RECIPE: PAELLA VALENCIANA....WHUTTT?!??!

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OH MY GOD! like BLOGGER never really cared about fixing my blog and it's such a crap that they deleted all of its content without RESTORING it during their bug maintenance. UGH. it's so frustrating and it's so redundant that I'm doing this again. this will be the last time that I'm letting this pass, or else i'll move.

But anyway, here's a repost of my PAELLA VALENCIANA recipe. God, i can't believe that im retyping all of these.. But as for the history goes, Paella Valenciana originated from Valencia, Spain. It's normally served in a paellera, which is made out of cast iron and is normally a non-stick metal kind of pan. something like that. Paella is so common in the Philippines, thanks to the Spaniards whom also have given us our spanish surnames. Chos. There kinds of Paellas that you may have tried. You have the Paella Mariscos (seafood, Paella Mixta (mix of meat and seafood), Fideua which uses noodles instead of the arroz (rice), Paella Negra (which incorporates squid ink to make its color black). In the Philippines, when you say Valenciana, it's a rice dish but made out of sticky rice but with the same ingredients as to the usual paella, except for the raisins and all that. You can see it normally during fiestas, birthday or normal parties. We love our Valenciana, sticky.

I promised to myself that the moment I arrive in Spain, I should never pass on trying the authentic one. Good thing outside our hostel, there is this paellera that serves different kinds of it. I also even had it for my 22nd birthday in Spain. And now I'm sharing my OWN recipe. eew.. I feel like a housewife by saying that.

So here's what you need...

 half kilo of shrimp, cooked in hot water, head crushed, peeled and 5 cups of its stock

2 tsp of Saffron dissolved in 5 tbsp of hot water, 2 tbsps of food coloring (yellow) or annatto. Use Iranian saffron, it's the BEST!

500g of pork belly cut into cubes and 500g of chicken (breast and thighs) sliced

 1 big red bell pepper, sliced. 1 large onion chopped, 1 can of green peas, 5 cloves of garlic chopped, 1 can of garbanzos

800g of rice BOMBA or CALASPARRA or any white short grain rice
2 liters of water
1/2 cup of dry white wine
4 whole tomatoes, seeded
1 tsp Turmeric Powder,
1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 tbsp Spanish Paprika
1 medium sprig of rosemary and thyme finely chopped
Salt, Pepper, Cumin Powder 

OKAY Step 1, in a large pan or paellera, heat olive oil and brown the pork and chicken thighs on both sides. Add the breast after browning and season with, salt, pepper and cumin powder.

Step 2, render the fat and separate the meat from the pan. Put dry white wine on pan and scrape the trimmings stuck on the pan. Put the onions and the garlic and sweat till soft. Put back the meat and continue to cook.

Step 3, add the whole tomatoes and leave it to sweat till all of its juice are in the pan. Then add the rest of your ingredients. Bell pepper, green peas, garbanzos.

 

Step 4, add the shrimp stock and saffron to the pan and let it simmer. When simmering, add the turmeric powder, generous amount of cayenne pepper and the Spanish paprika. Add the 2 liters of water and flavor the stock well with salt, pepper and cumin powder. Add your thyme and rosemary and simmer for 15 minutes.

Step 5, after simmering, add the rice in a circular motion starting from the middle till you reach the edge of the pan. Even out distribution of rice. MAKE SURE that the stock to rice ratio is enough for your paella to cook evenly. Paellas are meant to be sticky and coated just like of a risotto. But the texture should be soft rather than mildly cooked. Cover the top of your pan with tin foil. It should be done after 10-15 minutes.

*for a more presentable paella, leave some garbanzos, green peas, shrimp, shellfish of your choice (optional) and sear some of the red bell peppers and arrange it on top of your pan before covering it with foil. But I like mine scrambled.

Serve your paella with the pan that you used for a more homey look.

ENJOY EATING. RAWRWRWRARARA

xoxo