabbit and the rice is loose.
Paella should be done in a low rim sauce pan, or a paella pan.
True paella ingredients (makes 4 servings)
2 cups rice (round grain, bomba or senia type)
4 cups water
200 gr of chicken
180 gr of rabbit
100 gr duck
100 gr of romano beans (flat green beans) cut into 2-inch pieces
100 gr of butter beans
50 gr of tomato (blended or grated)
2 artichokes previously cooked, cut in wedges
Saffron (in strings, NOT powder)
Turmeric (for coloring)
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Preparation
On high heat, pour a generous amount of the olive oil into the pan. Once it is hot, place the chicken, rabbit and duck and turn when golden. Add the beans and the tomato and wait until liquids start to boil. Add salt and pepper to taste. This will be when all the flavors start to come together. Time to add the water and afterwards the artichokes. Add saffron and turmeric for flavor and to add that nice yellow color distinctive of this dish.
Add the two cups of rice and mix everything together and to spread the rice all over the pan. Still on high heat, wait for water to start boiling. After 7-8 minutes, turn heat to medium.
The paella will be done in exactly 18 minutes. Do not mix rice while it is being cooked! This will only break the grains, make your paella too starchy and give it an unpleasant texture.
When the 18 minutes have passed, you can turn the heat to high again to get the rice at the bottom of the pan crispy. Leave it on for approximately 1 minute, then turn off. Let it sit for 5-6 minutes on the cook top before serving.
Now, research is very important, therefore we recommend an internship in southern Spain eating a lot of paella in the city, on the coast and anywhere you can think of. A good idea would be to stay at one of our apartments in Nerja and go to the famous Ayo restaurant to have paella ?till you drop right at the beach.
Or you can come to Malaga, buy the best saffron in the world and do a "paella tapa tour" and taste all the different variations of this delicious dish. Make sure to stop by Arrozeando, Puro Pescaito and Meson Cantarrana, they're famous for their rices. In the city, Solaga has?over 40 apartments to choose from in the center or nearby. Whenever you come, chances are the weather will be great and the paella delicious!
