What is paella and how to cook. Kitchen appliances and utensils

For foreigners spanish paella- one of the symbols of this country, the same as flamenco or bullfighting. When it comes to the cuisine of Spain, then, probably, this dish will come to mind first.

For foreigners, Spanish paella is one of the symbols of this country, just like flamenco or bullfighting. When it comes to the cuisine of Spain, then, probably, this dish will come to mind first. But this is a side view. How do Spaniards feel about paella? Just like the Italians - to pasta: there are many excellent dishes, but there is paella. And this is serious. The Spaniards are ready to argue until they are hoarse about new recipes and methods of preparing this dish and complain that paella is "depersonalized", spreading around the world. Frozen convenience foods for the microwave? This is absolutely impossible! Paella is considered national treasure that needs to be carefully preserved...

In fact, paella is not a dish at all, it is a whole group of dishes that are united only by rice, olive oil and saffron. And, of course, how to cook rice. It is believed that there are over three hundred various recipes paella. In reality, there are many more of them - just as every Russian housewife has a "secret" borscht recipe inherited from her grandmother, so the Spanish macho (and paella is traditionally prepared by men) has its own culinary secret.

And this dish is not Spanish at all! It is Valencian, and this is recognized even by residents of other regions. The Arabs, who owned the Iberian Peninsula for many centuries, instilled in the locals the culture of rice growing and rice eating. The climate of Valencia is best suited for rice cultivation, which is why paella originated here.

Of course, there are several different legends about this. The "romantic" legend tells of a fisherman who spent time waiting for his beloved - he mixed everything he found in his kitchen and seasoned it with rice. Beloved appreciated the results of the culinary experiment!

The "historical" legend tells how some important person came to Valencia (options: the Roman emperor, the Spanish king, the bishop, and so on - up to Napoleon!) In order to properly show hospitality and treat the visitor to glory, the inhabitants gathered all their supplies and prepared a new dish.

A "practical" legend assures that paella was invented by Christian servants of the Moorish rulers, bringing home the remnants of their master's feasts, or poor fishermen, combining the remnants of their catches with rice.

The true time of appearance of paella is unknown, but in Spanish cookbooks Ah, it has been featured since the 18th century.

Nowadays, paella can be ordered in almost every restaurant in Spain, but, unfortunately, tasty dish not so easy to find - tested on own experience! The influx of multilingual tourists who decided to join the "real Spanish cuisine", led to the fact that restaurant owners began to frankly hack. Alas, too often, under the guise of paella, you will be served "poorly cooked pilaf", where the rice is either too tough or looks like porridge-slurry, the chicken will resemble the sole, and the shells mussels will be empty ...

A few tips for those wishing to avoid such disappointment.

Where and when is there? The universal rule - do not order this dish in beach restaurants and near popular tourist attractions! And you definitely shouldn't take paella as part of the "menu del dia" - they will bring the dish to you in a few minutes, which can only mean that it was cooked a long time ago, but they just warmed it up for you ... In general, the further you move away from the tourist area, the more chances to taste authentic paella. Be careful: in a traditional restaurant, paella is never served for dinner - it is a daily dish. And it’s also not customary to cook it for one, so it’s better to taste paella in a company. For many years, the traditional "pael day" in Spain was Thursday, when the dish was prepared in all local "catering". They explain it in different ways. Someone says that everything started from the time when Thursday was the day off for the Spanish maids, so on this day the family dined out. And some believe that the fishermen who went to sea on Monday returned on Wednesday, and the next day a fresh catch was delivered to the restaurants.

And on Sunday it is customary to cook paella at home. Outdoors and open fire– for the whole family and friends, turning cooking and eating into real holiday. It is believed that the joint eating of paella unites and brings together. I willingly believe - do not quarrel over delicious, lovingly prepared food? Of course, the best way to taste paella is this way... On big holidays, this dish is prepared for the whole town - in giant pans, so that there is enough for everyone. In the Valencian region, an obligatory part of the celebration of Saint Joseph's Day (March 19th) is the preparation of a huge paella. And in 2001, near Madrid, they made a giant paella for 100,000 people!

How and with what?

The simplest answer to this question is with pleasure (if the paella is good, of course)! However, there are some subtleties that I want to talk about.

