How To Make a Traditional Valencian Spanish Paella

This Saturday I cooked a traditional Valencian Paella, and I thought I would share it with Steemit. This paella, is called a “Paella Marinera”, a dish cooked using seafood, fish, shellfish and vegetables. I cooked it over fire because it makes a huge difference, to the taste and flavour.

I put a lot of effort into this post, so I hope everyone likes it. I took pictures of every step, in case anyone wants to have a go at making one themselves....

First of all, a picture of the ingredients:

What you'll need:-
-4 Big tomatoes, grated. (Or tinned chopped tomatoes, but I prefer freshly grated)
-Vegetable/Fish stock
-Seafood mix: Scallops, peeled prawns and squid rings. (mussels can be added as well)
-300gr chopped swordfish, added to seafood mix
-2 garlic cloves unpeeled
-Rice, special for paella
-Butter Beans
-250g Mange Tout
-1 teaspoon of “Pimenton de la Vera” (This is smoked paprika from “La Vera, Spain”)
-1 teaspoon of “El paellero” colouring and seasoning powder
-Salt
-Olive oil

So, paella is the name of the pan, and it has a flat base, and is designed to cook over a fire or bbq.

Don’t worry if you don’t have the type of pan I mentioned above, other types of pans can be used and this allows you to also cook the paella on a cooker. One of the characteristics of the paella is the smoky flavour obtained by the process of cooking it using fire, so the flavour may vary if you cook it using a cooker.

The first thing is to prepare the fire. The temperature needs to be constant, so try to maintain the fire throughout cooking, by adding more wood.

When the flames die down, the fire is ready. Put the pan on the bbq rack, add water, and make sure the pan is clean. You should also do this if your pan is new. Now, drain the water, and add the pan back to the fire.

Now add approximately 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Allow the oil to heat up. Create a small cut on the garlic cloves, without breaking them. Now add garlic to the pan, and stir the garlic around, with the hot oil.

After a few minutes, add the seafood mix and swordfish, and stir, so fish doesn't stick to the pan. Be careful with squid rings, because they can get very rubbery if overcooked. Also, stir the oil and seafood around the pan, as it will add flavour to the rice.

When the seafood is half cooked, add the butter beans and mange tout. At this point, add a tablespoon of olive oil. Now mix with the seafood and continue stirring, so ingredients don't get stuck to the pan.

Once the butter beans start looking cooked, it is time to add the grated tomato, and the last tablespoon of olive oil. Now, mix well with the ingredients and stir.

Before adding the vegetable or fish stock, add a teaspoon of “Pimenton de la Vera” (smoked sweet paprika), and mix it well with the ingredients on the pan. Its name due to the region were it is grown: La Vera, Extremadura (Spain).

Next, add hot water to your stock, and add to the pan. The measurement for the stock is not stated because, the liquid should go up to the handle screws inside the pan. Move stock around using a wooden spoon and leave it to boil.

Now, add half a teaspoon of “El Paellero”, which is a seasoning and colouring especial for paella.

Once the stock is boiling we add the rice. The traditional way to measure the rice is by drawing a cross over the pan. Gently stir. After the rice is added, don’t stir anymore and leave the rice to cook. The rice will take approximately 25 minutes to cook. So keep adding wood to fire, but not too much

After 10-15 minutes, take the garlic out.

After the 20 minutes, the paella should be cooked, so cover the pan with newspaper and leave it to sit for 5-8 minutes.

Now, the paella is ready to eat.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and maybe you feel inclined to have a go yourself. If you have any questions then feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

Also, please UPVOTE, and ReSteem.

Thanks for reading! :)