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Paella: Rice at Its Best Authentic arroz en paella calls for the right pan and a thin blanket of rice by Norberto Jorge

Every country has a dish that unites its people. Or, just as often, divides them. In Spain, that dish is paella. Get us talking about our paellas, or arroces, as they are often called, and you may get the sense that there are more paella recipes than there are stars in the sky. And to a certain extent, you'd be right -- the combinations of foods that can make up paella are endless. But the best paellas aren't merely the product of a good recipe, though that certainly helps. No, paella perfection comes about when the person who is cooking it has an almost tangible affection for the dish itself, for the process of making it, and for the people who will be eating it.

I'll pass along a handful of paella traditions here in the hope that some of my own passion for the dish rubs off on you, but mostly what I'm doing is laying a foundation of techniques that you can apply to any paella (pah-ay-yah) recipe you come across or invent.

Paella isn't difficult to make, but it's amazing how often it gets bungled in restaurants (not my own, of course). The most common offense is to load up the pan with excessive ingredients. These overwrought rice dishes -- I can't even bear to call them paellas -- may look impressive on the table but more often than not, they disappoint the palate. Why? Because they suffer from the fatal flaw of many paellas: their rice has been smothered. Meat, seafood, and vegetables justify their place in the pan as flavor lenders for the single most important ingredient of every paella: the rice. Remember that fact and you're well on your way. You'll know you've done it right when you and your friends are pushing aside the chicken, the green beans, even the artichokes, just to get another forkful of that scrumptiously addictive rice.

Great paella rests on five pillars
From my mother, Carmen, I've learned how to make paella by simply following my intuition. However, the scholar in me seeks hard data, so I've come up with five principle elements that determine the nature of the paella. They are: the rice, the pan, the distribution of heat, the sofrito, and the liquid.

The rice should be medium grain. Spanish rice is rounded and short; it absorbs liquid very well, and it stays relatively firm during cooking. Those qualities make it ideal for paella, where the rice grains absorb flavor from the liquid; the rice should be dry and separate when done, not creamy like risotto. The most appreciated variety of Spanish rice is bomba, but you'll also have success with the widely available medium-grain rice sold by Goya. Arborio is an acceptable substitute; long-grain rices, however, are not.

A true paella pan is wide, round, and shallow and has splayed sides. It has two looped handles and may dip slightly in the middle so the oil can pool there for the preliminary sautéing. The shape of the pan, which is called either a paella or paellera (pah-ay-yair-ah), helps to ensure that the rice cooks in a thin layer. The Valencians say that the cooked rice should be only as thick as un ditet, or the width of a small finger (about 1/2 inch). The key is to maximize the amount of rice touching the bottom of the pan because, as you'll see, that's where the flavor lives. For that reason, paella pans grow in diameter rather than in height. A 14-inch paella pan with un ditet of rice serves two to four people; an 18-inch pan serves six to eight.

A good paella pan is made of a very thin, conductive metal, usually plain or enameled steel. I've recently seen quite a few objects masquerading as paella pans. For example, those beautiful heavy and expensive copper or stainless-steel pans that some stores market as paella pans are actually better suited to braising than to making paella. And any pan that's sold with a lid is a dead-giveaway impostor: except for the final resting period, paella is cooked uncovered.

If you don't have a paella pan (they're quite affordable) the alternative is to use a skillet. A 13-inch or larger stainless-steel or aluminum skillet will work; otherwise, use two medium skillets (which is a little trickier logistically), dividing the ingredients between them. Avoid cast-iron skillets (they retain too much heat) and nonstick pans (they produce bland paellas).

Try to find a heat source that can accommodate the whole paella pan. Depending on the configuration of your burners, you'll need to straddle the pan over two burners or set it on your largest burner. Either way, you'll have to move and rotate the pan to distribute the heat. Or you can cook the paella outdoors on a large gas or charcoal grill, or even over a wood fire, which is how it's done at paella competitions in Spain (an annual ritual in many villages).

A sauté of aromatics, called the sofrito, provides the flavor base. The components of the sofrito vary by region. In the recipe here, I'm using tomato, onion, and garlic. Some cooks use paprika, herbs, or a dried sweet red pepper called ñora. The technique is simple: sauté the vegetables over medium heat until they soften and the flavors meld, and the water from the tomato has evaporated. This mixture should be thick enough to hold its shape in a spoon.

