18 or 20 inch Paella Pan
- Thread starter DanHoo
- Start date
Rich G
TVWBB Honor Circle
Dan, what are you going to use for a heat source? If a 22" kettle, then I'd go with 16-18". I have used the 16" carbon steel Garcima on my 22" kettle many times, and it works out great! I recently added a 20" pan to the mix as it came bundled with the paella burner that mysteriously showed up at my house about 10 days ago! The 20" will physically fit on the kettle, but if you have to do any fire management, you may run into some logistical issues.
The other question to ask is how many people do you think you will cook for. Then, of course, you have to get into the debate about what amount of rice is correct for which pan.
My first paella in the 20".... that's 500g of Bomba rice in there, which will serve 8-10 people (I don't abide by the 100g of rice/person.)
The other question to ask is how many people do you think you will cook for. Then, of course, you have to get into the debate about what amount of rice is correct for which pan.
My first paella in the 20".... that's 500g of Bomba rice in there, which will serve 8-10 people (I don't abide by the 100g of rice/person.)
DanHoo
TVWBB Olympian
Probably on a 22" kettle.
Wow, I thought it was an 18"
Thanks Rich,
I put the 18 on my wish list
Steve Hoch
TVWBB Hall of Fame
That looks delicious Rich! I haven't made paella in a long time. It's going on my list of delicious food that I make and no one else in my family will eat because they are weird.
LMichaels
TVWBB 2-Star Olympian
I have a very nice paella pan and it's never made a paella. Only thing it's ever made is pizzas. Wife and I got it WAY back right after we got hitched. It's all carbon steel, IIRC imported from spain. Even way back in 1986 it cost an arm and a leg. But back in the day when we'd need to make much larger pizzas (we lived in Chicago and a lot more friends/family were around), so we had the really nice 22" pan.
Still have it though it's not been pressed into service for anything in many years. Now that I think of it I may see if my oddest daughter would like it. She's a little more adventurous than I am now
Still have it though it's not been pressed into service for anything in many years. Now that I think of it I may see if my oddest daughter would like it. She's a little more adventurous than I am now
Brett-EDH
TVWBB Olympian
Nugget has nice seafood for your adventure.
John_NJ
TVWBB Wizard
The only advice I can give here is after cleaning it, wipe the pan down with cooking oil before storing it - to prevent rust.
But you might have known this already.
ChuckO
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
Nicely seasoned Dan, congrats. Looking forward to seeing your cooks using that
Rich G
TVWBB Honor Circle
Dan, you can do a simple one with just rice, chicken, and some chorizo or linguica. The most challenging thing for me is finding the Bomba rice (it's not really paella without Bomba or Valenciana rice) at a price that didn't make me choke. I'm getting 1kg bags at a local Spanish market for $12. The only other ingredient that isn't cheap is the saffron...... THIS RECIPE is a winner, and still very close to what I do now. Make your paella yours, with ingredients you like! Looking forward to seeing your first one!
R
LMichaels
TVWBB 2-Star Olympian
I think you can sub arborio rice for the Spanish one. IIRC they're pretty similar short grain and similar texture/cooking characteristic
Rich G
TVWBB Honor Circle
You can sub arborio if you absolutely can't source Bomba. However, they are quite different in regards to the amount of starch they will give up in the cooking process. I've made this dish with arborio, and it's still very good, but it's not the same. I'm also not a fan of the culinary police, so I encourage everyone to do it how they want with the ingredients they can source......after all, that's how paella came to be in the first place! It was a rice farmer's lunch, cooked in the fields over a fire, and they flavored the rice with what they had (chicken, duck, rabbit, snails, etc.). As I recall, paella was proclaimed to be Spain's national dish because the dictator General Franco loved it. That is also when the "true recipe" for Paella Valenciana was more or less codified. If you want to get historical about it, paella was a twist on a dish that was introduced to the Valencia region (along with rice) by the Moors.....but I digress!!
@DanHoo if you are going to sub rice varieties, just pay attention to the ratio at which they absorb liquid and adjust any recipe you are using. Bomba is typically a pretty solid 3:1, and arborio tends to be closer to 2/2.5:1. Play with what ya got, take notes, adjust......
R
DanHoo
TVWBB Olympian
Thanks @Rich G
Santa also gave me a kilo of Matiz Paella Rice. It did not say that it was or wasn't Bomba so I googled a little and found a few references that it is not Bomba, but still good for Paella.
This was from reddit:
I'm pretty sure the "matiz paella rice" is either Bahia or Senia, two strains of rice also grown in Valencia that are suited for paella but less finicky than Bomba. They absorb water more readily, and cook faster, and therefore require less stock for cookong. Matiz Bomba is actually Bomba, a fantastic rice, but it takes forever to cook. Actually according to New Spanish Table, many spanish restaurants prefer Bahia and Senia because they cook faster.
I also found this comparison on nakedwhiz
Santa also gave me a kilo of Matiz Paella Rice. It did not say that it was or wasn't Bomba so I googled a little and found a few references that it is not Bomba, but still good for Paella.
This was from reddit:
I'm pretty sure the "matiz paella rice" is either Bahia or Senia, two strains of rice also grown in Valencia that are suited for paella but less finicky than Bomba. They absorb water more readily, and cook faster, and therefore require less stock for cookong. Matiz Bomba is actually Bomba, a fantastic rice, but it takes forever to cook. Actually according to New Spanish Table, many spanish restaurants prefer Bahia and Senia because they cook faster.
I also found this comparison on nakedwhiz
Paella Rice Comparison -- Naked Whiz Ceramic Charcoal Cooking
Ceramic charcoal cooking, barbecue, recipes, charcoal reviews and more!
www.nakedwhiz.com
Rich G
TVWBB Honor Circle
This one is not Bomba, but is another, medium grain, rice from Spain. It's definitely going to make you a paella, but from what I read, it will absorb a bit less water. Use any recipe you want, but start with your liquid to rice ratio at 2.5:1, and see how you get along. If it is drying too quickly based on taste testing a grain or two of rice at about 15 minutes, you can add some more broth or water (make sure this is at or close to simmer so you don't cool the rice dish when you add it.) Add it very gently so you don't disturb the rice bed. If it is taking longer to cook off liquid than the ~20-25 minutes that is normal, then write in your notes to either start with 2:1 the next time, or hit it with heat harder to begin with.
You're going to make a tasty dish no matter what, and from there you can tweak it to your tastes, try other varieties of rice, as well as add-ins.
Can't wait to see the first one, Dan!
R
EDIT - Apropos of nothing whatsoever, this is the brand of Bomba I have been able to find, and it has performed quite well for me!
