Simple Spanish Food

Rice with Shrimp, arroz con gambas

The first time I went to Valencia I was surprised to find many restaurants did not serve paella. Instead they offered simple but highly flavorful  yellow rice served with meat or fish or vegetables on the side. 

Here's my quick and simple version of Valencian-style rice with shrimp. 

Ingredients

1 lb of shrimp, with heads if you can find them

1 bay leaf

1 cup of Spanish rice, such as Calasparra, Bomba, or  La Marjal. Or use Italian arborio.

1 teaspoon of salt

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 teaspoon of Pimentón

a pinch of saffron

1/4 cup of olive oil, plus more for pan frying the shrimp

 

First peel the shrimp and reserve the shells and heads (if you can't find shrimp with the head on, just use the shells).

Put the shrimp shells and heads in a pot with three cups of water and a bay leaf. Bring to a simmer.

It's best to let the shells simmer for at least fifteen minutes.

Strain the broth.

Heat  a frying pan or a small paella pan.

Saute the garlic in the oil.  Add the rice and stir. Let the rice "fry" for two minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat. When the rice has cooled a little, add the salt, saffron, and Pimentón. Stir.

Add the broth.  Bring the rice to a boil. Stir it once. Turn down the heat to medium and let the rice simmer uncovered for 18 minutes. 

Towards the end of the cooking time, check the rice with a spoon. It should form a crust on the bottom, but if it looks like it will burn, turn down (or off) the heat and cover the pan.

Let the rice rest ten minutes.

While the rice is resting, prepare the shelled shrimp any way you like. For this post I quickly pan fried them with garlic.

Serve the rice with the shrimp around it.

Summer: Time for Vegetable Paellas

 

Vegetable paella is one of our standard summer dishes. We eat it about once a week, and we never tire of it, partly because we use different vegetables for nearly every paella--whatever is fresh and in season goes in--but mainly because they are so good and so easy to make.  Once you have the technique down, you can make a vegetable paella in just half an hour.

To make a great vegetarian paella, you need three special ingredients.

Pimentón is essential: it gives the paella a rich smokey flavor.

Also essential is the right rice: Calasparra, Bomba, or a paella rice such as La Marjal. Or use Italian arborio.

You can make paellas with a good short-grain brown rice, too. See my post on brown rice paella for the technique.

While I would not say that saffron is essential--you can get away with colorante, yellow dye--it does add a subtle flavor that makes paella, paella.

Once you have these three key ingredients, you can make many, many different types of vegetable paellas in a snap.  You can choose nearly any vegetables you like.   What's in season is usually bonito, bueno, y barrato, as  Esperana, my mother-in-law, always says. 

We always start by sauteeing a chopped onion in about 1/3 cup of olive oil.  (Use a heavy skillet or a small paella pan.) We then add garlic (whole peeled cloves or chopped), a chopped tomato, and a handful of chopped parsley. 

We then add green beans, diced summer squash, peas, butterbeans or limas--whatever you find that you like at the market.  (One exception is eggplant, which I always prefer to cook separately and serve alongside the paella.  See my post on Spanish rice with eggplant).

Add a pinch of saffron , a teaspoon of pimentón, a teaspoon of salt, and one cup of rice, and stir.

Cook the vegetable/rice mixture a few minutes, then add 2 and 1/2 cups of water.

Bring the liquid to a boil. Simmer uncovered for 18 minutes.  Towards the end of the cooking time, check with a wooden spoon to make sure the rice isn't burning. A crust at the bottom of the pan is ideal. If it seems the rice will burn, turn off the heat and cover the pan.

After 18 minutes, remove the pan from the heat.  Decorate the top of the paella with a handful of chopped parsley and  pimiento strips or, even better,  roasted red peppers or piquillo peppers.

We usually have paella with that other classic Spanish summer standard, gazpacho.