A flavorful liquid cooks the rice, while imbuing it with additional character. If you don't have a homemade stock on hand, improvise one with the ingredients in the paella. For paella with shrimp, for example, simmer the shells in salted water for a quick, flavorful stock. If you use canned stock, choose a low-salt one. You can also use water, as many home cooks do in Spain. Almost every paella recipe calls for the liquid to be infused with saffron, which contributes color as well as a subtle background flavor to the rice.

Tradition aside, you're allowed to be creative
Purists will tell you that the original Valencian paella contained chicken or rabbit, green beans, snails, and fresh lima beans, and that any other combination is correctly called arroz en paella (rice in a paella pan). These semantic distinctions don't interest me. I think that if the combination of ingredients works and you stay true to the five principles above, it's paella.

Once you're comfortable with the technique of making paella, you can devise your own recipe according to what's good and fresh in your market. For some of my favorite combinations, see More paella, por favor. Here are a few more tips to help you reach the pinnacle of paella greatness:

			Preliminary sauté

The preliminary sauté. If you want to simplify cleanup, sauté all the ingredients consecutively in the paella pan, but if you want to hurry things along, you can use a few pans simultaneously (brown the chicken in the paella pan while the artichokes and green beans are cooking in a skillet, for example). All the sautéing, including the sofrito, can be done up to several hours in advance.

Adding the liquid. When you add the stock to the pan, it should boil briskly for the first several minutes, until the rice starts to peek above the surface. Then you'll lower the heat so the liquid simmers gently. During this entire time, move the pan around as much as you want to even out the heat, but don't stir the rice. If the liquid seems to be boiling off too quickly, you may need to add a little more, so have some hot water or more stock handy on another burner.

			Cook the rice al dente

Gauging doneness. The rice should be al dente, not mushy -- break apart a grain and you'll see a pin-size white dot in the center (see Cook the rice al dente...). This should take about 20 minutes. If the pan has been set over two burners, I find that it's helpful to cover the pan with foil for the last two minutes of cooking just to be sure the rice cooks evenly. Another solution is to put the paella pan, uncovered, in a heated 425°F oven for the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Getting the socarrat. Socarrat (soh-kah-raht, from the verb socarrar, which means to toast lightly) is the caramelized crust of rice that sometimes sticks to the bottom of the pan. It is the prize in a well-made paella. To get some, increase the heat at the end of cooking, paying close attention to the sound of the rice (it crackles) and the smell (toasty but not burned). After one or two minutes, poke under the foil with a spoon; if you feel just a touch of bumpy resistance on the bottom of the pan, you've got socarrat.

The resting period. When the liquid is absorbed, the rice is done, and the socarrat achieved, the paella needs some time alone to finish cooking and round out its flavors. Cover the pan with a clean towel or foil (if you haven't already done so) and let it rest off the heat for five to ten minutes.

Serving. Traditionally, paella is eaten directly from the pan. Everyone finds a place around the pan (a circular or square table is ideal) and starts eating from the perimeter of the pan and working toward the center. If this communal style doesn't appeal to you, let people spoon the paella onto their own plates.

As a preface to the paella, I like to offer a mixture of grilled onions, tomatoes, and peppers, called escalibada, on toasted bread. To accompany the rice, you need nothing more than lemon wedges, a lightly dressed salad, wine (see Wine choices), and lots of family and friends.

Paella

Serves four.

3-1/2 cups homemade or low-salt canned chicken stock; more as needed

Pinch of saffron (8 to 10 threads)

Salt to taste

About 1/4 cup olive oil; more if needed

4 skinless chicken thighs, chopped in half and seasoned with salt and pepper

1 small head garlic (remove excess papery skins, trim the top, and make a shallow cut around its equator to speed cooking), plus 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and cut into 1-inch wide strips

3 artichokes

3 oz. green beans (about 16), trimmed

1 small onion, grated on the largest holes of a box grater

1 ripe tomato, halved horizontally and grated on the largest holes of a box grater (discard the skin)

1-1/2 cups medium-grain rice

1 sprig fresh rosemary

2 lemons, cut in wedges for garnish

In a saucepan, bring the stock to a boil; reduce the heat to a simmer and cover. Put the saffron on a 3-inch-wide strip of aluminum foil, fold up the foil to make a square packet, and set the foil directly on the lid of the simmering stock for about 15 min. Unfold the packet, transfer the saffron to a mortar (or a small bowl), add a pinch of salt, and use the pestle (or the back of spoon) to crush the saffron. Add about 1/2 cup of the hot stock to the saffron and let the saffron steep for about 15 min. Add the saffron-infused liquid back to the stock. Taste; the stock should be well-seasoned, so add more salt if necessary. Remove from the heat until ready to add to the rice.

