A festive occasion calls for a big statement, and this paella is just that: a colorful rice dish bursting with clams, mussels and shrimp along with smoky chorizo and saffron for tons of flavor. You don’t need much else to serve alongside it, but you could make a green salad if you feel inspired. Set the whole pan of paella on your picnic table, and bring out some crusty bread and wine glasses. Summer is just too short not to celebrate it with friends.
Video: How to Make Seafood Paella
What Is Paella?
The origins of paella are ancient, rooted in the area around Valencia, Spain near the Albufera Lagoon, where both fishing and rice growing dominated the region for centuries. Paella was the food of farm workers who cooked dishes of rice over wood fires, embellished with whatever ingredients they could find. The dish is named for the wide, shallow pan in which the paella is cooked. The word “paella” is from a Valencian dialect meaning “pan,” probably derived from the Latin word “patella” for pan.
Do I Need a Paella Pan?
While you can buy a paella pan and even a special outdoor paella grill for cooking it, it’s easy enough to adapt the traditional paella method to our home kitchens without a lot of extra fuss. Since I don’t possess a paella pan, I used the largest sturdy skillet in my collection of pans. A cast iron pan would be ideal but mine was not big enough and I found my heavy skillet worked just fine. Lacking a large skillet, you could also use a medium-size roasting pan (approximately 14x10 inches).
How to Make Paella at Home
Although you can cook paella entirely indoors on top of the stove, when you consider paella’s wood-fired origins, it makes total sense to cook it outside on the grill. For this recipe, I started it on the stove indoors while the grill heated, and then finished it on the grill. Even, steady, medium heat is the goal.
The Basic Ingredients for Making Paella
Paella is the mother of all the one-pot meals, so it makes a supreme party dish. Improvisation rules the day, since even in Spain the issue of what ingredients should go in paella is hotly disputed, making it impossible for foreigners, let alone Spaniards, to dictate them strictly. Okay, I know I just said that improvisation is the name of the game, but here are a few guidelines:
The Paella Rice
Paella is essentially a rice dish, and the type of rice does make a difference. Spanish bomba rice, a medium-grained stubby rice that absorbs liquid well but maintains some firmness when it cooks, is preferred. Since it is hard to find and pricey, you can substitute Italian Carnaroli, Calrose, or another short-grain rice. The crispy bits! Once the stock comes to a simmer, don’t stir it. As the paella cooks, the rice stays on the bottom and forms a crusty golden bottom layer in the finished dish. This crust of rice is called socarrat and is coveted by true paella lovers. The vegetables rise to the top while cooking.
The Stock
For this seafood paella, you can use fish or shellfish stock if you like and if you can find a good source for it, but I actually prefer chicken stock. It adds a depth of flavor, and as the shellfish cook, you get plenty of sweet, briny juices to flavor the rice. Be sure to taste the stock and season it with salt if necessary.
Saffron
Saffron is a key ingredient, too. These orange-red threads are actually the dried stigmas of crocus flowers. Crumbled into a pot of hot stock, saffron adds an earthy, floral, and somewhat mysterious flavor to your paella. It imbues the rice with a gorgeous golden color, too. Saffron is a fairly expensive spice, but thankfully you only need a few threads to season a whole dish of paella. It also keeps for a fairly long time as long if it’s stored in an airtight container and kept out of direct sunlight, so you don’t need to worry about using up your extra saffron right away. Most well-stocked grocery stores should carry saffron, such as Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. Look for it in the spice section.
The Sofrito
Paella starts with a sofrito—finely chopped onions, garlic, and tomatoes or red peppers sautéed gently in olive oil. It is akin to the Italian soffrito or French mirepoix. Sofrito lays the groundwork for all the flavors in the dish to mingle; think of it as priming a canvas before making a painting.
The Seafood and Chorizo
I chose shrimp, clams, and mussels for this seafood version of paella, and Spanish dry-cured chorizo for its smoky, meaty flavor. Chorizo can be a controversial add-in and not all Spanish cooks agree that it belongs in paella, so skip it if you like. You can also substitute other cooked sausages and add some smoked paprika to taste to achieve the desired flavor. Thoroughly scrub the clams and mussels before cooking and discard any with cracked or broken shells.
More Spanish Recipes to Try!
Spanish Baked Chicken Spanish Roasted Potatoes and Tomato Sauce Spicy Pork Stew with Chickpeas and Sausage White Gazpacho
No grill? Cook this inside! Cook the paella through step 6 on top of the stove. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Add the seafood (step 7), cover the pan tightly with foil and finish cooking in the oven for 6 to 10 minutes or until the rice and shrimp are both cooked through and the mussels and clams are open. Check to see if the bottom has browned and, if not, set the pan over medium heat for a minute or two to allow the bottom layer of rice to caramelize. Stir in the stock, tomatoes, and peas. Taste for seasoning and add more salt, if you like. Spread the rice evenly over the bottom of the pan. Close the grill cover and simmer the rice without stirring for 15 minutes, or until the rice absorbs most of the stock. If the mixture looks dry, pour about 1 cup of hot water over it, but do not stir. Cover the pan with foil, close the grill and cook for 6 to 10 minutes longer (depending on the heat of your grill), or until the rice and shrimp are both cooked through and the mussels and clams are open. (Discard any shellfish that remain tightly shut once everything else is cooked.) Sprinkle with parsley and bring the whole pan to the table for serving.