There are two ways to serve paella - traditional and modern.

According to the classics, paella is eaten directly from the pan, all together - each from its own "sector". Most traditionally - with wooden spoons, since (according to the assurance of culinary purists) metal devices spoil the taste. But nowadays, as a rule, both plates and cutlery are served. It is customary to put unpeeled mussels and shrimps on the edge of a plate or pan, and eat them at the end with your hands. It is also permissible to separate the chicken and meat from the bones with your hands. There is also a "lazy paella" (for lazy eaters, not cooks), where all seafood is pre-cleaned. Another rule is to eat up the "burned" rice crust (called "sokorrat") at the bottom of the pan. Leaving her is to offend the chef and not appreciate the dish!

It is customary to drink paella with dry wine, depending on the type of dish, it can be white, red and pink. But not sangria! In the "right" paella restaurants, sangria is not even on the menu!

Which paella to choose? This is probably the most complex issue… As I said, there are many types of this dish.

Meat paella (paella de carne) can include chicken, duck, rabbit, pork, jamon and even spicy sausage chorizo and sausages. I personally have not seen beef and lamb in paella, but I can well admit that somewhere these types of meat are also used. Sometimes a hard-boiled egg is also added. Such paella is prepared both in water and in broth.

Seafood paella (paella marinera or paella de marisco) consists of shrimp and squid different sizes, octopuses, cuttlefish, mussels and other shells. There are also exquisite lobsters, lobsters, crabs. To Valencian paella paella valenciana) put snails. Seafood is often paired with fish. different types, there is and clean fish options- paella de pescado. You can cook these types of paella on the water, fish broth and dry white wine. A special type of paella is called "black rice" (arroz negro) - it is cooked with cuttlefish, the ink of which is used to color the dish.

The choice of vegetables for paella is very wide - you can use Bell pepper, zucchini, artichokes, green beans, beans, carrots, green pea, olives and even mushrooms. Tomatoes are a must! But as for onions and garlic, the controversy does not subside - there are both zealous supporters of the use of these vegetables and ardent opponents ... Vegetables in the most different combinations can be included in any kind of paella, but also exist and purely vegetarian options dishes ( paella de verduras or paella vegetariana). Of the spices and seasonings, salt (preferably large sea salt) and saffron (only natural!) Are obligatory - about a stamen per serving. Paella is often flavored with ground paprika and rosemary. And it is customary to serve lemon to the finished dish.

The most famous mixed paella (paella mixta), which is most often offered to tourists. The most familiar combination is chicken and seafood with vegetables, although you can find more exotic options. The main debate about paella is just about what and with what it is permissible to mix. As elsewhere, there are "conservatives" behind traditional combinations products and "innovators" who stand up for the freedom of creativity. In general, this dish is a paradise for lovers. culinary experiments. There are so many variations of paella that there is simply no "real" or "correct" one! There is only delicious and tasteless ... Invent your own paella - what could be more interesting?

So how do you make paella? Despite the scope for culinary fantasy, there are several rules that you need to follow, no matter what paella you cook.

First of all, we choose dishes. The wide and shallow pan with two handles we need is called paella or paella (the dish got its name from it, and not vice versa!) Its diameter varies from 20 cm to a meter. Since the layer of rice should not exceed two centimeters, the diameter is calculated according to the number of eaters. Cast iron paellas are considered the best, for cleaning which they never use detergents.

It is very important to ensure that the food being cooked is evenly heated. I was struck by how seriously the Spaniards take this - they even sell special gas burners that are needed so that the flame is the same under the entire paella. If the dish is the highlight of the picnic program and is cooked on an open fire, then the fire is constantly monitored, and the firewood is chosen long and carefully. Dry are considered ideal. vine And Orange tree, but this is already at the level of gourmet tales ...

The hardest part about making paella is catching the moment when the rice has reached the right consistency—soft enough, but not overcooked. During cooking (especially when there is no experience), you have to either increase the fire, then add water or broth, and at the very end you need to make the heating very strong for a couple of minutes - so that the same “crust” is formed. And remember - paella is not stirred! Before serving, the paella "hot hot" is left for a few minutes - so the rice will finally "come to condition".