 

Arroz empedrat, o empedrado: a Colorful Rice & Bean Paella

Arroz empedrat (Catalan) or empedrado (Castilian) means "pebbled rice."  In this case the rice is "pebbled" with beans. I used black beans, red kidney beans, and green peas, which together with red peppers, parsley and saffron-tinted rice, make this a colorful dish. It tastes good too.

I got the idea for this recipe from Penelope Casas' Paella! Spectacular Rice Dishes from Spain, but I've changed it quite a bit.  This is basically a vegetable paella with an emphasis on beans.

Ingredients:

1 cup of Spanish rice  (Calasparra, Bomba, or a paella rice such as La Marjal are best. Italian arborio will do. But regular long-grain and Asian rices just won't work.)

1 onion, chopped

1/2 cup of canned red kidney beans, rinsed

1/2 cup of canned black beans, rinsed

1/2 cup of frozen green peas, rinsed

7 cloves of garlic, peeled but left whole

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon of pimentón  (an important ingredient: see my post on pimentón)

1/4 cup of flame-roasted red peppers, cut into slivers (see my post on flame-roasted red peppers), or piquillo peppers

a small pinch of saffron, ground with a little salt in a mortar

1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt, or to taste (keep in mind that canned beans are often salty)

coarsely chopped parsley

In a large heavy frying pan or a medium paella pan, saute the onion in the olive oil. When the onion turns translucent, add the whole garlic cloves. Saute two minutes more.

Add the rice. Stir until it's well coated with oil. Add all of the beans, the peas, and the pimentón.

Stir. Add  two and a half cups of water, the salt, and the saffron. 

Stir. Bring the rice to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium-low. Let the rice simmer uncovered for 18 minutes.

Toward the end of the cooking, check with a wooden spoon to make sure the rice isn't burning.  A crust at the bottom is ideal, but it should be brown, not black. If it seems the rice may burn, turn off the heat and cover the pan. 

After cooking, let the paella rest for ten minutes.  In the meantime, decorate the  paella with parsley and  flame-roasted red peppers or piquillo peppers.

After the ten minute rest, serve the paella.

A Brown Rice Paella? arroz integral con verduras

Although I call this a "paella," it's really more of a stir-fry with paella-like flavors.  I got the idea from various Spanish recipes for brown rice I've come across--especially one that Esperanza, my mother-in-law, clipped from a magazine.

The key to success is the same as that for a Chinese stir-fry:  cook your rice ahead of time and let it cool completely before preparing the dish.

Ingredients:

one cup of quality short-grain brown rice

an onion, chopped

a zucchini, coarsely diced

half a red bell pepper, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

a generous handful of parsley, chopped

1/4 cup pine nuts

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon of pimentón de La Vera  (we like picante)

salt

Cook the brown rice according to the directions on the package and let it cool completely.

Heat up a large skillet or wok. Add the olive oil and stir fry the onions, red pepper, and zucchini.

Add the garlic, parsley, and pine nuts. Stir fry two minutes more.

Add the rice.  Stir fry it for a minute or two.

Add the pimentón and a scant teaspoon of salt.

Keep stir-frying until the ingredients are well blended.

Serve.

 

A Word about Paella, and a Recipe for Seafood Paella (paella de mariscos, arroz a la marinera, o arroz pescador, et cetera)

In his mammoth travel book Iberia, James Michener complained that even after regularly traveling in Spain for forty years, he'd never had a great paella.  (He also said he'd never seen decent Flamenco or a good bullfight.)  While I can't say I've never had good paella, I do admit: a good paella is hard to find, even in Spain.

Many non-Spaniards seem to think paella is the "national dish" of Spain. It isn't.  Originally, paella was very much a regional dish (from Valencia).  Andrés, my father-in-law, who was from Galicia (nearly the opposite side of the country from Valencia) regarded paella--and Valencian rice dishes in general--as an odd kind of food from the south, much as in the U.S. a  New Englander might view grits.

