Paella – Rice, Meat, Fish What More Can You Throw In?

Aug. 25, 2010 - PRLog -- This is a Valencian dish that originated in its modern form in the mid-19th century near Lake Albufea, a lagoon in Valencia, on east coast of Spain.  The dish paella is seen by people as a national dish from people who aren't from Spain but to be honest most Spanish people see it as a Valencian dish.  The Valencians, in turn see Paella as one of their identifying symbols.  The word Paella is a Catalan word that spawned from the Old French word paelle for pan.

The history of the dish comes from the people of Moorish Spain, who use to make casseroles of rice, fish and spices for when the family got together and at religious feasts.  This made rice the most important stable food at that time.

There are three well known types of Paella. There is the Valancian type, the seafood type and the mixed Paella.

The Valancian Paella features white rice with vegetables, meat (which can consist of rabbit, chicken, duck), land snails, beans and seasoning. There are loads more variations of paella as it is a flexible dish so if you don't have the exact ingredients or if you find some that are hard to get a hold of, you can substitute them for something similar.  For example getting fresh shellfish can be hard, so you can use frozen fish and fish stock instead of water to increase the flavour.  

It became customary for cooks to combine rice with vegetables, beans, and dry cod which provided an acceptable meal for lent.  Fish usually came with rice along the Spain's eastern coast.  At special occasions the 18th century Valencians paelleras (which is a special type of frying pan) to cook rice in open air.  Marsh rat was one of the main ingredients of early paellas, along with eels and butter beans.  The quality of living improved of the late 19th century in Spain, which led to more family reunions and outings in the countryside.  But because of the improved standards the ingredients changed to the ingredients we know now.  It became so popular that the local Spanish newspaper first used the phase Paella to refer to the recipe rather than the pan.

Seafood Paella replaces meat and snails with seafood and omits beans and green vegetables, while Mixed Paella is a mixture that can consist of a various meat, seafood, vegetables and sometimes bean.  When it comes to key ingredients Calasparra or Bomba rice are used for this dish, also saffron and olive are vital to the dish as well.  Those on the Mediterranean coast near were the ones to create Seafood of Paella, whilst Spaniards that lived outside of Valencia mixed seafood with the original dish to create the mixed variation.

The international version of the dish is usually the same with the ingredients being similar to mixed but taking away some of them, such as rabbit and snail those aren't feature much in the international dishes.  Also it tends to favour meat more than fish.  But if you want to an authentic experience go to Valencia and sample it in one of the Spanish Villas nearby.

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