Most the best rice for paella - Valencian (there are many varieties - for example, bahia or bomba). But quite any will do round (not steamed and not flavored), which absorbs liquid well. Paella rice is not washed!

And now, when general recommendations everything is clear, let me offer you some recipes. I have been collecting them for many years in different regions of Spain (recipes were given to me by neighbors, friends and even restaurateurs), translated advice from cookbooks and Spanish websites, tried, combined and processed ... After all, paella is creativity! The result was something that was perfect for me and my household. All recipes are for 4-5 servings and a pan 40 cm in diameter. (In a Moscow kitchen, you have to cook in two smaller pans that fit the diameter of the electric stove burners).

Paella Valencian

1 small chicken (up to 1 kg)
0.5 kg duck ( better legs) or 0.5 kg rabbit
15-20 pcs. snails (I took already boiled, but in shells)
0.3 kg of rice
2-3 garlic cloves
1 large tomato
0.3 kg green beans
0.2 kg white beans (pre-soaked or boiled)
Saffron (grind 4-5 stamens), 1 tsp ground paprika, salt to taste, rosemary
Olive oil

Saute garlic in large quantities olive oil, remove from paella. In the same oil golden brown fry the meat, chopped together with the bones, into pieces of 3-5 cm. Add green beans, white beans, fry. Add peeled and finely chopped tomato, snails, salt, paprika, saffron and a sprig of rosemary. Pour in water (approximately 1 liter) and simmer for 15-20 minutes. When the water has evaporated by half, remove the rosemary, add the rice and spread it evenly over the pan. Don't interfere! Cook for the first 10 minutes over high heat, then reduce heat and cook for another 7-10 minutes. When the rice absorbs almost all the water, sharply increase the heat - literally for 1 minute. This is how the notorious crust is formed. Remove from heat, cover with a towel (the Spaniards - honestly! - use newspaper) and let stand for about 5 minutes. Serve with lemon cut into quarters.

P.S. If someone is embarrassed by snails, then you can do just fine without them!

Paella with seafood

For her you will need:

Large shrimps -15-20 pcs. It is better to use unpeeled or at least with ponytails
Calamari - 2 medium
Mussels (in shells) - 15-20 pcs. If you are using mussels without shells, then take them a little more
Octopuses - 4-5 small or 2 medium
Scallops- 0.2 kg
0.3 kg of rice
2-3 garlic cloves
2 tomatoes
Saffron (grind 4-5 stamens), 1 tsp ground paprika, salt to taste
0.5 l dry white wine

The principle of preparation is almost the same as in previous recipe. Therefore, just a few words about the order of bookmarking products. First, fry the shrimp and scallops, remove from the pan. They will need to be returned to the dish at the very end of cooking. Stew the rest of the seafood with tomatoes and spices in white wine, then add water, bring it to a boil and add rice.

P.S. In the absence of fresh seafood, you can use frozen. The taste, of course, is different, but it turns out well - checked! Before cooking, it is better to slowly defrost them in the refrigerator, drain the water and dry them. Seafood can be taken any and in any combination.

Before I move on to the third recipe, let me give you a little background. I ordered a dish called "arroz a banda" (something like "rice separately") in a tiny restaurant, with the owner of which I became friends, only after long and persistent persuasion, and then - in order not to offend good man. Well, what is the interest of empty rice when you can add a lot of wonderful ingredients to it?! I was not mistaken so much for a long time - the dish brought to me was not just delicious ... It was a masterpiece! What I then cooked at home, using the recipe kindly given to me, was not drawn to a masterpiece. But it was delicious. I hope that next time it will turn out better - I will try. Try it too.

First of all, you need to cook a strong rich broth from fish and seafood. You can use any kind of fish (bones, heads, tails and fins also go into business) and any " marine reptiles". In addition to salt, the broth is flavored with rosemary, thyme, bay leaf and black pepper (peas). The broth must be filtered, but the remaining small pieces fish or shrimp are perfectly acceptable.

For 500 grams of rice, we need a liter of broth, a couple of cloves of garlic, 1 onion, 2 tomatoes, olive oil and, of course, saffron.

Fry the chopped garlic in olive oil (this time we leave it in the paella!), add the finely chopped onion and bring it to golden color. Then we put the mashed tomatoes without skin and saffron. Pour in broth, bring to a boil, add rice. Further - everything is the same as for any paella. This rice is served with lemon and aioli sauce.