That said, there is something like a pan-Spanish or national version of the paella,  the "mixed paella"--a relatively recent invention, I suspect. This is the bright yellow-orange (usually artificially colored) rice dish cooked with chicken, chorizo, and shellfish, in a wide, shallow pan, and decorated with pimientos.  According to Penelope Casas' Paella! Spectacular Rice Dishes from Spain, this "mixed paella" is not an authentic Valencian dish at all. A true Valencian, she says, keeps his paella much simpler--just seafood and rice, or just rabbit and rice, or snails and rice, and so on.

When Ana and I are in Madrid, the main places I see "mixed paella" are in restaurants at the Plaza Mayor and at the airport.  This is to say, mixed paella is for tourists, and serious food people often sneer at it much the way they do at sangria.  

If you want authentic Valencian (or Murcian, or Cordobés) rice dishes, it's usually necessary to go to a restaurant specializing in them, where,  most likely, they will not be called "paella" at all but simply arroz (rice):  arroz con calamares (rice with squid),  arroz con calabacines (rice with summer squash), and so on. The rice may be cooked in a wide flat paella pan or in a deeper pan that looks a little like a flat-bottomed wok, or even in a pot.  The rice may be light and fluffy or moist, risotto style, or something in between. There is a very wide variety of Spanish rice dishes.

I have nothing against the mixed paella. I can understand why it has become something of a symbol.  It's pretty and festive. The colors are not only bright, they suggest the Spanish flag. The chorizo is not on my low-cholesterol diet, but I still hope to post a recipe on a good mixed paella in the future.

My main problem with paellas, authentic and not, is that the seafood in them is almost always overcooked. The traditional way of cooking paella--cooking fish and shellfish together with the rice--is to blame.  Spanish rice takes twenty minutes to cook, and it then needs a ten minute rest before serving.  So any fish or shellfish you add will cook at least half an hour. In most cases this is way, way too long.

My brother-in-law Antonio once told me that a true paella aficionado would not care about overcooked shellfish. For him, it's the flavor of the rice that matters.   Personally, I would much rather cook the paella in such a way that both the rice and the seafood come out just right, even if it means resorting to less-than-authentic techniques.

My approach to seafood paella is simple. I simmer clams, mussels, shrimp, and other shellfish separately until each is just barely done. (The one exception is the squid, which needs longer cooking anyway, and so is cooked with the rice). I reserve the simmering liquid as the broth base for the paella. When the rice is cooked, I decorate it with the seafood. The ten minute "rest" after cooking is a good time to do this.  The heat of the rice warms the shellfish through.

This way, the rice comes out flavorful, and the shellfish and fish  are cooked perfectly.  

A Recipe for Seafood Paella (arroz a la marinera, o arroz pescador)

 Ingredients:

1 cup of Spanish rice (Calasparra, Bomba, a paella rice such as La Marjal, or Italian arborio)

***Note: the rice is important! Read my posts on Spanish rice dishes for more info on rice)***

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon of pimentón  (see my post on pimentón)

a dozen shrimp (for this post, I used Florida rock shrimp), with shells on. With heads on, they're even better

a dozen littleneck clams

a dozen mussels

2 medium squid, sliced into 1/4" thick rings

a small pinch of saffron, ground with a little salt in a mortar

1 onion, chopped

1 medium tomato, chopped

1/2 cup of English peas

2 cloves of garlic

3-4 cups of water

chopped parsley

1/4 cup of flame-roasted red peppers, cut into slivers (see my post on flame-roasted red peppers), or piquillo peppers

2 bay leaves

a slice of lemon with peel

a dozen peppercorns

Clean the shellfish. Soak the clams in water for an hour or two. Scrub them.  Scrub the mussels and pluck out the beards with tweezers.

Meanwhile, heat up about 3 cups of water in a large pot. Add the bay leaves, whole peppercorns, and the lemon slice. Let the spices barely simmer in the water while you're cleaning the shellfish.

To cook the shellfish, work in batches. I like to start with the clams because they add salt to the broth (and usually all the salt that's needed for the paella). Add the clams to the simmering liquid and cover the pot. Check on them after five minutes. Remove any that have opened and put them on a plate. Continue steaming 3 to 4 minutes more until all the clams have opened. Throw away any that don't.

