What kind of rice to take for paella. National Spanish dish

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, fillet with chicken breast 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 on the market "bring the Spanish bomba rice, bring the Spanish bomba rice", and suddenly they bring and say "that's it, you brought it, come, buy what you cook from it Will you?”, in general, at such an exciting moment, was it hard to forget the chorizo ​​sausage? You will forget about jamon, 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 devzira, 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?

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 - 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 not wanting to follow all the Spanish traditions and serve this dish on 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 white dry 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

The name of the delicious national Spanish dish paella comes from the Latin word "patella", which means " tall pan with two handles. Today, paella is popular not only in Valencia, where it is considered a kind of calling card but also in all European countries. paella offer the best restaurants of the world, outstanding chefs. However, paella can be cooked at home, on its own, since its recipe is simple, and all the products necessary for cooking can be purchased at the nearest supermarket.

According to one of the legends, the paella dish was invented by the servants of the Moorish kings, who, after the feasts of the Arab conquerors, collected everything that was left from the tables (chicken, meat, fish, seafood) and cooked it with rice, as a result of which the dish got its name ( Paella means "leftovers" in Arabic.

So, if you decide to cook paella at home, first of all you should buy necessary products. Here is a list of ingredients for 4 servings of paella:

• Rice 300 gr.
• Garlic 3 cloves.
• 1 medium bulb.
• Dry white wine 200 ml (1 glass)
• chicken or fish broth 0.5 liters. Ideally, take 0.25 liters of chicken and 0.25 of fish.
• 2-3 pcs. chicken fillet.
• 300-400 grams of seafood (mussels, shrimps, squids, octopuses).
• Sugar 1 tsp
• Salt pepper, ground paprika, saffron, ground pepper Chile.
• Olive oil 4 tbsp.
• Tomatoes 4-5 pcs.
• Red bell pepper 1 PC.
• Green peas 100 grams.
• Half a lemon.
• Greens (parsley, dill).

The Spaniards argue that true paella can only be cooked on a live fire, to the sound of castanets, and the chef must be a purebred Spanish macho, because initially only men were trusted to cook it National dish. But, as practice shows, no less tasty and fragrant paella can be cooked at home, the main thing is to cook with soul and good mood.

1. So, the first step. Finely chop the onion, garlic, fry them in a pan in olive oil until golden color. Add finely chopped peeled tomatoes and, stirring, fry for 1-2 minutes.

2. Add sugar, paprika, chili. We mix.

3. Pour rice into the pan.

4. Add dry wine heated to 70-80 degrees. When heating it, be careful not to let it boil!

5. Cook over low heat for 3-4 minutes, until the wine begins to evaporate.

6. Once the wine has almost boiled away, add the warm broth and saffron. Salt well.

7. Cover and simmer over low heat for 10-14 minutes.

8. Then add chopped in small pieces chicken fillet, mix, cook for 5-6 minutes under the lid.

9. Add green pea and diced bell pepper. Simmer for 2 minutes.

10 . Lastly, place the seafood on top of the dish, cover and cook for another 1-2 minutes. After that, turn off the heat and let the paella brew for 5-7 minutes.

11. Before serving, garnish the dish with herbs and lemon slices.

As you can see, there is nothing complicated in preparing paella, but this dish will surely please you and all your guests will like it. On average, paella takes 45 minutes to cook and should be served hot.

Not so long ago, my husband and I came up with the idea of ​​​​creating a joint gastronomy blog (my husband is a gastronomy expert and chef) dedicated to our culinary journeys and recipes that we prepare together. That's what came out of it! All recipes can be found here:

Paella is one of the symbols of Spain, a dish, at the mention of which, people who have visited Spain roll their eyes with rapture. And this despite the fact that most of those who try the national dish here, most often, do not even know that they are eating just a tourist parody of the original. It's like finding real borscht in the first institution that came across - it is almost impossible.

When friends come to visit, Juanqui always prepares paella “for tourists”, with a huge amount of seafood beautifully laid out all over the dish. In fact, classic paella This is mostly rice.