Seafood Recipes

A simple recipe for paella with seafood, as well as tips for preparing and serving the dish, secrets and subtleties when choosing products, step by step photos and video.

1 h 30 min

141.2 kcal

4.6/5 (5)

Paella is a delicious traditional Spanish dish., which is based on rice with the addition of vegetables, chicken, seafood and even beans. There are several hundreds of recipes for this dish, but it is with the addition of seafood that the classic, most common and beloved by the Spaniards variation of paella comes out. It is such a recipe that we will consider today, learn and cook!

What you need to know before you start cooking

Kitchen appliances and utensils:

saucepan, for cooking fish broth;
wooden spatula;

large frying pan;
plate.

Important! Paella is cooked in a special frying pan called paelra. Its peculiarity is that this frying pan has quite big sizes in the area and low sides. During cooking, you will have to fill the rice with broth, and it is in such utensils that all the ingredients can be placed in one uniform layer and let the water evaporate quickly and also evenly, otherwise we are threatened with overcooking the rice. Of course, this utensil is not available in every home, so try to choose a pan that is as suitable as possible according to the criteria described above.

Did you know? If you have mollusks in shells at your disposal, then you don’t need to get them out of there. In the process of cooking, you will add them to the boiling broth and the shells will open themselves. classic paella This is how it is served in Spain.

Let's start cooking

Preparatory stage

Second phase

Third stage

With what and how to serve paella on the table

Even in the most elite restaurants in Spain, you will be served paella on the table directly in paelra with wooden spoons - these are the traditions of eating this dish. Paelra is served so that you can enjoy a crust of slightly burnt rice at the bottom of the pan (this is considered the most delicious in the dish).

It is believed that ordinary metal spoons can give the dish a taste of metal, so it is customary to eat paella with wooden spoons. Of course, there is no shame in the fact that you do not want to follow all the Spanish traditions and file this dish in plates with ordinary metal forks. Remember, your table, your rules.

If you added unpeeled seafood to the dish, then it is customary to put them on the edge of the pan (or plate), and then eat them, peeling them with your hands. All seafood can be put on a separate plate and garnished with herbs and lemon slices. Thus, on the table it will turn into a separate dish, to which it will be very useful to serve dry white wine.

You can cook paella itself or, they will perfectly complement your table, and not a single guest will leave you hungry.

Shrimps, mussels, squids are the most common seafood, from which they cook for all of us famous dishes, after which they acquire a completely different taste. You can experiment with them and cook really tasty and simple

Follow me as I list clockwise from twelve o'clock: peeled tomatoes, chicken bouillon, carabinieri shrimp, olive oil, paprika, saffron, beans, gumbo pepper, garlic, onion, chili pepper (not at all, absolutely not spicy!) lightly boiled chicken legs, chicken breast fillet and, of course, the bomb!

Don't be so scared, why are you so scared? This is Spanish rice, a special variety, it's called - the bomb!
This special rice for paella. Rather, this paella was formed around this rice and products that have been available in Valencia for the last five hundred years.
When you have such magnificent rice in front of you, the appearance of which you have been waiting for several years, demanding it in the market "bring spanish rice bomb, bring Spanish rice bomb", and suddenly they bring and say "everything, they brought it, come, buy, what will you cook from it?", in general, at such an exciting moment, was it hard to forget chorizo sausage? About jamon you will forget, you will forget to drink for the success of the enterprise, not only about chorizo!
Okay, I'll eat this sausage without paella. It's all the same, noble connoisseurs of noble Spanish paella will find something to accuse me of.
After all, you are familiar with the comments under pilaf recipes “well, no, this is not pilaf, it’s some kind of rice porridge with meat, since you don’t have zira in pilaf” or “ real plov only from..."?
In general, there are exactly as many disputes around paella in Spain as we have around real borscht, rice porridge with meat and coordination council of the opposition.
Well, what should I do? I need to work on a book about pilaf, and pilaf is such a dish - pilaf is spread over the entire continent, from Korea to Spain, so it’s not always possible to talk about dev-zira, yellow carrots and fat tails, and I still have a lot of work to do.

