4 Levels of Paella: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

hello i'm monica and i'm a level one chef hi i'm daniel and i'm a level two chef i'm frank i'm a chef instructor at the institute of color education and i've been cooking professionally for 24 years i love paella because it's rice on steroids today i am making a shrimp and chorizo paella it mixes a little bit of the surf and a little bit of the turf and brings it together into this awesome dish finally today i get to make paella paella is one of those dishes that everyone thinks is extremely difficult but it really isn't [Music] today i'm using frozen squid from the supermarket and mussels i've got some fresh shrimp and spanish chorizo i'm a huge fan of using fresh seafoods frozen's okay but it's not the same you don't need to do all this cutting and prepping and prawning you could just get you a bag of squid and keep it moving girl today i'm making a meat paella i'm using rabbit and morcilla morsi is super smoky and delicious rabbit is lean but has a great flavor rabbit like like bunny rabbit rabbit is actually really easy to find i see it in my supermarket all the time usually it comes frozen rabbit's a super lean meat it has the same texture as chicken so i'm just gonna make a slice so we have these little pieces that not only easy to eat but they'll cook a little quicker i think that if you have any problem with eating a rabbit just use chicken to get a really good paella you do not need all these crazy exotic meats so these are regular mussels that you'll get from the supermarket you just want to make sure that you clean them because they have like this grit on them and you do not want the grit and just get in there you know put your muscles into your muscles the whole seafood paella thing is like a later invention and for the most part in spain you won't find people mixing meat and seafood in spain also they will kind of yell at you if you put chorizo on it too chorizo is like one of my favorite things to use in cooking it's cured like salami almost i think it adds a ton of flavor without adding too much work i'm basically going to cut my chorizo into thin little circles little discs like that so my muscles are clean my squid is defrosted look at it and we're ready to go let's work with our marcia murcia is a blood sausage it's made with pig's blood ground pork meat some sort of binder like rice or bread crumbs and spices and it's usually smoked it's absolutely delicious my chorizo is done and now i'm going to season my shrimp just putting some salt and pepper on both sides i'm just going to turn all the shrimp over and do the other side that's really all there is to it very quick and easy so now it's time to get my veggies ready i'm gonna start with my onion i prefer using a sweet onion just because they don't make me cry i have a nice white onion here white onion is always the best flavor for me traditionally people will cut onions and go kind of follow these lines and then do this cut but i always get a little nervous with that because i don't like cutting towards myself so whenever we're in a restaurant we want to go as fast as possible we take the onion we get the lines we cut across the lines not all the way through go up and over the rainbow and then the onion will separate along its natural separations and you want to chop loud right so the people in your house can think that you're slaving away looks good let's see i'm not not crying yet so there's that i'm gonna go on to the garlic the only thing i don't love about garlic is getting the peel off i'm just gonna take them give them a little whack with the side of the knife just to kind of get the skin off just gonna mince this down so i want this really really small pieces um i just kind of rough chop my garlic because the more you process it the stronger it gets onto my bell peppers there's a red pepper and a yellow pepper i chose a red bell pepper for this you want to use a yellow or an orange pepper that's fine but i usually stay away from the green ones i think they're a little too sharp for this dish you paid good money for that pepper don't throw away the tops in the bottom i just cut them in half i get my garbage bowl and then i pull out the seed pod right and if there's any ribs in there or any extra seeds i just tap them out and get rid of them now i have a full pepper i can use rather than throwing out the top and the bottom right so i'm just going to process this by cutting it into long strips and i think that these add a nice a color and b crunch to the dish i'm just going to dice it from here one of the vegetables i do want you to see my finished paella is hot pepper i'm using italian longhout peppers in my paella i'm going to cut these into rings so you can see them in the finished dish if you have not cooked with jalapeno i don't know what's wrong with you this takes everything to another level i don't mind if there's a little bit of seeds in there i want the seeds in it and everything so these are really spicy so i'll just bring it back a little i won't use them all that's our long hots oh they are spicy so the cherry tomatoes we're only cutting them in half because i want them to beef up the rice i want the rice to