Steam the mussels in the exactly the same way, removing them from the pot as they open. 

Now steam the shrimp.  For medium-large shrimp, this usually only takes 3-4 minutes. Don't overcook them.

Strain the broth through several layers of cheesecloth and reserve.

Reserve all the steamed shellfish.

In a large heavy skillet or a small paella pan, fry the chopped onion in the olive oil until it's soft and translucent.  Add the chopped tomato, chopped garlic, and about a tablespoon of chopped parsley.  Add the sliced squid. Cook for three of four minutes, stirring.

Add the  saffron.  Add the pimentón.

Add the rice and stir. Let the rice "fry" three or four minutes. Keep stirring.

Add the peas and the strained broth. Give the paella another stir, but don't stir any more after that.

Let the paella simmer, uncovered, over medium heat, for 20 minutes. Around the fifteenth minute, you may want to check the rice at the bottom of the pan to make sure it isn't burning. Just insert a wooden spoon and peek.  You want a crust to form on the bottom, but if it looks like it may burn, add a little more broth or water.

After twenty minutes, remove the paella from the burner and let it rest ten minutes. While it's resting, decorate the top with the steamed seafood, flame roasted peppers, and fresh chopped parsley.

 

 

 

 

 

Easy Summer Squash Paella--arroz con calabacines

This summer squash paella makes a great vegan/vegetarian one-pot meal.  We often serve it with a bean salad, or with vegetarian or vegan "chorizos." It can also be served as a side dish with seafood or game.

As with any Spanish rice dish, it's extremely important to start with the right rice. Use Calasparra or Bomba, or a paella rice such as La Marjal. Italian arborio rice makes a pretty good substitute.  Whatever you do, don't try this with the regular short- or long-grain rices usually found in grocery stores. The results will be disappointing.  I cannot emphasize this point enough: the rice really does matter.

Ingredients

1/4 - 1/3 cup olive oil

1 cup of Spanish rice (Calasparra, Bomba, a paella rice such as La Marjal, or Italian arborio)

2 to 2 1/2 cups hot water

1 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch wedges.

1 medium yellow squash, cut into 1/2 inch wedges

1 large onion

2 cloves of garlic

1/3 cup chopped parsley

1 medium tomato, chopped (or a few cherry type tomatoes)

a small pinch of saffron, ground with a little salt in a mortar

1 teaspoon of pimentón  (see my post on pimentón)

1 teaspoon of kosher salt

1/4 cup of flame-roasted red peppers, cut into slivers (see my post on flame-roasted red peppers), or piquillo peppers

Heat a heavy skillet or a paella pan. Add the olive oil and the  chopped onion.  When the onion is soft, add the squash, the tomatoes, the garlic, and all but one tablespoon of the parsley. Cook the vegetables, stirring occasionally, for five minutes or so.

Add the rice. Stir until it is well blended with the oil and vegetables.  Let the rice "fry" for 3 minutes or so.  (This helps the grains to stay separate). Add the pimentón.  Stir.

Add two cups of hot water, the salt, and the saffron.

Stir. Let the rice come to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium. Let the rice simmer for twenty minutes.  During the last 5-7 minutes, you may want to insert a wooden spoon into the rice to see how it's cooking on the bottom of the pan.  Ideally, a paella develops a crust on the bottom, but you don't want it to burn, so add a little more water if necessary.

Remove the rice from the heat and let it rest for 10 minutes. (This rest is important to the texture of the rice, so don't skip it).  Garnish the paella with the remaining chopped parsley and strips of roasted red peppers or piquillos.

