Paella De Mariscos
Paella de Marisco
The Showstopper
Difficulty: Hard
Cooking time: 3 hours
Serves 4
Paella is one of those traditionally rustic dishes that have recently come into the spotlight worldwide for its wonderful flavors and stunning presentation. At its roots, it’s a meal for friends and family to be shared during cold winters or warm summer nights.
Typically, paella is made in a large shallow pan, but a large cast iron or even a flat wok works just as well. The whole thing is fired over a wood grill, carefully watched and tended to with love and served directly from the pan, still hot.
But, fair warning: paella is a difficult dish to master and requires troves of patience and care. With the right technique, however, it becomes one of the most impressive dishes a person can have in their arsenal; a centerpiece for almost anywhere.
Food Dictionary:
Sofrito: A rustic, Spanish sauce consisting of minced vegetables (typically comprised of onions, peppers, garlic, and tomatoes), that we’ll be using as a sauce base.
Bivalves: A class of ocean creatures that includes mussels, clams, and scallops, all characterized by a wide outer shell and succulent inner meat.
Langoustines: Another word for Norwegian Lobsters, a popular smaller shellfish in Europe known to be succulent and delicious when fresh. These can be hard to find in the states and freshness matters more than the particulars of the ingredients, so if you can’t get these use an equivalent amount of shrimp.
Socarrat: A crispy, very gently charred crust that forms on the bottom of paella if the heat is managed just right. Desirable for many chefs and a welcome texture in an already amazing dish.
Recipe:
Ingredients:
Seafood
1 medium Dungeness crab
1 pound Langoustines, or alternatively, 1 pound medium deveined and (optionally) peeled shrimp
1 pound live mussels, scallops or clams
Any other fresh shellfish or hearty seafood, like squid
Rice
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion or 2 medium
1 large roma tomato
1 head of garlic, peeled
1 large red bell pepper
2 ½ cup of bomba, arborio, or other short grain rice
4-5 cups of chicken or seafood stock, and extra water as needed
1 pinch of authentic saffron, or 2 tsp safflower
Salt to taste
2 tbsp smoked paprika
2-3 lemons, for serving
Chopped parsley, for serving
Bear in mind that this dish is very freeform. The ocean is a bountiful place, and almost anything can go into a paella, from sea urchin to rockfish
You can even add additional flavors like ground cumin, cayenne for heat, or additional meats like sausage. Some recipes use Chorizo, although it is not authentic to traditional Spanish Paella
The process:
Seafood:
Fill a large multi level steamer halfway up with water and begin to bring the setup to a rolling boil
Prepare the seafood by cleaning and cutting the ingredients accordingly:
The bivalves should all be soaked in a brine of 3 cups of water to ¼ cup kosher salt to purify them of sand and grit. Let them set for 15 minutes while you work on the other steps, and afterwards, remove them from the salt bath and place the whole thing into a colander. Rinse under cold water and if there are any beards left on them, (harmless string like protrusions near the lip of the shell), pull them across the rim of the shell until it comes off cleanly and scrub the shells with a clean brush.
Be sure to discard any broken or clearly dead bivalves. Shellfish can spoil especially fast, and it can very easily become unsafe to eat even after only a day or two
For the crab, cut off the legs at the joint near the body and set aside. Flipping the crab shell side down, pull back its tail and putting a finger underneath the abdomen plate, lift upwards until it separates. Remove innards if desired, but if not, identify the gills (which should look like translucent flaps* and remove, along with the stomach(which should be in the center of the crab, close to the mouth).
All other parts should be edible provided the crab is fresh
For the lobsters, rinse and soak them in cold water before cooking, but one good way to prepare them if you have time is to cut them in half lengthwise and remove any apparent innards left inside. If you are opting for shrimp, peel the shrimp if the shells are still on, leaving only the ends of the tails on for presentation and ease of consumption.
You can leave the shells on if desired as the shells add a lot of flavor and help retain moisture, but I personally value the convenience of deshelled shrimp while eating. When I have time I also boil the shells with some aromatics to make seafood stock
Once boiling, steam the bivalves and crab for 6-8 minutes before removing the bivalves. Discard any clams or mussels that have not opened.
Clams, mussels and scallops that don’t open have likely been dead well before cooking and may have been spoiled for some time.
Allow the crab to steam over medium-high heat for another 7-10 minutes, or until meat is uniformly white, before removing.
Heat a cast iron over medium-high heat with a drizzle of vegetable oil until shimmering. Add your shellfish of choice and salt generously on one side. Saute your shrimp or langoustines, browning on all sides for 7-8 minutes or until cooked through and fragrant.
If you’re working out doors, you can brush them down with oil, salt them, and grill over high heat for some amazing flavor boosts.
Once complete, set all prepared seafood aside.
Prepare your sofrito by finely chopping your onions and bell peppers, setting aside together. Mince your garlic and either chop your tomato finely, or grate about a half cups worth into a bowl.
Heat your olive oil over medium high heat in a large shallow pan or a cast iron skillet and sprinkle a heavy pinch of salt into the hot pan
Toss in your sofrito and saute at medium heat for about 7-8 minutes or until translucent and soft.
Add your garlic and stir fry for no more than 1 minute and add your tomato, mixing and stirring around until fragrant. Pour in your stock, and then your smoked paprika, and bring up to an aggressive simmer as you stir with a spatula
Take your rice in hand and sprinkle evenly across the pan into the sauce, trying to keep an even distribution across the pan. Stir only lightly to get everything spread out and mixed and then do NOT stir anymore.
Stirring may cause the rice to release starch, making your paella sticky and mushy, and because we didn’t wash our rice so there’s plenty of it.
Crumble your safflower or saffron into small pieces and sprinkle across the pan, allowing to bloom in the sauce
Simmer lightly until the the water level is about a centimeter below the top of the rice level. Take a sheet of tinfoil and cover the thing tightly and low heat to finish cooking it.
(OPTIONAL) Once the rice is almost tender all the way through, raise heat to medium and simmer down the water. Once the water has mostly evaporated, bring heat down to low and carefully pry the bottom edge of the rice from the pan. If done correctly, the rice may begin to form a Socarrat, or a crispy, slightly charred crust on the bottom. If it has not formed, leave heat on low until it forms our crust.
This can be difficult and if overdone, can lead to burning so I’d advise not to try until you’ve done this recipe at least once
Now, just chop your parsley and slice some lemons to fit onto the edge of the pan. You can now arrange the seafood all around the edge of the paella as you like, with the crab shell making an exceptional centerpiece. Serve alongside lobster crackers for the crab and Langoustines shells and enjoy this wonderful piece of Spanish Valencia culture.