look like she cut tomatoes all day if i saw cherry tomatoes in my paella i'd eat it so i'm a level with you i have no idea what's the traditional sides for paella but this is what i love to use and watch what happens it's going to be amazing in the paella today i'm using fava beans and fava beans are a very seasonal product in the springtime you see them in all the restaurants but this is something you'll see in paella's in spain as well java beans come in this nice pod and then you just have to basically break it open you pull the string out and then you just pop it open and the beans kind of just pop right out you can eat them like this this outside husk has a little bit too much texture for me for the paellas i know a lot of people talk crap about cilantro but i am cilantro's friend it gives it another flavor and i want to leave a little bit for garnish now i love cilantro don't get me wrong but for my paella as far as a garnish parsley is the way to go we're going to blanch our fava beans for a couple of reasons one of the reasons is that we want to get this outside shell off we want to par cook them so that they don't take that long to cook in the paella and we want to preserve the color my water is at a full rolling boil i'm going to hit it with a little bit of salt and then i'm going to dump my favas in i'm gonna give these like two two minutes three minutes i just want them to kind of cook a little and skins get loose all right i think these are good to go into our ice bath and i let these cool all the way and this is just gonna get cut down very finely nice now all we really have to do is peel them what i do is i usually just get my thumbnail and i pop it out fava beans are definitely a lot of work but i find that they're totally worth it last but not least the zest don't use a lemon use a lime half of the lemon is going to be squirted on top of the paella just to give it a little bit of a brightness and to cut through some of the salt the rest is going to be cut into wedges and then we also have some scallions so i'm just going to kind of chop the greens and save the whites for something for later so look at that we're done with the veggies so now i'm about to get to work on my rice so i have my water boiling and i also have my paella in a box i know you're like what so you can buy this i don't even know this is something you can buy it is like heaven in a box so once the rice is in you want to stir it up and then you want to add all your little seafood goodness from this little can assorted seafood and vegetables for paella what they already did it for me nobody's gonna know and then cayenne pepper you know you always want the heat because your spanish man is coming over remember the real spanish guy not the guy from williamsburg that pretends that he's not that guy i use arborio rice for my paella i personally find that it gives like sort of a creamier texture to it we don't want a creamy paella we want uh each individual rice grain to show we don't want this to be creamy so this is bomba rice it's a short to medium grain rice that has the ability to soak up a lot of liquid and that's what we want with the paella we want the paella to soak up all the broth so that we have all that flavor in the rice okay so now i'm gonna add my hamy seasoning it's gonna give it that robust flavoring without the pork so when you're using box things you have to make sure that you clean up as soon as possible nobody's gonna know unless you leave your stuff out so now it's time to saute everything starts with olive oil so i'm just gonna do like a couple tablespoons of olive oil because this is a spanish dish they will fry stuff an extra virgin and i think that kind of stays true to what we're doing today so what i'm going to start with is my butter and then just a little bit of oil keep it greased up now it's time to cook my sofrito the sofrito is the base of my paella we're going to add our onions i love the way onions smell i always season my onions at this point i just want to get some of the moisture out maybe hit a little bit of pepper always fresh crack don't use that stuff in the jar it's dead this is alive at this point i'm also going to add my saffron notice that it's not a lot saffron has a really nice earthy kind of grassiness to it and it gives a nice kind of base flavor to our paella it's also very strong and can overpower your dish so you just need a little pinch i'm gonna add my bay leaf as well you'll see like the oil starts to get kind of nice and yellow we can add our garlic and our peppers right now too just a little more salt and just let this cook until the veggies start to break down possibly the best part about making paella is that it all comes down to one pan so for this i have a heavy bottom stainless steel pan everything goes in this which makes for easy cooking and easy clean up for me the best type of pan to use for this is a non-stick pan because you don't want to ruin your pots this is a traditional paella pan it's not super heavy part of the reason for that is because people would carry this on their packs they'd bring it out to the field with them but this pan is going to give you the best result the goal here is to have this crunchy crispy soaker