 

 

 

A Simple Spanish Recipe for Rice with Salt Cod (arroz con bacalao)

Rice with salt cod (arroz con bacalao) is another easy, tasty, one-pot meal.  Esperanza, my mother-in-law, makes it for me whenever I'm in Spain, and I love it. This is real Spanish home-cooking.   As with any Spanish rice dish, it's extremely important to start with the right rice. Use Calasparra or Bomba, or a paella rice such as La Marjal. Italian arborio rice is not quite the same, but it makes a pretty good substitute. Whatever you do, don't try this with the regular short- or long-grain rices usually found in grocery stores. The results will be disappointing (as I know from bitter experience). The rice really does matter.

As with my recipe for bacalao con salsa de tomate, start with good salt cod. Latin American groceries often carry it.  La Tienda also sells top quality salt cod.  Remember, salt cod needs 24 hours or more soaking, so plan ahead. Otherwise, this dish is easy.

Here's how to do it: 

Ingredients:

1 cup of Spanish rice (Calasparra or Bomba, or a paella rice such as La Marjal. Or substitute Italian arborio)

1/2 pound of salt cod fillets

1/4 cup of olive oil

1 large onion

3 or 4 small tomatoes, or 1 or 2 large ones, chopped

1/2 a large red sweet pepper (bell, cubanelle, marconi, etc.), sliced

a tablespoon of chopped parsley

2 garlic cloves, chopped

a small pinch of saffron, ground with a little salt in a mortar

freshly ground black pepper

salt to taste

First, soak the salt cod for 24 hours (see my directions for soaking salt cod in my post on bacalao con salsa de tomate). 

Heat a large skillet. Saute the chopped onion in olive oil. Add the sliced red pepper. When the onion is soft and translucent, add the garlic. Stir. Add the chopped tomato, the parsley, the saffron, and a pinch of black pepper.  When the tomato is soft, add the rice and stir well.  Let the rice "fry" for a few minutes. 

 Arrange the fillets in a single layer over the rice. Add two cups of water (a little more if you like wetter rice). Add salt--but go easy. The salt cod may still be somewhat salty.  I usually add 1/2 teaspoon or less.

Bring the rice and bacalao to a boil. Turn the heat down to medium. Let the rice cook, uncovered, for twenty minutes. Towards the end, keep an eye on the rice. Check it by inserting a wooden spoon. A crust may form at the bottom of the pan (this is ideal) but you don't want it to burn. If you think it will, turn down the heat some and/or add a little more water.

Remove the skillet from the heat. Let the rice and bacalao rest for 10 minutes (this is important) and serve.

A Simple Spanish Recipe for Rice with Mussels, or A Better Mussel Paella (Arroz con mejillones)

This dish of mussels and rice (arroz con mejillones), loosely based on a recipe by popular Spanish television chef Karlos Arguiñano, resembles the mussel paella in Penelope Casas' Paella! Spectacular Rice Dishes from Spain, but it's different in one important way: the mussels are cooked first, set aside, and mixed into the rice at the last minute. The mussel broth is used to cook the rice.  This way the rice is flavorful but  the mussels are not overcooked ( as lamentably they so often are in paellas).

You could cook this in a paella pan, the breadth of which creates  a lot space for decorating the rice with mussels still in their shells. 

As with my recipe for Spanish rice with spinach, chickpeas and eggplant, or indeed any Spanish rice dish, the key to success is starting out with the right rice. Ideally, use Calasparra or Bomba rice, or a paella rice such as La Marjal.

I cannot emphasise enough: the rice really does matter. Regular long gain rice just doesn't work well for most Spanish rice dishes.  Look at this cup of Bomba rice. Notice the small, round grains.

Italian arborio rice is a pretty good substitute, but different.

Here's how to do it

Ingredients:

2 lbs of mussels, scrubbed, beards removed

1 cup of Spanish rice, such as Calasparra, Bomba, or a paella rice such as La Marjal. Or substitute arborio.

a few garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

1 onion, chopped

a good tomato, chopped

olive oil

a handful of chopped parsley

a small pinch of saffron, ground with a little salt in a mortar

salt

Heat up  a cup of water in a pot. Add the mussels. Cover, and gently steam them for a few minutes until they open.  It shouldn't take more than five or six minutes, eight tops.  Don't overcook the mussels.