Let's start by replacing the fat tail with olive oil. Imagine what a laugh - they have there, in Spain, there is no fat tail, but there is olive oil. And here they are cooking paella in olive oil. Well, they say so, but in fact, what kind of oil is, they pour it. Everything is like ours!
And remember that onion, which at the very beginning was fried in cottonseed oil cooking pilaf? Here, instead of that onion, I took shells from carabinieri shrimp. Now I'll explain everything!
The fact is that these shrimp - amazing product. They are already red when raw, but this is not the main thing. If I fry them just like that, for the purpose of eating, then I don’t add any spices to them and don’t even salt them - their taste and aroma are so self-sufficient. But for frying these shrimp, I pour a little more oil than usual - it becomes very tasty, the shrimp give their luxurious, incomparable taste to the oil and even give the oil a reddish tint. So I decided to flavor the paella oil with shells. Well, do not throw away this taste and smell just like that?
Of course, if my paella (the pan for cooking paella, which gave the name to this dish) was bigger, then these huge shrimp could be cooked whole, it would be possible to sit down with some kind of lobster, vongule, something else they would bring from the Mediterranean Sea, but here the trouble is that my frying pan is small, only 34 cm in diameter, so I had to count the volume of products and save space.
So, listen, if you do not have carabinieri, but regular shrimp, then all of the above does not apply to you, but read on - maybe it will come in handy.

Flavor the oil as usual with onion and garlic until a good smell comes out.
Yes, I completely forgot to say: live fire is also desirable under paella, as well as under pilaf. And if not live, but gas, then the burner should be on two or three rings in order to distribute the heat as evenly as possible. This is very, very important!
But if you have a copper skillet, or a cast iron skillet, but you have a splitter and a powerful enough burner, then everything will turn out very well, do not worry. Moreover, too big fire, as for cooking pilaf, you won’t need it! Fire and heating must be uniform - this is the main condition.

Do you know why chicken feet I took boiled? Even if they are not cooked to readiness, here, in the pan, they will brown and cook as expected. And then I have a chicken, as always, a village one. So I removed her breast, left it raw, and cooked the broth from the rest. Well, while the broth was cooking, and chopped off the legs.
Listen to me just a minute more: if you don't have canned own juice tomato, then peel the usual ones, cut them, and fry them. There are some eccentrics, they also remove tomato seeds. For what?

It is necessary to remove seeds and partitions from peppers, otherwise they will give bitterness.

Here you go. Chicken breast strips, green beans, salt, paprika. As soon as it is fried, as soon as the oil smells even tastier, like ...

Let's pour the broth!
Do you understand how important it is to have good broth and, God forbid, listen to Alexei Zimin?
Boil the chicken body in a small amount water, add an onion, carrots, peppercorns, a couple of clove buds, Bay leaf, not to say a bouquet of garni - what kind of cube? What kind of natural? Natural broth is something that stands on the stove and smells like a good, cozy home, not a doshirak!
I’ll tell you one more thing: this Zimin, when he lowers the cubes into the pan in front of the cameras, he probably holds one hand behind him - he crosses his fingers on it and does not show this figure to advertisers, because everyone needs money very, very much, and the cubes are no longer all, or at least not so much.

And of course, for those who do not have cubes, it is well known that since Spain, then here you have saffron! There, someone directly adds saffron hairs, and we all do it in our own way, in Persian, in Azerbaijani - rub saffron with salt, pour boiling water, let it brew - this is saffron, this is infusion, this is natural color holiday!

Do these Spaniards know how to lay rice? Crosswise. P-fffff!
During the conquest, the Arabs planted rice in Valencia, and therefore, after the reconquista, they even wanted to root out the rice as a purely Muslim culture, and, besides, the Christian Spaniards saw that the Arabs, laying rice, would certainly pronounce "with the name of the Lord" - " Bismilla-rahmon-rahim", as Uzbek chefs say today, laying rice in pilaf. But then they thought, "It's delicious! What to do? We're not fools, even though we expelled the Arabs and Jews?" and decided to lay the rice crosswise, such as "pig-pig, turn into crucian" or "there was a wild boar, there was a ram, there was a wild boar, there was a ram." Well, you understand, right? After all, this is food, not food! Without a spiritual component and superstitions, it could not do here either.

