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It's ok to have some purists, it's natural!
As a person who lived/worked in several places around the WORLD paella is NOT exclusive to Valencia by any means. I lived in Sevilla for 2.5 years and Panama for 3 years and worked all over Central and South America. Rota, Sevilla, and Madrid ALL have different recipes as I remember. I must admit I've never had to work in Valencia, nor have I enjoyed their cuisine. I'm quite aware, it is where the "claim to fame" for the creation of paella is from.
As for my paella, there has NEVER been a scrap left when it was made by my mother (GRHS) or myself over the last 65 years and literally 1000s of time of it being made
by me mum, and myself.
The fact that you live in Valencia and expressing you know what paella is may lead to the fact, that you should get out a little more, to say the very least. "Rice with some things on it". LOL It is a particular type of rice (Bomba), Spanish saffron, Nora peppers, smoked paprika, and usually a good Spanish olive oil, EVERYTHING else is whatever is left over in the refer. BTW, Brazil, Mexico, Panama, and Jamaica ALL have a variation of THEIR paella also, including from restaurant to restaurant or house to house. The aforementioned were some of the places I've had paella. They ALL had a sweet/saffron taste and the yellow rice though. Jamaica used Iguana pretty often when I ate it there.
I DON'T use Bomba rice (anymore) either, it's WAY too expensive where I live or have access too. I use a locally grown med-grain that is on
par (absorption) for the type of rice you need to use.
Point of interest: I was in Cambodia/Laos (working) for a while they have hundreds of dishes with "rice with some things on it" I guarantee it sure ain't paella.
Regards (maybe!)
wandulus
Member
There are a lot of different dishes so similar to paella around the globe.
I'm italian/argentinian, I lived almost 30 years in several places in LATAM, and also in US, UK, Italy, and the last 3 years in Costa Blanca, near Valencia.
You're right, there are many "paellas" all over Spain, but the PAELLA is one, without seafood, and only with rabbit and chicken on it. It's not correct to call paella, all other combinations have they own name, as "arroz del senyoret", "fideua" among others.
That doesn't mean that the dish you (or your mother) cooked is fabulous, but its not paella. It's like calling a Genelec 8361A a "floorstander". It does not matter if its good or not, it just isn't a floorstander.
The same happens with risotto in Italy, the name is misused and anything that is using rice, its call "risotto".
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wandulus
Member
Keith_W
Major Contributor
Andysu
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the regular shop doesn't have this in stock so tried amazon and well here it is , discovered this on a shops self over 20 no years ago same flavour taste
Newman's own , tasty garnish on almost anything i have meal with
noodles , tuna , mayonnaise and small dash of newman's own italian , the herbs and wine vinegary tastes nice , sometimes i drink a little , it improves high frequency listening
Newman's own , tasty garnish on almost anything i have meal with
noodles , tuna , mayonnaise and small dash of newman's own italian , the herbs and wine vinegary tastes nice , sometimes i drink a little , it improves high frequency listening
“…and sometimes the bull wins.”
Keith_W
Major Contributor
This is Hainanese chicken rice. The chicken is poached. The traditional method requires you to poach a whole chicken in a pot of boiling water. I don't like that method because (1) you lose chicken flavour to the poaching liquid and (2) it is notoriously unpredictable. If you overshoot the temperature target you get dry, overcooked chicken. If you don't cook it enough, you get raw chicken.
My method separates the white meat from the dark meat and I sous-vide it separately in a mix made from ginger, spring onion, pandan leaves, and salt. A little turmeric is added for colour. This means I am guaranteed perfectly cooked chicken AND much more flavourful chicken since I am not losing flavour to the water.
The sauce is made by adding some chicken broth to soy sauce with a pinch of sugar and a bit of sesame oil.
The dish IS supposed to be served with chicken broth, so that is a disadvantage of this method. For the broth, I buy chicken bones and make a broth from that.
The rice is made by rendering chicken fat and using the fat to fry some garlic, ginger, and shallots. Then the washed rice is added. Add some salt and white pepper. Transfer to a rice cooker with chicken broth instead of water.
It might seem like a simple dish, but it packs a real punch especially with the home-made dipping sauces which I forgot to take a picture of. Or maybe I should say - my version has a real punch because the chicken flavour is so amped up. Most restaurants seem bland my comparison.
While I was at it, I prepared another poached chicken:
This is a Chinese "free range chicken". You can see it's bony and does not have much meat. What meat it does have is tougher and more chewy than supermarket chicken. We eat it because it has a more intense chicken flavour, and we like the chewy texture. This chicken will be shredded and prepared in two ways. For the first dinner it will be mixed with Chinese rice wine to make drunken chicken. For the second dinner I will sprinkle toasted salt + sand ginger powder on it to make a cheat's version of salt-baked chicken.
What are these two? You've not put any descriptions or names.
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