Paella Pan and thoughts

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coxhaus

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I just bought a Mauviel 1830 15-inch pan from Amazon. I have enough credit where it only costs $69. It is a little bigger than my large cast iron pan. I plan to use it for Paella and roasting bones for beef stock.

I also bought this Paella spice which comes from Spain. It has a nice flavor. I am new at Paella, and I could not find a thread on Paella so I thought I would start one.

What do you guys use and what spices? Do you vary your recipes? How do you cook Paella?

My first batch I used chicken thighs, Mexican chorizo and shrimp. I cooked the onion, garlic in a quarter cup olive oil and then added the chorizo and chicken thighs. I then added the rice cooked it in the oil. I then added roasted red bell peppers and garden fresh tomatoes. Next I added chicken stock and let it cook on the BBQ. I rotated the pan about half way through the cook cycle where I added the shrimp, peas, and few fresh tomatoes. I noticed I did not have crispy rice on the bottom. Maybe my cast iron was too thick? My cast iron is real thick for campfire use. Or some other error in cooking.

Any way I plan to cook a lot more Paella.

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In my very uneducated opinion paella is more a technique than a strict recipe. Although some Spaniards might disagree about this, but even there you see significant regionaly variety. You can actually go beyond this; the principles of paella, pilav, plov, pilau and persian rice are all very similar, just somewhat different ingredients (basically what would have been available in a region traditionally). Even risotto isn't that far off; they just keep the rice moist in the end, but if you give risotto a bit more time to get rid of the liquid you actually start getting towards a similar result.

Equipment wise a paella is basically a fry pan with 2 handles. Can make it in any fry pan, saute pan, braisier and probably even in a wok (though I haven't tried).
 
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I have a similar pan from Matfer. any tomato in your paella will strip the seasoning. it does in mine. I dont get attached to any seasoning I may have gained by using it as a roasting pan. I'm over it. my heat source is my weber kettle grill.
 

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I use this pan Amazon.com: Crestware Paella Pan, 18-Inch: Home & Kitchen - I also have 15" matfer pan, but i haven't used it in a while due to seasoning stripping.

You can find it online for below $60 delivered and smaller ones are cheaper. It's alumand non-stick but makes good crust. I cook it on stove or a grill with lid and I actually prefer grill.

As someone said, it's about technique. I wrote this recipe based on my likes/dislikes, but it could be modified easily for many other ingredients. I go into some detail about timing, logic and such... it's not authentic type, but it works best for me and my family/friends...
 
Jovidah said:
In my very educated opinion paella is more a technique than a strict recipe. Although some Spaniards might disagree about this, but even there you see significant regionaly variety. You can actually go beyond this; the principles of paella, pilav, plov, pilau and persian rice are all very similar, just somewhat different ingredients (basically what would have been available in a region traditionally). Even risotto isn't that far off; they just keep the rice moist in the end, but if you give risotto a bit more time to get rid of the liquid you actually start getting towards a similar result.

Equipment wise a paella is basically a fry pan with 2 handles. Can make it in any fry pan, saute pan, braisier and probably even in a wok (though I haven't tried).
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I tried it in a wok. well, a Disc pan and the different depths made it sucky. the middle was always the wettest and the side dried up as the tide went out. a wok would be worse.

it needs constant depth. my best paella ever was done on my stove top with my AllClad 12" skillet.
 
I agree that paella is like fried rice...it all depends on what you have on hand. I have a Darto paella pan...works great, and can be used as a roasting pan as well.
 
i'm not an expert, neither do i really care (or know) about orthodoxy.

with that said, imo, what differs paella from 'fried rice' or pilau or whatever, is the crust. it is the ”socaratt” that distinguishes paella from (most) other rice dishes – and, it's the most delicious part of the dish!

sure, i've had paella in spain or the balearic islands w/o socaratt – but still: it's a defining aspect of the dish (or technique if one will).

my own humble, and still not too successful, attempts with paella continues to focus on getting a nice socaratt.