But for culinary specialists, it is more important to remember not the words that must be pronounced when lowering rice, but the fact that, in our opinion, the broth, zirvak, should be much more than rice. And rice, on the contrary, you need a little. That's 300-400 grams is enough!
And let it boil, take your time, do not add fire and do not shovel the rice. Just level it evenly and leave it alone. He himself will appear above the surface in about ten minutes.

And soon the water will begin to boil away, and the rice will still be solid.
But keep in mind that rice will be ready all of a sudden, just like in Uzbek pilaf!
So let's, do not hesitate, lay out the shrimp on the surface, slightly drowning them in rice. For the remaining time of cooking rice, just the shrimp will ripen!

In this place, real Spaniards take out paella for Fresh air and put on the sand.
I also have sand, but I did not dare to take such a frying pan to the gate - after all, it was lunch time!
The hour is not even, you will be left without paella, but with bon appetit!
So I put the paella on cast iron pancake, which worked exactly like sand - took heat away from the bottom.
After all, when the rice swelled, the convection in the pan completely stopped, respectively, the lower layer of rice received more heat and something like a kazmakh even formed there. So that this rice remains just ruddy, seized with a sort of crust, but does not burn to black, and you need to quickly cool the pan.
You are experienced with me, you remember everything at a time, I told you about the cauldron - as soon as you smell the characteristic smell of baked rice, put it into a bowl with cold water his bottom. Well, or on a damp napkin folded in two or three layers, you can put a paella frying pan - once, it hissed, the bottom has cooled down, everything is in order, thanks to secondary education.

Let the paella rest a little more, let the rice soak up the remnants of zirvak, and that's it! Ready!
Please eat while it's hot, and preferably straight from the pan!

PS It upsets me terribly that the word paella comes from the name of the pan, and not from the word pilaf. After all, it looks like sounds, and cooking technology. Well, in fact, take a cauldron from the Uzbeks, settle them on the seashore, what kind of pilaf would they cook? Yes, this would be cooked - in a pan, with which God sends, with seafood, with peppers instead of carrots, with tomatoes and olive oil, instead of fat tail.
But there is one circumstance that makes me happy. paella, like Uzbek pilaf, it is customary to cook and eat ... also on Thursdays!
Do you know why? Yes, because on the eve of Friday it is supposed to fulfill the marital duty. And an empty bag is not worth it!

PPS You just watched the video and read the article from two years ago. Then I wrote and cooked paella before I visited Spain. But this fall, I spent a few days in and around Barcelona and deliberately ate paella a few times. Do you know what I want to tell you? Just shhh, don't yell or scream. This paella is much tastier than the authentic one! Don't believe?

Pour boiling water over saffron. Blanch the tomatoes and cut into pieces. Peel the pepper and cut into large strips.

chicken breast cut into equal pieces of medium size (3-4 cm). If use chicken drumsticks, then they should be prepared: clean the bone and chop off its lower part by 2/3, leaving only that part of the bone on which the meat rests.

Blanch the squids, cut into rings. Sort the mussel meat, rinse, and drain in a colander. Peel the shrimp from the shell, leaving the tails unpeeled.

Grease a large paella pan with olive oil, heat well, add finely chopped onion and fry it until soft. Add minced garlic. Add chicken meat and brown on all sides. Add sweet peppers and tomatoes. Fry everything together for 2-3 minutes.

Add washed rice, fry until translucent. Pour in the broth and let the liquid boil completely. Stir the contents of the pan. Add seafood, peas, remaining broth and saffron along with the water it was filled with. Add smoked paprika. Salt paella well and mix - last time! You can't interfere anymore!

Waiting for the liquid to evaporate is a signal that the paella is ready. Remove the paella from the heat, let it sit for about 10 minutes and serve. Definitely with dry white wine. Serve with lemon wedges.

Well, a little lyrics, coupled with a useful tip: Real Spanish paella is cooked on fire, with fresh seafood of excellent quality. Unfortunately, in our conditions, such products are not available, so we use frozen and pre-blanched. Also about rice: for proper paella, round-grain bomba rice is used, but rice varieties suitable for risotto will completely replace it. Also smoked Spanish paprika - I have it authentic, from Andalusia. You can, with a stretch, replace the usual paprika, but these will not be the same flavors. And, of course, paella - a special frying pan for paella. In the photo - she is the most.

Take, for example, paella. The demand for this food is determined big amount variations in components that are adapted to different regions Spain. Therefore, there are recipes for this delicacy a large number of. Spanish chefs say there are more than three hundred of them.

Spanish paella, the recipe of which we will definitely consider today, is traditionally served on Sunday. It may include seafood, chicken, beans, herbs and spices. can be found in almost all restaurants in the world. There are many ways to prepare this delicacy: from traditional recipe to a fantastic variation that claims to be a culinary masterpiece.

National Spanish dish

Paella is a dish made from white rice with olive oil and saffron. They also put meat, chicken, various vegetables, seafood and more. The quality of the dish is determined by the fact that all the ingredients have time to cook at the same time, so the rice remains crumbly. Paella is traditionally cooked over an open fire. Consider several recipes for its preparation.

Paella with chicken

Ingredients:

one chicken;
five tablespoons of olive oil;
five hundred grams of squid rings;
six hundred grams of mussels;
two bulbs;
five hundred grams of rice;
five hundred grams of meat broth;
one bitter and sweet pepper;
one clove of garlic;
ten black olives;
two hundred grams of green peas;
two pinches of saffron

Cooking:

Spanish paella, the recipe of which we are now considering, is prepared as follows. First, the chicken is cut into twelve parts, salted and peppered, fried in olive oil. Then the pieces are taken out and put in a warm place. In the remaining fat, they are fried and also put in heat. Mussels are boiled for five minutes in a small amount of water. Sweet peppers are cut into cubes and stewed with chopped onions in the same fat. Rice is also fried in it, broth, saffron are added, mixed well. Then add peas, olives and other ingredients, salt and pepper, stew for half an hour, periodically adding liquid. Paella is very tasty and hearty meal, which is served directly in the pan.

traditional paella

Ingredients:

thirty grams of olive oil;
four hundred and fifty grams of chicken fillet;
two hundred and fifty grams of pork shoulder;
one hundred grams of onion;
three feathers of garlic;
eighty grams of sweet red pepper;
five grams of paprika;
four hundred grams of tomato;
five grams of saffron;
one liter of chicken broth;
four hundred grams of squid meat;
one hundred and seventy-five grams of green beans;
one hundred twenty-five grams of fresh peas;
one kilogram two hundred grams of peeled shrimp;
six hundred grams of lemon.

Spanish food preparation

Spanish paella is easy to make. To do this, heat the oil in a frying pan, fry the seasoned meat (chicken and pork) in it for two minutes. Then add onion, paprika and garlic, simmer for three minutes, stirring constantly. Then put tomatoes and sweet peppers, diced. Then rice is poured and cooked for two minutes, broth with saffron diluted in it, squids are added, brought to a boil and boiled for twenty minutes under a closed lid. After a while, peas and beans are added to the mixture, shrimp and mussels are placed on top, sprinkled with black pepper, boiled for ten minutes. During this time, the mussels should open up.

Shrimp paella, the recipe of which we reviewed, is served directly in the pan along with lemon halves. Chicken and pork can be replaced with fish, such as monkfish or hake. In this case, it is placed after the squid. It is good to cook such a dish on an open fire.

Paella with seafood

Ingredients:

five hundred grams of a seafood cocktail;
half a spoon of saffron;
forty grams of olive oil;
one bulb;
three hundred grams of rice "Valencia";
one spoon of salt;
two hundred grams of tomato puree;
one hundred grams of frozen green peas;
half sweet pepper;
one fourth of a lemon.

Cooking:

Spanish paella is prepared very simply and quickly. To do this, frozen seafood is thawed and excess liquid is drained. Saffron is poured with boiling water and left for fifteen minutes to infuse. Seafood is fried in oil for three minutes over high heat, removed and set aside for a while. In this oil, fry chopped onion until golden brown, add rice and fry for two minutes (during this time it will become transparent). Then water is added with saffron diluted in it so that it covers the cereal.