Perhaps there is no other such controversial dish in Spain, in the preparation of which there is great amount disagreements, and everyone believes that it is his method that is the most correct. This again something like Russian-Ukrainian borscht. How many cooks, housewives, so many opinions. There is not even a single idea where this dish came from.

Nevertheless, if we are talking specifically about Valencia paella (Valencia is a province in eastern Spain), which is considered the most delicious, and not without reason, there is a certain list of components that, as a rule, is included in this dish. There are only ten of them. It is clear that in our realities it is far from always possible to find traditional components, but you should not worry about this, almost everything in this world is replaceable. Although, of course, it will no longer be "the same taste."

So the products are:

- Chicken grown on "free bread" (it is very different in taste from those grown in stuffy poultry houses, although, of course, at home it can be replaced with an ordinary one)

- Rabbit

- ferraura - one of the varieties of green beans, very thin, allowing you to cook it very quickly
- Garrofon - another specific type of beans, white, large and oily in taste. Again, it is completely optional to use it, however, it will not work to replace it, therefore, if you have not found Garrofon , just exclude it from the list of products.

- Very ripe tomatoes

Rice of the Bomba variety, which guarantees you a high-quality taste of paella, alas, is not always used, even in Spain in quite decent places. Of course, you can replace it with other rice (I’ll talk about this at the end), but, nevertheless, real taste gives Bomba

Water - alas, you definitely won’t find water like in Valencia, but at least you need to filter it, or buy drinking water.

Saffron - you should not abuse it, because its excessive amount can spoil the taste.

Garlic - it is best to use pink-raspberry, with it the taste is especially rich

Attention, paella no one contains onions, contrary to popular belief! Never, do you hear? Never!!)))

Depending on the zone, paella can also be added: duck, artichokes, mashed tomato with garlic and olive oil, Tartracina E-102 dye (which allows you to give paella its famous color without adding saffron. Do not use turmeric because it has too strong a taste for paella), Bell pepper, small snails. You can also add one or more of these ingredients to paella.

Please, please, count your paella so that there are no leftovers. Heated paella can cause heart attack at the Valencian

Paella rice should NOT be soaked or washed. Ideally, paella is prepared on open fire, however, this requires certain skills and experience, so start with a conventional gas or electric stove.

If you're cooking in Spain, you'll have no trouble finding Valencian rice. good quality. Outside the country, it is more difficult to do this, although in large cities of Russia and Ukraine rice varieties “ Bomba “It won’t be hard to find. If you still can't find one, a similar result can be achieved with sushi rice or Carnaroli rice, traditionally used for risotto. That is, our goal is a large round rice. However, once again, it is better to look for classic rice.

It is also clear that not everyone will be able to find a special frying pan. paellera for making Paella. Of course, if there is an opportunity and if you plan to regularly cook a dish at home, you need to get one. However, if Paella is still an experiment for you, and you are not sure if you want to repeat it, try cooking in a skillet or in a shallow saucepan. Important: it must be large in diameter and with low sides! Try to find as close as possible to the original.

So here's our interpretation of the recipe, although it's certainly not perfect, and I'm sure there are people out there who can make it better. But for home version- just perfect!

paella for two(I’ll make a reservation right away, for two people who love to eat)))

100 ml olive oil Extra Virgen

6 pink garlic cloves. 1/3 chopped, the rest whole

8 small pieces of chicken (part of the bird is up to you, we like the upper parts of the drumsticks) - 160 g

8 small rabbit pieces

12 young green beans

6 young green beans, quartered

1 ripe tomato

1 tablespoon sweet red paprika

1/3 green pepper (we use narrow long pepper, something like our soil)

Rice "Bomb" (we prefer Sivaris ) 150-220 g, depending on the appetite of the guests

½ teaspoon paella coloring

12 saffron petals

Pour three-quarters of the oil into a paella pan ( paellera ) and brown the chicken and rabbit over low heat until golden brown. Move the meat to the corner of the pan and lay out two peeled garlic cloves. Fry, turning them over so that they do not burn. Add beans, continue browning vegetables together. Remove the garlic, and put it in a mortar, preferably a wooden one. Add the remaining peeled raw whole garlic(4 cloves), saffron and set aside. Mash in a mortar and set aside.