Set a 14-inch paella pan over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the chicken and the head of garlic; sauté until the chicken is golden, 10 to 15 min. The oil may splatter, and you may need to turn down the heat. Transfer the partially cooked chicken to a platter. The head of garlic stays in the pan.

Reduce the heat to medium low. In the same pan, sauté the red pepper slices slowly until they're very limp, 20 to 25 min., adding more oil if necessary They shouldn't brown too much. Meanwhile, prepare the artichokes. Cut off the upper two-thirds of the leaves and the stem. Pare away the remaining tough outer leaves. Scrape out the choke fibers and cut the hearts into quarters (or eighths, if large).

When the pepper is done, transfer the pieces to a plate, cover with foil, and set aside. Slowly sauté the artichokes and green beans in the same pan, still on medium low, until the artichokes are golden and tender and the beans are soft and slightly wrinkled, 15 to 25 min. Meanwhile, when the pepper pieces are cool enough to handle, peel off and discard the skin. When the artichokes and green beans are done, push them to the perimeter of the pan where there's less heat (or transfer them to the platter with the chicken.)

If there's more than 1 Tbs. of oil in the pan, pour out the excess. Increase the heat to medium and sauté the grated onion and sliced garlic until the onion is soft (it's all right if it gets slightly brown), about 5 min. Add the grated tomato. Season well with salt and sauté until the water from the tomato has cooked out and the mixture, called a sofrito, has darkened to a burgundy color and is a very thick purée, 5 to 10 min. If you're not cooking the rice immediately, remove the pan from the heat.

About a half hour before you're ready to eat, bring the stock back to a simmer and set the pan with the sofrito over your largest burner (or over two burners) on medium heat, noticing if the pan sits level. (If not, choose another burner or try to create a level surface.) When the sofrito is hot, add the rice, stirring until it's translucent, 1 to 2 min.

Spread out the rice (it should just blanket the bottom of the pan), distribute the green beans and artichokes evenly, and arrange the chicken in the pan. Increase the heat to medium high and pour in 3 cups of the simmering stock (reserving 1/2 cup). As the stock comes to a boil, lay the peppers in the pan, starburst-like, and push the head of garlic to the center. Cook until the rice begins to appear above the liquid, 6 to 8 min., rotating the pan over one and two burners as necessary to distribute the heat to all areas. Add the sprig of rosemary and reduce the heat to medium low. Continue to simmer, rotating the pan as necessary, until the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is al dente, 8 to 10 min. more. To check for doneness, taste a grain just below the top layer of rice -- there should be a very tiny white dot in the center. If the liquid is absorbed but the rice is not done, add a bit more hot stock or water to the pan and cook a few minutes more. Cover the pan with foil and cook gently for another 2 min., which will help to ensure that the top layer of rice is evenly cooked. With the foil still in place, increase the heat to medium high and, turning the pan, cook until the bottom layer of rice starts to caramelize, creating the socarrat, 1 to 2 min. You may hear the rice crackling, which is fine, but if it starts burning, remove the pan from the heat immediately. To check for socarrat, peel back the foil and use a spoon to feel for a slight crust on the bottom of the pan.

Remove the pan from the heat and let the paella rest, still covered, 5 to 10 min. Sit everyone down at a round or square table, if possible. Remove the foil, and invite people to eat directly from the pan, starting at the perimeter and working toward the center, squeezing lemon over their section if they want.

Enjoy !!!!

More paella, por favor

There's no limit to the ingredients that can be used in a paella. Seafood, ham, vegetables, fruits, nuts--they've all found their way into the paella pan. Here are some combinations that give the rice a wonderful flavor. The technique is always the same: sauté the ingredients, make the sofrito, stir in the rice, and add the saffron-infused liquid.

Seafood paella. Sauté very briefly shrimp, scallops, and calamari (cut in rings), returning the seafood to the rice toward the end of cooking. Bury scrubbed clams or mussels in the broth while the rice cooks. Serve with alioli (the Spanish version of aïoli): smash garlic and salt to a paste in a mortar and add olive oil and lemon juice to taste.

Vegetable paella. Sauté green peppers, green beans, cauliflower, and artichokes; make a sofrito of tomato and parsley. Add shelled fava beans with the rice.

Sausage and chickpea paella. Try using chorizo sausage, red peppers, a whole head of garlic, and cooked chickpeas (use the chickpea cooking liquid for stock, or combine it with a meat stock). Make a sofrito of garlic, tomato, and paprika and add the chickpeas with the rice.

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