Strain the mussel broth through a few layers of cheese cloth and reserve.

Discard any mussels that don't open.   Select a dozen or so especially pretty mussels and reserve them for the garnish. Remove the rest of the mussels from their shells and reserve.

Heat up a large heavy skillet or a small paella pan.

Add a good dash of oil (between 1/4 and 1/3 cup ). Add the chopped onions and garlic. Cook it until the onions turn translucent. Add the chopped tomato and saffron.  When the tomato turns liquid, add the rice.  Stir, letting the rice fry in the onion-oil mixture for a few minutes. Add the mussel broth and enough water to make 2 1/2 cups total liquid.  Add a pinch more salt (not too much: the mussels are already salty) and let the rice simmer on medium heat for 20 minutes. Don't cover the rice.  

Mix the mussel meats into the rice and let it rest a few minutes.  Meanwhile decorate the rice with the mussels still in their shells and sprinkle with parsley.  

 

 

 

 

Spanish Rice with Chickpeas, Spinach, and Pan-grilled Eggplant (arroz con garbanzos, espinaca, y berenjena)

Rice with chickpeas, spinach and pan-grilled eggplant is an easy, almost one-pot meal.  It's vegetarian/vegan. It has zero cholesterol, and it's really tasty. 

As with just about any Spanish rice dish, the secret is starting with the right rice. I cannot emphasize enough:  if you try this with the usual long grain rices available in U.S. supermarkets, or even the short-grain varieties used in Asian cooking, the results will be disappointing.  The rice really does make the difference. 

Ideally, use Calasparra or Bomba rice, or a paella rice such as La Marjal. 

All of these are available at La Tienda. Italian arborio rice is not the same, but it makes an okay substitute.

Here's a pic of the Calasparra we used. Notice the tiny, round grains.

This is my adaptation of a recipe from 1069 Recetas, a new cookbook by Karlos Arguiñano, the popular Spanish television chef.  His is actually more of a garbanzo dish. Mine is  more of a rice dish.

Here's how to do it:

Ingredients:

1 cup of Spanish rice (Calasparra,  Bomba, etc.)

1 large bag of prewashed spinach, or a bunch of spinach, washed with coarse stems removed

1 16-ounce can of garbanzos, rinsed

1/2-1 teaspoon of pimentón (optional) See my post on pimentón for more information.

1 eggplant

olive oil

salt

2 cups (or more) water

If you're using bagged spinach, rinse it.   Heat up a large skillet or a small paella pan. Add a dash of  olive oil.   Add the spinach and garbanzos. Stir.  When the spinach has wilted, add the rice and, if you like, the pimentón. Stir.  Let the rice cook in the oil a few minutes. Add two cups of water and a 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt.  Bring the rice to a simmer.  Stir it once (and no more). Turn down the heat to medium.  Don't cover the rice.  Let the rice simmer for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat up a large heavy skillet or griddle. (I like to use cast iron for this). Slice the eggplant into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Add a dash of olive oil to the pan. (The more oil you add, the richer the eggplant will be, but with a dish like this, a little richness isn't bad. I sometimes think of sauteed eggplant slices as vegetarian bacon).  Swirl the oil around. Pan-fry as many eggplant slices as will fit in a single layer.  I like to turn the eggplant slices the moment I've put them in the pan. This way they soak up a bit of oil on both sides. Let them cook 4-5 minutes per side, until nicely browned and  tender.  Sprinkle them with a little kosher salt. Remove them from the pan and cook another batch in the same way. 

Keep an eye on the rice.  Insert a wooden spoon to peek at how the rice is cooking on the bottom.  The ideal is for the rice to develop a nice golden crust against the pan just as it finishes cooking, but it shouldn't burn. If you're afraid it's going to burn, add a little water.

After cooking the rice twenty minutes, remove it from the burner. Allow it to sit five minutes (it continues to cook) and serve with the eggplant.