TheStorkFork

Travel Edition - Spain, Part 3: Paella

What trip to Spain is complete without experiencing paella? Paella is a spanish rice dish from Valencia. On any given weekend, you can find a big paella being made at a fiesta among friends. While The Stork Fork was in Spain, we were treated to an afternoon fiesta with friends and three amazing paellas; meat, shrimp, and calamari. The paellas were served and beautifully presented in big communal round paella pans. We sat around during a lazy afternoon at a beachside restaurant and shared paella. Paella is an amazing food that is both fun and easy to make. The Stork Fork recreates it maternity style for you today.

What makes paella so fun and easy is that it is essentially a one pan dish that cooks in its own liquid. You can add any ingredient you want as long as you work with the following staples; rice, saffron, and olive oil.

The real key is taking the time to build the initial layers of flavor, then just letting it cook (don't touch it!). Paella is a great maternity and beyond dish because when you make it it serves a lot of people, and it keeps very well in the fridge for a few days. So your family and friends can make it together on Sunday, then have it for lunch another day, or as a side dish for dinner during the week. I mean - get a group of your pregnant friends together (yes, include the husbands as well) - put on some music, and make a paella!

Another element to the paella which should be honored is the presentation (see the shrimp paella pictured). It is traditional to arrange the ingredients in the pan prior to letting the rice cook so that your finished paella looks as great as it smells. You can make a paella in any pan, however, we recommend buying a 13 inch or 18 inch paella pan for best results. The paella pans are big round pans with handles that make it easier to make and serve the dish as well as giving it that authentic look. They are inexpensive.

Forkers, much like an Italian Sunday meal, the spaniards make a day out of it and have fun. You should too. Get your ingredients, take your time, enjoy your family (and those family members to be), and make a paella. Make no mistake, this is a mean paella. The recipes at TSF are for everyone.

Papi's Pollo Paella (made in the 13 inch pan, serves 4. Double the ingredients for the 18 inch pan)

-2 links organic chicken sausage, cut into 1/4 moons. This usually comes pre-cooked and not raw.

-10 oz yellow saffron rice

-1 tomato, grated into liquid (yes, use your cheese grater)

-2 scallions, chopped

-1 green bell pepper, cut into 1-2 inch strips

-1 can artichoke hearts, drained, and halved

-2 cups water

-2 cups chicken stock, low sodium please

-1 head of garlic, with the head cut off, as if you were prepping it for roasting

-2 tbsp mayo, preferably low-fat (for the alioli on the side).

-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

-preheat oven to 350 degrees

-in a sauce pan, bring the water and chicken stock to a boil

-in the paella pan, over medium high heat, add half of the olive oil. You may need to add more oil with each step depending on the dryness of the pan.

-add the whole garlic head to the pan to brown. You will keep this in the pan until we remove all ingredients. This will be the main center piece to the paella as well as flavor ingredient to the rice and the aioli.

-add each ingredient individually to brown, then remove. Sausage, peppers, artichokes, scallions. Add, brown, remove. We set aside individual bowls for the browned ingredients. If the pan starts to dry up, add more oil as you need to. We brown items individually because we will be placing the ingredients back in by hand for presentation.

-in the now empty pan, add the tomato, let cook for about 30 seconds, until simmering.

-add the rice. stir around in the tomato until coated. evenly distribute the rice until there is a layer covering the bottom of the pan.

-add 3 cups of the boiling liquid.

-add the ingredients back into the pan; the garlic head in the center, fan the pepper strips out from the center, add the sausage, scallion, and artichokes in a uniform and even way. It should be distributed evenly for flavor as well as for the presentation. As the dish cooks, the flavor and design will set.

-Bring the dish to a boil, then place in the oven. Let cook until the top looks dry and is browning at the edges, about 25 minutes. With a fork, check a section of the rice at the edges. The top should be slightly crunchy, the bottom layer should be cooked and creamy. If it is all still too crunchy, add the remaining liquid as needed.

-when finished, serve directly from the pan. salt to taste.

-Paella is served with a garlic mayo alioli on the side. To make this, take one clove of the roasted garlic and mix with the 2 tbsp mayo. In spain, each person takes a small bit of the alioli and mixes it with the paella on his or her plate. You can skip this depending on how you feel at the time. But if you are in the mood to splurge, it is worth it!

Papi's Pollo Paella Fact:

-Using organic chicken sausage is a good way to compromise with paella. Using chicken sausage instead of a pork or meat sausage cuts the fat intake by half. The beautiful part about paella is it can be whatever you want it to be; chicken, tofu, or just vegetarian. However, if the momma-to-be was in Spain and missed out on some of the good paellas due to the servings of seafood and sausage in Spain, this is a great compromise on the real deal. Real paella is also salted with each step. We cut back on adding extra salt and just went with the natural sodium already in the ingredients. This is a great meal for carb and caloric intake for energy while eliminating the elements that are too high in fat and sodium.

-In the future, try this recipe with broken linguini pasta instead of rice. You will have to add the saffron separately for color and flavor, but the noodle paella is a fun option to try.

Stork Fork Tip:Stork Fork Recommended Music:

-Sparklehorse, "Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain"

TSF Man Tip:

-Enjoy with a beer(s). Sorry ladies, you're on the wagon!

This concludes the Travel Edition, Spain. Next up: more TSF original food for life recipes and fridge market items.

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