Making Paella

Alright everyone, here’s my first (documented) attempt at one of the recipes in Paella by Omar Allibhoy: arroz de pollo, alcachofa e hinojo (chicken, artichoke, and fennel paella).

First, let me start off by acknowledging the fact that this recipe (and many others I will make for this blog) is not strictly “traditional” in the sense that it is not a true paella Valenciana- no rabbit or beans, and I’m using fennel and artichoke. Also, when I do make a paella Valenciana, I want to do it as close to the right way as possible: the right ingredients (in-season), and over a fire. It’s currently winter so that will have to wait.

As for this arroz, for the most part, I stuck to the recipe in the book. However, last week I tried a different recipe where the stock called for 3 tsp soy sauce. For that one, I used tamari and I thought it worked really nicely, so even though the recipe for today’s paella didn’t use soy sauce, I added a little to the stock with the saffron (2 tsp). Another slight modification to the stock was adding a cheesecloth full of the stalks I had cut off the fennel when prepping the vegetables. I also added a sprig of rosemary and thyme, and let that simmer with the stock for about 20 minutes. I worried it would be too much, so I decided to take it out for the last 5 or 10 minutes before I added the stock to the paella.

I had a lot of chicken breast, so I substituted that for chicken thighs. It was fine. Thighs would have been better.

Like the recipe called for, I used fresh artichoke, but I’m not too sure how well that went. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think the artichoke turned out pretty bad. I’ve never actually used fresh ones in a paella before. If I use artichoke, it’s just been the canned ones so far, so I didn’t really know what I was doing. All I know is my mine looked nothing like the ones in the photos from other recipes in Paella.

I had also never used fennel. I don’t think I’ve even had it before. I cut it up into cubes, but I think if I decide to use it again, I’d cut it up into smaller pieces because they had a pretty strong, sweet flavor that I think would have been better (in my opinion) if I had cut it smaller. It seemed almost like an onion substitute, so I think the smaller pieces would have worked better. Maybe add half a fennel bulb with half an onion? All that said though, I don’t know how much of a fan I am of it anyway. More to come later on that.

Aside from the disappointing artichokes and the sort of weird flavor the huge fennel chunks added, the paella turned out okay. The rice was cooked pretty evenly, and I think the stock was great. But, my main issue with how it turned out was how soupy it was. The recipe called for 1 L of stock; I don’t typically keep liquid stock, so I used Better Than Bouillon mixed with water. As the stock simmered, I kept adding water to keep it at 1 L. Probably added half a cup (?), but I didn’t keep track of that this time, unfortunately. It ended up being too much- the rice was done and cooked well, but there was still too much liquid. I didn’t want to overdo the rice, so we just dealt with it. I think next time I will start out with the full amount, simmer for a little less time, and not add additional water to the stock before it’s added to the rice.

All in all, not bad. I think the recipe is a good one. I can see where (if done properly) the fennel and artichoke can add a really nice flavor. We had it with a nice Portuguese red, which went especially well with the smoky flavor of the paella that the smoked paprika added.