Paella Crunchy Rice

Well, not always.Asking for a pound of fish will get you lots of funny looks in London because a pound is an amount of currency not a measurement.

During a summer study abroad in college I shared a house with nearly 20 people and visiting the kitchen for more than a bowl of cereal was of little priority. But eventually my friends and I realized spending lots of money every day in restaurants was cutting into our weekend travel budgets.

So we dutifully took trips down the street to Sainsbury’s or Waitrose if we didn’t feel like walking an extra block and had a few extra pounds to spend. We mostly bought rotisserie chickens, the makings for salad, and the aforementioned cereal.

Spanish Vegan Paella

Despite never having made or even eaten paella, it somehow became the dinner I had to make. I picked up some sort of kit with the rice and spice blend and made a beeline for the fish counter. But when I asked the man for a pound of fish, he looked at me like I was nuts and came out from around the counter and proceeded to show my friend and I what a pound of fish was. Basically half a filet.

Great Britain is an English speaking country but I could not articulate to him that I wanted more. The weights and measurement system drained from my brain and I took my tiny filet to go. Luckily you can buy shrimp but simply saying, “I want X number of shrimp” so at least we had something. But things only got worse from there.

I can barely make a proper pot of rice in America in my own kitchen, so a foreign kitchen and this kit were not setting me up for success. The rice came out gummy and I folded in the minuscule fish pieces and pink shrimp to make an unappetizing dinner but it tasted ok and dinner was had. Lesson learned.

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Actual paella is not made in a tiny stockpot. It requires a large paella pan and hopefully an outdoor grill. The flames from the grill and the pan develops a crispy layer of rice on the bottom and fluffy rice on top.

This sounds delicious. This does not sound like what we ate that summer night in London.But I have modified what we devoured and Persian rice into a modified crispy paella rice.

In addition to the giant pan and grill, the other must for paella is saffron. The pricy little spice is a major splurge but is sold in teeny tiny increments so you don’t go completely insane at the checkout. Just a few threads will add a deep ruddy color and unique flavor to your crispy paella rice. Since I don’t want to use up all of my impulse bought saffron from Amazon, I round out the dish with smoked paprika and yellow turmeric.

Tips For Making An Authentic Spanish Paella

Before the spices show up, you soak rice in water for at least a half hour. You can go longer if you’ve really thought ahead but 30 minutes is about as far out that I can plan for when I want dinner. While the rice is soaking, you saute shallots and garlic in turmeric to start building the base of the rice.

After the rice has soaked for as long as you can stand you boil it in more water than you’d ever use to cook rice. The rice is treated more like pasta and is pulled from the water when it’s al dente. Cook the rice in the same pot you used for the shallots and garlic so any extra flavor and the color from the turmeric gets picked up by the water and rice. The rice will pick up a yellow-ish hue.

While the rice is boiling you bloom the saffron and smoked paprika in a little bit of oil and water. This liquid gets drizzled over the rice when it gets its final steam.

Recipe For A Authentic Spanish Vegan Paella

For that final steam, you heat up your stockpot with a thin film of oil and a little more smoked paprika. Then you pack the par-cooked rice and shallot and garlic in the pot, pressing the paella rice down to form a crust at the bottom of the pot.

You pour the seasoned oil and water mixture over the rice and then top the pot with a lid wrapped in a towel. The towel keeps too much liquid from escaping and ensures the lid has a tight fit. Then you drop the heat to low and let the rice steam on top and crisp on the bottom.

And after all of that work then you wait a little bit more. You can tell the rice is cooked when you insert a knife into the rice and you can feel the blade pierce a crispy bottom. Once things are crisped up the pot then needs to rest for another 20 minutes.

Skillet Chicken And Chorizo Paella Recipe

But finally, finally after all of that waiting is done you replace the towel wrapped lid with a plate and flip the whole thing. Hopefully, cross your fingers, the crispy paella rice will unmold from the pot and drop onto the plate. The crispy crust will be on top and underneath will be a pile of perfectly steamed rice. If your crispy paella rice cake doesn’t perfectly come out then spoon out the crispy top and place it on top of the steamy rice.

Use this method but switch up the spices to make a crispy rice cake with many different flavor profiles. I like saffron and smoked paprika but Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes would make a great bed for meatballs.Paella is a Catalan word that derives from the Old French word paelle for pan, which in turn comes from the Latin word patella for pan.  Paella is a Valencian rice dish that originated in its modern form in the mid-19th century near Lake Albufera, a lagoon in Valencia, on the east coast of Spain.  Most non-Spaniards view paella as Spain’s national dish.  However, most Spaniards consider it to be a regional Valencian dish. Valencians, in turn, regard paella as one of their identifying symbols.

Finding paella in Barcelona is no more difficult than walking down the street.  That being said, not all paella is created (or should I say, cooked) equally.  In fact, most paella you encounter in Barcelona is geared towards tourists (read: under or overcooked rice, no saffron — hello yellow dye number 2; if the paella is lacking the subtle aroma of saffron, then you have a fake) and forgettable.  One Barcelona native I chatted with compared the paella on Barcelona’s La Rambla to a TV dinner.  A few things to keep in mind when seeking quality paella: If you go to a restaurant and mention the word socarrat and the staff look at you quizzically and/or inform you that they bake their paella in the oven,  turn around and walk out the door.  There is better paella to be found.

The Dos And Don'ts For Real Deal Paella

You might be asking yourself, what the heck is socarrat?  Socarrat refers to the crispy, savory crust that forms on the the bottom layer of rice when the paella is cooked properly.  The socarrat is achieved by turning up the heat in the final minutes of cooking.  You’ll know within the first few bites if the socarrat is present.  Also, do not let your server dish out the paella onto individual plates.  Paella should be served in its pan, lest you lose the coveted socarrat.

Cooking paella requires a wide shallow pan and a strong heat source that can be distributed uniformly on the bottom of the paella pan.  Ideally, the best heat source for cooking paella is an open fire fueled by vine cuttings or citrus or olive tree trimmings.  Given that most people do not have access to vine cuttings and a blazing wood fire, an open heat source such as a stove top, charcoal grill, or even a freestanding propane or butane burner (as seen below) will work.

It is not uncommon for restaurants to cook paella in the oven to speed up the cooking process. Unfortunately, developing the socarrat — considered by many to be the past part of paella — in the oven is difficult.

Spanish Paella Recipe (paella Valenciana)

We actually walked out of one restaurant in Barcelona after the paella was brought to our table: A soupy paella with overcooked rice and lacking any trace of socarrat.  Both the waiter and owner looked confused when we mentioned the lack of soccarat and responded, “Soccarrat, we have not heard of such a word.”  At the time, I felt slightly bad about walking out, but it was our last day in Spain and not how I wanted to remember paella.  Undeterred, we walked over to Xiringuito d’ Escriba, located along the Mediterranean Sea, where the paella is very good.

This is the seafood paella from Xiringuito d’ Escriba.  You can see the socarrat in the paella below; the layer of rice is very thin and has a nice carmalized, golden brown hue.  We chatted with the paella master for a while; unlike some other establishments, she spoke at length