Rice for paella is best suited "Valencia", then the dish will turn out fragrant and appetizing. The mixture is salted and kept on fire until cooked for about twenty minutes, without interfering. Then add the pulp of tomatoes, and after ten minutes put the peas and peppers, cut into cubes. When the rice is cooked and the water boils away, put the seafood and lemon slices on top, close the lid and let it brew for five minutes. Paella with vegetables and seafood is served hot, wine is served with the dish. Usually such a delicacy is cooked on an open fire, but at home you can use a regular stove. The dish is cooked in a large cast iron pan, and is served in it.

recipe

The multicooker makes it possible without special trouble cook mediterranean dish that will refresh anyone festive table diversifies the daily menu.

Ingredients:

two glasses of Jasmine rice;
five hundred grams of salmon fillet;
two tomatoes;
two bulbs;
one sweet pepper;
four hundred grams of water;
one hundred grams of olive oil;
garlic;
salt and saffron to taste.

Cooking:

Paella is a Spanish dish, but every housewife can cook it without much hassle, especially if she has a slow cooker in her arsenal. So, first, the rice is washed and placed in a multicooker bowl. Onions, salmon and tomatoes are finely chopped, and bell pepper cut big. Layers of rice are laid on top: onions, tomatoes, then peppers and only then salmon. Garlic is placed in the center of the mixture, the “Pilaf” mode is turned on and cooked. After the lapse of time, the garlic is removed, the “Heating” mode is turned on.

Now the paella is almost ready in the slow cooker. Its recipe is quite simple. Ready meal served with lemon wedges and fresh herbs.

Paella with meatballs

Ingredients:

four hundred grams of rice;
five hundred grams of rabbit;
five hundred grams of chicken;
two hundred and fifty grams of green beans;
one hundred grams of white beans;
sixteen snails;
one tomato;
three cloves of garlic;
one hundred grams of olive oil;
rosemary, saffron and salt to taste;
two liters of water.

For meatballs: three hundred grams of minced meat, fifty grams pork fat, three hundred grams of pulp white bread, two cloves of garlic, three eggs, and Pine nuts, chopped parsley, salt and spices.

Cooking:

Paella is a dish that is quite easy to prepare. It is necessary to heat the fat in a frying pan, on which the minced meat is then fried. Five minutes later, bread, eggs, salt and spices, parsley, nuts and garlic are put into it. Everything is mixed well and small meatballs are formed from this mass. They are fried for several minutes on all sides. Then the rabbit pieces are fried in the same fat as the minced meat. The finished meat is moved to the edges of the pan, and vegetables are placed in the center and fried. Then add water and bring it to a boil, then put the meatballs and cook for twenty minutes. Paella is a dish to which seafood is added. But in our case, they are replaced by snails. Therefore, over time, snails, saffron and paprika are added, salted to taste and rice is poured. Cook the food for twenty minutes over high heat, and then another five minutes over low heat.

Paella with fish and seafood

Ingredients:

one kilogram of fish (perch or cod);
one bulb;
two hundred grams of mussels in shells;
one large shrimp;
three hundred grams of sea cocktail;
two hundred grams of small shrimp;
two tomatoes;
one glass of rice "Bomb";
half a spoon;
one packet of paella spices.

Cooking:

Paella with shrimp, the recipe of which we will now consider, is prepared very quickly. It is necessary to cut the fish, pour it with water and bring to a boil, then add the onion, spices and cook until tender. Ready broth filter. Oil is poured into a frying pan, mussels are laid out and heated, and then transferred to a dish. All shrimp, as well as fried, put on a plate. Tomatoes are fried in the same oil for several minutes, rice, paprika are added and mixed. Then pour in two glasses of broth, add spices for paella and mix. All this is simmered until cooked, adding mussels, shrimp and seafood at the end.

A few last words

In such spanish dish seafood goes well with rice. So, Italian risotto, Spanish paella and Creole jambalaya, as well as simple plov are dishes with the same ideology. Therefore, here rice is always cooked separately, often together with vegetables and spices, and only at the end, previously fried seafood is added. Groats are boiled in a small amount of water or broth. In paella and jambalaya, you can find not only vegetables, but also caviar and fish. But cuttlefish ink is often put in risotto, which gives the dish an extraordinary color and a light “marine” taste.

What is paella and how to cook. Kitchen appliances and utensils