rot on the bottom cause soak a rot soak up somebody's you know what i'm talking about it's gonna be like fluffy and nice on the top and then if you want a little crunch at the end it's gonna be at the bottom the real gauge of what a good pie is is that you have that nice crispy bob uh wish me luck as i go on this journey paella is one of those dishes that you have to use the order of operation because everything cooks at different speed so i'm gonna have the jalapenos join the onion look at that go ahead babies do your thing i'm gonna take my rabbit and season it up really well salt and pepper i want to season my squid with the obey i am going to throw my chorizo into this pan and let it cook till it gets a little brown first thing in the pan is our rabbit we're going to let that sizzle away you want to get it a little bit brown a lot of the fat is also going to like seep out of these things as they cook it's the flavor base that i'm talking about so that everything else that gets added to the pan after just soaks up all this like fatty delicious smoky flavor i grew up in a spanish and hispanic household so everything that my mom cooked for me in the kitchen started with onions and garlic i'm going to add my spices high-end cayenne always just does the trick it just gives everything the extra um i've got oregano and last is smoked paprika so the rabbit is done i'm going to add just a little more oil to my pan and then i'm going to put my morsia in and i want to just get this lightly browned here's my cherry tomatoes look at my babies you want to take these muscles and we're just going to stir this up this is last but definitely not least but you don't want to overcook these right so remember i said pemdas orders of operation i'm gonna add my peppers and i'm just gonna like just get these lightly cooked and then we're gonna add our rice so i kind of toast the rice or parched the rice a little here rice is toasty i like to dry it out a little because it usually gives you a little more soaking up power it's looking a little crispy on the bottom my heart is fluttering right now with the possibility of getting a nice crispy sucker at bottom rice is cooked perfectly it has this beautiful yellow coloring normally with paella you don't want it to be too thick of a layer of rice i should have taken the mussels out because it's harder to stir in this way but it's okay i'm gonna add my sofrito now all of our meat's gonna go back in make sure you get all the juice from the meat what i like to do with the saffron before throwing it in here is break it up with my fingers i really don't do that i don't find this necessary i like to see the threads as well so as someone's eating it they can tell there's really saffron in there i'm going to add my can of diced tomatoes my bell pepper and then we're going to add our stock if our stock or broth isn't seasoned well our paella is not going to have a lot of flavor to it it's going to be kind of bland so i'm going to add some salt and pepper all my ingredients are in the pan i'm going to throw this medium low heat i'm going to cover it don't cover it just allow the water to evaporate okay once this comes to a simmer and everything's placed where it needs to place stop stirring if you stir at this point you're not going to get that really nice brown bottom leave it alone [Music] so the paella's been on for about 20 minutes now and you can see a lot of the stock has been absorbed in that time i was watching and monitoring i added a little more stock if i needed it because i want the rice on top to be cooked and not be chewy oh smells good i'm not going to stir it i don't want to disrupt the bottom so i'm just going to take the shrimp and put them around the top it doesn't look half bad right it's time to garnish last but not least our frozen peas cover goes back on to allow the shrimp to cook hi beautiful how are you you look amazing at this point i want to add my peeled fava beans and just going to sprinkle them over the top so they get warm i'm going to put a little more of this finishing oil on top so i want to make sure that i get that nice soaker rot so i'm going to turn the heat up and i'm going to listen you okay how you doing okay good and once it starts to get that kind of like slightly burnt smell i'm going to take it off i'm just going to do a spritz of lemon juice over the top because lemon and seafood go phenomenally together throw some parsley to garnish we're gonna hit it with our scallions right now one more swirl of our finishing oil and finally a nice light sprinkling of finishing salt and we're done now we get to eat it and this is my paella and this is my paella and this is my [Music] paella the moment of truth we're gonna see if i got the silk rod i'm really hoping that there's a crispy bottom on this i guess we're about to find out my rice is looking beautiful look at her she's the prom queen i don't think i got the sakurai but you don't need it it's still gonna taste amazing watch oh wait a minute i got it i got it okay look at that there is a little bit of a crispiness on the bottom there maybe not as crispy as i would have liked i probably could have done like another minute the color is all there oh there's some crispiness