Here we are then, the second blog of 2023. I have cooked and documented quite a lot in this new year so settling on a subject has been quite tricky, hence the lag since my last post. In truth, I have been experimenting with filming what I have been cooking and this, whilst being a fun evolution to my Live Fire experience, has been quite a time-consuming journey. As the temperature outside has settled back to single digits after a period of pretty spring-like weather, my thoughts turned back to the gastronomic trip to northern Spain that Polly and I went on last Easter. We had managed to snag a table at the peerless El Cellar de Can Roca in Girona which is the closest I think we will ever get to experiencing what it might have been like to tour the factory with Willy Wonka – proper molecular gastronomy spread over 5 hours and 30-odd courses. An astonishing range of flavours, textures, smells and sights; something stimulating for all the senses.
After this feast, we travelled eastwards on the train to Begur on the coast and it was here, on a brilliantly challenging rocky walk we found a beautiful beach-side restaurant called Toc al Mar who, by chance, cook all their dishes over live fire. I could have spent hours watching them prepare their menu on 4 huge Santa Maria-style grills (these are the kind that have wheels to raise and lower the heights of the cooking surfaces). They cooked shellfish in special baskets and whole fish in special clamps – everything that came from the kitchen looked incredible but we did what we often do and had a look at what our fellow diners ordered to help sway our choice. We settled on Lobster Paella and did not regret it for a single second. It came out in a huge casserole, gently blackened on the bottom by years of exposure to the heat and smoke of the fires and it did not disappoint. The depth of flavour was incredible and the hugely generous portion we shared set us up perfectly for the walk back up the hill.
This is my version – we didn’t have any lobster, but we did have lobster stock from the last time we had one. In truth, the main ingredients of this were the result of a trawl through the freezer to see what needed to be used up, and I think Paella is one of those things that, despite having some core elements (the rice, the paprika, the saffron) you can use whatever meat/fish/shellfish you have. Maybe the Valencian aficionados will shrug and tut at your lack of authenticity if you omit squid, but I won’t tell if you don’t. The rice you use is important, but not massively so. Risotto rice and Paella rice are two different beasts and they cook differently; the Carnaroli rice used in risotto gives that lush, creamy finish whereas the Bomba rice used in paella gives a slightly “drier” result (more on this later). If you want a more traditional paella, Bomba (or Redondo) rice is the way to go.
Ingredients (makes 4-5 portions):
250g Calasparra paella rice
400g chicken breast
350g raw prawns
100g chorizo sausage
3 white onions
2 red peppers
4 whole garlic cloves
2-3 bay leaves
4-5 whole peppercorns
3-4 Saffron stems
2-3 tsp smoked paprika
500ml of lobster stock
500ml Salsa Rojo (you could use 2 tins of chopped tomatoes instead)
A glass of red wine
Salt and pepper
First, light your fire – it will need time to burn down to hot embers. I used my Fire Cage and, as usual, a mix of Globaltic birch charcoal and Firemasters kameeldoring braai wood. While this is burning merrily away, commence the Mise en Place; finely chop the onions, peel the garlic cloves, slice the chorizo (peel away the outer skin as well) and de-vein the prawns. Slice the chicken into chunks and marinade with olive oil and the smoked paprika. It does genuinely help to have all of these ingredients lined up in their own dishes like they do on the TV, especially if you are cooking outside, since having everything to hand saves traipsing up and down the garden, muttering oaths when something has been forgotten. Once the fire is ready, organise the embers into a suitable pile and blacken the peppers directly on them, turning every couple of minutes. Once ready, put them in a bowl and cover with cling film to steam and loosen the tougher outer skin. After about 10 minutes, the peppers can be taken out and the blackened peel scraped away with the blade of a knife. Chop the peppers into strips and reserve for later.
We have a “proper” paella pan from another visit to Spain, but you can use any wide, shallow pan you have. Adjust the embers and the grill to let the pan heat up and add a generous amount of the olive oil. Into this drop the garlic cloves, the bay leaves and the peppercorns and swirl them around for a minute or two until the garlic has browned a little, and the bay leaves have crisped up a bit. Carefully pick all of these out and reserve them for later (this is a trick taught to me by Suzanne, Polly’s Mum, which both flavours the oil and adds a finishing kick when the bits are added in at the end). Now add the chorizo and fry until lightly browned and the sausage has given up a some of its oil. Fish the bits out and fry off the chicken pieces – these need to be pretty much cooked through. Again, take these out and keep them warm alongside the chorizo – this is where the shelves on the Fire Cage come in real handy.
Now, there may be a need to redistribute the embers a little, since a more gentle heat is required for this stage of the cooking. Add the onions to the oil, which by now will have a lovely reddish tint to it and let them cook away for 5 minutes or so until they are nice and soft. Slide in the rice and give everything a good stir to ensure the rice is covered in a nice slick of the flavoured oil. Pour in the glass of red and let it reduce down a bit before adding the Salsa Rojo. This is a sauce made from blitzed up blackened peppers and red onions, tomatoes, garlic and chilli which I make quite often as I always think it is useful to exploit the heat created when I light a fire. It freezes really well and I just happened to have some left over – it is perfectly fine to use a couple of tins of good tomatoes instead however. Again, give everything a good stir and let the temperature of the pan come up again; leave it to bubble gently and reduce a little. Add the lobster stock and stir to incorporate and note that here is the point where the making of paella deviates a little from making risotto. The latter requires constant attention and stirring to bring about the starchy, creamy texture of the dish, whereas Paella is just left to its own devices. Be careful to check that the pan is not exposed to too much heat otherwise things will stick and give the rice a cursory agitation every now and then. Once the liquid level is noticeably lower, and the rice has softened, add the peppers, the raw prawns, the chorizo and chicken. Add the Saffron fronds to a small dish or ramekin and pour over a little hot water. Let this infuse for a minute or two until the liquid has turned a beautiful golden colour and then pour the whole lot in. Keep testing the rice; the grains need to be cooked through, but certainly not mushy in any way. At Toc al Mar, you can choose whether you want your paella to be wet or dry; the wet version is definitely more soupy in consistency, and if this is the desired result, add a little more water. “Dry” does not actually mean dry and crunchy, it just means that more of the liquid has been evaporated and this tends to be the way Paella is served in Spain. Check the chicken and the prawns are cooked all the way through (with a meat thermometer, the chicken should be at 75°c and the prawns over 50°c).
Lastly, take the reserved bay leaves, finely slice them and add them, plus the peppercorns and browned garlic and smash to a paste in a pestle and mortar. Stir this through the paella for that finishing kick I mentioned before. Check for seasoning and add a bit of salt and pepper if needed. If you have some, a little extra virgin Spanish olive oil glugged over the top finishes things off nicely. Serve with a salad and a couple of doorsteps of good bread.
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