Perfect Peasant Paella
Travel the world and never leave your kitchen. With airports having huge time delays due to security lines and the uncertainty of air travel, visiting other countries can be a drag. Instead, bring the country to you through its food. We are starting our trip around the world with Europe and working our way from the East coast through to the Slovak countries and then Russia. Our first stop is Spain and Portugal located on the Iberian peninsula right below France. Bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the East, the Alborian Sea and the Atlantic Ocean on the West coast, both cuisines have lots of seafood dishes. Spain is a hop, skip and a jump across the strait of Gibraltar from Morocco to the south.
Paella is a peasant dish named after the pan it’s cooked in. That pan, standing on four legs, has a flat bottom, is round and several inches deep. A fire is built beneath the pan with twigs for as long as the food needs to be cooked. As long as the basis of the dish is rice, paella can contain a huge variety of ingredients. Perhaps the best known outside of Spain is seafood paella.
Not having a paella pan, use a flat bottomed skillet. Cook on a grill for an authentic touch or use the stove top and oven, as we did. Paella is too much work for less than four people. For each four servings use one cup of rice, 1/2 chicken, 4 oz. of chorizo and assorted seafood, about 1 lb. We used shrimp, mussels and clams. Lobster changes the dish from peasant to expensive.
Add 1/4 cup of olive oil to the pan placed on medium heat. When the oil is just starting to haze, brown the chicken, cut into serving size pieces. Remove the chicken from the pan when brown. Add 4 oz of chorizo. We don’t have access to the dried version of the sausage so used fresh pork chorizo. When the orange oil from the chorizo has been released and it’s starting to brown, add 1/2 cup finely chopped onion, 1/2 cup of green, red, yellow sweet peppers cut in strips and 2 cloves of minced garlic. Cook until the vegetables have softened, about three to five minutes. Add 1 chopped large tomato. Put the chicken back in the pan. Add 3 cups of chicken broth and 1 1/2 cup of rice. Chop a quarter cup each of cilantro and parsley. Add those plus 1 cup of frozen peas. Stir. Place the seafood on top of the rice mixture and push it down into the rice and broth. Place the pan in a 375 degree preheated oven. Bake uncovered for 30 to 45 minutes. Check after 20 minutes and add additional chicken broth if the pan is dry.
You may have noticed that saffron has been left out of this not-so-classic paella version. That’s simply because saffron is one of the most expensive spices in the world. Saffron is the pollen from fall-blooming saffron crocus. Spanish peasants would not have had access to such a delicacy. In some ways, paella without saffron is more authentic than one with saffron. If you want the intense yellow coloring add a teaspoon of turmeric or dry mustard.
Dee Power is the author of several nonfiction books and the novel “Over Time.” She loves to share gardening tips. Find grilling recipes she and her partner Brian Hill have developed. They live with their two dogs, Rose an Irish setter and Kate, an English springer spaniel. And yes the Irish and the English do get along.