Rich G
TVWBB Honor Circle
When we visited Spain a couple of years ago, I was treated to a wonderful paella cooked by our gracious host, and have wanted to make my own ever since. Never got around to it until I dropped by my neighbor's place a couple of weeks ago while he happened to be making paella for a family gathering. So, I ordered a 16" pan, found some good Spanish ingredients, and tonight, I made my first ever paella!
Started out the day by making some chicken stock...here the veggies are in the Instant Pot waiting on the chicken legs that were roasting in the oven (on sale for $.99/lb, so just used those instead of bones):
Liquid gold!
Mise en place.....from right to left in the order they will go into the pan: chicken thighs (in foil), grated onion & garlic, green beans (couldn't find the flat beans that are traditional), chorizo, lima and white beans, grated tomato and rice (stock not pictured.....):
Getting some color on:
Everybody's in the pool:
......and, done!
This turned out absolutely fantastic! I could have cooked the paella for another 5-10 minutes, as it was more moist than it should have been. However, the rice was just al dente, and the flavors were astonishingly good. I really can't wait to make another, probably a seafood version next time.
I'll drop a few words about my grill set up here, as I couldn't find ANY details on that topic in my research about paella on the grill. So, I fired up a full Weber chimney of coals, and when they were all going, I dropped them in my 26". I used four baskets on the perimeter to contain the coals in an even layer that would be about the size of my pan. I tossed a few additional briquettes on to fill in some spots that weren't quite covered, and let everything get good and hot. Holding my hand at grate level, this was about a "two second" fire (I could hold my hand there for 2 seconds before I had to pull it away.) I cooked with the lid open the whole time, as it seemed that having a lot of heat the beginning, then letting it naturally cool a bit toward the end would work well (that matched up with videos of fire maintenance I watched from restaurants doing traditional cooks in Valencia.) It worked out very well, and I had just the right amount of heat all the way through without really needing to tinker with the bottom vents at all (which were wide open.)
If you haven't tried this dish, I highly recommend it. If you can make your own stock, you will be well rewarded. Good saffron and Spanish paprika are very important ingredients as well.
Thanks for looking.......I've been keeping an eye on y'all, just haven't had much time to post!
Grill on!
R
Started out the day by making some chicken stock...here the veggies are in the Instant Pot waiting on the chicken legs that were roasting in the oven (on sale for $.99/lb, so just used those instead of bones):
Liquid gold!
Mise en place.....from right to left in the order they will go into the pan: chicken thighs (in foil), grated onion & garlic, green beans (couldn't find the flat beans that are traditional), chorizo, lima and white beans, grated tomato and rice (stock not pictured.....):
Getting some color on:
Everybody's in the pool:
......and, done!
This turned out absolutely fantastic! I could have cooked the paella for another 5-10 minutes, as it was more moist than it should have been. However, the rice was just al dente, and the flavors were astonishingly good. I really can't wait to make another, probably a seafood version next time.
I'll drop a few words about my grill set up here, as I couldn't find ANY details on that topic in my research about paella on the grill. So, I fired up a full Weber chimney of coals, and when they were all going, I dropped them in my 26". I used four baskets on the perimeter to contain the coals in an even layer that would be about the size of my pan. I tossed a few additional briquettes on to fill in some spots that weren't quite covered, and let everything get good and hot. Holding my hand at grate level, this was about a "two second" fire (I could hold my hand there for 2 seconds before I had to pull it away.) I cooked with the lid open the whole time, as it seemed that having a lot of heat the beginning, then letting it naturally cool a bit toward the end would work well (that matched up with videos of fire maintenance I watched from restaurants doing traditional cooks in Valencia.) It worked out very well, and I had just the right amount of heat all the way through without really needing to tinker with the bottom vents at all (which were wide open.)
If you haven't tried this dish, I highly recommend it. If you can make your own stock, you will be well rewarded. Good saffron and Spanish paprika are very important ingredients as well.
Thanks for looking.......I've been keeping an eye on y'all, just haven't had much time to post!
Grill on!
R
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