Paella looks like a dish you need special equipment for. You don’t. This is the version we make at home, in a normal pan, with whatever seafood the shop had that day. It won’t be identical to one cooked over a fire in Valencia, but it gets close enough that people ask for the recipe.
Paella changes from one house to the next, so treat the list below as a starting point rather than a rule.
Ingredients — must have
Short-grain rice (about 100 g per person), olive oil, garlic, one onion, one grated tomato, sweet paprika, hot fish or seafood stock, salt, and at least one kind of seafood.
Ingredients — nice to have
Saffron. It gives the colour and a mild perfume. Without it the rice is paler and a little plainer. A pinch of turmeric fixes the colour but not the flavour, so use it only if you don’t mind the difference.
Bomba or Calasparra rice. It takes in more stock and is harder to overcook. Ordinary short-grain rice works fine if you watch it.
Scallops in the shell, white wine, red pepper, lemon wedges. All of these add something. None of them decide whether the dish works.
Tools — must have
The widest, shallowest pan you own. The rice should sit no deeper than two fingers, and that matters far more than owning a real paella pan. You also need a small pot for the stock and a spoon.
Tools — nice to have
A proper paella pan spreads the rice thinner and gives you a better crust. A lid helps if your hob runs cool. A mortar and pestle grinds saffron more evenly than your fingers do.
How to make it
- Heat the stock in a small pot and drop the saffron in.
- Fry the seafood in the big pan for a minute, then take it out.
- Cook the onion and garlic in the same oil until soft. Add the tomato and paprika and cook it down.
- Add the rice, stir for a minute, then pour in the boiling stock.
- Stop stirring. Simmer for about 18 minutes without touching it.
- Lay the seafood on top for the last 5 minutes. Rest the pan off the heat for another 5.
Step 5 is the one that matters. Stirring turns paella into risotto. Left alone, the bottom layer of rice catches and turns into socarrat, the crisp part everyone fights over.