PAELLA, FAMILY STYLE

 

José Mari serves paella to family and friends gathered on the patio of a farmhouse in the country. Note the rice is slightly browned on the bottom--a perfect socarrat. (All photos by Eli Searl.)

It’s a hot and sunny Sunday in the campo (countryside) of Coín, a town in the Guadalhorce valley of Málaga province. Family and friends gather in the shade on a vine-covered patio or splash in the pool. José Mari sets a paella pan on the gas ring, a burner big enough to hold a really big pan. He pours in olive oil and starts frying pieces of chicken.

José Mari, a school friend of my son, Daniel, has invited Daniel and family to join them for a Sunday paella. They live in town but often get together at the campo house.

José Mari’s “recipe”: La paella varia segun las zonas--cada uno le pone distintas cosas. Importante el sofrito: tomate, pimiento, cebolla, ajos, y ramita perejil y pimentón. Aceite de oliva. Laurel, pimienta y clavo de olor. Vino fino o manzanilla, unos guisantes. Jibia o calamar, almeja, gamba blanca, pollo y le pongo un conejo de campo de los que cazo para sabor. Esta es la mia. 

Translation: Paella varies according to regions—everyone puts in different ingredients. Here's my version. The sofrito is important: tomato, peppers, onion, garlics, a sprig of parsley and pimentón (paprika). Olive oil. Bay leaf, pepper, and clove. Fino sherry or manzanilla, some peas. Cuttlefish or squid, clams, white shrimps, chicken, and I put in pieces of wild rabbit—one of the ones I hunt. (Note: this is Andalusia. Although it’s called “paella,” there is no pretense or apology for not making a Valencia paella. José Mari didn’t mention saffron. Often pimentón (sweet paprika) stands in for saffron or home cooks might use colorante, artificial yellow coloring. Some people might make a quick stock with shrimp heads and shells, but on country outings, it’s customary to use water. The addition of bay leaf, pepper, clove, and that glug of sherry adds flavor. Depending on the season and the proximity of family huertas—vegetable gardens—the cook might pick peas, fava beans, artichokes, green beans, tomatoes, and peppers for the paella.) 

José Mari first fries small pieces of chicken, rabbit, and squid until they are nicely browned, then stirs in a sofrito (onions, garlic, and tomato). The sofrito can be made right in the paella pan or, for convenience, prepared at home and brought to the campo in a táper ("táper" is phonetic spelling of "tupper," the generic name for plastic storage containers with lids.) He pours in water to the depth of the rivets in the pan. 

Once the liquid is bubbling, it's time to add the rice. Paella rice is a medium-short round-grain variety. 

He stirs the shrimp and peas into the rice to distribute everything evenly in the pan. Then, no more stirring! The paella bubbles for a few minutes, then the heat is lowered so the rice finishes cooking. Once the rice is just barely tender, it's removed from the fire and allowed to set about 10 minutes to finish cooking. 

While the paella is cooking, someone else tends the brasa, the wood-fired grill, cooking pinchitos, spicy pork kebabs, and sausages to serve to kids and grown-ups.

Two of my grandsons, Leo and Lucas, sample the pinchitos and kick a soccer ball around beside the pool.

Paella is almost ready! My son Daniel joins his friend, José Mari, to test the rice. 

Family-Style PAELLA 

To serve 6.

6-12 mussels or clams, steamed open, liquid strained and reserved

1/4 cup olive oil

4-5 boneless chicken thighs, each cut into 3 or 4 pieces

12 ounces squid, cleaned and cut in rings

1 green bell pepper, cut into 1-inch squares

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 large tomato, peeled, seeded and chopped

4 cups chicken broth, clam liquid or water

2 cups medium-short grain rice

pinch of saffron, crushed and mixed in 1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon pimentón (paprika)

peas or green beans,

1 pound peeled shrimp

freshly ground black pepper

salt to taste

strips of roasted red pepper for garnish

lemon wedges for garnish

Heat the oil in a paella pan or very large skillet. Add the pieces of chicken to the oil and sauté on a medium-high heat until they are browned on both sides. Add the squid and fry. Add the peppers and garlic and continue sautéing. Add the tomatoes and cook until they are slightly reduced. Add the broth or water.

Bring the liquid to a boil and add the rice. Stir it to combine all the ingredients. Stir in the saffron, pimentón, peas, shrimp, pepper and salt to taste (depending on the saltiness of the stock). Let everything cook on a medium- heat for 5 minutes, then turn the heat down to low and continue to cook until rice is just tender, about 15 minutes more.

Place the cooked clams or mussels on top and garnish with strips of red pepper. Remove from heat, cover with foil and let the paella rest 10 minutes. Serve garnished with lemon wedges.

