For me, paella - the first of this week's three recipes made from one shopping
list - has always had connotations of luxury and celebration. I think of
wide dishes overflowing with saffron-stained plump rice, with juicy
langoustines and fat mussels, strips of squid and tender pieces of chicken.
It was only when I was exploring Spanish local food for my TV series A Cook's
Tour of Spain that I learnt about the down-to-earth peasant roots of Spain's
most famous dish. Paella evolved in the historically poor region of
southeast Spain around Valencia. Long before, Moorish invaders had brought
with them a few varieties of short-grained rice from Asia, which they grew
in low-lying fields around the town of Valencia.
The Valencia countryside is fertile and humid and the large lake and area of
marshland called the Albufera lagoon is perfect for the cultivation of rice.
This is a national park today, but still one of Europe's most famous
rice-growing regions. The crop was to become an important foodstuff in the
southern Spanish diet and this was reflected in local recipes. Paella,
however, stands apart from other rice dishes. And its traditional place at
the weekend as the main midday meal to feed the entire family - sometimes
friends and neighbours too - makes it a suitable candidate for an Easter
weekend feast.
In poorer times, food during the week was mainly dishes of potatoes or beans,
bread and whatever other vegetables or scraps of meat were available.
Paella, in contrast, was a dish where every ingredient to be found was added
to create a huge, generous plate of food. Snails could be foraged during the
week and purged ahead of the weekend to provide free protein; rabbits were
shot; on special occasions a family chicken might be slaughtered; locally
grown vegetables such as peppers, tomatoes and peas were picked and, for
high days and holidays, a pinch of saffron was added (though more often the
cheaper yellow turmeric was used).
It was cooked outside, over a wood-burning stove, usually by the men of the
house, in a wide-bottom dish with two handles. Today paella is defined by
three characteristics: that it is made outside on a wood-burning fire, which
gives it its lovely smoky taste; that it is eaten at lunchtime; and that it
is always cooked in a paella pan.
All that, though, is for the purist. If you can get your hands on a dish large
enough to feed the family at Easter, it won't matter whether you cook it
outside or in. It is much less work than cooking a risotto because you don't
have to spend ages standing and stirring at the stove, but the result is
deliciously complex, full of intangible scents and rich flavours.
Make sure you keep every leftover bone and shell from people's cleaned plates.
Throwing away those scraps is like throwing away little parcels of taste
that you can use to transform this week's other two recipes.
N.B. Scottish langoustines are fished 100 per cent sustainably, are not too
expensive and are delicious. The majority are exported to Spain as we tend
not to like fiddling with the shells, while Spaniards are far more concerned
with the taste. Order them online or from a good fishmonger and treat
yourself.
A Cook's Tour of Spain, Channel 4, on Thursday and April 3, 8pm
Shopping list for three meals
1 large free-range chicken
12 Scottish langoustines
450g mussels, de-bearded
2kg mixed white fish
12 baby artichokes, or if you cannot get these use artichokes in jars
5 heads fennel
1 red, 1 green and 1 yellow pepper
4 tomatoes, a small bunch of thyme
1 mango, 1 fresh red chilli
1 tin coconut milk
Ricotta cheese
If you don't have them already
Dry sherry - manzanilla or fino
1 bottle good-quality vinegar
A small box of saffron
2 heads of garlic
2 lemons and 2 limes
4 onions and 1 bag shallots
½ bunch of thyme and coriander
800g floury potatoes
Star buy
Fresh ginger
Store cupboard buys
1 packet fish stock and
1 packet chicken stock cubes Spanish paella rice such as Bomba, or another
short-grained variety Hot curry paste
1 bottle Pernod
Recipe 1: Easter paella
Prep time: 35 min; cooking time: 40 min. Serves 8-10
First prepare the artichokes. Pour some vinegar and the juice of a lemon into
a bowl of water. Pull away the outer leaves of the artichokes and trim off
the base stalks. Cut off an inch of the leaves from the top. Cut each choke
in half lengthways and rub liberally with another cut lemon. Put into the
water to stop any discolouring.
Infuse a generous pinch of saffron (about 20 strands) in a small cup of hot
water.
With a jointing knife or meat scissors, chop up the chicken into small pieces,
bones and all. Season the pieces with salt and pepper. Pour 3 tbsp of olive
oil into a paella pan or wide-based frying pan and brown the chicken pieces
on all sides. Remove and set aside.
Add a little more oil to the pan and add 2 chopped onions and a handful of
chopped fresh thyme. Sweat for 5 minutes before adding 2 heads of fennel
chopped in 2in (5cm) chunks, then add the peppers cut into similar sized
pieces and the artichokes. Sautée for 5-10 minutes or until the vegetables
are just starting to caramelise.
Add another dash of oil and 4 tomatoes, cut into eighths and 6 cloves of
chopped garlic. Cook for a minute or two before adding 500g of the rice.
Stir-fry for 2-3 minutes to coat with the oil. Now pour in the saffron
water, 150ml of dry sherry and a litre of chicken stock. Add the chicken
pieces, the langoustine and the mussels and simmer briskly for 20-25 minutes
until the rice is plumped up and the chicken and shellfish are cooked.
Top up with more stock if you need to. Turn off the heat, cover and let rest
for 10 minutes to let the rice finish cooking in its steam. Serve at the
table with forks for everyone to help themselves. Traditionally each person
eats the part in front of them. The perfect paella has a light crust on the
bottom of the pan, which is the best bit, so make sure everyone gets some.
Serve with a fresh, green salad.
Recipe 2: fish curry (serves 6)
Use the discarded langoustine shells from the paella above. Fry them together
for 5 minutes with 3 whole cloves of garlic, 2 chopped shallots, the flesh
of a mango, the stems of a small bunch of coriander and a fresh red chilli
in 2 tbsp of oil. Blitz the whole lot in a food processor with enough water
added to keep it liquid and then press through a sieve.
Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a pan and fry an onion, 3 cloves of garlic and 1in
minced ginger for a few minutes. Add 3 tbsp of hot curry paste. Fry for a
few minutes, then add half a tin of coconut milk, the sieved langoustine
sauce from above, a litre of fish stock and a good pinch of salt. Add 500g
potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks, and simmer gently for 20-30 minutes.
Taste for seasoning, adding a pinch of paprika if you like it hot. Slide the
fish, cut into bite-size chunks, into the soup and simmer for five minutes.
Serve with wedges of lime to squeeze over, some chopped coriander and bread
to mop up the juices.
Recipe 3: fennel soup with ricotta crostini (serves 6)
Make a simple chicken stock by covering the leftover chicken bones from the
paella with water and simmer for an hour with a chopped onion, a carrot and
a stick or two of celery, together with a little thyme and a few black
peppercorns.
Then chop and sweat 2 shallots, 3 heads of fennel (cutting off any tough old
outer layers and reserving the feathery green fronds for the garnish) and 8
garlic cloves in 3 tbsp of olive oil until transparent. Add 200g peeled,
diced potatoes and sweat until the potatoes turn transparent. Add a good
splash of Pernod, then season well with salt and pepper, cover in 1.2 litres
of the stock and simmer until the potatoes are tender.
Blend to a fine purée. Drizzle slices of baguette with extra-virgin olive oil
and toast in a 200C oven until golden (about 5-10 minutes). Rub with the cut
side of a garlic clove and spread with the ricotta cheese.
Serve the soup scattered with the reserved fronds of the fennel bulbs and the
ricotta toasts.
