Paella: A Spanish fiesta in a pan

Editor's note: Queen Sofia of Spain is on a four-day visit to the country, where she is expected to  attend a banquet hosted by President Aquino. For 300 years, Spanish influence shaped to a great extent our country's culture, including our culinary traditions. Here's a Spanish-inspired dish that has become a favorite of many Filipinos--paella valenciana.

I grew up eating my Nanay’s arroz valenciana, a combination of sticky rice, some chicken, pork, and sometimes, some seafood and vegetables. It knew of it as a “special occasion” dish, cooked by her during Christmas or whenever the whole family is gathered. 

 

I never knew then that the arroz valenciana I ate was a spin-off, a dish that, like most “fiesta” dishes on the tables of Filipino families, had its roots in the coastal towns of Spain.

 

Later, I would learn that the arroz valenciana is a Filipino version of the paella, a regional rice dish that had its origins in Valencia, Spain (hence, the word “valenciana”), and that even in that country, the dish would be cooked differently depending on what is locally available in a particular region. 

 

Those lying in the coastal areas would have clams, snails, fish, and crab in their paellas known as marisco, while the rest would have a mixta or a combination of seafood and meats. Other variations would come up such as the Spanish restaurant favorite, the squid ink paella or the arroz negre, but what remains is that a paella has rice as the main dish, cooked slowly in a what we call a paellera, a round, shallow stainless steel pan with two handles. It is also imperative that paella is cooked with saffron and olive oil.  

 

Also, what’s constant in the cooking of the paella is the method. It must be cooked slowly over a low fire or in an oven, the rice simmering gently in a rich broth. I prefer to cook it on the stove as I can adjust the broth and add more to the rice to make the cooking even. 

 

The addition of a pinch of saffron threads, pounded to a powdery texture to extract a rich orange-red color, makes the paella true to its origins. Because saffron is expensive, some Filipino cooks would use kasuba or achuete for coloring but for the paella to be authentic, saffron threads (now available in supermarkets and specialty gourmet stores) must be used. But whichever way you cook the rice, paella lovers would always dig for the soccarat or browned rice bits at the bottom of the paellera, the most flavorful portions of the dish.

 

In my adult years, I wanted to learn how to cook the authentic Spanish paella or the closest to the original version that could possibly be cooked with ingredients that can be found in Manila. I also had to learn how to cook it because we opened some food court stores in the malls called “La Paella” and served several versions of paella. 

 

Yet somehow, the dish never fails to remind me of the arroz valenciana of my mom and of special occasions with family and friends that merit this kind of a dish. The paella’s color, its festiveness, and even its size (it can easily feed a family or an entire clan depending on the size of your paellera) make it a dish meant to be shared to celebrate milestones and happy moments. 

 

It’s too bad that my Nanay did not live long enough to taste my paella. But more than what I learned in culinary school or in my outings in Spanish restaurants, the paella that I now cook for our family reminds me of her and of the many times she cooked her version of this dish for us—all festive, bringing colorful memories of my siblings and relatives gathered round a table, enjoying what we never clearly knew then was a dish invented thousands of miles away, the Paella Valenciana. 

 

The following is my own tried and tested recipe of this dish. 

 

PAELLA VALENCIANA

Tried and tested

 

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

5 to 6 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup onions, chopped

1 can chorizo bilbao, sliced

250 g pork loin or liempo, cut into pieces (seasoned)

6 pcs. boneless chicken breasts (seasoned with calamansi, salt, and pepper)

red bell pepper / green bell pepper, sliced

150 g tomato paste

450 g short grain rice (soaked in water for 15 mins at least)

6 to 8 cups hot chicken broth

salt and pepper

pinch of saffron

frozen green peas

 

Toppings:

boiled mussels or clams (with salt and pepper)

squid, sliced

8 to 15 pcs of shrimps (boiled in water with slices of calamansi, salt, and pepper)

2 pcs small crabs

sliced hard-boiled eggs

 

Procedure:

 

 

–KG, GMA News