Paella Mixta (Basics)

Paella Mixta photo: Kevin West

Paella needs no introduction. It is one of Spain’s most celebrated culinary exports. A Spanish rice dish that delights like non other and loved the world over. A paella makes a spectacularly colorful presentation that promises a tantalizing combination of simmering Mediterranean ingredients seasoned with distinctly Spanish herbs and spices that bring this rustic Spanish dish to life.

Imagine a gigantic paella pan filled to the brim with locally sourced ingredients from land and sea simmering over a fragrant wood fire out in the open air, wafting aromas beckoning one and all. The pleasures of Paella are all about savoring the robust flavors of traditional Spanish cookery with friends and family.

Paella is simple in concept and, with a little organization and planning, will come off without a hitch. Over the holidays I managed, along with a friend’s help, to have three paella pans simultaneously bubbling away on the stove top. Miraculously they were all perfectly finished and on the table as planned to everyone’s great delight.

For the recipe that follows I have broken down the cooking sequence and ingredients, including portions of ingredients per person, into steps which should be easy to to follow and apply to any paella you want to make no matter what ingredients you choose to use. A paella is truly a dish for all seasons!

Paella Mixta photo: Kevin West

Paella Mixta:        serves 12

Paella Mixta is very popular, but not a traditional paella in the strictest sense. Liberties have been taken that traditionalists would certainly frown up, but the idea of mixing seafood and meats does make a splendid feast for the eyes as well as the stomach.

Following the ingenuity of early Spanish cooks, using a traditional paella pan really makes sense. If you do not happen to have one a cast iron skillet is your best alternative option. That said, for a small investment, a paella pan will serve you very well for years to come and available online (click here).

As appealing as the idea is, cooking a paella over an open fire is not likely. The next best option is a two step cooking method that I have been using in my kitchen  for years that turns out consistently beautiful paellas time and time again. Beginning the cooking on the stove top insures that you have the much desired thin layer of crisp rice in the bottom of the paella pan. The pan is then transferred to a very hot oven to quickly finish the paella with a perfectly colored surface and moist rice in the interior.

Equipment: 1 to 3 paella pans (depending on size)

Ingredients:

• 12 cups fish or chicken stock (1 cup per person)
• 48 saffron threads (4 per person)
• 3 tablespoons white wine
• ¾ cup Spanish olive oil (1/3 cup per pan)
• 6 chicken breasts, skin on (½ breast per person)
• 6 links paprika sausage (½ link per person)
• 3 cups diced onions (1/4 cup per person)
• 12 garlic cloves, peeled and finely minced ( 1 per person)
• 2 large green bell peppers, seeded, cut into thin strips, and halved
• 2 red bell peppers, seeded, cut into thin stripes lengthwise, and halved
• 3 small fresh hot chiles, seeds removed and minced
• 4 cups Spanish Bomba rice (1/3 cup per person) or Arborio rice as a substitute
• 3 fresh tomatoes, grated, skin discarded
• 6 tablespoons sweet Spanish paprika (1 ½ teaspoon per person)
• 24 large shrimp, shell removed, deveined (2 per person)
• 24 mussels, well scrubbed and steamed until opened, top shell removed and discarded
• 1 large handful green beans, blanched and halved
• 3 teaspoons smoked Spanish paprika
• 3 oz/ 80 g thinly sliced Spanish chorizo, slices halved
• flaked sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• chopped flat leaf parsley
• fresh lemon wedges
• aioli, (recipe below)

Heat the stock and have it ready on the stove top.

Place the saffron threads in a small bowl. Add the wine and set aside.

Heat the paella pan, or pans, and add enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Add the chicken breasts, skin side down and cook until lightly browned. Turn the breast and lightly brown the other side. Transfer the browned breasts to a platter to cool. When cool enough to handle cut each breast into quarters and set aside to use later.

Using the same pan, or pans, brown the sausage on all sides. Remove and set aside to cool. When cool enough to handle, cut into bite size rounds and set aside to use later.

Preheat oven to 400 f/ 200 c

At this point if you are cooking more than one pan at a time enlist a friend to help you stir the ingredients in each pan.

Using the same pan, or pans, saute the onions over medium low heat for a couple minutes. Then add the garlic, bell pepper strips, and chiles and saute until softened. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Add the rice to the pan, or pans, and turn up the heat to medium and cook the rice until it is completely coated with oil and just beginning to

Paella Mixta photo Kevin West

color slightly. Add grated tomato and sweet paprika and most of the smoked paprika and cook until incorporated into the rice.

Add the saffron and the white wine and sir into the rice. Then add enough hot stock to just cover the rice and simmer while continually stirring, being sure to release the rice from the bottom of the pan so it does not stick. Continue to cook until the stock is nearly absorbed into the rice.

Repeat the same quantity of stock to just cover the rice and cook, stirring continuously, until the stock is once again absorbed. Taste the rice to test for texture. Ideally the rice should be cooked until soft, but a little on the al dente side.

With that in mind, you may need to continue with another cycle, adding stock to the rice and cooking until you reach the right consistency for the rice.

Once the rice is the right consistency there is no need for further stirring. You want the rice in the bottom of the pan to develop a crisp base.

Add the browned chicken to the pan and push it into the rice until just the top is visible.

Likewise add the sausage, again pushing it into the rice until just visible. Then add the chorize partially pushed into the rice but leaving half still visible.

At this point add just enough stock to just reach the surface of the rice.

Cook for about 10 to 12 minutes and then add the shrimp gently nestled into the rice with most of the body exposed. Position the mussels over the surface around the shrimp. Tuck in the green beans between the shrimp and mussels. Lightly season the surface with sea salt and light dusting of smoked paprika.

If the rice is looking dry around the edges of the pan add a little more stock until just visible. Transfer the pan to the preheated oven and cook about 10 minutes or just until the surface is lightly colored.

Serving:

Remove the paella from the oven. Garnish with a light scattering of parsley and transfer to the table while still piping hot.

Serve with lemon wedges and Aioli.

Delicioso!

Aioli:  makes 1 ½ cups

• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely grated/ microplaned
• ½ teaspoon flaked sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 cup olive oil
• 10 saffron threads soaked in 1 tablespoon hot water

Place the garlic, salt, pepper, and lemon juice in a food processor and pulse until the ingredients are combined.

With the motor running very slowly add the olive oil. As the mixture thickens stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the work bowl, then continue adding the remaining olive oil with the machine running. Once the aioli is thick and emulsified slowly add the saffron and hot water until combined.

Taste and adjust salt and pepper to taste.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve.