Making Paella

Hello and welcome to my blog, Making Paella! For a few years, I’ve been obsessed with this classic Spanish dish. Before I had ever tried it, I saw videos of dozens of chefs cooking over fires at the Concurso Internacional de Paella in Valencia. I had no idea what it actually tasted like, but seeing the chicken fry and rice simmer in the huge stainless steel pans, knew pretty much right away I had to learn to do this myself.

Eventually I bought a small pan and some bomba rice and began to attempt making my own paella. I quickly realized how hard it is to actually put together a decent paella. The experts in the paella competitions made it look much easier than it actually is to make a proper sofrito, cook the rice evenly, balance ingredients, etc., let alone get a beautiful socarrat!

Eventually though, I found the beautiful book Paella by Omar Allibhoy, which has 50 recipes for paella and other arroces from the traditional Paella Valenciana to his own creations, like a chicken/pear/bacon paella. After finally finding something to guide my bumbling attempts at cooking, I decided I wanted to make every recipe in the book. Which brings me to the purpose of my blog!

I have three main goals here:

1. Master (or at least, improve) my techniques for cooking paella, especially for getting:
   • Consistent, evenly cooked rice
   • A great stock
   • The perfect socarrat
2. Document my progress and keep track of my notes
3. Branch out from the traditional recipes

I plan to at least attempt all of the recipes in the book, using the best ingredients I have access to. I don’t currently live in a place I can get the highest quality seafood, so some of those recipes may have to wait a while before I can get to them. Though Paella is the starting point for this blog, I also plan to make other recipes I find interesting as well as to eventually start experimenting with my own. Follow along on my journey to become a better cook, let me know what you think of my attempts, feel free to make suggestions of any other recipes you’d like to see me try!