look at that some crispy bottom i did it so i guess it's time to taste let's see girl you would slap your umbrella i mean you're probably not because your uncle's probably kill you but you would want to slap them it's perfect this is perfect mmm this is good the flavors are all great the rice cooked perfectly you get the seafood so there's like a lot of shrimp flavor but also the spiciness and smokiness of the chorizo they sort of marry together in this perfect little blend i am very happy with this and i'm excited to try it again next time i couldn't be any happier a little bit of spiciness from the peppers rabbit's not overcooked and dry and the rice is on the money there's lots of different layers of flavor here and saffron is just one of those layers absolutely delicious it takes a little time to get down to perfection right i'm going to pat myself on the back for that one paella is a delicious feast made with rice vegetables and proteins let's see how each of our chefs made this traditional spanish dish the rice you choose and how you cook it is so important in paella perfect paella rice should be short grained soak up lots of liquid with a cooked consistency that isn't too sticky onika used a convenient product which included enriched rice enrichment in the food world means that nutrients that are part of a food which have been removed during processing are collected dehydrated and sprayed back onto the original food item the rice in convenience products is also parboiled then dried or fissured or cracked so that it rapidly absorbs water when it's cooked daniel used arborio rice a short grain variety that's high in a branched starch molecule called amylopectin that gives it a slightly creamy quality daniel used about two cups of stock per one cup of rice frank used a special designation of spanish calaspara rice called bomba which is traditional in making paella in the valencia region of spain it's very dry and soaks up more water than other varieties so the ratio is about three cups of stock for one cup of bamboo rice because it absorbs so much water it doesn't get mushy and sticky when it comes to paella you should choose a pan that's shallow and wide so that the rice is in maximal contact with the pan and made of thin metal which makes the pan responsive to changes in heat frank used an authentic paella pan which is wide and shallow and has slight dimpling on the bottom if you don't have a paella pan you can use a regular saute pan but this pan is going to give you kind of the best result some people feel that the evenly distributed slight dimpled pattern encourages a more even heat distribution especially when you don't have a heat source that can accommodate the whole pan this dimpled pan may also harken back to a time when the pans were hammered by hand either way it's traditional to see these dimples in paedras saffron is the most expensive spice in the world and the signature seasoning in paella why is saffron so darn expensive it's extremely labor intensive to produce and the numbers in saffron production are staggering it comes from the stamen of a variety of crocus it takes about seventy thousand crocus flowers to produce five pounds of stigmas which when dried yields about one pound of actual saffron the flowers are actually harvested in the fall and the stigmas have to be harvested on the same day that the flower opens so timing is everything saffron is a spice that is extremely expensive but we're gonna use it you know it's not my budget i'm gonna i'm gonna put it in right both daniel and frank used bell peppers in their paellas the coloring of the bell peppers i've heard that they're all the same pepper just a different stages of ripeness but i don't know if that's true bell peppers are sweet peppers because they don't contain any spicy capsaicinoids like chili peppers and yes they are the same plant at different levels of ripeness they ripen to a shade of yellow orange and red depending on the mix of pigments they contain they get slightly sweeter as they mature bell peppers are botanically classified as a fruit since they come from a flowering plant bell peppers are named so because early varieties over 100 years ago were hollow with stigmas that struck against the walls of the pepper causing a sound if it was windy like a bell now they're bred to be quiet they're sweet they're fresh they're delicious paella is such a delightful dish with so many variations next time you're cooking and sharing with family or friends we hope you use some of these tips from our three engaging and ingenious chefs

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 545,485

Rating: 4.8359528 out of 5

Keywords: 4 levels, 4 levels of paella, authentic paella, best paella recipe, chicken paella, cuban paella, easy paella, easy paella recipe, epi, epicurious, epicurious 4 levels, epicurious paella, expert paella, hacer paella, homemade paella, how to make paella, latin paella, make paella, make seafood paella, paella, paella marisco, paella recipe, paella valenciana, quick paella recipe, restaurant paella, rice paella, seafood paella, shrimp paella, spanish paella

Id: K1dwVmfQ2VA

Length: 20min 14sec (1214 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 30 2021