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Crust is not unique to paella; for example persian versions of rice have it too, and I wouldn't be surprised if its done with some other variants at least occasionally as well.
 
Jovidah said:
Crust is not unique to paella; for example persian versions of rice have it too, and I wouldn't be surprised if its done with some other variants at least occasionally as well.
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Cantonese clay pot rice is finished on high heat to form a crispy crust!
My Chinese half likes it more than paella...
 
sumis said:
i'm not an expert, neither do i really care (or know) about orthodoxy.

with that said, imo, what differs paella from 'fried rice' or pilau or whatever, is the crust. it is the ”socaratt” that distinguishes paella from (most) other rice dishes – and, it's the most delicious part of the dish!

sure, i've had paella in spain or the balearic islands w/o socaratt – but still: it's a defining aspect of the dish (or technique if one will).

my own humble, and still not too successful, attempts with paella continues to focus on getting a nice socaratt.

.
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most rice dishes like that are done with meat, often goat/lamb and pork.. paella, has the seafood aspect and saffron.. obv, not unique, but i think saffron + seafood, makes it rare outside paella (mostly because seafood is added at the end, vs other rice dishes cooked covered for much longer)
 
Jovidah said:
Crust is not unique to paella; for example persian versions of rice have it too, and I wouldn't be surprised if its done with some other variants at least occasionally as well.
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no it is not unique, of course not. but it is a significant feature.


ptolemy said:
most rice dishes like that are done with meat, often goat/lamb and pork.. paella, has the seafood aspect and saffron.. obv, not unique, but i think saffron + seafood, makes it rare outside paella (mostly because seafood is added at the end, vs other rice dishes cooked covered for much longer)
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yes, true dat, i think.

then again, i'm happy to eat whatever is delicious, regardless of how much it honors tradition or not.

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I am no expert. but paella is not like fried rice. it's closer to a Cantonese Clay pot rice dish. the rice is cooked and some burns on the sides. in Cantonese, we call it "Faan Nonng" which translates to charred rice. I agree, it is better than the saccorate (however that is spelled).
 
Paella may often be done with fish but it's really not mandatory; in some regions of Spain like for example Valencia they tend to make paella without fish. Regional differences abound...
In general with a lot of these dishes, traditionally they're simply made with 'whatever is available locally'. Hence why you see pilav transform into an almost completely different dish by the time it becomes paella, even though the origins are the same.
 
So, you guys made me nervous about using a carbon steel pan for Paella. I came across a MAUVIEL FOR SUR LA TABLE COPPER PAELLA PAN 16 inch for a good price and I bought it. It is copper on the outside and stainless lined. It will be here next week. Do you think it will do a better job on cooking Paella? What about roasting bones in an oven? I guess using it on a BBQ will work.

I cooked some onions in my Mauviel carbon steel pan today and I noticed the onions were browner in the middle. I guess the copper version is going to do a better job than the carbon steel pan. Can you think of any reason to keep my Mauviel carbon steel pan? I may pass it no to my brother-in-law out in California. He cooks a lot of Paella.
 
sumis said:
with that said, imo, what differs paella from 'fried rice' or pilau or whatever, is the crust. it is the ”socaratt” that distinguishes paella from (most) other rice dishes – and, it's the most delicious part of the dish!
Click to expand...

I agree with this!!! You can have a lovely paella without it... but it does elevate the meal. When I think of the archetypal paella... it has a nice socarrat.

I made this observation in response to @coxhaus's delicious looking first paella: ensuring you dont fill the pan too deep is probably more important for developing a nice, even socarrat than the pan material. Effectively you want a wide pan.

Unless you want to open a restaurant, I agree with @esoo; I think part of the paella spirit is improvising with what you have (says a non-spaniard). I have only ever used cast iron because it is what I have.... With cast iron, going slow and erring on the side of under-shooting the temperature is probably best. If you overshoot, the pan wont cool down quickly and you may just burn the rice. On the other end of the spectrum, you could use a thin pan and bursts of high heat a bit like wok hei...
 
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