When I was a kid my mom used to
make this delicious dish baked in
the oven with sausage, chicken,
yellow rice, peppers and olives
that I loved. She called it
"paella" which we incorrectly
pronounced pay-el-ah. I'm pretty
sure that she learned it in a
cooking class that she took while
on a business trip with dad. In my
travels, which have unfortunately
never taken me to the Spanish
origins of this dish, I would later
learn the correct pronounciation
was pah-aye-ya and that her
version, though delicious, was not
quite authentic Spanish. I've
toyed with a few different recipes
for this dish and settled on a
favorite which is a labor of love
that takes me nearly 4 hours to
prepare, cook, and serve. I switch
up the ingredients some but the
core of rice, saffron, red pepper,
onion, garlic, spanish or portugese
chorizo, and chicken never changes.
That recipe starts on the stovetop
then is baked in the oven and
finishes back on the stove. It
includes any variety of mussels,
clams, or cockles. I always include
some kind of shrimp, but have also
been known to add calamari,
scallops, lobster tails, or chunks
of white fish. In additon to time,
this peasant dish always costs a
lot of money to make. Due to the
commitments of time and money I
seldom make paella without a
special occassion. But, since I
often crave it, I took the best of
my cherished recipe and simplified
it down to a version that you can
make in less than 2 hours on your
stove top in one skillet. You can
make it in a stainless or a
nonstick 12" skillet with success
either way. However, your socarrat,
the pearl in the oyster that is
paella, will turn out better in a
stainless skillet. Sorry to one up
you mom. Enjoy.