Another home-style paella recipe: Rustic Valencia Paella (cooked on a gas barbecue).

My latest cookbook, FLAVORS OF AL-ANDALUS, The Culinary Legacy of Spain, has a recipe for Vegetable Paella (with instructions for making a deeply flavorful sofrito with no tomatoes, a vegetable unknown in Moorish Spain) as well as paella-related rice dishes with lamb and with rabbit or chicken. 

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This cookbook explores the fascinating story of the deep and lasting influences that Islamic culture has left on modern Spanish cooking. 

Author and Spanish cooking expert Janet Mendel tells the story of the Moorish influence on Spanish cooking through 120 recipes and photographs for modern-day dishes, from salads and vegetables to fish, poultry and meat to sweets and pastries, that trace their heritage to foods served in medieval times.  (Hippocrene Books)    

 Order on IndiePubs (USA) 

Use PROMO CODE HIPPOCRENE40 for 40% off on all Hippocrene titles at IndiePubs online bookstore.

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"DUNKING SALADS" ARE GAZPACHO’S FIRST COUSIN

 If you’re a field hand working in the Andalusian sun, you need a midday meal that’s both refreshing and restorative. Gazpacho is the answer. Set a big bowl in the shade. Mash up day-old bread with olive oil and garlic. Add whatever vegetables or fruits are to hand. That might be tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers to make a very classic Andalusian gazpacho, or regional variations such as cucumber and lettuce (no tomatoes); oranges, lettuce, and figs; lemons (zoque); almonds (ajo blanco). Add a little cool spring water to make a soupy “salad”. Everyone gathers around to eat out of the bowl. Some variants are even called “liquid salad,” such as lechuga en caldo or lettuce in “broth” (cold water). 

This dunking salad, or mojete, is made with roasted eggplant. 

A “dunking salad” is gazpacho in reverse. Called moje, mojete, or remojón, this gazpacho cousin is a juicy salad either served over pieces of bread or accompanied with bread for soaking in the salad juices. Vegetables or fruits, washed with liquid still clinging, are chunked up in a bowl with garlic, extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, and salt. The salt draws the juices out of the ingredients. Chunks of bread are either added to the mix or used for dipping. Many include hard-cooked eggs and chunks of salt cod or canned tuna. With lots of bread, they make a filling meal.

In my latest cookbook, FLAVORS OF AL-ANDALUS, The Culinary Legacy of Spain (Hippocrene Books), I include a whole section on gazpacho, salmorejo (thick gazpacho), and dunking salads. The recipes—with no tomatoes or peppers!—can trace their roots to Moorish Spain. Here is one of the recipes in that section. (See below for links to more dunking salads.)

Roasted Eggplant Salad with Chickpeas

Mojete con Berenjena y Garbanzos

Make this mojete at least an hour before serving so that the salt begins to draw out the juices of the vegetables. If possible, chill the mixture. The salad makes a good starter or snack. Serve it with bread, for dunking, scooping, sopping. Unless you’re eating out in the campo (countryside), you’ll probably want spoons or forks as well. 

The eggplant for this salad can be roasted on a grill, in the oven, or in the microwave. 

                                                     (Photo Daniel Searl)

2 eggplants (about 1 pound each)

1 onion

1 head of garlic

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

Salt

1 cup cooked and drained chickpeas

1 tablespoon drained capers

1 radish, chopped

3 tablespoons lemon juice

½ teaspoon cumin

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Salad greens

Bread for serving

1 or 2 hard-cooked eggs

4 ounces fresh goat cheese, sliced (optional)

Pitted black olives

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Place the eggplants and onion in an oven pan. Slice the top off of the head of garlic, wrap it in foil and place in the pan with the eggplants. Roast the eggplants, onion and garlic until eggplants are tender when pierced with a skewer, 45 to 60 minutes. Allow them to cool.

Scoop out eggplant flesh.

Split the eggplants and scoop out the flesh. Discard the skins. Cut or tear the eggplant into strips and place in a bowl. Add the vinegar and 1 teaspoon of salt. 

Remove onion skin and slice the roasted onion in strips, from stem to root end. Combine with the eggplant. Add the chickpeas, capers, and radish.

Unwrap the roasted garlic and discard foil. Squeeze the head of garlic to extract the soft flesh of the individual cloves into a small bowl. Mash the pulp with a fork. Stir in 1 teaspoon of salt, the lemon juice, and cumin. Whisk in the oil until the dressing is emulsified. Stir in 1 tablespoon of the parsley.

Line a shallow bowl or platter with salad greens. (Optional: lay slices of bread on the platter as a bed for the eggplant salad.) Arrange the eggplant-chickpea salad on the greens. Place quartered eggs, sliced cheese, if using, and olives on top of the salad. Sprinkle with remaining parsley. Serve with bread for dunking.

