KIC+ Manchester Volume 3, February 2014 | Page 16

The Food

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16

Paella - By Jorge Perez Gutierrez

Paella is a famous Spanish rice dish that originated in its modern form in the mid-19th century. Many non-Spaniards view paella as Spain's national dish, but most Spaniards consider it to be a regional Valencian dish.

There are three widely known types of paella: Valencian paella (Spanish: paella valenciana), seafood paella (Spanish: paella de marisco) and mixed paella (Spanish: paella mixta), but there are many others as well. Valencian paella consists of white rice, green vegetables, meat (rabbit, chicken, duck, land snails), beans and seasoning. Seafood paella replaces land animals with seafood and omits beans and green vegetables. Mixed paella is a free-style combination of land animals, seafood, vegetables, and sometimes beans.

Most paella chefs use calasparra or bomba rice for this dish, which usually are medium grain almost short, and have the peculiarity of absorbing more water than the rest.

Chicken and chorizo paella

Ingredients:

Salt

An appropriate paellera pan!

A mug full of rice

2 and a half mugs of water

An onion

A carrot

A piece of garlic

1/4 of red pepper

1/4 of green pepper

A table spoon of saffron

A stock cube of chicken or beef

Chorizo

Chicken breast

Olive oil

Before starting, I should point out that the paellera is not a must, but it will make the recipe look like the original. As instead, you could use a stainless pan- it would do the trick!

Firstly, you need to peel and cut the vegetables (the onion, the carrot, the garlic and the peppers) in small pieces.

Then it’s time to put the pieces in the pan with a tablespoon of oil and salt. You should fry the pieces using the cooker at a medium heat, moving them with a wooden spoon in the pan for at least 10 minutes, till you notice that they are nearly cooked.

After this, it's time to add the slices of chorizo and the pieces of chicken. If you don't have enough oil in the pan, you could put a little bit more in it. Stir the pieces till there are nearly cooked. Cook these pieces with the cooker at the same power as before, but just for 5 minutes.

Time for the rice! Now, you should put the rice in the pan and stir it again until you see that the colour of the rice starts to change to brown. Then, you need to add the water, the saffron, the stock cube of chicken or beef and little bit more salt. Optionally, you can add a dash of paprika too. You should mix all the ingredients inside the pan to put them at the same level, in order to cook all the rice equally and distribute all the saffron and salt in the pan. Use the cooker at the same power as before (so at medium heat).

At this time, you need to wait till the rice increases in size into the pan. Don't move anything in the pan if you don't see that the rice is not being cooked. If it is being cooked, let it continues; if not, try to move the rice and all the other ingredients to make them cook.

At the end, when the water is evaporated, I recommend you to put a little bit more water in it. Finally, when all the water is evaporated, switch off the cooker and wait 5 minutes before serving it.

BUEN PROVECHO!