More recipes for dunking salads:

Orange and Cod Salad (Remojón) 

Chopped Salad with Fava Beans  

 Lemon Dunking Salad 

Tomato-Tuna Dunking Salad 

Potato-Orange Dunking Salad 

Chopped Tomato Salad (Pipirrana de Jaén)

 Did you know that eggplant is the signature food of Moorish Spain? In Flavors of al-Andalus you will find seven very different recipes for eggplant--in season now--from this Roasted Eggplant Salad to stuffed, in croquettes, pickled, stewed, baked in a timbale, and fried and drizzled with molasses! 
 

This cookbook explores the fascinating story of the deep and lasting influences that Islamic culture has left on modern Spanish cooking. 

Author and Spanish cooking expert Janet Mendel tells the story of the Moorish influence on Spanish cooking through 120 recipes and photographs for modern-day dishes, from salads and vegetables to fish, poultry and meat to sweets and pastries, that trace their heritage to foods served in medieval times.  (Hippocrene Books)    

 Order on IndiePubs (USA) 

Use PROMO CODE HIPPOCRENE40 for 40% off on all Hippocrene titles at IndiePubs online bookstore.

***

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(If you order on Amazon, please give my book a review!)

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SIX AT TABLE

 

Leo (left) and Nico are off to shoot some hoops. (Photo Eli Searl)

A carton of two and a half dozen eggs goes into the shopping cart. How long will they last? Maybe three to four days if Nico and Leo each eats four eggs a day. If any of the rest of us want eggs—even a normal two per person—30 eggs will be gone in a couple of days. 

Leo makes scrambled eggs on toast.

My grandsons Nico and Leo are 18 and 22 respectively. They are weight-training at a local gym, as Nico, who will play college basketball in the fall, has to keep in shape. Protein, in quantity and frequency, is the order of the day. 

Leo is happy to cook breakfast for himself and his cousin. He’s in favor of Spanish-style revuelto—break the eggs into the pan and scramble them up together. Nico would prefer to have them fried with runny yolks. Either way, plenty of toast is required and bacon or sausage and sliced tomato on the side. (As I am cleaning up the kitchen, I listen while they cook, hand them ingredients or utensils as needed, but stay out of the fixing.)  

Nico with fried eggs and sausage at a local bar.

I am trying to plan meals a day or two in advance and do as much prepping as possible beforehand. Even so, I’m having trouble getting a whole meal for six on the table. What once was easy, now takes concentration. I make the pasta sauce early in the day, but forget it needs to be reheated.  “Oh, who can grate the cheese?” “The grater is in that cabinet.” The salad is prepped but I need to make the dressing. “Help! I can’t open this bottle of olive oil!” There are helping hands.

Daniel and Ben tend the grill.

Meals from the grill are good because both of my sons, Daniel and Benjamin, are practiced grill masters.  The first grill evening it was chicken legs, Atlantic-caught fish, and a variety of vegetables. Next week--win or lose--we will repeat the Argentine asado with three or more cuts of beef. (See last week’s blog for notes on the Argentine asado.)

Pisto vegetable melange with pasta.

One of my favorite meals, pisto (vegetable melange) con pasta, is so easy to prepare with eggplants, zucchini, peppers, and tomatoes from the garden. I augment the vegetarian dish with quickly fried filetitos de lomo, pork loin cutlets. (See this post for pisto recipes and variations.)

Nobody is crazy for sweets so dessert is usually chilled melon or watermelon. Energy drinks fill in between meals. Nico is delighted to indulge in Aquarius which, although bottled by CocaCola, is not distributed in the US. 

It's just hours until the Spain-Argentina World Cup final gets underway. In this blog last week, I speculated about just such a clash and its effect on our mixed-tribe of extended family. The Argentine amongst us has chosen not to join us in the village plaza to watch the game. Hopefully, we will all still be friends when it is over!

 
 

This cookbook explores the fascinating story of the deep and lasting influences that Islamic culture has left on modern Spanish cooking. 

Author and Spanish cooking expert Janet Mendel tells the story of the Moorish influence on Spanish cooking through 120 recipes and photographs for modern-day dishes, from salads and vegetables to fish, poultry and meat to sweets and pastries, that trace their heritage to foods served in medieval times.  (Hippocrene Books)    

 Order on IndiePubs (USA) 

Use PROMO CODE HIPPOCRENE40 for 40% off on all Hippocrene titles at IndiePubs online bookstore.

***

Order on amazon (USA)

Order on amazon.es  (Spain)

Order on amazon.co.uk (UK)

Order on amazon.com.au (Australia)

(If you order on Amazon, please give my book a review!)

***

Order from Kitchen Arts & Letters

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